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For ventures from outside the UK, for CBIT’s UK cohorts, and for their partners

Global VB Partnership

This is for you if…

…your venture is based outside the UK, and you want to register it in the UK and grow in the UK and EU, directly or through a partner organisation;

…you lead a university, a science park or an agency abroad, and want to send a cohort of student and researcher founders to the UK;

…your UK venture, in the CBIT Venture Builder or STEAM Founder, wants to enter a market abroad, through CBIT’s partners there;

…or you lead a university, an agency or a ministry abroad, and want the start-ups and spinouts you select to land in the UK.

Into the UK and out to global markets, with AI-enabled market validation: three routes, one partnership — UK market entry and soft landing, founder sprints for overseas cohorts, and global markets for CBIT’s UK cohorts.

Next step

Apply to the Global VB Partnership

One application form for the CBIT Venture Builder’s three pathways

If the form does not open, email cbit.vb@ntu.ac.uk

A university, agency or ministry abroad? Land your ventures in the UK

What you get

  • Help to register in the UK and expand into the UK and EU
  • Market validation and introductions
  • Reciprocal soft landing through CBIT’s sister centres
  • One-to-one support in the Venture Builder’s four pillars: Business Modelling & Innovation Clinic, Product Roadmap & Process Design, Growth Hacking in “Blue Ocean”, and Investment Readiness Support

Format

  • Into the UK: per company, apply directly, or through a partner organisation that selects you.
  • Founder sprints: a cohort of 10–14 days in the UK, for the founders your university, science park or agency selects.
  • Out to global markets: CBIT Venture Builder and STEAM Founder ventures go too, with reciprocal soft landing through CBIT’s sister centres.

The AI edition

Land your ventures in the UK and Europe, bring a founder cohort to test the UK market, or go global from the UK with a CBIT cohort, with AI doing the groundwork on markets, partners and rules.

What AI adds

  • Delivered: the UK sprint includes AI sessions. CBIT era
  • Method: CBIT’s sprint-style training for STEAM founders, in Thailand and the UK, uses AI-enabled venture design, market testing and rapid validation techniques.
  • Proposed: every venture that crosses a border, in either direction, gets the going-global method: AI-assisted market validation, a localised go-to-market plan restructured with AI, and a dual-regime compliance map for the rules of both markets.

AI-native outcome: founders who can research a new market with AI and validate an offer before they spend on entry, whichever way they travel: overseas ventures arrive with a UK go-to-market plan they can run with AI, UK ventures leave with one for the market they enter, and each keeps its map of the rules it must meet up to date.

Global markets for your UK cohort

CBIT Venture Builder and STEAM Founder ventures can go global too: reciprocal soft landing through CBIT’s sister centres, with AI doing the groundwork on markets, partners and rules.

Outbound examples: Healthy Air Technology and Minfo, two CBIT Venture Builder cohort ventures, have entered the Thai market.

Email us about entering a market abroad

Land your ventures in the UK

For universities, agencies and ministries abroad: through the Global VB Partnership, the start-ups and spinouts you select get help to register in the UK and expand into the UK and EU, with market validation, introductions and reciprocal soft landing through CBIT’s sister centres.

Ventures come to CBIT by referral from their partner organisation, one company at a time. Tell us about your organisation and the ventures you would like to send.

Email us about the Global VB Partnership

Founder sprints for overseas cohorts

For universities, science parks and agencies outside the UK: send a cohort of student and researcher founders to the UK for a sprint of market research and validation, one-to-one mentoring, AI and business-model sessions, VentureHack and Global Entrepreneurship Week, and a showcase and pitch day.

  • Market research and validation in the UK.
  • One-to-one mentoring.
  • AI and business-model sessions.
  • VentureHack and Global Entrepreneurship Week.
  • A showcase and a pitch day.

Format: 10–14 days in the UK, as a cohort.

Email us to arrange a call

Track record

  • 30+

    Thai entrepreneurs hosted in the UK under the STEAM Founder programme

    2024–2026

  • 7,000+

    hours of training delivered across 5 countries

    since mid-2023

  • £4m+

    of private investment raised by ventures while in the programme

    since 2022

Source: CBIT figures registry v1.8 (1 October 2026). Figures and sources

Impact stories

Founder sprints for overseas cohorts

Thai student and researcher founders tested their ventures on the UK market

Read the story

Who: Chiang Mai University’s Science and Technology Park (STeP), which selects Thai student and researcher founders for its Experiential Learning Programme, with Thai government funding.

The challenge
STeP wanted Thai students to build a global entrepreneurial mindset through real experiments in international markets.
What CBIT did
CBIT hosted the programme’s UK leg in Nottingham: market research and validation, consulting with NTU academics, AI and business-model sessions, VentureHack and Global Entrepreneurship Week, a Venture Builder showcase, industry visits and a final pitch day.
What happened
STeP sent a first cohort in November 2024 and a second in November 2025, and hosted the NTU team in Thailand in December 2025.
Track record
See the track record on this page
Where it can lead
In 2025 CBIT and STeP won a joint British Council grant.

This story on the Programme impact page

Where this can lead

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