Endeavor Catalyst invests in Mexico’s 99 Minutos, a last mile e-commerce delivery service, to support the team’s expansion plans in Latin America.

“Alexis Patjane has been engaged in the Endeavor community for eight years, creating the first logistics company in Latam to master zero-emission last-mile deliveries,” adds Allen Taylor, Managing Director of Endeavor Catalyst. “Innovators like Alexis are creating the services — and jobs — of the future, and that’s what the world needs today more than ever.”

99 Minutos closed a $40M series B from Prosus Ventures and Kaszek, in May 2021. This triad of investments aims to provide 99 Minutos with a long-term, well-capitalized financial partner who will support business expansion in Latin America and accelerate their same-day city-to-city deliveries. The company has rapidly grown to operate in 40 major markets, including Mexico, Chile, Colombia, and Peru, offering four services: less than 99 minutes delivery, same-day delivery, next-day delivery, and C02-free delivery.

“E-commerce is growing quickly in Latin America, but it is still [the] early days. E-commerce penetration in Latin America is at 6%, while China is reaching 30% and the U.S. is at 20%,” the company said in a statement.

99 Minutos Founder and Endeavor Entrepreneur Alexis Patjane stated, “We are excited to partner with Prosus Ventures, Kaszek, and now with Endeavor as we aspire to impact lives, delivering high-impact delivery solutions to our clients.”

About 99 Minutos
99 Minutos is revolutionizing the logistics ecosystem in Mexico and Latam as it allows e-commerce companies to deliver products the same day at a low cost. Currently, the company operates in Mexico, Chile, Colombia, and Peru. 99 Minutes is the first logistics company in Latam to master zero-emission last-mile deliveries.

About Endeavor Catalyst
Endeavor Catalyst is Endeavor’s rules-based, co-investment fund that invests in the companies of Endeavor Entrepreneurs. With $250M in Assets Under Management (AUM) across three funds, Endeavor Catalyst has made 180+ investments in 30+ markets to date and counts 26 unicorns in its current portfolio. Endeavor Catalyst offers a unique opportunity for Endeavor to become financially self-sustaining by investing in the very entrepreneurs it supports while generating access to world-class companies and meaningful returns for investors.

About Prosus Ventures
Prosus is a global consumer internet group and one of the largest technology investors in the world. Operating and investing globally in markets with long-term growth potential, Prosus builds leading consumer internet companies that empower people and enrich communities.

The group is focused on building meaningful businesses in the online classifieds, food delivery, payments and fintech, and education technology sectors in markets including India, Russia and Brazil. Through its ventures team, Prosus invests in areas including health, logistics, blockchain, and social commerce. Prosus actively seeks new opportunities to partner with exceptional entrepreneurs who are using technology to improve people’s everyday lives.

Every day, millions of people use the products and services of companies that Prosus has invested in, acquired or built, including Avito, Brainly, BYJU’S, Bykea, Codecademy, DappRadar, DeHaat, dott, ElasticRun, eMAG, Eruditus, Honor, iFood, Klar, LazyPay, letgo, Meesho, Movile, OLX, PayU, Quick Ride, Red Dot Payment, Remitly, Republic, SimilarWeb, Shipper, Skillsoft, SoloLearn, Swiggy and Udemy. Hundreds of millions of people have made the platforms of Prosus’s associates a part of their daily lives.

For listed companies where we have an interest, please see: Tencent (www.tencent.com), Mail.ru (www.corp.mail.ru), Trip.com Group Limited (www.trip.com), and DeliveryHero (www.deliveryhero.com). Today, Prosus companies and associates help improve the lives of around a fifth of the world’s population. Prosus has a primary listing on Euronext Amsterdam (AEX:PRX) and secondary listings on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (XJSE:PRX) and a2X Markets (PRX.AJ). Prosus is majority-owned by Naspers. For more information, please visit www.prosus.com

About Kaszek
Kaszek is a Latin American venture capital firm that partners with exceptional entrepreneurs to build lasting, high-impact technology-based companies whose main initial focus is Latin America. The firm is industry and stage agnostic, mainly investing in Seed, Series A and Series B. In addition to capital, it provides first-hand expertise and insights in strategy, operational execution, team building, growth, technology, product, networking, fundraising and more.

Some of the fund’s portfolio companies are: Nubank, QuintoAndar, Kavak, Creditas, TheNotCompany, Konfio, Kavak, Bitso, GymPass, MadeiraMadeira, Escale, Kushki, NuvemShop, DigitalHouse, LaHaus, and CrediJusto. www.kaszek.com/portfolio

 

Endeavor selected nine entrepreneurs leading five companies at the 17th Virtual International Selection Panel (vISP) held July 12-14, 2021. Endeavor now supports 2,197 entrepreneurs leading 1,369 companies in nearly 40 markets around the world (read more about the newly selected entrepreneurs below).

The vISP was presented by General Atlantic, with additional support from AXA, Bain, Cooley, EY, HSBC, Silicon Valley Bank, and Zoom.

The ISP is the culmination of a rigorous multi-step selection process to identify high-impact entrepreneurs who demonstrate the potential to leverage Endeavor’s resources and mentorship to create large-scale wealth and jobs, and are committed to reinvesting their time and money in their local entrepreneurship ecosystems to help others take off.

During the vISP panelists utilized Zoom breakout rooms to interview a small group of high-caliber entrepreneur candidates leading four companies about their businesses. In “deliberation rooms” — private Zoom meetings with only Endeavor staff and panelists — panelists evaluated the entrepreneurs on their potential for high-impact growth, discussed which candidates should be selected to become Endeavor Entrepreneurs, then voted unanimously to select the newest Endeavor Entrepreneurs.

