A new UK venture capital fund is opening its doors to refugee entrepreneurs, launching with £300,000 to invest in early-stage businesses and laying the groundwork for a planned £10 million fund dedicated to refugee-founded companies.
The Refugee Venture Fund (RVF) was established by The Entrepreneurial Refugee Network (TERN), with support from European venture capital firm Atomico. The pilot fund expects to invest £50,000 to £100,000 in three to five companies, with initial investments intended to demonstrate the commercial potential of refugee-led businesses.
The fund plans to increase its initial capital to £500,000 before using the pilot’s results to build an investment case for the proposed £10 million vehicle. Its launch comes as refugee entrepreneurs continue to face barriers to accessing conventional startup finance, including limited UK business track records, smaller investor networks, and unfamiliarity with the local funding ecosystem.
Who can apply?
The fund is targeting high-growth businesses founded by refugees in the UK. Eligible companies must have majority refugee ownership or leadership, and founders must be UK-based and hold legal refugee status.
Although the fund is open across sectors, it is particularly interested in businesses operating in software, artificial intelligence, and climate technology. Companies are generally expected to have progressed beyond the idea stage, with a minimum viable product, a pilot, or evidence of commercial traction.
The fund is not structured as a grant programme. It will make investments in selected companies, assessing factors including founders’ sector expertise, execution capabilities, and the potential for an eventual exit. Portfolio companies will also receive 12 months of targeted coaching and access to industry experts, advisers, mentors, and TERN’s entrepreneur network.
Applications open on 14 October 2026, with the fund aiming to allocate its initial pilot capital by 2027.
The financing gap facing refugee entrepreneurs
Research by TERN and Square estimates that approximately 26,500 refugee entrepreneurs already contribute £520 million to the UK economy. The research also identifies up to £5.1 billion in potential additional economic activity through business creation, expansion, employment, and investment.
A separate September 2026 Cedar Review, based on a survey of 81 refugee entrepreneurs, found that 40% identified access to startup finance as a major challenge. The findings point to a gap between the entrepreneurial activity already taking place within refugee communities and the capital available to help businesses grow.
TERN has spent a decade supporting refugee entrepreneurs and previously spun out Skylight Ventures, which provides microloans to refugee business owners. Through the new fund, it intends to use its existing relationships to identify investment opportunities that might otherwise remain outside conventional venture capital networks.
“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,” said Charlie Fraser, TERN’s strategy and partnerships director.
The pilot’s commercial test will be whether its investments can generate evidence of viable returns while reaching founders who have historically struggled to access venture capital. If successful, the approach could provide a model for a larger fund focused specifically on refugee-founded businesses.
For refugee founders, the immediate opportunity is to assess whether their business meets the fund’s ownership, residency, and traction requirements. For the wider UK startup ecosystem, the fund offers a test of whether targeted investment structures can widen access to capital without lowering the commercial standards expected of venture-backed companies.
