Budapest Post

Cum Deo pro Patria et Libertate
Budapest, Europe and world news

A seed accelerator that sold a startup to Twitter for $150 million says London is becoming more like Silicon Valley — 'The talent pipeline is there'

A seed accelerator that sold a startup to Twitter for $150 million says London is becoming more like Silicon Valley — 'The talent pipeline is there'

Entrepreneur First is a global talent investor that identifies potential entrepreneurs and helps them find partners and develop business ideas. Founded by two British entrepreneurs in London, the scheme now spans six different cities worldwide and closed a new $115 million fund earlier this year.
 Founding companies is never easy and for many, entrepreneurship is a route swathed in uncertainty.

Entrepreneur First, a London-founded startup incubator, is seeking to change that by bringing wannabe entrepreneurs together, helping them find partners and develop business ideas. The company, founded in 2011 as a non-profit, brings in cohorts of founders each year across six cities worldwide and pays each one a stipend for living expenses.

The lack of a British Google or Facebook is not because of a lack of talent or capital, according to EF, rather that bringing those elements together has traditionally been tricky because entrepreneurship was not as culturally natural as it is in Silicon Valley.

 "Silicon Valley has a 70-year history whereas careers in the UK were more governed by prestige," founders Alice Bentinck and Matt Clifford said in an interview with Business Insider. "Now, you see new tech companies bring in millions in equity and that impact gives you more leverage as an individual to succeed."

In exchange for a stake in any companies started, EF provides pre-seed funding and training — putting attendees through a speed-dating process of sorts with other potential founders, while giving them a bootcamp of intensive classes to navigate typical startup hurdles.

The boom in available VC funding has helped upend the typically conservative British views toward risk and entrepreneurship, say the founders.

"Usually friends and family might be worried about someone quitting their stable traditional career to found a business," Clifford told Business Insider. "It's the complete opposite of Silicon Valley, but that's changing fast and the talent pipeline is there."

EF invests up to 15% in seed rounds for successful companies and has also participated in series A financings but focuses primarily on pre-seed. Bentinck and Clifford closed a $115 million fund in February this year with investment from institutional investors from the US, Europe, and Asia as well as TransferWise co-founder Taavet Hinrikus.

Another investor in the new fund was Rob Bishop, an EF alumnus, who sold his company Magic Pony Technology to Twitter for $150 million in 2016. Another notable exit was Bloomsbury AI which was bought by Facebook last year for an undisclosed amount.

EF says it looks for prospective founders rather than pre-formed businesses and wants to leverage the abilities that individuals have. "We see a lot of copycat ideas coming through and someone with 10 years experience in banking who wants to do music discovery doesn't necessarily have an edge there," Bentinck said. "We want founders to embrace solutions they have an advantage in, rather than look at problems they see in their personal life."

To-date the company, which has outposts in Singapore, Paris, Berlin, Bangalore, and Hong Kong, has helped more than 1,200 individuals build over 200 technology companies, collectively worth $1.5 billion, according to UK Tech News. EF was recently part of the seed financing of one of its cohort companies, Vine Health, which raised the largest seed round in UK history for all female founders out of EF.

Beyond London, the company had its largest investor day to-date in Singapore earlier this month with a number of deep tech startups on show, according to Tech in Asia.

"You can't take a short-term perspective on building good businesses," founders Alice Bentinck and Matt Clifford told Business Insider in an interview. "Top talent needs to be nurtured long term with ambition at every stage like an institution would. We want to be the Harvard of venture capital."




