New Delhi: Former Twitter India head Manish Maheshwari's ed-tech platform called Invact Metaversity has announced it has raised $5 million as part of its seed round. The seed round was led by Arkam Ventures, and also involved other global venture capital firms including Antler India, Picus Capital, M Venture Partners, BECO Capital and 2am VC. According to Maheshwari, the ed-tech startup will use the funds to build a metaverse of education and expand globally, the media has reported.
Invact Metaversity is a platform built at the intersection of education and Web 3.0. Founded by the former Twitter India head and Tanay Pratap, the platform provides employability-focused training to help the workforce realign with the digital world and secure themselves jobs in high-growth tech companies. "We will use this investment to bolster the product and technology team for the Metaversity platform, build a virtual-first curriculum and expand into Europe and the US," Maheshwari said.
Antler India invested in the platform, along with Arkam Ventures (lead investor) from India, Picus Capital (Germany), M. Venture Partners (Singapore), BECO Capital (Dubai) and 2am VC (USA). Global early-stage VC firm Antler is one of the fastest growing VC firms in the world and plans to deploy $100 million to $150 million in more than 100 Indian startups over the next three years.
"With focus on making education more accessible and inclusive, we're excited to see how Invact Metaversity disrupts education in the country", said Rajiv Srivatsa, Partner and co-founder at Antler India.
Invact Metaversity has also raised capital from more than 70 individual investors, like Balaji Srinivasan (former CTO of Coinbase and GP at Andreessen Horowitz), Caesar Sengupta (former senior Google executive), Nithin Kamath (founder, Zerodha), Kunal Bahl (founder, Snapdeal), Benjamin Ampen (Managing Director Twitter MENA) and others.
"Metaverse is a concept that stands at a cusp where it will be a lead factor in transforming the educational landscape," said Maheshwari.
"Our vision at Metaversity is not only to democratise education but also to provide high-quality learning at an affordable cost," added Pratap.