A UK company that has built a platform to help train people and organisations to future-proof them against technology evolutions has raised a large sum of money to future-proof its own business. Multiverse — which provides upskilling and apprenticeship programmes in artificial intelligence, data science and engineering — has raised $70 million in funding at a valuation of $2.1 billion.
The startup plans to use to funding to expand into more markets, and to specifically double down on one area of tech in particular: AI. To both of those ends, Multiverse also disclosed that in January 2026, it completed the acquisition of Berlin-based AI training company StackFuel for an undisclosed sum.
“There are companies who desperately need the benefits AI can bring. There are AI companies. What has been missing is the layer that bridges the two,” said Euan Blair, Multiverse’s CEO and founder, in a statement. “This investment marks the moment Multiverse defines that category, and takes it across Europe. Getting outcomes from AI and unlocking productivity is not just a technology problem. It is a people problem. We exist to solve it.”
Schroders Capital is leading the round by way of its private equity division. Previous backers General Catalyst, Index Ventures, Lightspeed, Stepstone, and D1 are also participating. The round represents a $400 million bump on its previous valuation, which was several years ago. The last time Multiverse raised money was in 2022, closing a $220 million round at a $1.7 billion valuation.
Multiverse is not a ‘resilience’ startup per se, but its focus speaks to the bigger concept behind the resilience thesis.
“Resilience” when applied to national security typically focuses on how a country’s defence forces and critical infrastructure are being strengthened to respond to actions from adversaries and withstand sudden disasters. All of that is important, but a country’s strength is equally built on the preparedness and industry of its individuals and organisations. So how do they better prepare to respond to whatever welcome or unwelcome changes are coming around the corner?
Multiverse is an example of a company that is addressing those dual use cases.
The company has built out a range of programmes and its own AI coaching platform that it calls Atlas. It sells its services to businesses and other organisations, which in turn offer them to their workforces as well as individuals they may be training through apprenticeship programmes. Multiverse says it works with some 1,000 customers, which include the likes of retailer John Lewis, but as well as the major defence contractor Babcock.
Babcock’s challenge has been how to work through the heavy lifting of taking a business built up over many decades and positing it into the flow of how defence is changing, specifically a future has a lot of autonomy and AI built into it, along with an enormous amount of data and learning how to leverage it in a more strategic way.
“Multiverse has helped us tackle a growing complexity and volume of data by equipping our people with practical, real‑world data skills,” Lynsey Valentine, a strategy director at Babcock, said in a statement. “Our teams are already applying what they’ve learned to automate processes, unlock insight, and drive meaningful improvements well before graduation.”
Multiverse is also an example of a startup that has had to test its own resilience. The company has actually been around since 2016, initially as a startup called WhiteHat and focusing only on the opportunity of apprenticeships, both helping businesses set these up and helping individuals find apprenticeships to meet their needs.
(In the UK, apprenticeships unlock potentially significant funding opportunities both for the individuals and businesses. Adding that to the government’s strong promotion of apprenticeship schemes seemed like a natural area for Blair to enter as he happens to be the son of former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and his barrister wife Cherie Booth Blair.)
That business rebranded as Multiverse in 2021, and while it started to hone its focus on technology apprenticeships, it still covered many dozens of opportunities that included non-tech roles such as exhibition designers.
A year later in 2022, when the company raised the funding that first pushed it past the billion-dollar valuation mark, it was for a more tech-focused vision that also included a confident expansion to the US market, adding New York as its co-headquarters alongside London.
Since then, however, it appears that it has retreated from the US. A new CPO hired from New York relocated to London, and there is no mention of the US business on its site, with Europe the target of its current expansion ambition. There have also been reports of the company seeing dozens of layoffs amid widening losses, as well as falling short on meeting government-set training completion targets. Reviews of the programmes also appear mixed.
These days, the number of areas and courses that are available are significantly pared down and focused to just 14 options, and Multiverse said that revenues on its platform grew 50% last year. The company’s resilience through the ups and downs of startup life, plus its contribution to enterprise and workforce resilience, are a formula that seems to speak to what investors want to see.
“The evolution of AI is creating transformative opportunities to drive productivity and growth across global economies,” said Michael Mclean, head of private equity technology ivestments, Schroders Capital, said in a statement. “Multiverse is a leader in enabling this shift, helping organisations capitalise on these tailwinds. With growing momentum across Europe, Multiverse puts the focus on AI adoption, enabling employers to upskill their workforces and translate technology investment into tangible outcomes.”