Panelists at the ISP included: Andy Tsao, Managing Director, Global Gateway, Silicon Valley Bank; David Do, Managing Director, Vietnam Investments Group (Endeavor Vietnam Board Member); Drew McElroy, Co-founder and Chairman, Transfix; Mauro Schnaidman, Founder, Quantum Leap International; Mbuvi Ngunze, Chairman, Safarilink Aviation Limited (Endeavor Kenya Mentor); Noah Glass, Founder and CEO, Olo; Peter Njonjo, Co-Founder and CEO, Twiga Foods (Endeavor Entrepreneur, Endeavor Kenya Board Member); Ruby Gadeirab Tudor, Founder and CEO, MDisrupt; Scott Sobel, Co-Founder and Managing Director, Valor Capital Group (Endeavor Global Ambassador); Steve Ciesinkski, President, SRI International; Steve Frazier, Senior Advisor, McKinsey & Co, Fmr. VP, Amazon; Susan Saideman, Independent Board Member; Fmr. VP, Amazon

As part of Endeavor’s network, the newly selected entrepreneurs will gain access to comprehensive, strategic, global support services, including introductions to local and international business mentors, investors, and volunteers from Fortune 500 consulting firms who will help them address key needs.

Endeavor Entrepreneurs have had a significant track record of impact. Endeavor Entrepreneurs have created more than 3.9 million jobs, generate combined revenues of over $28B, and help build sustainable growth models in their home countries.

Learn more about the companies selected below:

Helium Health

Entrepreneur: Dimeji Sofowora, Tito Ovia, & Goke Olubusi
Vertical: Healthcare
Market: Nigeria
Description: Helium Health is a healthcare technology company focused on digitizing and promoting data-driven healthcare in Nigeria. Its core product is an Electronic Medical Records (EMR) software that enables public and private hospitals to transition to digital systems. The EMR has been deployed at 206 hospitals that serve 290K+ patients each month — and is helping to curb fraud and increase operational efficiency. In 2020, Helium Health launched a digital public health Emergency Response System (ERS) that the Lagos State Government used to manage its COVID-19 response. Helium Health currently has operations across 6 African countries including Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Uganda, Senegal, and Liberia.

Komvida

Entrepreneur: Beatriz Margo
Vertical: Food and Beverage
Market: Spain
Description: Komvida is the first and leading kombucha brand in Spain. Considered the healthy alternative to soft drinks, kombucha is a fermented probiotic drink that, amongst other health benefits, improves digestion and lowers blood pressure. Komvida’s kombucha is made completely in-house with 100% organic raw ingredients, maintaining the highest quality standards (it is the only IFS certified kombucha factory in Europe) – prioritizing taste and health benefits as its two core value points. It offers six different flavor products through online and offline channels and has managed a 50%+ customer repeat rate through its innovative online subscription model. Currently, the company sells over 1.5M bottles per year and distributes in four European markets. The company aims to increase its sales by more than 10X by 2024 by focusing on expanding production capabilities, penetrating six new European markets, and widening its product offering through partnerships with large retail brands such as Lidl.

Mensajeros Urbanos

Entrepreneur: Santiago Pineda & Juan Pablo Pineda
Vertical: Smart Cities
Market: Colombia
Description: Mensajeros Urbanos (MU) is a tech-driven logistics company that connects more than 25K retailers and CPG companies such as OXXO, McDonalds, and Falabella with last-mile delivery solutions in 18 cities throughout Colombia and Mexico. Leveraging a network of more than 60K ‘collaborative logistics’ partners to fulfill deliveries, it’s clients reduce delivery times by an average of 60% and logistics costs by up to 30%. With more than 12M deliveries made in 2020, Mensajeros looks to scale its logistics network to achieve its goal of transforming logistics in Latin America.

Rocket.Chat

Entrepreneur: Gabriel Engel
Vertical: Enterprise Software & Services
Market: Brazil
Description: Rocket.Chat is the world’s largest open-source communication platform, trusted by 15M+ users in 150 countries. Enterprise communications are strongly fragmented and not controlled by users, who do not have control of their data, and require many different platforms to communicate. Rocket.Chat is the complete communication solution, simplifying complex integrations with the unique open source flexibility that empowers organizations to extend their platforms beyond proprietary solutions, improve cost efficiency, and increase ownership of their data. The company focuses on omnichannel and live chat, enterprise customer engagement, and intercompany communication, which together represent a $100B market. With +100k active deployments and +1M cumulative deployments, Rocket.Chat has hundreds of clients, including organizations such as the US Army, Tepco, and Credit Suisse.

Zid

Entrepreneur: Mazen Al Darrab & Sultan Al Asmi
Vertical: Enterprise Software & Services
Market: Saudi Arabia
Description: Zid is a SaaS-based “e-commerce in a box solution” that enables retailers to easily build and manage an online store presence. Since 2017, Zid has helped more than 5K merchants build their own eCommerce operations and integrates them with 20+ supply chain players and a number of payment providers to easily accept and fulfill online orders with ease. The company aims to scale throughout the region, enabling MENA’s retail sector to enter the world of electronic retail in an easy and professional manner.

 

Endeavor selected thirteen entrepreneurs leading eight companies at the 16th Virtual International Selection Panel (vISP) held June 20-23, 2021. Endeavor now supports 2,188 entrepreneurs leading 1,364 companies in nearly 40 markets around the world (read more about the newly selected entrepreneurs below).

The vISP was presented by General Atlantic, with additional support from AXA, Bain, Cooley, EY, HSBC, Silicon Valley Bank, and Zoom.

The ISP is the culmination of a rigorous multi-step selection process to identify high-impact entrepreneurs who demonstrate the potential to leverage Endeavor’s resources and mentorship to create large-scale wealth and jobs, and are committed to reinvesting their time and money in their local entrepreneurship ecosystems to help others take off.

During the vISP panelists utilized Zoom breakout rooms to interview a small group of high-caliber entrepreneur candidates leading four companies about their businesses. In “deliberation rooms” — private Zoom meetings with only Endeavor staff and panelists — panelists evaluated the entrepreneurs on their potential for high-impact growth, discussed which candidates should be selected to become Endeavor Entrepreneurs, then voted unanimously to select the newest Endeavor Entrepreneurs.

