Bengaluru program continues to identify top Indian tech founders for global scale
Bengaluru,
India : Entrepreneurs First
(EF), a global talent investor and company builder, today has announced it has
raised $200m of fresh capital from a group of veteran technology founders and
investors including investors like Reid Hoffman, John and Patrick Collison,
Eric Schmidt, Claire Hughes Johnson, Charlie Songhurst, Sara Clemens, Danny
Rimer, and Matt Cohler, alongside leading institutional investors including
Greylock.
With
$200m in fresh capital, EF is doubling down on its core thesis: the world has
more exceptional founders than it realises. EF exists to identify exceptional
individuals at the earliest stage and equip them with the peer group, structure,
and early capital required to build globally significant companies that would
not otherwise exist.
Building
across a wide range of sectors, EF India boasts a portfolio of 50+ successful
startups across industries and sectors. Under Rahul Samat’s leadership, EF
India continues identifying exceptional technical and entrepreneurial talent
and guiding them from day one to find a co-founder, develop an idea, build a
product, take it to market, and raise their first round of funding to build
globally important companies.
EF’s
global portfolio of companies is now collectively valued at over $16 billion,
up from $3 billion in 2021 when they last raised. “We have raised this capital
to double down on what we do best: identifying extraordinary individuals early
and helping them build outlier companies from scratch,” said Alice Bentinck,
co-founder and CEO of EF. “Once we have identified the talent, our role is to
create the environments, peer groups and standards that push exceptional people
to operate at the edge of their capabilities,” said Matt Clifford,
co-founder and Chairman of EF.
EF
actively taps potential founders from leading universities, including Stanford,
MIT, Berkeley, Yale and in India, institutes like IIT Bombay, IIT Delhi, and
BITS Pilani, among others. Selected individuals join EF’s intensive
company-building programs in Europe, India, and the US. Those who successfully
form companies receive pre-seed investment from EF and relocate to the Bay Area
for the fundraising and scaling phase of the program. Today, all EF companies
are incorporated in the US and are expected to build from San Francisco from
pre-seed onwards, maximising their chances of becoming global category creators
and leaders. Companies in the recent Bay Area cohorts raised up to $15m in seed
funding within two weeks of completing the program.
“India
continues to be one of the deepest pools of technical and entrepreneurial
talent in the world,” said Rahul Samat, Partner and General Manager,
Bangalore of EF in India. “We have raised this capital to double down on
identifying extraordinary individuals early and helping them build outlier
companies from scratch. Through our India program, founders join us often with
no idea and no co-founder, and within six months are positioned to raise from
leading Silicon Valley investors. We are one of the only platforms in India
that enable founders to build US-native companies from day one, giving them the
structure, network, and capital to compete globally from inception.”
EF
India has played a crucial role in identifying and backing some of the
country’s leading startups, such as Unbox Robotics, Unsiloed AI, Sidecar AI,
Aule Space, and many more. Some of which have gone on to secure funding from
world-leading investors such as Long Journey Ventures, Nexus Venture
Partners, Uncorrelated Ventures, Matrix Partners, SOSV and Pi Ventures. In
2024, EF began relocating all pre-seed-funded companies to the Bay Area ahead
of their seed rounds. Since then, founders have seen material improvements in
speed, execution, and fundraising outcomes. On average, time to raise has
halved, and valuations have doubled.
Entrepreneurs
First is backed by serial entrepreneurs and prolific technology investors,
including Reid Hoffman, Elad Gil, Nat Friedman, Founders Fund, Greylock, John
and Patrick Collison, Demis Hassabis and Mustafa Suleyman. New to this round
are founders and investors like Aidan Gomez, Barney Hussey-Yeo, Danny Rimer,
Eric Schmidt, Jeffrey Dean & Heidi Hopper, Jeff Hammerbacher, Mati
Staniszewski, Matt Cohler and Nick McKeown.
About
Entrepreneur First
Entrepreneurs
First is a global pioneer with the mission to break ambitious individuals free
from traditional definitions of success and guide them toward building
transformative companies. By curating cohorts of exceptional peers from top
academic and tech communities worldwide, EF nurtures aspiring founders with
access to a world-class advisor network and the support necessary to realise
their global ambitions. Its portfolio companies are backed by world-leading
investors, including Sequoia, Andreessen Horowitz, SoftBank, and Khosla
Ventures. Together, they are worth over $16 billion and include a number of
unicorns and successful exits. EF started investing in 2015 and was founded in
2011 by Alice Bentinck and Matt Clifford. EF has offices in London, Paris,
Bangalore and San Francisco.