A new investment vehicle dedicated to refugee-founded businesses has opened its doors in the UK. The Refugee Venture Fund (RVF), a collaboration between The Entrepreneurial Refugee Network (TERN) and Atomico, begins operations with £300,000 in seed capital and aims to scale to £500,000 before deploying funds across three to five early-stage companies. Each investment will range from £50,000 to £100,000, serving as proof of concept for an ambitious £10 million fund planned for the future.
Data from TERN and Square reveals that refugee entrepreneurs already generate substantial economic value in the UK. The research shows 26,500 refugee business founders contribute £520 million annually to the economy, with modelling suggesting an additional £5.1 billion in potential economic activity waiting to be unlocked through expanded business creation, scaling, job creation, and fresh investment flows.
TERN, which has operated for over a decade supporting refugee entrepreneurs, launched the fund with backing from institutional and individual investors. Named supporters include Dominus, This Day Foundation, and Future Leaders. The organisation previously incubated Skylight Ventures, which provides small loans to refugee business founders.
Breaking down barriers to capital
Refugee business founders encounter distinct obstacles when seeking venture funding. These include gaps in UK business history, limited professional connections, limited knowledge of how the funding world operates, and investor biases that overlook their potential.
A September 2026 Cedar Review examined responses from 81 refugee entrepreneurs and uncovered telling patterns. More than half—56 per cent—had already run businesses before arriving in the UK, and 79 per cent either currently employ staff or plan to hire in the coming months. Yet 40 per cent cited access to startup capital as a significant barrier to growth.
We've spent over a decade working with refugee entrepreneurs and have repeatedly seen that the problem isn't a shortage of entrepreneurial ability or ambition. It's access to the networks and capital that other founders can take for granted. The RVF will back the UK's most ambitious refugee founders, which traditional venture funds overlook. This is about closing a market gap, not lowering the investment bar.
Charlie Fraser, Strategy & Partnerships Director at TERN
How the fund operates and what it seeks
The RVF operates as a special purpose vehicle with a dual-class share structure that grants TERN enhanced governance authority, ensuring the fund stays true to its refugee-focused mission. While open to any sector, the fund will emphasise rapid-growth enterprises, with particular interest in software, artificial intelligence, and climate technology ventures.
Investment eligibility requires that companies have majority refugee ownership or leadership, with founders based in the UK and holding legal refugee status. Rather than backing concept-stage ideas, the fund targets businesses that have built a working prototype, run a pilot programme, or demonstrated real commercial progress. Investment decisions also weigh founder sector knowledge, track record, execution capability, and realistic paths to acquisition or exit within five to ten years.
The fund's advisory board brings together Reece Chowdhry from Concept Ventures, Matt Penneycard from Ada Ventures, and Amir Rizwan from London Social Ventures. Lilijan Sulejmanovic, a refugee entrepreneur with over two decades in management consulting and private equity, will provide hands-on operational guidance.
Refugees bring a hunger, determination and drive to succeed, and this fund will help them build ambitious businesses even faster. That means new jobs, more British companies selling to the world, and a stronger UK tech sector. My family sought refuge here after escaping Idi Amin's rule, so this one is personal for me. As I look towards my retirement to India, I want to help the next generation of founders keep the UK competitive for decades ahead.
Sukhpal Ahluwalia, investor and founding shareholder
Reaching founders outside traditional networks
TERN will leverage its established relationships with refugee entrepreneurs to source investment opportunities. The fund will also partner with university incubators, refugee scholarship schemes, enterprise support programmes, and diaspora networks to connect with founders who lack conventional venture capital access.
Chosen portfolio companies will receive a year of structured coaching covering investment pitch development, plus connections to sector specialists, advisers, mentors, and TERN's community of more than 700 refugee founders.
Applications open on 14 October 2026. The fund expects to complete its first investment round by December 2026, with all initial capital deployed by March 2027.
Source: Tech.eu