Panelists at the ISP included: Andreas Stavropoulos, Partner, Threshold Ventures (Endeavor Greece Board Member); Arif Rachmat, Co-Founder & Executive Chairman, TAP Group (Endeavor Indonesia Chairman); Arjuna Costa, Partner, Flourish VC; Edgar Bronfman, Jr., General Partner, Chairman and Co-founder, Waverley Capital (Endeavor Global Board Chairman); Eric Acher, Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Monashees; Jason Green, Partner, Emergence Capital Partners (Endeavor Global Board Member); Keri Gohman, Partner, Bain Capital Ventures; Kevin Ryan, Chairman & CEO, AlleyCorp (Endeavor Global Ambassador); Martín Migoya, Co-Founder and CEO, Globant (Endeavor Argentina Board Member; Alumni Endeavor Entrepreneur); Mudassir Sheikha, Co-Founder & CEO, Careem (Endeavor Entrepreneur); Nabyl Al Maskari, Executive Chairman, Al Maskari Holding (Endeavor UAE Board Chairman); Mona Ataya, CEO of Mumzworld (Endeavor Entrepreneur); Sebastian Gunningham, Chairman of Consumer Finance & Vice Chairman of OpenBank, Santander; Shailesh Rao, Advisor/Investor, Venture Highway and BigSpring; Shola Akinlade, Co-Founder & CEO, Paystack; Sylvia Mulinge, Chief Customer Officer, Safaricom (Endeavor Kenya Board Member); Vargha Moayed, Chief Strategy Officer, UiPath (Endeavor Romania Board Member); Vassil Terziev, Co-founder, Telerik Academy; Partner, Eleven VC (Endeavor Bulgaria Board Co-chair).

As part of Endeavor’s network, the newly selected entrepreneurs will gain access to comprehensive, strategic, global support services, including introductions to local and international business mentors, investors, and volunteers from Fortune 500 consulting firms who will help them address key needs.

Endeavor Entrepreneurs have had a significant track record of impact. Endeavor Entrepreneurs have created more than 3.9 million jobs, generate combined revenues of over $28B, and help build sustainable growth models in their home countries.

Learn more about the companies selected below:

Circuit Clinical

Entrepreneur: Irfan Khan, M.D.
Vertical: Healthcare
Market: Western New York
Description: Circuit Clinical provides a tech-enabled turnkey clinical trials program that quickly creates fully equipped, high-performing clinical trial sites. Its program lowers operational and economic risk for health systems to become clinical trial sites, makes it easier for patients to find and evaluate clinical trials as a care option, and enables pharma to make their trials more efficient and diverse.

Cobli

Entrepreneur: Parker Treacy & Rodrigo Mourad
Vertical: IoT Hardware & SaaS
Market: Brazil
Description: Cobli offers an IoT hardware and SaaS fleet management solution that increases productivity and enables more efficient use of fleet assets across business processes. Their product provides real-time visibility and facilitates superior decision-making processes, empowering fleet managers to better manage their logistics costs. Cobli is looking to scale its fleet solutions throughout the region and become a leader in the $10.4B Latin American fleet management market.

Independent Foods

Entrepreneur: Deem AlBassam & Amal AlMarri
Vertical: Food & Beverage
Market: Saudi Arabia
Description: INDPT is a unique and home-grown hospitality management company driven to create authentic concepts that provide dining experiences designed to complement local culture. These offerings leave residents and tourists with standardized and generic offerings, neither unique nor reflective of the local customer. Since 2009, INDPT has launched and operated 6 successful F&B brands, each with its own identity and distinctive menu and concept, with more than 24 branches across the UAE & Saudi Arabia serving 3M checks in 2020 alone. I

Sary

Entrepreneur: Mohammed AlDossary & Khaled AlSiari
Vertical: Commerce: B2B
Market: Saudi Arabia
Description: In Saudi Arabia, the wholesale industry is a fragmented, offline market that favors major retailers. With a mission to digitize and revolutionize the wholesale market, Sary is an online B2B marketplace that connects small businesses with a network of wholesale market suppliers and distributors via mobile and web applications. Retailers can order wholesale items directly from their devices, ranging from a dozen boxes of cereal to office supplies, and have it delivered within three hours. Today, Sary processes 50K orders on a monthly basis to over 30K retailers across 5 cities in Saudi Arabia, and manages all of the logistics with freelance last-mile delivery agents.

Teamapt

Entrepreneur: Tosin Eniolorunda & Felix Ike
Vertical: Fintech
Market: Nigeria
Description: Teamapt is reinventing banking and financial services to serve the next billion Africans. Roughly half of Nigeria’s 100M adults do not have access to formal financial services, andacross Sub-Saharan Africa, 350M individuals are financially excluded. Teamapt’s core product, Moniepoint, is an agency-banking solution that enables small businesses to provide basic financial services such as deposits, withdrawals, transfers, and bill payments to their customers. Today, Teamapt represents the #1 agency banking solution in Nigeria, with >100K agents across Nigeria. It aims to become Africa’s largest digital bank by 2026, providing a competitive range of banking solutions to 50 million underserved customers.

Ubits

Entrepreneur: Marta Forero & Julian Melo
Vertical: Ed-Tech
Market: Colombia
Description: Ubits is an Ed-Tech company for corporate training in LatAm, offering a catalogue of 580+ Bits(courses), consisting of short digital content taught by industry leaders for employee training. Courses are short and engaging with personalized recommendations for specific employee needs, and are taught by local practitioners and college professors in Spanish. The platform is differentiated based on its lower skill focus and customized course pathways. The company plans on using this money to expand its sales team and technology development, and to help with expansion across Spanish speaking LatAm,specifically to Chile and Argentina.

Voicemod

Entrepreneur: Jaime Bosch
Vertical: Media – Entertainment and Content
Market: Spain
Description: In 2019 alone, the audience for gaming video content (GVC) grew by 5% to reach 944M people. The games and interactive media industry grew 4% in the past year, reaching a market value of $120B, surpassing the movies and music industries combined ($60.8B). Voicemod offers the best real-time voice changer and soundboard software for streamers and gamers. With over 4M MAUs in 150 countries, Voicemod aims to be a leading global content platform that enables creators to both access exclusive audio content and create signature sounds to better express themselves.

