Entrepreneur First
London talent-investor programme backing individuals into deep-tech companies before they form; co-founded by Matt Clifford.
Entrepreneur First co-invested in Open Cosmos's €300m round on 14 September 2026, alongside the UK's National Security Strategic Investment Fund, a satellite company round structured with no American investor to avoid US export controls.
Last refreshed: 22 September 2026 · Appears in 1 active topic
Can a pre-seed talent programme shape the UK's next generation of deep-tech founders?
Timeline for Entrepreneur First
Joined Open Cosmos's funding syndicate
UK Startups and Innovation: Open Cosmos raises €300m, no US nameMentioned in: Rivan raises £25m for Europe's biggest SNG plant
UK Startups and InnovationBackground
Entrepreneur First operates a pre-seed talent-investor model: it recruits individuals before they have a co-founder or a company idea, matches them into founding pairs through structured cohort programmes, and backs the resulting companies from formation. Alice Bentinck and Matt Clifford co-founded it in London in 2011; it now runs cohorts in London, Paris, Berlin, Singapore and Bangalore.
Its portfolio includes Magic Pony Technology, acquired by Twitter in 2016, consumer fintech Cleo, and insurance-claims AI specialist Tractable, each backed at a stage before a conventional venture fund would typically engage.
Clifford stepped down as chair of the Advanced Research and Invention Agency on 7 September 2026 to join Anthropic, but remains Entrepreneur First's co-founder; The Firm's own identity rests on its talent-first model rather than on any single founder's other roles.
Entrepreneur First backs Open Cosmos
Entrepreneur First was one of eight institutions backing Open Cosmos's €300m round on 14 September 2026, alongside the UK's National Security Strategic Investment Fund.
No American investor joined the round, an unusual structure for a British satellite company that points to keeping a dual-use space business clear of US export controls. For Entrepreneur First, whose usual entry point is pre-seed talent rather than growth-stage rounds, the stake marks a later-stage bet on a company built for strategic rather than purely commercial reasons, distinct from the founder-matching model that defines the rest of its portfolio.
