Centre for Entrepreneurs

The Centre for Entrepreneurs (CFE) is the UK’s leading entrepreneurship think tank. It researches the economic and social value created by entrepreneurs.

The Centre for Entrepreneurs (CFE) is the UK’s leading entrepreneurship think tank. It researches the economic and social value created by entrepreneurs.

The Centre was launched in 2013 by Sunday Times columnist and serial entrepreneur Luke Johnson, with the support of the Legatum Foundation. In 2017, CFE joined forces with the New Entrepreneurs Foundation to form a unified charitable foundation to undertake research, campaigns and programmes to advance entrepreneurship across the UK.

Since launch, the Centre has advocated in-prison entrepreneurship programmes, uncovered how entrepreneurs are reviving seaside towns, championed angel investors as Britain’s unsung heroes and shattered negative stereotypes affecting women entrepreneurs. It has also published never-before-seen data on migrant entrepreneurs, annual company formation rates, and local authority SME spending.

In 2017, the Centre launched two best-practice networks – the Incubator and Accelerator Network, to increase at the scale and impact of business incubation; and the Prison Entrepreneurship Network, to aid the adoption of in-prison entrepreneurship programmes nationwide.

Between 2014 and 2017 the Centre took stewardship of the national enterprise campaign, StartUp Britain. The CFE team more than doubled the StartUp Britain network and ran two highly successful national bus tours as well as London and South Wales tours, visiting 70 towns and cities to provide free, impartial business advice to over 10,000 aspiring and early-stage entrepreneurs.