Alliance of Tech Founders Line up to Invest in the Next Generation of Global Innovators With $158m Series C Funding Round for Entrepreneur First
29.6.2022 09:00:00 EEST | Business Wire | Press release
Entrepreneur First (EF), a scaleup investor in early stage founder talent, has raised a $158m Series C funding round from a group of veteran technology founders, including Patrick and John Collison, Reid Hoffman, Taavet Hinrikus and Matt Mullenweg.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220628005653/en/
Entrepreneur First co-founders Alice Bentinck and Matt Clifford (Photo: Business Wire)
Bucking the trend of mounting layoffs and diminishing venture capital volumes across the startup world, owing to fears of a looming recession, the host of successful entrepreneurs and founders are backing EF to unlock opportunities for a diverse set of new global founders.
EF’s impressive global roster of backers includes , John and Patrick Collison (co-founders of Stripe), Taavet Hinrikus (co-founder of Wise), Reid Hoffman (co-founder of LinkedIn), Matt Mullenweg (co-founder of Wordpress), Tom Blomfield (co-founder of Monzo and GoCardless), Nat Friedman (former CEO of Github), Sara Clemens (former COO of Twitch and Pandora), Matt Robinson (co-founder of Nested and GoCardless), Patrick O’Shaughnessy (Positive Sum), Demis Hassabis and Mustafa Suleyman (co-founders of Deepmind), Claire Hughes Johnson, Sten Tamkivi, Elad Gil and Lachy Groom.
Founded in 2011 by Matt Clifford and Alice Bentinck in London, EF now employs 120 around the world. It operates as an early-stage investor, helping talented people find co-founders to partner with ahead of launching startups.
“Talent is everywhere, but opportunity is not. The idea of taking strangers and helping them start robust and ambitious companies is no longer radical but essential to power the next stage of innovation,” said Matt Clifford, CEO and co-founder of Entrepreneur First.
“The whole EF thesis is finding individuals who otherwise might not start companies and then trying to accelerate their journey to success,” he said.
“EF is completely unique in the early-stage funding landscape. Our whole effort focuses on talent rather than typical venture capital deal flow. We don't try and win deals, we don't pick deals, we find great people. That brings big strengths. The ability to partner before there even is a company is both a relationship and an economic strength,” he added.
Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn and Entrepreneur First board member said: “We are entering a new era for venture funding, with a new generation of global founders needing support to build iconic companies from scratch. I’m excited to be part of this world-class syndicate. We’re all passionate about the power of entrepreneurship to change people’s lives and to change the world. Entrepreneur First represents a new way for talented people to access that opportunity and a new way to build startup ecosystems outside Silicon Valley.”
Alice Bentinck, co-founder of Entrepreneur First, said: “As the value of EF’s portfolio companies passes $10bn, we feel we’re just getting started. We want EF to have a product to enable every ambitious individual to find their co-founder. EF is already one of the world’s great talent communities and with this new funding and these new investors, we’re looking forward to partnering with thousands of more exceptional founders in the coming years”
The cash -- raised as a funding round, rather than a ‘fund’ -- will be used to make investments into new startups as well as allow EF a capacity to experiment, and innovate on how best to fund the next generation of entrepreneurs by launching new products aimed at up-ending the typical venture capital model.
EF is also announcing today that the aggregate value of companies created through its platform now exceeds $10bn. Notable alumni include Tractable (the computer vision unicorn focused on the insurance industry, funded by Insight and Georgian Partners); Omnipresent (the employment platform for remote work, funded by Tencent and Kinnevik); Aztec Protocol (the private transaction protocol, funded by Paradigm); Cleo (the financial management app, funded by Balderton and EQT Ventures); and Permutive (the privacy-compliant advertising infrastructure platform, funded by Softbank).
To view this piece of content from cts.businesswire.com, please give your consent at the top of this page.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220628005653/en/
Contact information
Ben Goldsmith
ben@goldsmithcomms.com
+44(0)7788295321
About Business Wire
For more than 50 years, Business Wire has been the global leader in press release distribution and regulatory disclosure.