Zilingo

Entrepreneur: Ankiti Bose
Vertical: Enterprise Software and Services
Market: Indonesia
Description: Zilingo provides B2B digital sourcing and supply chain solutions to wholesalers, brands and retailers across Southeast and South Asia. The company is making the global fashion and lifestyle supply chain more fair, transparent, affordable and sustainable. Zilingo leverages technology, data, and AI to optimize production timelines and aggregate global demand, and works with over 17,000 merchants, and thousands of factories on the platform. With an aim to provide sustainable alternatives, Zilingo also enables businesses to source sustainable fabrics from the world’s largest range of over 500 certified recycled, natural and organic fabrics.

Endeavor selected thirteen entrepreneurs leading seven companies at the 15th Virtual International Selection Panel (vISP) held May 17-19, 2021. Endeavor now supports 2,175 entrepreneurs leading 1,356 companies in nearly 40 markets around the world (read more about the newly selected entrepreneurs below).

The vISP was presented by General Atlantic, with additional support from AXA, Bain, Cooley, EY, HSBC, Silicon Valley Bank, and Zoom.

The ISP is the culmination of a rigorous multi-step selection process to identify high-impact entrepreneurs who demonstrate the potential to leverage Endeavor’s resources and mentorship to create large-scale wealth and jobs, and are committed to reinvesting their time and money in their local entrepreneurship ecosystems to help others take off.

During the vISP panelists utilized Zoom breakout rooms to interview a small group of high-caliber entrepreneur candidates leading four companies about their businesses. In “deliberation rooms” — private Zoom meetings with only Endeavor staff and panelists — panelists evaluated the entrepreneurs on their potential for high-impact growth, discussed which candidates should be selected to become Endeavor Entrepreneurs, then voted unanimously to select the newest Endeavor Entrepreneurs.

Panelists at the ISP included: Mohamed Azab, CEO and Founder, Seha Healthcare Co-Founder, AR ventures (Endeavor Entrepreneur, Endeavor Egypt Board Member); Cesar Carvalho, Co-Founder & CEO, GymPass; Dan Green, Corporate Partner, Gunderson Dettmer LLP; Anne Heraty, CEO, Cpl Resources (Endeavor Ireland Board Member); Hristo Hristov, CEO, HR Capital (Endeavor Bulgaria Board Member); Steve Kessel, Fmr. Senior Vice President, Amazon.com; Monica Mandelli, Global Head of High Net Worth Group, KKR (Endeavor Italy Board Member); Shu Nyatta, Managing Partner, Softbank (Endeavor Global Board Member); Raoul Oberman, Co-Founder and CEO, Artemis Impact (Endeavor Indonesia Board Member); Veronica Allende Serra, Founding Partner, Pacific Investments & Innova Capital Fund (Endeavor Global Board Member); Anderson Thees, Managing Partner & Co-Founder, Redpoint eventures (Endeavor Ambassador); David Wells, Fmr. CFO, Netflix.

As part of Endeavor’s network, the newly selected entrepreneurs will gain access to comprehensive, strategic, global support services, including introductions to local and international business mentors, investors, and volunteers from Fortune 500 consulting firms who will help them address key needs.

Endeavor Entrepreneurs have had a significant track record of impact. Endeavor Entrepreneurs have created more than 3.9 million jobs, generate combined revenues of over $28B, and help build sustainable growth models in their home countries.

Learn more about the companies selected below:

Aruna

Entrepreneur: Farid Aslam
Vertical: Commerce – Marketplace
Market: Indonesia
Description: Aruna is a commerce startup creating a fair and transparent marine-fisheries trade through technology innovation. It provides two solutions for fishermen: a digital fish auction platform to sell their catch at a fair price and a marketplace for seafood products, which utilizes data from the auction platform to ensure fair trade. With more than 20K fisherman and 32 fish processing miniplants throughout Indonesia, Aruna makes the sea a better livelihood for all by offering efficiency in trading seafood, providing wider access to local and overseas markets, and empowering the local fishermen community.

Brimore

Entrepreneur: Mohamed Abdulaziz and Ahmed Sheikha
Vertical: Retail
Market: Egypt
Description: Established in 2017, Brimore uses direct social selling as an alternative trading channel with the aim of providing the consumer a wide range of diverse high-quality products at affordable prices. Through a social commerce with a parallel distribution platform Brimore allows local suppliers to develop coverage nationwide through a network of individual distributors (mostly housewives) selling products through their circles. With a retail market size of $150B, currently 65% of Egyptian manufacturers are extremely underutilized due to their inability to reach the end customer. Brimore solves this by providing local suppliers a tool that connects them with individuals that can sell the products with efficient distribution costs, giving local suppliers a chance to distribute products that do not usually win shelf space. Brimore has 50K active sales champions, 9K monthly sales champions, 6000+ SKUs, 200 suppliers, operating across 9 categories

Cameo

Entrepreneur: Steven Galanis and Devon Townsend
Vertical: Consumer Tech: Entertainment
Market: Detroit, Greece and Miami
Description: Cameo is an online marketplace that connects fans directly with more than 40K of their favorite pop culture icons via personalized video messages, live calls, and direct messages. With more than $150M in capital raised from investors including Lightspeed, Jeff Weiner, Kleiner Perkins, Bain Capital, and Google Ventures, including a recent $100M Series C, Cameo’s success to date has been significant. In 2020 alone, Cameo was awarded Best Product in Forbes’ 2020 Social Media Awards; ranked #1 on The Information’s TI50 Most Promising Startups; and among Fast Company’s 50 Most Innovative Companies, Inc.’s Best In Business 2020, and Business Insider’s Top 100 Startups of 2020.

FintechOS

Entrepreneur: Teodor Blidarus and Sergiu Negut
Vertical: Fintech
Market: Romania
Description: FintechOS (FTOS) offers its bank and insurance customers a digital overlay platform on top of their existing legacy infrastructure to enable them to design, build and manage next generation end-to-end capabilities. The platform enables clients to aggregate data across internal and external sources, automate basic functionality, and deliver an environment for product and customer journey development in a low-code environment. By April 2021, the company had achieved over 2x YOY growth, with 40+ clients, while rapidly increasing its headcount to over 300. Also at the end of April 2021, the company successfully raised its $60M Series B round led by Draper Esprit, a record for Romania and second only to UiPath.

