diff --git a/src/vector/index.js b/src/vector/index.js
index 63affadde..0b14c6a1d 100644
--- a/src/vector/index.js
+++ b/src/vector/index.js
@@ -17,18 +17,6 @@ limitations under the License.
 
 'use strict';
 
-// for ES6 stuff like startsWith() that Safari doesn't handle
-// and babel doesn't do by default
-// Note we use this, as well as the babel transform-runtime plugin
-// since transform-runtime does not cover instance methods
-// such as "foobar".includes("foo") which bits of our library
-// code use, but the babel transform-runtime plugin allows the
-// regenerator runtime to be injected early enough in the process
-// (it can't be here as it's too late: the alternative is to put
-// the babel-polyfill as the first 'entry' in the webpack config).
-// https://babeljs.io/docs/plugins/transform-runtime/
-require('babel-polyfill');
-
 // Require common CSS here; this will make webpack process it into bundle.css.
 // Our own CSS (which is themed) is imported via separate webpack entry points
 // in webpack.config.js
diff --git a/webpack.config.js b/webpack.config.js
index d82d4bcc8..2a116f577 100644
--- a/webpack.config.js
+++ b/webpack.config.js
@@ -8,7 +8,9 @@ if (!og_image_url) og_image_url = 'https://riot.im/app/themes/riot/img/logos/rio
 
 module.exports = {
     entry: {
-        "bundle": "./src/vector/index.js",
+        // Load babel-polyfill first to avoid issues where some imports (namely react)
+        // are potentially loaded before babel-polyfill.
+        "bundle": ["babel-polyfill", "./src/vector/index.js"],
         "indexeddb-worker": "./src/vector/indexeddb-worker.js",
 
         // We ship olm.js as a separate lump of javascript. This makes it get