Meet the Multipliers of Tomorrow: 14 New Endeavor Entrepreneurs Selected in April

This month, Endeavor selected 14 entrepreneurs leading companies from across seven markets: six companies at our 45th virtual International Selection Panel (ISP) held April 24-26, 2024, and one at a separate “come back” panel for entrepreneurs who attended a previous ISP (details below). The organization now supports 2,589 entrepreneurs leading 1,585 companies in 42 markets around the world.

Each ISP is the culmination of a rigorous, multi-step selection process to identify high-impact entrepreneurs from all over the world. We seek founders with the greatest growth potential, as well as those who commit to reinvesting time and resources into their local entrepreneurial ecosystems to help build the next generation of entrepreneurs, sparking a Multiplier Effect. During the ISP, panelists interview entrepreneurs about their businesses and evaluate their potential for high-impact growth. The panelists then discuss the candidates and vote on whether to select them to become Endeavor Entrepreneurs.

Each entrepreneur has had a unique path to get to where they are today illustrating that there is never only one path to building a high-impact company.

Panelists

As always, we had an outstanding group of panelists who were given the task of selecting the next great leaders. Thank you to:

Valeria Alberola, former ZOMALAB (Endeavor Colorado Board Member); Gastón Irigoyen, Pomelo (Endeavor Entrepreneur); Luca Bavone, Habyt (Endeavor Entrepreneur); Alex Jaimes, Dataminr; Joe De Pinho, Riverwood Capital; Mariah Chase, former ELOQUII; Marius Istrate, TechAngels Romania; Pedro Arnt, dLocal; Shailesh Rao, EscapeVelocity; Steve Kessel, former Amazon; Terry Hanold, former Amazon.

Our New Entrepreneurs

Learn more about the entrepreneurs who wow-ed our panelists this month and the innovative companies they are building.

Bia Energy

Entrepreneurs: Sebastian Ruales, Leonardo Velazquez, and Guillermo Plaza
Industry: Smart City & Climate
Endeavor Office: Colombia

Bia is an energy marketer that sells a bundled hardware and software solution to businesses looking to optimize energy consumption.

What they do: Bia Energy equips businesses with the data they need to make informed decisions regarding their energy consumption. For each customer, Bia replaces the traditional energy meters with its proprietary smart meters. Once installed, customers can easily monitor their energy usage with Bia’s software platform, which provides savings recommendations and real-time alerts, allowing them to reduce their energy bills by up to 18%.

Who they are: Bia’s co-founders Sebastian, Leonardo, and Guillermo, set out to apply their expertise in technology, data, and user-friendly software to the energy sector. Sebastian started his professional career in sales and marketing at companies including Johnson & Johnson, Quala, and L’Oreal. In 2016, he joined the founding team of Rappi (an Endeavor Entrepreneur and the first Colombian unicorn), where he built out the company’s monetization strategy. It was during his time at Rappi that he met Guillermo. Guillermo started his first company, SpoW, while in college. He moved to Colombia to continue building startups where he joined Rappi’s founding team on the technology side.

While Sebastian and Guillermo bring experience scaling a high-growth tech company from their time at Rappi, Leonardo brings the energy sector context to Bia’s founding team. He started his career by leading innovation and new business at INELCO for 10 years and later co-founded three companies in the energy sector before teaming up with Sebastian, a long-time friend, and Guillermo to launch Bia.

Why we’re excited: Bia Energy is well-positioned to lead the transformation of the energy sector in Colombia and across the region. In terms of the founding team, Sebastian and Guillermo are part of the “Rappi mafia.” Now, they are committed to giving back to the Colombian ecosystem, and they hope to create their own multiplier effect, the “Bia mafia.”

BillEase

Entrepreneurs: Georg Steiger, Ritche Weekun, and Huyen Nguyen
Industry: Fintech
Endeavor Office: Philippines

BillEase is a leading consumer finance app in the Philippines.

What they do: BillEase seeks to expand financial inclusion in the Philippines by providing customers with instant cash loans, buy-now-pay-later services, and a growing suite of complementary financial products on its app at a low-interest rate. Its proprietary credit scoring algorithm provides unbanked customers with a credit history and score, which they can then use to access traditional financial products elsewhere. BillEase is partnered with 1,000+ leading merchants, payment gateways, and shopping carts including Lazada, Shopify, and Xendit.