Honest Greens

Entrepreneur: Christopher Fuchs
Vertical: Food & Beverage
Market: Spain
Description: Honest Greens is creating a new booming niche in the healthy food industry offering farm-to-table chef-driven food from local suppliers in a quick, convenient, and affordable format. Consumers have a choice of customizable signature salads and entrees made from sustainably-sourced chef-prepared foods, and can order in-store, or on the Honest Greens app. Founded in 2015, Honest Greens has profitably bootstrapped its growth to $15M in 2019 with 10 locations in Madrid, Barcelona, and Lisbon.

Tembici

Entrepreneur: Mauricio Villar, Tomás Martins
Vertical: Smart City
Market: Brazil
Description: Tembici is the leading micro-mobility player in Latin America, offering a docked bike-sharing platform that provides more than 1.5 million monthly rides in 10 cities across Brazil, Argentina, and Chile. Tembici also leverages its docking structure for digital media advertising and ESG-related sponsorship contracts to Enterprise clients, like Bank Itau and Mastercard. With 14.6K bikes and 1K e-bikes, Tembici’s solution addresses the problem of daily urban commute with a solution that is cheap, fast, and environment-friendly, helping reduce more than 14,000 tons of CO2 gas emissions in the past 2 years.

TradeDepot

Entrepreneur: Kachi Izukanne, Ruke Awaritefe, and Michael Upkong
Vertical: Smart City
Market: Nigeria
Description: TradeDepot is a B2B e-commerce platform that enables retailers to order inventory through multiple channels (Web, Mobile, USSD and WhatsApp) and have it delivered the next day. Since launching in 2018, the company has grown its retailer base and has built out an extensive warehousing and logistics infrastructure, offering a wide catalogue of products. In Q3 2020, it launched a pilot of its inventory financing product and has since disbursed affordable loans to retailers on its platform. TradeDepot is organizing Nigeria’s fragmented retail landscape of 16M informal retailers and wholesalers which account for 90% of the country’s annual $105B retail spend.

Endeavor is thrilled to announce the 2021 class of Outliers, a year-long experience that brings together a cohort of the top founders in Endeavor’s portfolio for curated opportunities to connect with each other and top mentors in the network. The Outliers experience combines intimate peer groups and leadership coaching with tailored strategy sessions led by the best company builders from Endeavor’s network, all designed to help founders scale their company, grow as a leader and multiply their impact.

Endeavor Outliers are Endeavor Entrepreneurs that are leading the fastest growing scale-up companies; or those that have meaningfully exited their companies and are now serving as role models and mentors to the next generation of entrepreneurs.

This year’s 171 Outliers include dozens of companies growing 100% YoY and 25+ businesses already valued at $1B+. They span more than 30 markets and operate across eight industry verticals: Agriculture, Commerce, Education, Enterprise Software & Services, Fintech, Food & Beverage, Healthcare, and Smart Cities.

Meet the full class of 2021 Endeavor Outliers here.

 

Endeavor selected seven entrepreneurs leading five companies at the Fourteenth Virtual International Selection Panel (vISP) held April 20-21, 2021. Endeavor now supports 2,162 entrepreneurs leading 1,349 companies in nearly 40 markets around the world (read more about the newly selected entrepreneurs below).

The vISP was presented by General Atlantic, with additional support from AXA, Bain, Cooley, EY, HSBC, Silicon Valley Bank, and Zoom.

The ISP is the culmination of a rigorous multi-step selection process to identify high-impact entrepreneurs who demonstrate the potential to leverage Endeavor’s resources and mentorship to create large-scale wealth and jobs, and are committed to reinvesting their time and money in their local entrepreneurship ecosystems to help others take off.

During the vISP panelists utilized Zoom breakout rooms to interview a small group of high-caliber entrepreneur candidates leading four companies about their businesses. In “deliberation rooms” — private Zoom meetings with only Endeavor staff and panelists — panelists evaluated the entrepreneurs on their potential for high-impact growth, discussed which candidates should be selected to become Endeavor Entrepreneurs, then voted unanimously to select the newest Endeavor Entrepreneurs.

Panelists at the ISP included: Chris Misner, Advisor & Investor, C2 Growth (Endeavor Global Ambassador); Christopher Schroeder, Venture Investor, Next Billion Ventures; Diego Piacentini, Board Member and Advisor, Former Commissioner for Digital Transformation, Italian Government, Former SVP of International Consumer Business, Amazon (Endeavor Italy Board Member, Endeavor Global Ambassador); Firat İşbecer, CEO, Commencis (Endeavor Entrepreneur, Endeavor Turkey Board Member); Francisco Alvarez-Demalde, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Riverwood Capital (Endeavor Global Ambassador); Gary Swart, Partner, Polaris Partners; Guibert Englebienne, Co-Founder and CTO, Globant (Endeavor Entrepreneur; Endeavor Argentina Board Chairman); Jewel Burks Solomon, Head of Google for Startups, US & Managing Partner of Collab Capital (Endeavor Atlanta Board Member); Keri Gohman, Partner, Bain Capital Ventures; Lisanne Dorion, Founder, Lisanne Dorion, LLC (Endeavor Puerto Rico Board Member); Nico Szekasy, Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Kaszek (Endeavor Global Board Member, Alumni Endeavor Entrepreneur); and Pedro Arnt, Chief Financial Officer, MercadoLibre.   

As part of Endeavor’s network, the newly selected entrepreneurs will gain access to comprehensive, strategic, global support services, including introductions to local and international business mentors, investors, and volunteers from Fortune 500 consulting firms who will help them address key needs.

Endeavor Entrepreneurs have had a significant track record of impact. Endeavor Entrepreneurs have created more than 3.9 million jobs, generate combined revenues of over $28B, and help build sustainable growth models in their home countries.

