Former Twitter India head Manish Maheshwari's edtech startup Invact Metaversity is considering the option of shutting down operations after cancelling the first cohort even before the course began.

In a series of tweets, Maheshwari explained that the startup wanted 'to use metaverse to make education acccessible and interactive for students, but things didn't turn out as hoped.' He assured that any fee paid by the students for the metaMBA course has been fully refunded.

"As we started testing the early version of the Metaversity platform with students, it became apparent to us that the immersive classroom and the community experience were not getting delivered at a level that we had envisaged," he tweeted.

As we started testing the early version of the Metaversity platform with students, it became apparent to us that the immersive classroom and the community experience were not getting delivered at a level that we had envisaged.

— Manish Maheshwari (@manishm) May 23, 2022

"We are now standing at crossroads exploring possibilities such as (a) cutting the burn rate and pivoting to another idea, (b) letting one of the founders take full charge, or (c) returning the unspent capital to investors," he added.

After leaving Twitter in December last year, Maheshwari started Invact Metaversity with Tanay Pratap and recently raised USD 5 million at a valuation of USD 33 million from Arkam Ventures, Antler India, Picus Capital, M Venture Partners, BECO Capital, 2am VC and others.

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Earlier, it had raised funds from more than 70 global corporate leaders and founders of unicorns. The round saw participation from Future Group's Kishore Biyani, ex-Infosys director TV Mohandas Pai, Innov8 founder Ritesh Malik and former Facebook MD Kirthiga Reddy, among others.

Besides entrepreneurs from startups such as Zerodha, Razorpay and Snapdeal, leaders from global companies such as Microsoft, Meta, Google, Twitter, Uber, Amazon, Softbank, among others had also participated in the round.

"The return of unspent capital is also being considered because it sets an example of how to execute fast, learn fast, and not commit oneself to building an undifferentiated product just because one has capital. We plan to take a final decision shortly," Maheshwari said.

The former Twitter India head also admitted to having disagreements with his co-founder — Tanay Pratap. "As we progressed, the differences also emerged between us on the vision (are we an education company or a metaverse company) and approach to achieving that vision," Maheshwari added.

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First Published:May 23, 2022 4:52 PM IST