Bengaluru program continues to identify top Indian tech founders for global scale
Bengaluru, (Karnataka) [India], March 13, 2026: 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.
