Multiverse – the apprenticeships tech unicorn founded by Euan Blair – has appointed Baroness Martha Lane-Fox to its board of directors.
The London-based company has also appointed Jillian Gillespie as chief financial officer.
Euan Blair, founder and CEO of Multiverse, said: “Multiverse has the capacity to be a generational British tech success story – ensuring people globally can embrace tech with confidence by embedding learning in tech, data, and AI into their daily work.
“In Martha and Jillian, we’re adding two exceptional leaders who understand both the scale of the global skills crisis and how to build and scale transformative solutions.
“As we expand our footprint with new products and partnerships, their experience in scaling high-growth tech companies will help us seize this moment and reshape how organisations develop talent in the AI era.”
Baroness Martha Lane Fox said: “The promised gains from technology will never be delivered unless people have the skills to take advantage of them.
“This is becoming urgent in the boardrooms of every organisation, and Multiverse is perfectly positioned with its model of continuous, applied learning.
“Across the UK we won’t unlock growth without giving employers access to the skills they need to thrive. The debate about skills reform sorely needs the voice of employers, and I’ll be working to deliver it, alongside companies themselves and learners.”
Jillian Gillespie added: “I am thrilled to join Multiverse at such a pivotal moment in its journey. What really attracted me is the opportunity to collaborate with such a talented, genuine, and ambitious team in a fast-growing, dynamic, and rewarding business.
“I firmly believe that applied, on-the-job learning represents the future of workforce development and I look forward to applying my experience to an exciting new challenge.”
Baroness Lane Fox is a serial entrepreneur and tech leader with three decades of experience – guiding multiple companies to public markets.
She now serves as President of the British Chambers of Commerce, Chancellor at The Open University, and co-chair of a new government panel tasked with driving improved adoption of technology in the public sector.
In addition, she currently serves on the board at Chanel and previously served on Twitter’s board (now X) for almost seven years until 2022.
Gillespie joins from MongoDB, the developer data platform with a market capitalisation of $20bn where she was senior vice president of finance and operations.
She led the company through major milestones and international expansion over 10 years, from its Series F funding round in 2013 through to IPO in 2017, followed by success as a public company.
Multiverse is a tech company that identifies, closes and prevents skills gaps, through on-the-job learning, apprenticeships programmes, and a personalised AI platform.
The appointments come off the back of two consecutive record-breaking quarters for the company. In October, the company launched an ‘AI-Powered Productivity apprenticeship, the first apprenticeship in the country to fully embed training on Microsoft 365 Copilot.
AI training programs now make up 22 per cent of Multiverse’s revenue.
The company already partners with more than 1,500 companies across the US and UK including Meta, Citigroup, KPMG, Capita, and Just Eat.
In June 2022, Multiverse announced a $220m Series D funding round co-led by StepStone Group, Lightspeed Venture Partners and General Catalyst. With a post-money valuation of $1.7bn, the round makes the company the UK’s first EdTech unicorn.