Common Ventures, a London-based VC firm focused on improving social mobility in the tech industry, has launched a new programme designed to help graduates from lower-income backgrounds secure jobs at startups.
The initiative, called Common Path, is backed by a coalition of organisations including the Sutton Trust, the Hg Foundation, Atomico and Phoenix Court. It aims to address what its founders describe as a "social mobility crisis" in the UK tech sector.
Last week, Common Ventures was named as one of 10 first-time VC funds to receive financial backing from the British Business Bank, which is expected to split up to £90m between the selected funds.
According to data collated by Common Ventures, just 9% of people working in UK tech come from low-income backgrounds, compared with 29% in financial services and 26% in law.
Meanwhile, only 18% of startup founders come from working-class backgrounds, despite such individuals making up around 45% of the UK population.
"Tech as an industry is more elite than the financial or legal professions in the UK," Common Ventures cofounder David Houghton, who’s been a principal at VC firm Antler for the past two years, tells Sifted. "The idea that tech is this utopia that anyone can get stuck into is a total fallacy."
Common Path will recruit cohorts of 15-20 recent graduates based on characteristics including resilience, self-awareness and mental agility, rather than educational pedigree or personal networks.
Participants will undertake four intensive week-long training programmes covering areas such as product, growth, operations and startup culture, before being introduced to startups looking to hire early-career talent.
A new talent pipeline
The programme marks the latest expansion for Common Ventures, formerly known as Social Mobility Ventures, which launched in early 2025 as a community for state-educated founders, operators and investors.
Houghton says his own experience entering the tech industry motivated him to start the organisation.
"I grew up in a bog-standard working-class area in Leeds. I never met anyone who worked in tech, let alone a tech entrepreneur," he says. "I got into this industry through brute force and messaging a million people."
After securing his first role in VC, Houghton says he was struck by the backgrounds of many of his peers.
"I remember being asked what school I went to and saying a comprehensive school they'd never heard of. Everyone else had been to Eton and other private schools. That was when I realised I'd joined an industry very different to what I thought it was going to be."
Common Ventures’ other cofounder Ryan Proctor says he had a similar experience entering the industry after growing up in Manchester and later working in policy and venture capital.
"Being from this outsider background, I used to feel so stressed that I couldn’t use my skills to do good work in this world ," he says.
The launch of Common Path, he says, is intended to create a longer-term pipeline of talent into the startup ecosystem.
"We're not asking founders to lower the bar," says Houghton. "We're asking them to stop recruiting solely from the same postcodes, schools and networks."
Applicants to the Common Path scheme have come from a wide range of backgrounds: around 40% have been from Asian or Asian-British applicants and 30% Black or Black British. The gender split has also been almost exactly 50% female, the firm says.
