Shreyas Iyer's Bold Move: Why India's Captain Backed This AI Startup

Shreyas Iyer has secured a strategic stake in Manifest Global, the AI-driven infrastructure firm facilitating international talent mobility. The Indian T20 captain is backing the group, which assists half a million students annually in navigating opportunities across 150 nations. SINGAPORE and MUMBAI, 10 September 2026: Manifest Global, a Singapore-based AI-native talent mobility organization, confirmed on Wednesday that India’s T20 captain Shreyas Iyer has made a strategic investment in the firm.

This move marks a pivotal development for Manifest Global as it seeks to deliver advanced solutions to students throughout India. The AI-native group specializes in helping nearly 500,000 students each year identify, finance, and secure educational and professional pathways in over 150 countries.

The collaboration was initiated by Mahesh Toshniwal, a spiritual and life coach and the founder of Just Imagine. He served as the link between Rohan Pasari and Shreyas Iyer, uniting the distinct realms of professional sports and entrepreneurship through a mutual commitment to 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 personal journey mirrors the very void that Manifest aims to fill. As a schoolboy in Mumbai, he was identified by a coach who recognized his potential before he had achieved any major success, and he is candid about the impact of that support. "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 generates more ambition than nearly any other nation, yet it offers less student guidance than almost anywhere else. In many cases, a single school counsellor is tasked with supporting thousands of students simultaneously. Consequently, most students never receive professional advice, forcing them to make critical life decisions based 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 has adopted a deliberately structural response. The international education sector is notoriously fragmented, consisting of thousands of regional players, each dominating a specific corridor but lacking the capital for significant technological development. Manifest acquires these route-owning operators and implements a unified AI layer across their operations.

The group now covers the entire spectrum of the talent journey. Cialfo and BridgeU support schools, counsellors, and students as they navigate education and career paths. Comet provides families with a direct channel to study-abroad services and products. Explore links universities with the students they seek. Flow AI serves as the group's AI-native platform for education firms, designed to help counsellors become better advisors rather than just faster processors. Kaaiser and EduGo facilitate student placements into institutions across Australia and 18 European nations.

"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.