Learn more about the companies selected below:

Aprende

Entrepreneur: Martin Claure
Vertical: Education & Talent
Market: Miami
Description: Aprende is the leading online education platform for vocational skills in Latin America and the United States’ Hispanic markets. That platform offers a wide array of courses and training, allowing its growing community of students to acquire high-demand skills. These skills empower learners to turn their interests into income by starting a new business or a new career. Aprende integrates technology and digital media with traditional instructor-led classroom activities, providing its students a flexible and customized learning experience, accessible on any device, that monitors students’ progress and promotes engaged learning, skill expertise, and course completion. The company plans to keep penetrating the $4.51B US & Latam Edtech market and reach over 150,000 active students by 2023. 

CookUnity

Entrepreneur: Mateo Marietti
Vertical: Food & Beverage
Market: Argentina
Description: CookUnity is a developer of an online food delivery platform that provides a wide range of chef-special cuisines prepared by using farm-fresh ingredients by over 35 chefs who rotate 300+ dishes every week, enabling food lovers to order meals from independent chefs online. With just over 14K+ active users, and operations in the East Coast and Southern California, CookUnity aims to scale across the US, opening additional dark kitchens to serve the fast-growing ~$28.5B US food delivery market.

Hack The Box

Entrepreneur: Haris Pylarinos
Vertical: Education & Talent
Market: Greece
Description: Hack The Box is an online platform enabling individuals, teams, businesses and students to test their penetration testing (hacking) skills and exchange ideas and methodologies with other members of similar interests. It contains several challenges that are constantly updated, including simulated real world scenarios and gamified experiences. In less than 3 years, Haris and his team have created the largest and most promising global community of cyber security professionals. Hack The Box innovates by constantly providing fresh and curated hacking challenges, into a fully gamified, immersive and intuitive environment for security researchers, pen-testers, cyber security professionals, academia and students from all over the world. 

Chiper

Entrepreneurs: Jose Bonilla, Oscar Sarria, Carolina García
Vertical: Commerce: Retail & Consumer Tech
Market: Colombia
Description: Chiper is a digital shopping platform intended to streamline the supply chain to maximize wholesale savings through a tech-driven ecosystem. The company’s product allows store owners to eliminate the middle-man and shop from a diverse range of 1.5K+ SKUs and 400+ brands, enabling independent corner store owners to connect with producers directly and procure groceries and other items at a cheaper price. Founded in 2018, Chiper has raised $25M from notable investors including Kaszek and Monashees, and currently counts more than 12K active customers across Mexico and Colombia as it looks to scale in the estimated $330B LatAm retail market.

RoadSync

Entrepreneur: Robin Gregg
Vertical: Fintech
Market: Atlanta
Description: RoadSync is the digital financial platform for the logistics industry. By removing paper and phone calls from business transactions, RoadSync offers a fast, convenient, and secure way to move and manage money and conduct business, dramatically reducing payment processing time and maximizing revenue collection. RoadSync offers payment products for warehouses, trucks/carriers, and repair/tow merchants, integrating and automating the financial systems fueling the logistics industry. Founded in 2015, Roadsync has grown to 550+ customer locations, and over 50 full-time employees.

Endeavor, the world’s leading community of high-impact entrepreneurs, is pleased to announce the launch of Endeavor Canada, with the office based out of Calgary, Alberta. Founded in 1997, Endeavor is a global organization with a mission to unlock the transformational power of entrepreneurship by selecting, supporting, and investing in the world’s top founders. Today, Endeavor’s network spans nearly 40 countries and supports more than 2,000 entrepreneurs, whose companies generate combined revenues of over $26 billion US, have created more than 4 million jobs, and, in 2019, raised over $3.6 billion US in capital.

“For more than 20 years, Endeavor has provided entrepreneurs with a community and platform to dream big, scale up, and pay it forward. With access to Endeavor’s global network, the Endeavor Catalyst co-investment fund, and support from a strong founding board, we’re confident Endeavor Canada will have a meaningful impact on Canada’s most innovative entrepreneurs and the country at large,” said Endeavor Co-founder and CEO Linda Rottenberg.

Endeavor Canada will identify founders with the greatest potential to participate in the organization’s renowned international selection process. Once selected, Endeavor Entrepreneurs benefit from a global network, peer-to-peer community, and open-door access to talent, markets, and capital.

In addition to tailored support, Endeavor also invests in Endeavor Entrepreneurs through its rules-based co-investment fund, Endeavor Catalyst, which has hundreds of millions of dollars under management, and provides avenues for them to invest in, mentor, and inspire others. Successful high-impact entrepreneurs not only create jobs but by paying it forward, generate a multiplier effect, paving the way for future generations of founders.

The mission of our firm is to connect opportunities with talent, capital, and networks in order to build market defining companies,” said Paul Desmarais III, Chairman and CEO of Sagard Holdings, Founding Board Member of Endeavor Canada. “Endeavor is an organization that is perfectly aligned with these objectives. I am proud to be on the founding board of Endeavor Canada and am excited to help build Canadian champions that will create prosperity for our communities.”

Leveraging support from Opportunity Calgary Investment Fund, Western Economic Diversification Canada, and the founding board of directors, Endeavor Canada will provide avenues for founders to dream big, scale up and pay it forward.

Endeavor brings a unique element to the investment community in Calgary, and the fact they selected Calgary to be its Canadian headquarters speaks to the opportunities on the horizon here,” said Mark Blackwell, Chair of the Board of Directors, Opportunity Calgary Investment Fund. “We expect a high degree of indirect economic impact from Endeavor’s presence due to the potential to scale businesses and its track record of working with local companies to accelerate entrepreneurial ecosystems in cities like Miami, Detroit and Atlanta.”