Who they are: Georg met his co-founders Ritche and Huyen while working at McKinsey in Singapore, where they witnessed firsthand the lack of retail lending and banking infrastructure in the Philippines while working on a project. Georg was born and raised in Vienna, Austria, and studied law as an undergraduate. He taught himself how to code during this time, eventually choosing to work as a developer at two startups in London and Austria post-graduation. After obtaining an MBA, he became a consultant at McKinsey in Zurich and later moved to the Singapore office. Ritche is Filipino-Chinese and was raised by entrepreneurs. He moved to McKinsey’s Singapore office after obtaining his MBA. He moved back to the Philippines to support his family business before co-founding BillEase. Huyen was born and raised in Vietnam. She joined McKinsey’s Singapore office directly out of college and worked closely with Georg to build out Security Bank’s retail banking arm in the region. Through this, the trio discovered how far behind the Philippines’ fintech infrastructure was and set out to create BillEase.

Why we’re excited: The Philippines has a large fintech market opportunity due to its growing middle class, increased smartphone penetration, and regulatory tailwinds, and we are excited to help them achieve greater financial inclusion. The team behind BillEase is excellent, with seasoned McKinsey veterans at the helm who are very experienced with this type of work within the region.

ElevenLabs

Entrepreneurs: Mati Staniszewski and Piotr Dabkowski
Industry: B2B Software
Endeavor Office: Poland

ElevenLabs is a voice AI research and deployment company.

What they do: ElevenLabs generates human-like and contextually aware AI speech in hundreds of voices in 29 languages. As a technology research company, ElevenLabs is at the forefront of developing new cutting-edge voice AI. It deploys the most advanced models and features accessible via web app or API to a user base from creators to publishers and beyond. The company’s mission is to make on-demand multilingual audio support a reality across education, streaming, audiobooks, gaming, movies, and even real-time conversation.

Who they are: Mati and Piotr are two high school friends who grew up together in Poland and then moved to the UK. Mati graduated with a degree in mathematics from Imperial College London, then worked in product and intelligence roles at Opera, BlackRock, and Palantir. Piotr completed a bachelor’s in engineering from Oxford and a master’s in computer science from Cambridge. He then worked as a software engineer at Google and Tessian. Over years of studying, working, and living together, the pair regularly experimented with various projects in tech and became enamored by the potential of AI audio technology. Inspired by English-language film and TV dubbing that was often of poor quality in their native Poland, the pair worked on developing ElevenLabs.

Why we’re excited: We believe that founders pushing the boundaries of technology can come from anywhere in the world. Mati and Piotr, natives of Poland, are building not only a market-leading product but a world-class AI research company leading the charge in AI audio.

HOFF

Entrepreneur: Francisco Marchena
Industry: Commerce
Endeavor Office: Spain

HOFF is a Spanish apparel company offering high-quality footwear.

What they do: HOFF is on a mission to ignite the creative spark within every individual. The company is best known for its silk-printed sneakers, which are often designed in collaboration with local and international artists. It has an easily recognizable design due to its bright color palette, an innovative combination of textures and patterns, and silk-screen printed soles. To date, the company has sold over 1.2 million sneakers across its stores in Spain, France, Portugal, and the UK, and with wholesale clients and franchises in 55 countries.

Who they are: Fran was born in Elche, Spain, a region with a long tradition of shoemaking, where his father ran his own shoe factory and his mother owned an arts and crafts store. He graduated from ESIC Business & Marketing School with a degree in commercial management and marketing. A few years later, he specialized in finance, pursuing a master’s in commercial banking and another in risk, financial, and actuarial economics at Alcala University. Fran’s professional journey began with a ten-year tenure at Santander. In 2017, Fran pursued his childhood dream of running his own shoe company, merging his father’s shoemaking legacy with his mother’s creative spirit, and established HOFF.

Why we’re excited: Fran’s vision for HOFF is poised for a meaningful impact on the global stage. HOFF’s notable influence within the Valencian entrepreneurial ecosystem is evident and his impact will inspire under-represented communities in Spain.

PriceOye

Entrepreneurs: Adnan Shaffi and Adeel Shaffi
Industry: Marketplaces
Endeavor Office: Pakistan

PriceOye is a Pakistani e-commerce marketplace for consumer electronics.

What they do: PriceOye connects electronics brands with customers and offers the lowest prices on the market by circumventing the middlemen associated with offline retail channels. PriceOye only lists products from authorized sellers to build consumer trust in a country where fraud and counterfeit products are common concerns. The company delivers across Pakistan, and its marketplace has grown to become the second-largest shopping website in Pakistan since launching in 2020.

Who they are: Adnan and Adeel are brothers and serial entrepreneurs. Adeel started his professional career by co-founding Reysheen Technologies. Since then, Adnan and Adeel have teamed up to co-found and eventually exit two startups. In 2009, they launched Chip Hazard, an online blog focused primarily on technology content, which was acquired by MindCom Investments two years later. Their next venture, CupertinoTimes.com, a technology blog focused on Apple products, acquired over one million monthly page views within a year. Adnan and Adeel decided to sell the company to a U.S.-based publishing company and remain in Pakistan, recognizing the immense opportunity that existed there. With two exits already under their belts, Adnan and Adeel launched PriceOye to address the growing opportunity in the Pakistani market.

