“Every migrant is an entrepreneur,” said Ramzi Rafih, founder of No Label Ventures. “Immigrants are entrepreneurs and they create jobs.”
There is certainly no dearth of statistical evidence to suggest that immigrant entrepreneurs – for whatever reason – tend to outperform when it comes to setting up businesses. To cite just one high-level example: a study conducted by the Open network for political economy (OPEN) in 2021 found that eight of Britain’s twenty-three unicorns were co-founded by minority entrepreneurs. These include Deliveroo, Monzo and Darktrace.
In other words, the UK innovation ecosystem would be poorer and less populated if it weren’t for foreign founders or their children. The same is probably true for all of Europe and North America. Rafih sees an investment opportunity.
Rafih plans to look across Europe as a whole and invest early in companies that – statistically speaking – have an above-average chance of return. To support these companies, No Label Ventures wants to provide not only capital but also practical support. I spoke to him last week about the thinking behind the launch of the fund.
Rafih is itself a product of the migrant experience. “I was the son of an immigrant family from Lebanon,” he says. “We went to Saudi Arabia. When we came back, I left for France to study.”
He then built a career in finance and investing. His resume includes stints at financial services company, JP Morgan, investment firm KKR and technology investor Silver Lake. In addition, he has made his own angel investments.
Rafih founded No Label Ventures with the support of former KKR colleague, George Roberts and with half of a $15 million fund closed, the company is preparing to write checks of between $100,000 and $250,000 in the Seed and Pre-Seed stage. To be eligible for funding, start-ups must have at least one founder who is a first- or second-generation migrant.
Formative experiences
There are many migrant trips. Some involve a short jump across a single border from one country to another. Others involve a migration between continents. So what does No Label Ventures mean when it comes to migrant founders?
“We focus on migrants from outside the European Union,” says Rafih. “The greater the journey, the greater the formative experience.”
And it’s that “formative experience” that No Label Ventures sees as crucial to the success of migrant entrepreneurs. Within the European Union, a career-led journey between, say, Estonia and France or Germany will involve a certain amount of upheaval, but the geographic and cultural distances are relatively short. Migrants coming from further afield arguably need a lot more commitment to build a new life for themselves. As Rafih sees it, that’s where a lot of the entrepreneurial spirit or – to put it another way – the will to succeed comes from.
It may not be that simple. To settle in Britain or within the European Union, migrants have to overcome many hurdles in terms of obtaining visas and ultimately securing the right to stay indefinitely. Here in the UK, the government wants to encourage technologists and entrepreneurial talent to come to Britain, but the visa system will be a barrier for some.
For example, Britain’s Global Talent Visa is designed to give highly skilled people a relatively quick route to enter the country, but it is sector-specific with a particular focus on technology. “The Global Talent Visa is great, but not inclusive,” says Rafih.
Request a visa
So No Label Ventures helps with visa applications. “We have one of the best lawyers working for us,” says Rafih. The fund will also employ and essentially sponsor entrepreneurs to enable them to come to the UK
Entrepreneurs who make investments are also offered a share of the fund’s profits, which means that every founder becomes a partner. Ramzi quotes a just venture fund, related as an example of how this now works in practice. As things stand, No Label ventures is looking for investment opportunities and in the meantime, Rafih has moved his portfolio of angel investments into the fund.
So what does a No Label Ventures Portfolio company look like? Rafih says he is industry agnostic, but within that overall thesis (or lack thereof) he has a personal preference for fintech and healthcare companies.
Food is also a theme. Rajih cites Oja, an online supermarket that sells ‘cultural foods’, and Farmland, a supplier of globally produced food to supermarkets, as examples of companies in the portfolio.
But is there a need for a VC fund targeting migrant businesses given the wealth of funding now available?
Well, according to a 2021 OECD study on migration to Europe – titled The Missing Migrants – that may well be the case. The report says: “More support and funding is needed to improve the quality of businesses founded by immigrants, increase the chances of sustainability and drive them away from oversupplied sectors. Governments should also pay more attention to attracting high-potential entrepreneurs by improving outreach and simplifying administrative requirements for those using start-up visas.”
The stories surrounding migration are not always positive, but as the OECD points out, it makes perfect sense for governments to support migrant entrepreneurs. NO Label Ventures wants to show that targeted investors can also play an important role.
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