Euan Blair shrugs off Multiverse troubles to become one of Britain’s richest people

Tony Blair’s son Euan has appeared on a list of the richest Brits for the first time on the back of a hefty stake in his educational tech ‘unicorn’ Multiverse.

Blair, 40, has seen his net worth swell to some £327m according to the Sunday Times Rich List, comfortably outstripping his father’s reported £47m.  

The younger Blair owes his wealth to a reported 25 per cent stake in the tech firm he co-founded in 2016 as Whitehat, which works with major corporates to train their staff with apprenticeships.

Multiverse counts companies like Jaguar Land Rover and Google among its clients and was last valued at £1.4bn in a 2022 funding round.

He was awarded an MBE for services to education and said the gong was won “on behalf of an organisation full of people who are working tirelessly to build a truly outstanding alternative to university.”

“Multiverse’s growth is testament to the power of apprenticeships to widen access to top jobs and give employers the skilled talent they need,” Blair said at the time. 

While Multiverse was founded on the premise of providing an alternative to university and allowing apprentices to train on the job, the company has been forced to shift its focus into on-the-job training in recent years amid a major slow down in spending by its clients.

City A.M. revealed last year the firm laid off the majority of its so-called early-talent team and was focusing its attention on providing apprenticeship programmes to staff already in work. 

Former staff of the company told City A.M. the division had been “decimated” by job cuts and it now counts for just 20 per cent of the firm’s revenue. After expanding into the US last year the tech ‘unicorn’ was forced to slash around 44 per cent of jobs in the country last year.

Multiverse grew its revenues by 66 per cent to £45.2m in the year to March 2023 but losses widened dramatically as it doubled down on the US growth push.

The Paddington-headquartered start-up haemorrhaged £40.5m over the year, up from £14.2m in the year prior.