Multiverse, a UK startup that finds promising, diverse candidates to fill apprenticeship roles at organizations, raises $44M Series B led by General Catalyst
Context & Ripple Effects
This $44M Series B, led by General Catalyst, is the round that put Multiverse on the venture map — and it kicked off a rapid funding cadence: a $130M Series C followed within months, then a $220M Series D in mid-2022, making the apprenticeship-matching startup one of the fastest-scaling UK edtech plays of its cohort.
The thesis Multiverse sold — sourcing diverse, non-degree talent for employers — sits alongside a broader wave of vetted-talent marketplaces: Handshake's $80M Series E at a $1.5B+ valuation attacked diversity recruiting from the college side, while Zenjob and Jobox applied the vetted-marketplace model to student gig work and home services.
First-order effects
- Multiverse gains the capital to scale its candidate-sourcing and apprenticeship-placement operations across UK employers, with General Catalyst now a lead backer and stakeholder in its growth.
- General Catalyst deepens its position in workforce marketplaces, adding Multiverse to a portfolio pattern that includes later bets like Jobox's $42M Series B.
Second-order effects
- Degree-centric recruiting platforms like Handshake face a rival pulling employers toward apprenticeship pipelines that bypass the college-talent pool they monetize.
- The fast follow-on rounds — $130M, then $220M — force other UK and European talent-marketplace startups to raise aggressively or cede the employer relationships Multiverse is locking up.
Third-order effects
- If apprenticeship sourcing keeps outperforming degree pipelines, hiring infrastructure splits into credential-based and skills-based tracks — a shift Multiverse itself validated by later raising $70M at a $2.1B valuation to push into AI training after acquiring StackFuel.
- The round marks General Catalyst's early role in a talent-marketplace cluster it kept funding, pointing toward consolidation of vetted-workforce platforms under a few well-capitalized players.
The trend: Workforce marketplaces are scaling on non-degree, skills-based talent pipelines, with venture capital compressing what used to be a decade of hiring-infrastructure buildout into a few years of rapid rounds.