SINGAPORE and MUMBAI, 10 September 2026: Manifest
Global, a Singapore headquartered AI-native Talent Mobility company, on Wednesday announced that India’s
T20 captain Shreyas Iyer has made a strategic investment in the company. The
investment by Shreyas Iyer represents a significant step forward for Manifest
Global in its goal to provide innovative solutions to students in India.
Manifest Global is an AI-native group that helps close to half a
million students a year discover, fund and reach education and career
opportunities across more than 150 countries.
The partnership began with Mahesh Toshniwal, spiritual and life coach
and founder of Just Imagine, who became the bridge between Rohan Pasari and
Shreyas Iyer — bringing together two very different worlds, sport and
entrepreneurship, united by a shared belief in human potential.
“India
has the world’s largest youth population and no shortage of ambition and
talent. What’s missing is the timely guidance, and the right direction at the
right moment, in a world where opportunities don’t come easily and competition
keeps rising,” Shreyas Iyer said, adding, “This is where I believe Manifest
Global with its AI-native approach closes the gap and has the potential to
positively impact the generation.”
“Every
student carries ambition. Every country needs talent to grow. Manifest exists
to connect the two,” said Rohan Pasari, Founder and CEO of Manifest Global.
“Shreyas did not lend us his name. He took a position, and that is the only
kind of endorsement that interested us.”
Iyer's own path runs through the gap Manifest is built to close. He
was picked out as a schoolboy in Mumbai by a coach who saw something in him
before he had achieved anything, and he is direct about what that meant.
“Someone
believed I was worth backing before I had done anything at all,” he said.
“Every child needs one person like that. Most of them never get one. That is
the problem worth solving.”
India produces more ambition than almost any country on earth and
offers less guidance per student than almost any. A school counsellor in India
can be responsible for thousands of students at once. Most students never speak
to one, and end up making the largest decisions of their lives on hearsay.
The demand on the other side of that gap is now structural. Developed
economies face a projected shortfall of more than 85 million workers by 2030.
Their working-age populations are shrinking at the same time as AI reorganises
what those workers need to know. Attracting international talent has moved from
a policy preference to an economic requirement, and universities remain the
most reliable route through which it happens.
Manifest's response is deliberately structural too. International
education is one of the most fragmented industries of its size: thousands of
regional operators, each strong in one corridor, none able to fund a serious
technology build. Manifest acquires the operators who own a route and runs a
single AI layer underneath all of them.
The group now operates across the arc of the talent journey. Cialfo
and BridgeU serve schools, counsellors and students navigating education and
career pathways. Comet gives families a direct route to study-abroad products
and services. Explore connects universities to the students they are looking
for. Flow AI is the group's AI-native platform for education businesses, built
to make their counsellors better advisers rather than faster processors.
Kaaiser and EduGo place students into institutions in Australia and across 18
European countries.
“The
next generation of talent infrastructure has to do more than connect people to
jobs and institutions,” Pasari said. “It has to help a sixteen-year-old work
out what she is capable of, understand what her options actually are, build the
skills those options require, and then cross a border to take one. We are
building every layer of that.”
Iyer will front Manifest's work with students and families across
India, starting with a campaign launching later this year.
About Manifest Global
Manifest Global is a Singapore-headquartered, AI-native group building
the infrastructure that moves global talent. It serves close to half a million
students a year across more than 150 countries, works with over 1,750 school
partners, and operates through Cialfo, BridgeU, Comet, Explore, Kaaiser, EduGo
Abroad and Flow AI. The group is backed by Tiger Global, Square Peg, SIG,
January Capital, SEEK, Analog Partners, Cercano and more.
Media contact
Rohith M, Manifest Global
rohith.m@manifest.inc
