Unicorn edtech Multiverse will lay off up to a third of its staff in the US after missing revenue targets.
Multiverse founder and CEO Euan Blair — the son of the former British prime minister Tony Blair — told employees in an email that “our strategy for that market hasn’t evolved fast enough” two-and-a-half years after the company opened its US office.
“We’re tracking behind the US revenue targets we hired against,” Blair wrote. “As a consequence we have had people ready to support customers and apprentices we don't yet have.”
Multiverse, which runs apprenticeships schemes and upskills workers for companies, confirmed to Sifted that it will cut up to 44 employees in the US, but that it was retaining a staff of 100. Globally, Multiverse has around 850 employees.
The US made up 15% of Multiverse's global revenues, with the remaining 85% coming from the UK, according to financial accounts for the year up to March 31 2023. Losses at Multiverse hit £41m in the same period, up from £14m the year before.
The layoffs come just over a month after it was reported that Multiverse had cut dozens of jobs across the past 12 months, as it shifted focus away from apprenticeships and towards upskilling employees for corporate clients.
Multiverse became the UK’s first edtech unicorn after raising a $220m Series D in June 2022. Since launching in 2016 the company has raised $414m, according to Dealroom.
Article correction: The article initially stated that this was the second round of layoffs Multiverse had made in just over a month. Previous job cuts this year were gradual, with individual teams being reduced across the past 12 months.
