Matt Clifford — Co-Founder

I co-founded Entrepreneurs First, the world's leading talent investor. The companies built at EF are now worth over $15bn. Entrepreneurs First is the best place in the world to meet your co-founder and build a startup from scratch. We bring together and fund exceptional individuals in London, Paris, Bangalore, New York and San Francisco and help them meet their co-founder, develop an idea and raise money from leading investors - as fast as possible. EF alumni companies include Tractable, Cleo, Aztec, GenSyn, Accurx, Ochre Bio and many more. We’re backed by some of the world's best tech founders and company builders, including Patrick and John Collison (Stripe); Reid Hoffman (LinkedIn), Demis Hassabis (DeepMind); Tom Blomfield (GoCardless and Monzo), Sara Clemens (Pandora and Twitch); Nat Friedman (GitHub); and Matt Mullenweg (Wordpress). For more information about Entrepreneurs First, visit http://www.joinef.com/ Outside EF, I am Chair of ARIA, the UK’s Advanced Research and Invention Agency - a new £800m publicly funded R&D agency for backing breakthrough science and technology - and advise the UK Government on AI policy and strategy. In 2023, I was the Prime Minister's Representative for the AI Safety Summit, which involved leading the UK's preparations and negotiations for the summit hosted at Bletchley Park on 1 and 2 November. I was awarded an MBE in 2016 for services to business and a CBE in 2024 for services to artificial intelligence.

Stackforce AI infers this person is a leader in the startup and AI policy sectors, driving innovation and investment.

Experience: 16 yrs 3 mos

Skills

Startup Development
Investment
Research Funding
Innovation
Ai Strategy
Public Policy

Career Highlights

Co-founded a startup ecosystem valued at over $15bn.
Led UK's AI strategy and public policy initiatives.
Chair of a £800m R&D agency for breakthrough technologies.

Work Experience

10 Downing Street

Author, AI Opportunities Action Plan and Prime Minister's Adviser on AI Opportunities (1 yr)

Entrepreneurs First

Co-founder, Chair (2 yrs 3 mos)

Co-founder and CEO (12 yrs 3 mos)

10 Downing Street

Prime Minister's Representative for the AI Safety Summit (3 mos)

Advanced Research and Invention Agency

Chair (3 yrs 7 mos)

Innovate UK

Council Member (non-exec director) (3 yrs 2 mos)

Kennedy Memorial Trust

Trustee (7 yrs 2 mos)

techfortrade

Trustee and Non-exec Director (4 yrs 9 mos)

Code First: Girls

Co-founder and NED (12 yrs 9 mos)

McKinsey & Company

Associate (1 mo)

Business Analyst (1 yr 8 mos)

Office of US Senator Sherrod Brown

Research (2 mos)

Education

Master of Science (MSc) at Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Bachelor's Degree at University of Cambridge

Matt Clifford

Co-Founder

United Kingdom16 yrs 3 mos experience

Most Likely To SwitchAI Enabled

Key Highlights

Co-founded a startup ecosystem valued at over $15bn.
Led UK's AI strategy and public policy initiatives.
Chair of a £800m R&D agency for breakthrough technologies.

Stackforce AI infers this person is a leader in the startup and AI policy sectors, driving innovation and investment.

Contact

Skills

Core Skills

Startup DevelopmentInvestmentResearch FundingInnovationAi StrategyPublic Policy

Other Skills

Business StrategyStart-upsBusiness DevelopmentTechnologyStatisticsSurvey DesignEntrepreneurshipStrategyPublic SpeakingLeadershipFinancial Modeling

About

Experience

10 downing street

Author, AI Opportunities Action Plan and Prime Minister's Adviser on AI Opportunities

Jul 2024 – Jul 2025 · 1 yr

I was asked by the new Government to write the UK's national AI strategy - the AI Opportunities Action Plan. Following the publication of the plan, the Prime Minister asked me to serve as his Adviser on AI Opportunities, with the mandate to help implement the plan from Number 10. I focused on building out UK public and private sector compute capacity; AI adoption, especially in government, defence and national securty; and UK AI sovereignty.

Entrepreneurs first

2 roles

Co-founder, Chair

Dec 2023 – Present · 2 yrs 3 mos

After 12 years as CEO, I stepped away from the role in December 2023 to allow me to spend more time with founders and to focus as much time as possible on AI. In 2024, I ran an EF programme with a thesis on "defensive acceleration" - advancing the technologies that will bring about futures we want and defend our values.

Co-founder and CEO

Aug 2011 – Nov 2023 · 12 yrs 3 mos

We invest in the world's top technical talent and support them to build world-class startups in London, New York, San Francisco, Paris and Bangalore. The companies that we’ve helped to build from scratch are now worth over $13.5bn. I co-founded the organisation with Alice Bentinck in 2011 and led it for 12 years.

10 downing street

Prime Minister's Representative for the AI Safety Summit

Aug 2023 – Nov 2023 · 3 mos · Greater London, England, United Kingdom

The Prime Minister appointed me as his Representative for the AI Safety Summit that the UK hosted at Bletchley Park in November 2023. Alongside Jonathan Black, I led UK's preparations for the Summit - the first major diplomatic summit on AI - and the negotiations and discussions with the attending countries and companies.
I took a short sabbatical from Entrepreneur First to take on this role.

Advanced research and invention agency

Chair

Aug 2022 – Present · 3 yrs 7 mos

I am the founding Chair of ARIA - a new R&D funding agency designed to make bold bets that complement and amplify the UK’s world-class research ecosystem. Our mandate: unlock scientific and technological breakthroughs that benefit everyone.

Innovate uk

Council Member (non-exec director)

Jan 2020 – Mar 2023 · 3 yrs 2 mos · London Area, United Kingdom

InnovateUK is the UK's innovation agency. Innovate UK is part of UK Research and Innovation, a non-departmental public body funded by a grant-in-aid from the UK government.
Member of the Risk and Audit Committee.

Kennedy memorial trust

Trustee

Jan 2019 – Present · 7 yrs 2 mos · Greater London, England, United Kingdom

The Kennedy Memorial Trust is the UK's national memorial to President John F Kennedy. It has provided fully funded scholarships for graduate study at Harvard and MIT since 1966.

Techfortrade

Trustee and Non-exec Director

Sep 2013 – Jun 2018 · 4 yrs 9 mos · London, UK

techfortrade is the leading UK charity specifically focused on bridging the divide between emerging technology and international trade and economic development. We directly support early stage businesses using innovative and disruptive digital technology to create opportunities that facilitate trade and alleviate poverty.

Code first: girls

Co-founder and NED

Jun 2013 – Present · 12 yrs 9 mos · Greater London, England, United Kingdom

Code First: Girls exists to close the gender gap in tech. We have taught over 100,000 women to code, working in partnership with over 100 leading employers and 50 universities.