Why we’re excited: Adnan and Adeel are experienced entrepreneurs and recognize the immense opportunity that exists in Pakistan. PriceOye is at the forefront of driving e-commerce adoption in the country, and it is quickly establishing itself as a leading tech company in this growing market.

xFarm Technologies

Entrepreneurs: Matteo Vanotti and Matteo Cunial
Industry: Food & Beverage
Endeavor Office: Italy

xFarm Technologies is an agtech company committed to driving the digital transformation of the agriculture sector.

What they do: xFarm Technologies provides farmers with a freemium software platform to continuously monitor their farms and receive advice to improve production and allocate resources efficiently. xFarm Technologies also works with corporate clients, including machinery manufacturers and agri food companies, to digitize their supply chains and promote data-driven decision making.

Who they are: xFarm was born out of Matteo V.’s struggle to digitally manage his family’s farming operations. In 2017, Matteo V. created a basic version of the xFarm App to use on his own farm. After his neighbors and friends began using the app as well, Matteo V. left his job at Orbium, in 2019, to focus full-time on scaling xFarm. Matteo C. also comes from the sector, as he grew up on his family’s farm. Matteo C. co-founded his first venture in graduate school, an online booking platform called Random Break. After graduating, he worked as a business analyst at McKinsey & Co. before leaving to start Farm Technologies in 2017. xFarm merged with Farm Technologies to become xFarm Technologies in 2021.

Why we’re excited: “Smart agriculture” tools like those provided by xFarm Technologies will play a key role in driving increased agricultural efficiency to feed a growing world population. xFarm Technologies is already a leading player in the European agtech space, so it is likely to become a reference point for the ecosystem, inspiring the next generation of entrepreneurs.

Endeavor also held a selection panel this month for one company that attended a previous ISP and was invited to come back to a second panel, following the achievement of select business milestones. This month, we proudly announce the selection of one remarkable founder as an Endeavor Entrepreneur. Throughout the rigorous ISP process, he has demonstrated exceptional potential for high-impact growth and a steadfast commitment to nurturing his local entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Panelists

Endeavor would like to thank our panelists from this selection panel:

Jason Borschow, Abarca Health (Endeavor Entrepreneur, Endeavor Puerto Rico Board Member); Jason Wenk, Altruist (Endeavor Entrepreneur, Endeavor Great Lakes Board Member); Arvind Rajan, Cricket Health; Erika Rottenberg, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI).

Our New Entrepreneur

Learn more about Daniel and his innovative company, KOHO, below.

KOHO

Entrepreneur: Daniel Eberhard
Industry: Fintech
Endeavor Office: Canada

KOHO is Canada’s fastest-growing neobank.

What they do: KOHO is on a mission to make banking accessible to all Canadians and improve the lives of millions through affordable and accessible financial products. It offers a modern, mobile-first approach to personal finance rooted in the belief that all Canadians deserve access to high-quality financial products and services. KOHO offers four main products: a high-interest savings account, a card, a credit-building product, and an overdraft protection product. Across all of its products, KOHO relies on the promises of no hidden fees, no fine print, and no catch. KOHO is now the highest-rated finance app in Canada.

Who they are: Daniel was raised by a single mother who worked hard all her life yet faced major financial hurdles. Daniel recognized the vast disparity in financial outcomes between those with and without access to quality financial products. Daniel began his studies in business at Mount Royal University in Calgary but decided to leave and pursue his entrepreneurial passion from a young age. Before founding KOHO, Daniel built two prior ventures, always with the mission of improving the lives of Canadians through technology. After his successful Kineticor exit in 2012, Daniel was exposed to significant personal wealth for the first time in his life. He experienced a drastic improvement in his financial situation, not only due to the direct effects of increased wealth but also due to the increased access to high-quality financial services. He created KOHO to improve access to financial services for all Canadians.

Why we’re excited: Daniel is focused on creating a business that will enable wealth creation for the average Canadian while actively seeking out opportunities to give back to the entrepreneurial ecosystem.

That’s a wrap on Endeavor’s Newest Entrepreneurs!

From optimizing energy consumption across Latin America to igniting creativity with footwear to developing cutting-edge voice AI, our new companies embody the diverse, yet consistently high-impact businesses that continue to join Endeavor’s community.

Stay tuned for next month’s batch of high-impact entrepreneurs and change-makers!