Entrepreneurs First

Applications are now open for London Fall 2025 cohort 🔗 https://lnkd.in/eDxHeH_P

Looking for experienced technical builders to join the XF Program here: https://lnkd.in/e9k2KGSN

March portfolio round up: On March 8, people around the world celebrated and recognised women’s achievements. In the tech sector, the underfunding of female-led deeptech startups not only represents a gender issue but also a substantial missed economic opportunity. A recent study estimates that $214.8B in potential growth is lost due to these disparities. At EF we are actively working to help close the gender gap but still have a long way to go. We are delighted however that three female founders have been recognised in their achievements to strengthen innovation in the ecosystem and inspire future generations to pursue leadership roles. 1/ Irene Jia, cofounder and CTO of Level Zero Health is recognised as one of 12 extraordinary women who have significantly impacted tech thanks to her groundbreaking work on a continuous hormone monitoring device that could revolutionize hormone health management. Earlier this year, Irene and her cofounder Ula Rustamova secured a record-breaking $6.9 million pre-Seed funding round, the largest ever raised by female founders in Europe. Read more: 🔗 https://lnkd.in/eNpb689V 2/ Alice Pelton, CEO and cofounder of The Lowdown, was mentioned in the list of Europe’s 100 most influential women in startups and venture capital for her role in guiding a new generation of period empowerment. The Lowdown is now the UK’s leading contraception and sexual and reproductive health platform, used by thousands of women every day to make informed decisions about their everyday health. Among other tools, their Contraception Recommender leverages a unique algorithm to match women with a form of contraceptive that suits their lifestyle and medical history. Read more: 🔗 https://lnkd.in/dmZ7YUTV 3/ Anna Brailsford, CEO of Code First Girls, was also mentioned in the same list of Europe’s 100 most influential women in startups and venture capital. Cofounded by Alice Bentinck in 2012, Code First Girls provides free coding courses to women, enabling them to become successful developers and future tech leaders. To date the social enterprise has helped more than 200,000 women learn to code. Read more: 🔗 https://lnkd.in/dmZ7YUTV 

4/ Expertia AI secures $2.3M in pre-Series A round Expertia AI, a Bengaluru-based recruitment platform, has raised Rs 20 crore ($2.3M) in a pre-Series A funding round led by Rockstud Capital. The funds will be used to enhance product development and expand the technology team. Expertia AI’s agentic platform automates talent discovery, sourcing, screening, assessment, and interviews across more than 35 job platforms, leveraging a distribution network of over 220 million professionals. Read more: 🔗 https://lnkd.in/gXnVkDar

3/ Ai Palette acquired by GlobalData Plc GlobalData has acquired AI Palette, a Singapore-based startup specializing in AI-driven consumer insights for the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry. Founded in 2018 by Somsubhra GanChoudhuri and Himanshu Upreti, AI Palette’s technology enables real-time identification of emerging consumer trends with contextual understanding, enhancing product development processes. Read more: 🔗 https://lnkd.in/gBNkxQqs

2/ Hanomi secures $3M Seed round Hanomi has secured a $3M Seed round led by HOF Capital for their AI-powered, production ready 2D drawings compatible with CAD software. The round will be used to build their team and develop their product to help generate accurate drawings 10x cheaper and 20x faster. Read more: 🔗 https://www.hanomi.ai/

1/ AMT raises $3.5M in Seed funding led by NFX Agentic Marketing Technologies (AMT), has raised $3.5M in Seed funding led by SF based VC NFX. AMT’s AI agent, Lyra, streamlines influencer marketing by autonomously managing tasks such as booking campaigns, tracking results, and processing payments. The company is relocating to San Francisco and has already secured clients including Le Petit Lunetier, Neoplants, and Wild. Read more in TechCrunch: 🔗 https://lnkd.in/ggCCufaQ

Zurich. Spent the weekend meeting one of the highest-density pools of technical founders I've seen in Europe. Entrepreneurs First 's Builders Day gathered exceptional talents driven to build billion-dollar companies. Bullish on the intersection of AI and hardware design. If you're building something ambitious —and you're based in Europe: we're coming. Next stop...

This morning, Jonny Clifford, Jozef Tuszynski, and I welcomed 40 talented individuals to the Entrepreneurs First Spring’25 London cohort. Every time a new cohort begins, I’m reminded how rare it is to be at the starting line of something that could meaningfully shift the future. It’s a privilege to play a small part in that process: to take people's ambition seriously, and help create the conditions where important companies, that otherwise wouldn’t exist, can emerge. This group is sharp, fast-moving, and deeply motivated. Excited to see what they build 💪

Launched on Product Hunt 4 hours ago, and we’re already in 2nd place. Show some love! -> https://lnkd.in/gfmwkuDy Already overtaking Meta’s Llama 4 and Microsoft’s Copilot🔥 Entrepreneurs First