Matt Clifford is stepping back from day-to-day duties at Entrepreneurs First (EF), the pioneering UK accelerator he cofounded 15 years ago.
Clifford set up the the UK-based company builder, which recently became a unicorn after raising $200m, with cofounder Alice Bentinck in 2011.
Since then, Europe’s most-renowned accelerator has paired over 500 startup founding teams through its unique Love Island-crossed-with-Y Combinator programme format. EF says the value of its portfolio is upwards of $16bn.
Announcing the move on X, Clifford said he was “immensely proud of what we’ve built and [is] so thankful to our team, our investors and our founders for the journey so far.”
He added that he’ll be spending a day a week at the company, helping them on “EF’s biggest priorities” and advising the accelerators’ most promising AI founders.
“I’m looking forward to exploring ways to contribute to UK tech sovereignty,” he adds.
Clifford, who has served as the lead AI advisor to prime ministers Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer, currently chairs UK moonshot factory ARIA, recently leading the search for its new CEO, former DARPA director Kathleen Fisher.
A speech he gave at tech conference Looking for Growth last October, where he urged listeners to “make the UK rich again”, was warmly received by the country’s tech community.
Last month, EF announced it had reached a $1.3bn valuation to double down on its strategy to act as “a bridge between the US and Europe,” Bentinck told Sifted.
Clifford served as CEO of EF between 2011 and 2023.