Endeavor Canada has also announced its National Board of Directors:

• Susan Anderson, Co-founder, Digital Commerce Bank & DC Payments (Board Chair)
• Brad Zumwalt, Partner, Zinc Ventures
• Chen Fong, Co-founder, Pureweb Inc.
• Chris Huskilson, Former CEO, Emera Inc.
• Jim Estill, President and CEO, Danby Appliances
• Joanna Harries, SVP of Global Expansion, Endeavor
• Lindsay Machan, Co-founder, Angiotech Pharmaceuticals
• Paul Desmarais III, Chairman and CEO, Sagard
• Paul Parisi, Head of Canada, Silicon Valley Bank

“Canada does not have a startup problem but rather a global scale up challenge. Endeavor has an amazing network and track record of helping high-impact entrepreneurs scale their enterprises which in turn will benefit the Canadian tech ecosystem and contribute to our long-term economic growth. I am excited that Endeavor has chosen Calgary as its headquarters in Canada and look forward to helping founders grow and scale their companies,” said Susan Anderson, CEO of Cannonball Capital, Inc., and Board Chair of Endeavor Canada.

The Endeavor Canada entrepreneur selection process will begin in May 2021.

Media Contact:
Randy Fox
Account Manager, NKPR
Email: [email protected]

Endeavor selected 14 entrepreneurs leading six companies at the Thirteenth Virtual International Selection Panel (vISP) held March 21-23, 2021. Endeavor now supports 2,155 entrepreneurs leading 1,344 companies in nearly 40 markets around the world (read more about the newly selected entrepreneurs below).

The vISP was presented by General Atlantic, with additional support from AXA, Bain, Cooley, EY, HSBC, Silicon Valley Bank, and Zoom.

The ISP is the culmination of a rigorous multi-step selection process to identify high-impact entrepreneurs who demonstrate the potential to leverage Endeavor’s resources and mentorship to create large-scale wealth and jobs, and are committed to reinvesting their time and money in their local entrepreneurship ecosystems to help others take off.

During the vISP panelists utilized Zoom breakout rooms to interview a small group of high-caliber entrepreneur candidates leading four companies about their businesses. In “deliberation rooms” — private Zoom meetings with only Endeavor staff and panelists — panelists evaluated the entrepreneurs on their potential for high-impact growth, discussed which candidates should be selected to become Endeavor Entrepreneurs, then voted unanimously to select the newest Endeavor Entrepreneurs.

Panelists at the ISP included: Alexandros Chatzieleftheriou, Co-Founder & CEO, Blueground (Endeavor Entrepreneur);  Dan Caruso, Managing Partner, Caruso Ventures (Endeavor Colorado Board Chairman); Firat İşbecer, CEO, Commencis (Endeavor Entrepreneur; Endeavor Turkey Board Member); Harun Hajadi, Managing Director, Ciputra Group (Endeavor Indonesia Board Member); Husodo Angkosubroto, Chairman, Gunung Sewu Kencana (Endeavor Indonesia Board Member); Javier Olivan, Vice President of Central Products, Facebook (Endeavor Global Board Member); Kyle Porter, Founder & CEO, SalesLoft (Endeavor Entrepreneur); Markus Bihler, Co-founder & CEO, Builders Union (Endeavor Entrepreneur); Paul Desmarais III, Chairman and CEO, Sagard (Endeavor Canada Board Member); Richard Harris, Founder & CEO, Black Crow AI; Roshini Bakshi, Managing Director, Everstone Capital Advisors (Endeavor Ambassador); and Shailesh Rao, Advisor/Investor, Venture Highway and BigSpring.

As part of Endeavor’s network, the newly selected entrepreneurs will gain access to comprehensive, strategic, global support services, including introductions to local and international business mentors, investors, and volunteers from Fortune 500 consulting firms who will help them address key needs.

Endeavor Entrepreneurs have had a significant track record of impact. Endeavor Entrepreneurs have created 4.1 million jobs, generated $26.8 billion in revenues in 2019, and help build sustainable growth models in their home countries.

Learn more about the companies selected below:

ATLANTA

Entrepreneur: Kabir Barday
Company: OneTrust
Description: OneTrust is the #1 fastest-growing company on Inc. 500 and the category-defining enterprise platform to operationalize trust. More than 8,000 customers, including half of the Fortune 500, use OneTrust to make trust a competitive differentiator, implementing central agile workflows across privacy, security, data governance, GRC, third-party risk, ethics and compliance, and ESG programs. In December 2020, OneTrust raised a $300 million Series C funding from TCV, Insight Partners, and Coatue, bringing total funds raised to $710 million at a $5.1 billion valuation. OneTrust’s fast-growing team of 1,500 employees is co-headquartered in Atlanta and London with additional offices in Bangalore, Melbourne, Seattle, San Francisco, New York, São Paulo, Munich, Paris, Hong Kong, and Bangkok.

BRAZIL

Entrepreneurs: Adhemar Milani & Joao Costa
Company: Kovi
Description: Founded in 2018, Kovi is an online car rental platform headquartered in Sao Paolo, Brazil, built for ride-hailing drivers. With less than half the population in Latin America owning a car Kovi, partners with automakers and small rental companies to lease transportation out to drivers unable to afford to outright own or lease a car. With over $40M raised from VCs including Monashees, Quona Capital, and ONEVC, and more than 9,000 vehicles on its platform, Kovi is democratizing access to the gig economy in an affordable way for thousands of ride-hailing drivers on its platform. 

COLOMBIA

Entrepreneurs: Jerónimo Uribe, Rodrigo Sanchez, & Santiago García
Company: La Haus
Description: La Haus is transforming the status-quo in the real estate industry with its end-to-end residential marketplace, optimizing the home sale process from listing to closing of a property using data analytics and advanced technologies to provide the best customer satisfaction. La Haus selects listings with a semi-automated curation and valuation process, enabling users to be automatically qualified making for a seamless experience. With 4K+ completed transactions to date, and $58M raised from top investors such as Kaszek and Greenspring Associates, La Haus has operations in Bogotá, Medellin, and Mexico City, and is on track to become a dominant player in the prop-tech industry in Latin America.

