2022 | Founders Forum Year in Review ?

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Over the past 12 months, we brought together more than 1,400 trailblazing entrepreneurs – including over 180 unicorn founders ?? – top investors, pioneering CEOs, and renowned thought leaders, at our four flagship forums across Asia, Europe, and North America.

?We hosted inspirational speakers including Demis Hassabis (DeepMind), Evan Spiegel (Snap. Inc), Jimmy Wales (Wikipedia), Kathleen Breitman (Tezos), Poppy Gustafsson (Darktrace), Tommy Hilfiger, and many more!?

?We beamed in President Zelenskyy via 3D hologram at FF London, streaming his holographic presence into seven other international tech events, and, by backing Sunflower Relief , helped raise over $1m in support of Ukraine. ????

?And now, through the expansion of our partnership with Silicon Valley Bank , we’re better placed than ever to deliver on our mission, supporting entrepreneurs at every stage of their journeys. ??

This Year, we Launched:

Founders Law , offering frictionless, relationship-driven legal support to high-growth scaleups, from seed through to exit.

Founders Makers , bringing digital strategies, brand identities, campaigns, and content to ambitious scaleups, and challenger-style innovation to inventive corporate marketing teams.?

Polygo , reinventing graduate recruitment by upskilling grads to accelerate them towards high-impact careers in startups, while granting startups access to exceptional graduate talent with access to FF-calibre mentoring and networks.?

We also extended our partnership with the Centre for Entrepreneurs (CFE) to boost support and opportunities for early-stage founders throughout the UK.

In More FF Group News…

?? 01Founders welcomed cybersecurity unicorn, Snyk, as a founding partner and enrolled its second cohort in October, now boasting 120 students across its two-year fellowship programme, with plans to open 10 new coding schools across the UK in the next three years.

?? EQL:HER launched EQL:PLEDGE to connect underrepresented founders with investors at London Tech Week and, in November, gathered 200+ Ukrainian women with community leaders and recruiters from the UK tech ecosystem at its inspiring Ukrainian Female Tech Talent Breakfast.

?? firstminute capital made 45 investments across sectors including fintech, SaaS, foodtech, healthtech, climate tech, devtools, AI, blockchain, marketplace, consumer internet, and the creator economy. The team grew to 23 people and Lina Wenner and Sam Endacott were promoted to Partners after five years of being at firstminute!

?firstminute also ran a range of epic events, including their Investor Summit with 280+ attendees in London, with the founders of Slack and Square onstage, and their first founders retreat in Ibiza, convening 50 founders and star LPs – like Kevin Ryan (MongoDB, Alleycorp) and Barry Smith (Skyscanner, Noah Media) – for a sunny few days of talks. As well as launching a new podcast , 'Crazy Until it's Not'; and a new event series, called ‘off the record’, bringing founders together in intimate groups with global tech figures (most recently, Tiger Global’s Co-Founder, Scott Shleifer).

??? Founders Keepers continues to find and recruit top, diverse leadership talent for game-changing companies, and recently made two exciting hires for OVO.?

?? Founders Factory graduated 43 startups from its accelerator programme, including nine built and spun out from its Venture Studio. Three portfolio startups exited in 2022 – Flourish was acquired by Canva, Fanbytes by Brainlabs, and Tapkit by noissue – and fundraising highlights include Shop Circle ($65m), Perlego ($50m), Storyblok ($47m), and Peptone ($40m).?

Factory also launched its ￡100m Planet Fund for climate tech startups, started a new accelerator in SE Asia for media and web3 startups with pico, and partnered with Deutsche Telekom's hubraum to launch a new Venture Studio for telco startups in Berlin.

?? Founders Pledge grew to over 1,750 members across 40 countries, reached over $9b in pledges, and donated over $800m to charity in 2022! Plus, in the latest addition to its funds offering, Founders Pledge launched the Global Catastrophic Risks (GCR) Fund to tackle the biggest threats to humanity (like great power war, the misuse of AI, and natural and engineered pandemics).

?? Grip , our award-winning, AI-powered matchmaking and networking platform, continued to thrive this year, as the world returned to in-person events. It was a pleasure using Grip at FF Europe, enhancing our signature curated serendipity via AI.

?? Framework , the world’s first on-demand business school, doubled the size of its team this year, and is set to officially launch in January!?

And Last but Not Least...

FF Group got a makeover! We launched fresh new branding to celebrate all the amazing businesses that make up Founders Forum Group, plus a sparkling new website ??, and moved into our beautiful new HQ on London’s Strand.?

It’s a pretty cool place, bringing creatives, entrepreneurs, and tech together in the heart of London – if you’re in town, be sure to pop by and say hi.?

Stay tuned for more next year! Plus, look out for new reports, digital content, and marketing opportunities with FF via our new content arm, Founders Insights . Get in touch with our editor, Marco De Novellis , to find out more.

?That's all from the FF Group team in 2022. See you next year!

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