Founders Factory lands multimillion pound investment to nurture AI startups

Founders Factory has received a multimillion pound investment from Chinese private equity firm CSC Group to help nurture AI talent in Europe and China.

As part of the partnership, the accelerator and incubator launched by Brent Hoberman, Henry Lane Fox and Jim Meyerle, will invest in and scale five early stage AI startups and co-create two new companies a year.

Founders Factory and CSC Group will work together to give AI startups access to the Chinese market and to import Chinese AI talent into the European tech ecosystem.

Dania Zhou, CSC group senior managing director and CSC Union Co-Founder, commented on the news:  “This is just the beginning of a long term relationship with Founders Factory; a relationship that will give us access to the best European talent through its unique model backed by other large corporate partners. The founding team has a great track record at building businesses; something we now want to do together with a focus on artificial intelligence.”

J. William Kim, CSC group managing Director and CSC union senior partner, emphasized the fact that the partnership was not just a capital investment. “This is a strategic partnership to build a bridge and help great founders access China. We believe London remains a key global centre for tech innovation and AI research and is an attractive location for startups across Europe,” he said.

The news comes after Founders Factory announced a FinTech and Beauty Tech partnership with Aviva and L’Oréal earlier this year.

Brent Hoberman, Founders Factory co-founder and executive chairman, added: “This deal is significant because it extends the reach of Founders Factory into one of the most coveted, yet hard to access markets on the planet, whilst proving that the UK is recognised globally as a centre of excellence for AI.

“AI will impact all sectors built upon large data sets ranging from health and insurance, commerce and finance, even beauty and media and we are uniquely positioned to leverage that trend and attract the brightest talent.

“By welcoming such a prestigious technology investor into Founders Factory, we continue to strengthen our offering to startups partnering them with some of the world’s leading brands, in almost all global markets,” he concluded.

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