Entrepreneur First launches ‘Graduate program’ in India, targets freshers

Co-founded by Matt Clifford and Alice Bentinck in 2011, Entrepreneur First invests in individuals to build startups from scratch. EF runs programmes in North America, Europe, and Asia, and the talent investor entered India in 2019

Entrepreneur First entered India in 2019, and last year, it announced that it will be doubling down on the country. (Photo: Unsplash)

Written by: Anjaly Raj

4 min readNew DelhiMar 21, 2023 01:43 PM IST First published on: Mar 21, 2023 at 01:41 PM IST

Entrepreneur First (EF), an early-stage talent investing firm, Tuesday launched its ‘Graduate program’ in India for the country’s current students and recent graduates. The programme is focused on promoting entrepreneurship amongst young Indians by backing them even before they have an idea or a co-founder and providing them with the necessary tools, including the capital, mentorship, and network to build successful businesses.

Rahul Samat, partner and India head at EF, told The Indian Express, “EF has been in India for about three years now, and we had a successful start to our programme in India. This is the first time we are launching an exclusive programme for early-career individuals.” He added that the cohort will be set up “exclusively with individuals who have 0-2 years of industry experience.”

Co-founded by Matt Clifford and Alice Bentinck in 2011, Entrepreneur First invests in individuals to build startups from scratch. EF runs programmes in North America, Europe, and Asia, and the talent investor entered India in 2019, and last year, it announced that it will be doubling down on the country.

EF brings together people with extraordinary futures to develop their most ambitious ideas and raise money from the world’s best investors.

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“We believe India has the potential to become a global leader in technology entrepreneurship, and our Graduate program is focused on identifying high-potential individuals with a passion for building impactful startups from scratch,” Samat said.

He added, “We are thrilled to bring Entrepreneur First’s Graduate program to India, providing local talent with the resources they need to solve important problems. Our programme will create a new generation of successful entrepreneurs and contribute to the growth of India’s startup ecosystem.”

Samat said that the programme would sharply be solving the needs of early career, high ambitions, high agency-related individuals, and “we are putting them together in a room, to support them specific to the belief that they are a prospective founder.”

The companies co-founded via the EF programmes are now worth over $10 billion in combined portfolio value, including Tractable (which is valued at $1 billion), Magic Pony Technology (exited to Twitter for a reported $150M), Cleo, Omnipresent, Aztec, Transcelestial, Airbank, etc.

“There are certain intrinsic and certain characteristics that make for a great founder, and our selection criteria are largely mapped to the intrinsic side,” the EF India head said, detailing the selection criteria of individuals for the Graduate programme.

“We fundamentally believe that folks who come with a certain clarity of thought, and aspiring founders who have got the ability to challenge conventional belief system and perhaps are technically capable, or commercially capable, make for a great founder,” Samat said.

The EF’s graduate programme is open to everyone across the country, irrespective of the organisation they come from, their background and experience, Samat explained.

The individuals selected in the Graduate cohort will receive a stipend towards living expenses; the opportunity to collaborate with an exceptional pool of potential co-founders; access to top mentors and advisors; and a platform to pitch for pre-seed investment.

In the EF programme, the outcome is that they come out with a startup, but a lot of individuals might not end up building a startup at the given time, Samat said. In such scenarios, the individuals can choose to either go and work at another startup, perhaps one formed at the same programme; or they can do the EF programme again, he explained.

“As there are a lot of options for founders, largely because the programme in itself is so transformational,” Samat said, adding that some individuals might also end up going into the ecosystem and working in other startups.