An apprenticeship start-up founded by Euan Blair, eldest son of Tony Blair, the former prime minister, is launching a fresh funding round that will boost the $200 million valuation crystallised at its last round only a few months ago.
Multiverse, which aims to provide young people with an alternative to university by matching them with apprenticeships at leading employers, recently raised £64.7 million by issuing almost 2.7 million shares at £24 each, filings at Companies House suggest.
The funding is understood to be part of a forthcoming “series C” financing and should mean that Blair’s stake in the business will be valued in the tens of millions of pounds, regardless of whether the round dilutes his holding. He owns between 25 per cent and 50 per cent of the shares, according to filings.
Multiverse recently secured $44 million in an investment round led by General Catalyst, an American venture capital firm. That valued Multiverse at $200 million and the funds were raised to create 200 jobs through expansion in Britain, Europe and the United States.
It is not clear who is leading the latest round, but existing backers include Google Ventures, John W Thompson, the Microsoft chairman, and Jeremy Darroch, executive chairman of Sky.
Blair, 37, co-founded the business with Sophie Adelman, also 37, in 2016 and it works with employers including Google, Facebook, BP, Microsoft and Morgan Stanley to hire apprentices who are supported with “one-to-one coaching with an industry expert” and events and training meant to “exceed the best of the university experience”.
A spokesman for Multiverse said: “We’re growing fast, which is why we’re raising another round of investment.”
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New funding to expand Euan Blair’s apprenticeship start-up