Subscribe to releases from Business Wire
Subscribe to all the latest releases from Business Wire by registering your e-mail address below. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Latest releases from Business Wire
Airship Announces 2026 Elevate Customer Experience Award Winners4.5.2026 16:00:00 EEST | Press release
Airship, the mobile-first customer experience company, today announced the winners of the 2026 Elevate Customer Experience Awards. Global brand leaders from The Economist, Southwest Airlines, and OneFootball were among those honored at the Elevate’26 Customer Experience Summit. The Elevate Awards spotlight global companies that have developed exceptional mobile-first customer experiences for their customers, created innovative campaigns, leveraged AI agents to reach new levels of productivity, and achieved real business results. "Evolving mobile-first consumer behaviors and unprecedented advancements in AI are driving a seismic shift that is reshaping how brands interact with their customers," said Brett Caine, CEO, Airship. "The 2026 Elevate Award winners aren’t just adapting, they’re leading transformative and meaningful customer experiences. These leading organizations are turning everyday interactions into seamless, cross-channel journeys that deliver meaningful business impact and
Tigo Energy Breaks Global Growth Benchmark; Boosts U.S. Energy Feature in Predict+4.5.2026 16:00:00 EEST | Press release
Tigo Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ: TYGO) (“Tigo” or “Company”), a leading provider of intelligent solar and energy solutions, today announced that the Predict+ platform now offers integrated real-time spot market pricing for ISO customers in the United States. Predict+ provides utilities with deep insights into grid demand, renewable generation, and energy market dynamics, enhancing the precision, scalability, and robustness of energy forecasting to up to 97.5% accuracy through machine learning and artificial intelligence. For energy providers, Predict+ helps streamline operations, reduce volatility, and maximize performance. Predict+ empowers utility operators to adapt to real-world demand challenges when balancing renewable and baseload generation sources, particularly during extreme weather events and market disruptions. On the demand side, with smart meter integration, Predict+ models each meter individually and performs extensive calculations on actual, historical, and average data to acc
Alnylam to Present New Analyses at Heart Failure 2026 Underscoring Consistent Clinical Profile of Vutrisiran in ATTR-CM4.5.2026 15:30:00 EEST | Press release
Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: ALNY), the leading RNAi therapeutics company, today announced it will present new data analyses for vutrisiran in patients with the cardiomyopathy of wild-type or hereditary transthyretin-mediated amyloidosis (ATTR-CM) at Heart Failure 2026, a scientific congress of the European Society of Cardiology, taking place May 9-12, 2026, in Barcelona, Spain. ATTR-CM is a heterogeneous and rapidly progressive disease, and patients often present with complex clinical profiles. At Heart Failure 2026, Alnylam will present multiple new analyses from the Phase 3 HELIOS-B study of vutrisiran, which continue to support its use as a first-line treatment for patients with ATTR-CM, and further characterize its clinical profile across patients with a high disease burden, and in the context of concomitant therapies. Vutrisiran is the first and only transthyretin (TTR) silencer for ATTR-CM that delivers rapid knockdown of TTR at the source. Additional analyses being pr
Takeda Announces Positive Topline Results from Pivotal Phase 2/3 Clinical Trial of TAK-881 in Primary Immunodeficiency Disease (PID)4.5.2026 15:00:00 EEST | Press release
Takeda (TSE:4502/NYSE:TAK) today announced that TAK-881-3001, a pivotal Phase 2/3 clinical trial in patients with Primary Immunodeficiency Disease (PID), met its primary endpoint, which demonstrated pharmacokinetic (PK) comparability between the investigational TAK-881 [Immune Globulin Subcutaneous (Human), 20% Solution (SCIG 20%) with Recombinant Human Hyaluronidase] and HYQVIA [Immune Globulin Infusion (Human) 10% with Recombinant Human Hyaluronidase]. Additionally, secondary endpoints showed that TAK-881, a SCIG 20% facilitated with hyaluronidase, demonstrated safety, efficacy and tolerability profiles comparable to HYQVIA, an established SCIG 10% facilitated with hyaluronidase. These findings support the potential of TAK-881 to deliver the required immunoglobulin (IG) dose for PID patients in half the volume of HYQVIA, reducing infusion duration while maintaining flexible, up to once-monthly dosing for patients (every three or four weeks for PID). The TAK-881-3001 clinical trial ev
Ouster Releases The REV8 OS Family: The World’s First Native Color Lidar4.5.2026 13:00:00 EEST | Press release
Ouster, Inc. (Nasdaq: OUST) (“Ouster” or the “Company”), a leader in sensing and perception for Physical AI, announced today its new family of OS digital lidar sensors, Rev8, powered by its next-generation L4 Ouster Silicon. Ouster Rev8 features the world’s first patented native color lidar sensors, provides up to double the range and resolution of the previous generation, and is designed for functional safety, reliability, affordability, and scale. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260504718668/en/ The REV8 OS Family: The World's First Native Color Lidar. L4 Ouster Silicon: Ouster’s breakthrough L4 architecture doubles the range and resolution of its lidar over the prior generation, adds native-color sensing, and is designed for functional safety. Based on patented Ouster Silicon with embedded Fujifilm color science, the L4 chip results in exquisite color data and hardware-enabled HDR. It boasts 42.9 GMACs of p
In our pressroom you can read all our latest releases, find our press contacts, images, documents and other relevant information about us.
Visit our pressroom