Entrepreneur First Raises $158M At A $560M Valuation, Adding Stripe’s Collison Brothers To Its List Of Backers

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Entrepreneur First made a name for itself a decade ago in its home base of London, and then further afield, for the novel approach it takes to tech investing: rather than seek out interesting, scaling startups like typical VCs, it backs founders and their very, very early stage startup ideas — so nascent in fact that sometimes the startups themselves haven’t actually materialized when EF writes its first check.Its method, and the results, have catapulted EF to a portfolio that is now worth some $10 billion over more than 500 companies, and now it’s announcing its latest round of fundraise — $158 million. While it’s always going to be hard to see which startups will make it in the longer run, those numbers speak to EF itself likely being among those “startups” that may well weather this storm.“We are entering a new era for venture funding, with a new generation of global founders needing support to build iconic companies from scratch,” said Hoffman, who is also an Entrepreneur First board member, in a statement. “Entrepreneur First represents a new way for talented people to access that opportunity and a new way to build startup ecosystems outside Silicon Valley.”