Former Twitter India chief Manish Maheshwari’s edtech venture Invact Metaversity has raised an undisclosed amount at $33 million valuation from Future Group’s Kishore Biyani, TV Mohandas Pai of Manipal Global Education and former Facebook India head Kirthiga Reddy, among 70 entrepreneurs.
The round also saw participation from Microsoft, Meta (previously, Facebook), Coinbase, Google, Twitter, Uber, Amazon, Softbank, World Bank, Ford Foundation, Qatar Foundation, McKinsey, Spotify, GoJek, LinkedIn, Notion, Disney, among others.
Entrepreneurs from startups like Zilingo, Zerodha, Razorpay, Sheroes, Snapdeal, Koo, CARS24, Bounce, Leap Finance and Suki, also took part in the fundraise.
In December last year, Maheshwari announced his exit from Twitter to set up his edtech platform.
Maheshwari launched Invacr, along with Tanay Pratap, who had worked as a Senior Software Engineer with Microsoft and is now the Chief Technology Officer of Invact Metaversity.
The company claims to offer a 16-week MBA alternative, for Rs 2 lakh.
The first batch of MBA course will begin on May 12 with a cohort of 60 students, according to their website.
Maheshwari is a graduate of Shri Ram College of Commerce, and has completed his MBA from Wharton Business School.
“Overwhelmed by global investors' faith in Invact #Metaversity. Through this 3D immersive virtual learning platform, we will make education available to everyone at a price they can afford,” he said.
Over the past few months, Metaverse has been an emerging concept across markets and investors as well as startups have garnered interest from a host of venture capitalist. Binance Labs, the venture capital (VC) and innovation incubator arm of Binance invested in Hong Kong-based MOBOX, a gaming metaverse platform in November.
Similarly, OneRare, a metaverse platform raised $2 million (Rs 14 crore) led by blockchain venture firms Arkstream Capital, Momentum 6, StableNode, Exnetwork Capital, Enjinstarter, Everse Capital, Kangaroo Capital, Tag Ventures, Maven Capital, 1010 Capital and CSP DAO, among others.