In October, we announced our expanded partnership with the Founders Forum Group. Alongside its significant annual donation to CFE, the Group will be supporting us in key activities including the return of our annual lecture next year and have since welcomed our team to their newest headquarters at 180 Strand. Read the full press release.
Other happenings in the FF world:
Founders Forum Group and SVB Expand Partnership to Support Global Innovation Economy – Read more
FF also celebrated the 10th anniversary of Founders Forum New York and launched Founders Forum Europe in Berlin, welcoming 220+ top founders, investors & corporate leaders.
Hosted in the suitably grand surroundings of Dartmouth House, Mayfair, our finalists pitched to a panel of judges – Oliver Pawle(CFE Chairman), Riam Kanso(Founder & CEO, Conception X) and Dr Alastair Moore(Serial Entrepreneur and Web 3 expert) and an audience of their fellow cohort members, new NEFers alumni, mentors, coaches and early stage investors.
🏆 Following his outstanding pitch for his fresh baby food brand, Sallar Al Mulla of Omami was named the Chairman’s Award, presented by our Chairman, Oliver Pawle.
Congratulations to the other award winners too:
🏆 The CEO’s award, presented by our CEO Timothy Barnes, went to Maya Raichoora(VIVE Meditation) for her significant progress made during the programme.
🏆 The Fellow’s award, voted by by the cohort as the‘most valuable players’ went to Sallar Al Mulla and Jo Barrow.
Our newest NEF+ cohort – S2023 – started in September, and are already almost halfway through their NEF+ journeys. They’ve worked on entrepreneuriual strategy, customer validation and advocacy. Going into 2023, the focus shifts onto people, operations and analytics. Thoughts are already turning to pitch week – happening end-March – and we ran a bonus pitch preparation class in November.
We’re now taking applications for next NEF+ cohort starting in April 2023! If you know of an early-stage founder showing strong traction, with huge ambitions to build a high-growth business, do share.
NEF+ 2020’s Joel Gujral, founder and CEO of Myndup. Just last month, The Times announced his latest £4.4million investment raise.
Check out what our NEF+ alumni network has been up to:
Joel Gujral(2020) has raised £4.4m to scale mental health venture MYNDUP. The round was led by James Lock(Managing Director, Blackstone) – Joel’s long-time NEF+ mentor that he met through the programme. Read more
Lydia Hartley’s(NEF+ S2022) fashion sustainability platform Don’t Shop, Swap has received backing from TechStars London. Read more
Marianne Hughes(2016) was recognised on TechRound’s 29 under 29 list for the founding of factory worker wellbeing platform, Kno Global. Read more
George Taktak(2021) was interviewed by UKTN on his journey to growing How Mental and its 800,000+ community. Read more
Stu Macdonald(2012) was seen in The Times, covering the origins of ManiLife – turning an“overcooked batch of peanuts” into the leading peanut butter brand that’s projected to hit £15 million in sales in the next three years. Read more
Claire Rampen’s(2017) Reath was been chosen by Hubbub and Starbucks to benefit from their‘Bring it Back Fund’. Read more
The 5th Annual IAN conference was hosted by Birmingham City University at its new STEAMhouse incubator. Findings from CFE’s incubator and mapping study led by Dr Chris Haley were presented and delegates attended a range of workshops on topics such as challenge-based innovation and inclusive entrepreneurship. With lots of collaboration opportunities, practitioner discussions surrounded the challenges and opportunities for the sector.
Reverting back to our pre-covid timing, the 6th Annual IAN conference will be hosted by Sheffield Hallam University at The Hallam i-lab on the 16th and 17th of March. Early bird tickets, including a conference dinner, are available until 31st December. Places are limited and tickets are available here.
Upcoming IAN Amsterdam study visit in February
A study visit to The Netherlands is planned for the 2nd and 3rd February. We will visit a range of innovative spaces, including Startup Village in Amsterdam, The Erasmus Centre for Entrepreneurship and Yes! Delft.
From 26-28th October 2022, the Refugee Entrepreneurship Network convened in Venice for its fifth annual summit, bringing together 100 world-leading refugee entrepreneurship practitioners, researchers, policymakers, funders, and impact investors. Combining a programme of panel discussions addressing key themes such as the state of refugee entrepreneurship, programme design and delivery, member-led workshops, a refugee entrepreneurship showcase, and a new corporate leaders forum, it was a jam-packed 3 days.
The 6th annual REN summit will be held in October 2023, with location and details TBC.
From left: Ben Macgill, Claire Renwick and Adam Holmes.
This quarter, we welcomed several new joiners to our team:
Ben Macgill, our Talent Founder Lead for the NEF+ Spring 2023 cohort, who previously scouted the 2020 Cohort.
Claire Renwick, our Community Development & Events Lead, helping to further develop CFE’s communities, including the Incubator and Accelerator Network and Refugee Entrepreneurship Network.
Adam Holmes has taken over the Operations Lead role (previously helmed by Izzy Daly-Carnell), supporting the operational activities undertaken to deliver NEF+, research and policy delivery activity and events, as well as managing CFE’s internal systems.
Alongside these changes, we said goodbye to Izzy (our Operations Lead) and Bella and EJ (our Research & Network Leads) and wish them all the best in their next chapters!
Lord Agnew of Oulton, parliamentary under secretary of state, Department for Education; Ian Armitage, co-founder, Isfield Investments; Lord Davies of Abersoch, chairman, Corsair Capital; Sir Lloyd Dorfman, founder, Travelex; The Golden Bottle Trust; David Gregson, co-founder, Phoenix; Andrew Joy, senior advisor, Stonehage Fleming; Lord Lupton, ex-chairman, Greenhill Europe; Sir Keith Mills, ex-deputy chairman, LOCOG; Monica Monajem, managing director, Amitis Partners; Jon Moulton, founder, Better Capital; Vin Murria, entrepreneur, investor, philanthropist and HG Capital board member; Rajal Patni & Rohit Patni, Lavanya Plus; Oliver Pawle, chair, board practice, Korn Ferry; David Pearl, David Pearlman Foundation; Andy Phillipps, entrepreneur and early stage technology investor; Mark Pritchard, founder, Allied Minds; The Rayne Foundation; Mike Rees, former deputy group CEO, Standard Chartered; Sir John Ritblat, honorary president, The British Land Company PLC; Gerald Ronson, Gerald Ronson Foundation; Sir Nigel Rudd, chairman, Business Growth Fund; Sadell Fellowship; Elisabeth Scott, former trustee, New Entrepreneurs Foundation; David Tibble, Inspiration Trust; Jean-Baptiste Wautier, managing partner, BC Partners; The Hon. Charles Wigoder, executive chairman, Utility Warehouse. Corbyn Munnick, CEO Sliide Class of 2013, Joel Gujral, Founder & CEO MYNDUP Class of 2020, Alex Somervell, Co-Founder & CEO One Third Stories Class of 2016, Fiona Timba, Legal Counsel Barclays Class of 2015, Guy Riese, CEO & Founder Up Learn Class of 2016, JJ Tan, Founder Jelly Class of 2017 and Quin Murray, Co-Founder & CPO Krzana Class of 2015, Kike Oniwinde, BYP Network, (2018), Louis Mech (2012), Ravi Patel (2012),
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