Entrepreneur First raises €150 million to encourage entrepreneurial talents
Founded in 2011, Entrepreneur First (EF) has raised €150 million from entrepreneurs and investors in Silicon Valley. A look at the success of a unique model that focuses on talent rather than existing projects.
Entrepreneur First, a model that looks for talent rather than projects
EF aims to remove many barriers to entrepreneurship by helping hundreds of entrepreneurs find a co-founder. "EF's mission is to unearth talent that might otherwise miss out on entrepreneurship. Talent is everywhere, but opportunities are not." says Matt Clifford, co-founder of Entrepreneur First.
To do this, the French company relies on a rigorous selection of ambitious young people who want to be entrepreneurs, but who do not yet have a co-founder or a project. Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn and member of the Entrepreneur First board of directors, adds that EF represents a springboard for talent from ecosystems less advanced than Silicon Valley. They have the opportunity to participate in an intensive 3-month program to generate an idea or join an existing project.
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Entrepreneur First, an established success
In France, four years after its launch, EF has already welcomed and financed more than 400 entrepreneurs and helped create 50 new French startups in a wide range of sectors. The value of the startups created within its programs now exceeds $10 billion, including the insurtech unicorn Tractable and Kinetix, the platform for creating 3D avatars in the metaverse.
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€150 million raised from the Silicon Valley
On June 29, 2022 in Paris, EF announced that it had raised €150 million from Silicon Valley investors and entrepreneurs including Reid Hoffman (co-founder of LinkedIn), Taavet Hinrikus (co-founder of Wise) and Sara Clemens (former COO of Twitch and Pandora).
For Coralie Chaufour, Partner & Managing Director of Entrepreneur First in France, this round of funding will further anchor EF's unique model in France to significantly contribute to the creation of the next generation of French companies that can be global technology leaders.
The objective of this fundraising is twofold: to allow EF to continue its growth and its ability to disrupt the traditional venture capital model and to give the company the flexibility to innovate and test new programs designed to encourage top talent to become entrepreneurs.
