Metaversity is already in trouble

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Editor's note: Invact Metaversity—billed as a “metaverse” university—was all scheduled to go live last week. And its first cohort of 60 students was waiting with bated breath.  The edtech startup, based in Bengaluru and San Francisco, was founded in December last year by former Twitter India head Manish Maheshwari and former Microsoft engineer Tanay Pratap. Invact offered a four-month “metaMBA” in a virtual reality environment meant to replicate classrooms, libraries, playgrounds, cafeterias and even hallways. The startup raised about $5 million from venture capital funds including Antler India and Arkam Ventures, as well from prominent individual investors such as Kishore Biyani and Mohandas Pai. About 3,000 students applied for the course, which costs Rs 2 lakh; from the applicants, 60 were selected after three rounds of interviews. The course was meant to start last week, on 12 May. But just 10 days in advance, the company announced that the course was cancelled, according to two people aware of the matter, who asked not to be named. Fees had been collected and the pre-course orientation had happened, but all the students in the …