- The pilot, which costs £300,000, will invest between £50,000 and £100,000 in a UK-based company.
- Sukhpal Ahluwalia, the founder of Euro Car Parts and a refugee from Idi Amin’s regime who moved to the UK, is one of the original shareholders.
- The purpose of the pilot is to demonstrate the need for a larger fund of £10 million.
Sukhpal Ahluwalia and his family moved from Uganda when he was 13. In 1978, he took out a loan of £5,000 to purchase a failing car parts shop in north London. He later sold Euro Car Parts to LKQ Corporation in 2011 for £225 million, plus an additional £55 million, provided the growth targets were achieved.
As he prepares to retire in India, he is one of the founding shareholders in the Refugee Venture Fund, RVF, which just launched as a £300,000 special purpose vehicle established by The Entrepreneurial Refugee Network, with Atomico as a grant partner. The Ahluwalia Family Office and This Day Foundation are also among the original shareholders
The fund accepts applications from all industries but focuses primarily on software, AI, and climate technology. To qualify, businesses had to be mainly owned or run by refugees, and the founders had to reside in the UK and hold legal refugee status. Companies in the fund’s portfolio will receive one year of coaching and will also join a network of more than 700 refugee founders.
It will make investments ranging from £50,000 to £100,000 in three to five refugee founders who are based in the UK.
The investor who escaped Idi Amin’s Uganda
Ahluwalia said: “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.”
His LinkedIn profile lists his family office, and reports of the 2011 sale describe his path from Uganda. The other named shareholder is the charity founded by former Belron chief executive Gary Lubner, which says it helps young people into education and employment.
Charlie Fraser, strategy and partnerships director at TERN, said: “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.”
Ventures Beyond Borders, a nonprofit organisation based in New York, was established in September 2025 and already operates an accelerator and a fund for refugee entrepreneurs.
Comparing the £300,000 pilot to the £5.1 billion potential
The fund aims to unlock up to £5.1 billion of untapped economic potential, with 26,500 refugee entrepreneurs currently contributing £520 million. The Cedar Review, headed by Small Business Britain, estimates the potential at around £2 billion.
Since it was first announced, the fund’s scope has shrunk. In 2024, a job advertisement said TERN and Village Capital were running a £10 million pre-seed fund with support from Atomico. By March 2026, Pioneers Post reported a £300,000 fund for three to five startups.
Refugee-founded businesses have previously attracted mainstream investment. For instance, Guardian Media Group Ventures and All Turtles organised a £1.5 million funding round for Chatterbox, an edtech company founded by an Afghan refugee. In July 2025, the Dutch cybersecurity startup Dawnguard, which is co-led by a refugee, raised $3 million, and in April 2025, Pillar, a fintech company, raised £13 million.
The planned £10 million fund still requires investors. The British Business Bank stated in July 2025 that its £400 million Investor Pathways Capital would be used to support diverse and new managers, and in June 2026 it pledged up to £90 million for 10 new UK funds. TERN could also contact the UK’s largest venture capital firms.
The pilot’s results will be examined in April 2027. If TERN identifies between three and five companies that could secure mainstream seed funding and the founders retain their legal status at the end of the 30-month review period, this will help make the case for a £10 million fund. If this does not happen, then the emphasis will shift to finding other funding sources.
