<article>London-based venture builder <a href="http://dealstreetasia.com/tag/entrepreneur-first" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Entrepreneur First (EF)</a>, which also has an Indo-Asia Pacific base in the city-state of Singapore, has closed a $12.4 million investment led by Silicon Valley-based <a href="http://dealstreetasia.com/tag/Greylock-Partners" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Greylock Partners</a>.
Other investors in the round include Mosaic Ventures, <a href="http://dealstreetasia.com/tag/founders-fund" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Founders Fund</a>, Lakestar Capital and Deep Mind founders Demis Hassabis and Mustafa Suleyman.</article>

London-based venture builder <a href="http://dealstreetasia.com/tag/entrepreneur-first" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Entrepreneur First (EF)</a>, which also has an Indo-Asia Pacific base in the city-state of Singapore, has closed a $12.4 million investment led by Silicon Valley-based <a href="http://dealstreetasia.com/tag/Greylock-Partners" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Greylock Partners</a>.
Other investors in the round include Mosaic Ventures, <a href="http://dealstreetasia.com/tag/founders-fund" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Founders Fund</a>, Lakestar Capital and Deep Mind founders Demis Hassabis and Mustafa Suleyman.
EF alumni also supporting the round incude Rob Bishop and Zehan Wang of Magic Pony Technology, an AI startup <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2016/06/20/twitter-is-buying-magic-pony-technology-which-uses-neural-networks-to-improve-images/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reportedly sold to Twitter for $150 million</a>, and Bryan Baum, co-founder of Represent.
Entrepreneur First invests in technical founders at the “pre-team, pre-idea” to ideate, conceptualise and create new startup ventures. This latest investment will see Reid Hoffmann, a  Greylock partner and co-founder of LinkedIn, join its board of directors.
Investment proceeds will be used for operational costs, working capital purposes and further scaling of the EF programme; the investment is separate from EFs&#8217; venture fund.
In an <a href="https://news.greylock.com/our-investment-in-entrepreneur-first-5a0903f25bd4" target="_blank" rel="noopener">official statement</a>, Hoffman said, &#8220;In my own personal career, I love to work with products and institutions with network effects. Naturally, this has ranged from Linkedin to Facebook to Airbnb to Convoy. At Entrepreneur’s First, I also think that they are building a very interesting network effect — a network of founders, companies, advisors, and financiers. This network effect will very much help the new founders and new companies, as well as helping the existing ecosystem.&#8221;
Also Read: <a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/singapore-taiger-closes-5-8m-series-a-from-tembusu-sginnovate-80948/">Singapore: Taiger closes $5.8m Series A from Tembusu, SGInnovate</a>
<a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/paul-meyers-to-head-muru-d-alex-lin-to-leave-sginnovate-78932/">People: Paul Meyers to head muru-d Singapore; Alex Lin to leave SGInnovate</a>
Founded in 2011 by Alice Bentinck and Matt Clifford, EF markets itself as a venture builder that targets founders with technical and domain talent in Europe and Asia &#8211; both experienced professionals and fresh graduates &#8211; and invites them to apply for a six-month programme where they connect with co-founders and found their startups. It launched in Singapore in early 2016 in partnership with state-backed investor <a href="http://dealstreetasia.com/tag/sginnovate" target="_blank" rel="noopener">SGInnovate</a>.
The programme supports its participates with financial support in the form of a monthly stipend for living costs while founders select and connect with their co-founders and conceptualise their venture, coupled with pre-seed funding, office space, mentoring, as well as legal and administrative support.
EF maintains a £40 million Next Stage Fund, whose anchor investor is the British Business Bank, which made a £26 million investment. This fund was <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2016/09/06/next-stage-fund/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">closed in September 2016</a> and co-invests in alumni firms at the seed and Series A stages.
In an <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2017/09/11/ef-greylock/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">interaction</a> with TechCrunch, Hoffman comments: “Even though I don’t like to invest outside of Silicon Valley, the ability to create a portfolio of great entrepreneurship and great companies is something I treat as a personal mission. I think where it’s helpful is when you have depth of tech talent, creativity, an interest in creating companies but an as yet only partially developed entrepreneurial culture.”
“The number of incubators and accelerators that have failed is huge, so what happens is that most VCs tend to be ‘look, the real entrepreneurs are just willing to go and do it themselves,’ and I would say that is common sense wisdom. Common sense wisdom has a breadth of truth to it, [but] I like to look at where the common sense wisdom has a limitation and where there is a big opportunity,” he adds.
Also Read:
<a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/accelerator-focus-entrepreneur-first_deep-tech-72803/">Singapore shouldn’t aim to be Silicon Valley: Anne Marie Droste, Entrepreneur First</a>
<a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/27782-27782/">Entrepreneur First, Europe’s ‘biggest start-up creator’, expands to Singapore</a>
<a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/asia-has-highest-number-of-self-made-women-billionaires-first-gen-entrepreneurs-ubspwc-23717/">Asia has highest number of self-made women billionaires, first-gen entrepreneurs: UBS/PwC</a>

Greylock Partners leads $12.4m investment in venture builder Entrepreneur First

Bring stories like this into your inbox every day.

Sign up for our newsletter - The Daily Brief

Greylock Partners leads $12.4m investment in venture builder Entrepreneur First

Create an account to continue reading this premium story for free

Bring stories like this into your inbox every day.

Sign up for our newsletter - The Daily Brief