AI Disclaimer: An advanced artificial intelligence (AI) system generated the content of this page on its own. This innovative technology conducts extensive research from a variety of reliable sources, performs rigorous fact-checking and verification, cleans up and balances biased or manipulated content, and presents a minimal factual summary that is just enough yet essential for you to function as an informed and educated citizen. Please keep in mind, however, that this system is an evolving technology, and as a result, the article may contain accidental inaccuracies or errors. We urge you to help us improve our site by reporting any inaccuracies you find using the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of this page. Your helpful feedback helps us improve our system and deliver more precise content. When you find an article of interest here, please look for the full and extensive coverage of this topic in traditional news sources, as they are written by professional journalists that we try to support, not replace. We appreciate your understanding and assistance.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
IMF Upgrades Global Growth Forecast as Weaker Dollar Supports Outlook
House Republicans Move to Defund OECD Over Global Tax Dispute
France Opens Criminal Investigation into X Over Algorithm Manipulation Allegations
Trump Steamrolls EU in Landmark Trade Win: US–EU Trade Deal Imposes 15% Tariff on European Imports
ChatGPT CEO Sam Altman says people share personal info with ChatGPT but don’t know chats can be used as court evidence in legal cases.
Intel Reports Revenue Beats but Sees 81% Rise in Losses
Politics is a good business: Barack Obama’s Reported Net Worth Growth, 1990–2025
UN's Top Court Declares Environmental Protection a Legal Obligation Under International Law
"Crazy Thing": OpenAI's Sam Altman Warns Of AI Voice Fraud Crisis In Banking
The Podcaster Who Accidentally Revealed He Earns Over $10 Million a Year
UK Government Considers Dropping Demand for Apple Encryption Backdoor
Japanese Man Discovers Family Connection Through DNA Testing After Decades of Separation
Russia Signals Openness to Ukraine Peace Talks Amid Escalating Drone Warfare
Switzerland Implements Ban on Mammography Screening
Pogacar Extends Dominance with Stage Fifteen Triumph at Tour de France
President Trump Diagnosed with Chronic Venous Insufficiency After Leg Swelling
CEO Resigns Amid Controversy Over Relationship with HR Executive
NVIDIA Achieves $4 Trillion Valuation Amid AI Demand
Tulsi Gabbard Unveils Evidence Alleging Political Manipulation of Intelligence During Trump Administration
Centrist Criticism of von der Leyen Resurfaces as she Survives EU Confidence Vote
Trump Announces Coca-Cola to Shift to Cane Sugar in U.S. Production
FIFA Pressured to Rethink World Cup Calendar Due to Climate Change
Zelensky Reshuffles Cabinet to Win Support at Home and in Washington
"Can You Hit Moscow?" Trump Asked Zelensky To Make Putin "Feel The Pain"
Church of England Removes 1991 Sexuality Guidelines from Clergy Selection
Superman Franchise Achieves Success with Latest Release
Hungary's Viktor Orban Rejects Agreements on Illegal Migration
Air India Pilot’s Mental Health Records Under Scrutiny
Jamie Dimon Warns Europe Is Losing Global Competitiveness and Flags Market Complacency
Moonshot AI Unveils Kimi K2: A New Open-Source AI Model
Martha Wells Says Humanity Still Far from True Artificial Intelligence
Nvidia Becomes World’s First Four‑Trillion‑Dollar Company Amid AI Boom
EU Delays Retaliatory Tariffs Amid New U.S. Threats on Imports
Trump Proposes Supplying Arms to Ukraine Through NATO Allies
US Opens First Rare Earth Mine in Over 70 Years in Wyoming
Bitcoin Reaches New Milestone of $116,000
Severe Heatwave Claims 2,300 Lives Across Europe
Declining Beer Consumption Signals Cultural Shift in Germany
Emails Leaked: How Passenger Luggage Became a Side Income for Airport Workers
Polish MEP: “Dear Leftists - China is laughing at you, Russia is laughing, India is laughing”
Western Europe Records Hottest June on Record
BRICS Expands Membership with Indonesia and Ten New Partner Countries
Elon Musk Founds a Party Following a Poll on X: "You Wanted It – You Got It!"
China’s Central Bank Consults European Peers on Low-Rate Strategies
France Requests Airlines to Cut Flights at Paris Airports Amid Planned Air Traffic Controller Strike
Poland Implements Border Checks Amid Growing Migration Tensions
Emirates Airline Expands Market Share with New $20 Million Campaign
Amazon Reaches Milestone with Deployment of One Millionth Robot
Yulia Putintseva Calls for Spectator Ejection at Wimbledon Over Safety Concerns
House Oversight Committee Subpoenas Former Jill Biden Aide Amid Investigation into Alleged Concealment of President Biden's Cognitive Health
×