Entrepreneur First has entered India with $25 million committed from its larger fund, to promote tech startups in the country. EF also announced its first-ever Indian cohort of 50 founders who were selected from a pool of 900 applicants.
EF has a unique model of selecting individuals who could be strong founders and helping them find co-founders, work on ideas and build startups. Uniquely, each cohort member will be paid a monthly stipend of $2000 during the process of finding a co-founder and developing startup ideas in the first three months. EF has created over 200 companies globally and has helped raise $350 million from investors for its incubated companies. EF has an alumni base of 1200 people across London, Paris, Berlin, Hong Kong, Singapore. India is its new sixth location.
According to Esha Tiwary, General Manager of Entrepreneur First in India, “We have remarkable talent available in India. Through Entrepreneur First, we are trying to change the narrative for ambitious people in India who have thus far hesitated to start companies due to several reasons such as lack of a co-founder, no big idea, job security.”
EF will invest in each of the companies developed during its bi-annual Bangalore programme that clear the Investment Committee, apart from the monthly stipend paid to cohort members. EF focuses on deep tech companies that build on defensible technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Quantum Computing, AR/VR, Robotics etc.