INDONESIA

Entrepreneurs: Tiger Fang
Company: Kargo
Description: Kargo is a digital freight logistics marketplace that serves the entire Indonesian archipelago. The fragmented and inefficient logistics market in the country amounts to 25% of annual GDP ($250B). Kargo’s platform leverages technology to bring efficiency, transparency, and accountability for shippers and transporters. With 70% MoM platform growth, a new working capital financing service layer, and nearly $40M raised to date, the company aims to become the largest full-stack logistics platform in the region and transform the way goods are moved in Southeast Asia.

ITALY

Entrepreneurs: Giorgio Tinacci, Francesco Maria Fama, Giuseppe Caputo, & Francesco Dominidiato
Company: Casavo
Description: Casavo is a PropTech startup operating in the real estate sector that developed an innovative and unique business model: a technological platform (Instant Buyer) that submits direct offers to buy homes, and, after renovation, finds the final buyers. Founded in Milan in 2017 by Giorgio Tinacci, Casavo has the mission to change the way people sell, live and buy homes in Europe. The company has handled more than 1100 real estate transactions to date for a total value in excess of €300 million. With a team of 200 people, Casavo is currently operating in Milan, Rome, Turin, Florence, Bologna, Verona, and Madrid. To date, Casavo has raised €385M in capital between equity and debt, becoming one of the most funded startups in the history of Italy. With its core being the Instant Buyer service, Casavo is further expanding its marketplace product offer to cover all the needs of sellers, buyers and brokers.

VIETNAM

Entrepreneurs: Thuc Vu, Jared Go, & Tra Vu
Company: OhmniLabs
Description: OhmniLabs is a Vietnam and Silicon Valley-based robotics company focused on providing modular robotics solutions for businesses. OhmniLabs’ library of tech modules, cloud AI, robotics services, and proprietary ultra-lean development & manufacturing processes allow it to innovate at an unmatched speed, cost, and margin compared to other robotics companies, delivering robotics solutions in a quarter of the time at 1/10th the cost. With over 400 clients in verticals including healthcare, education, and manufacturing, and thousands of robots in operation, Ohmnilabs aims to democratize access to robotic technologies for the benefit of businesses and consumers around the world.

Endeavor selected ten entrepreneurs leading six companies at the Twelfth Virtual International Selection Panel (vISP) held February 22-24, 2021. Endeavor now supports 2,141 entrepreneurs leading 1,338 companies in nearly 40 markets around the world (read more about the newly selected entrepreneurs below).

The virtual ISP was presented by General Atlantic, with additional support from AXA, Bain, Cooley, EY, HSBC, Silicon Valley Bank, and Zoom.

The ISP is the culmination of a rigorous multi-step selection process to identify high-impact entrepreneurs who demonstrate the potential to leverage Endeavor’s resources and mentorship to create large-scale wealth and jobs, and are committed to reinvesting their time and money in their local entrepreneurship ecosystems to help others take off.

During the vISP panelists utilized Zoom breakout rooms to interview a small group of high-caliber entrepreneur candidates leading four companies about their businesses. In “deliberation rooms” — private Zoom meetings with only Endeavor staff and panelists — panelists evaluated the entrepreneurs on their potential for high-impact growth, discussed which candidates should be selected to become Endeavor Entrepreneurs, then voted unanimously to select the newest Endeavor Entrepreneurs.

Panelists at the ISP included: Bob Lord, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Ecosystems and Blockchain, IBM; Bruce Hack, Founder & Chief Executive Officer, BLH Venture; Chris Zook, Former Partner, Bain & Company; Drew McElroy, Co-Founder & Chairman, Transfix; Elaine Coughlan, Managing Co-Founder and Partner, Atlantic Bridge (Endeavor Ireland Board Member), Ernest Bachrach, Former Managing Partner, Advent International (Co-Chair of Endeavor Miami Board); Mike Fries, Chief Executive Officer & Vice Chairman, Liberty Global (Endeavor Colorado Board Member); Rob Reid, CEO, RipCam Media; Serio Furio, Founder & CEO, Creditas (Endeavor Entrepreneur; Endeavor Brazil Board Member); Steve Frazier, Senior Advisor, McKinsey & Co., Fmr. VP, Amazon; Steven Mail, Founder & Managing Partner, Mail Capital; and Vu Lam, Chief Executive Officer, KMS Technology (Endeavor Vietnam Board Member).

As part of Endeavor’s network, the newly selected entrepreneurs will gain access to comprehensive, strategic, global support services, including introductions to local and international business mentors, investors, and volunteers from Fortune 500 consulting firms who will help them address key needs.

Endeavor Entrepreneurs have had a significant track record of impact. Endeavor Entrepreneurs have created 4.1 million jobs, generated $26.8 billion in revenues in 2019, and help build sustainable growth models in their home countries.

Learn more about the companies selected below:

BRAZIL

Entrepreneurs: Alber Guedes & Maurício Schneider
Company: Solubio
Description: Agriculture pesticides are not just bad for the environment, but also expensive as a result of distribution and supply chain intermediaries. Solubio is changing this in Brazil by providing on-farm biological management via its capsule, machine, and technical assistance, enabling farmers to produce their own biological pesticides on site and reduce costs by up to 40% on crops such as soy, wheat, cotton, sugar cane, coffee, and vegetables and fruits. Since 2017, Solubio has gone from serving 120K hectares to over 2M hectares in 2020, paving the way to taking on the biological pesticides market.

COLORADO

Entrepreneur: Mario Ciabarra
Company: Quantum Metric
Description: Quantum Metric is a SaaS platform that consolidates the point solutions used by marketing, product, engineering, and IT teams by gathering real-time customer data into a single version of truth and enabling a process called Continuous Product Design (CPD) a $20B market. With one comprehensive set of data about the customer journey, teams gain insight into how they are able to improve their customer experience in real time, helping organizations build better digital products faster. Having recently closed its $200M Series B valuing it at $1B, Quantum Metric has seen rapid adoption, now serving over 100 enterprise customers, including four of the Fortune Top10.

GREECE

Entrepreneurs: Charis Arvanitis
Company: Spotawheel
Description: Like many markets, European consumers know the pains of buying used cars. To change this paradigm, Spotawheel started as a mobile mechanic to give buyers peace of mind right outside the dealer lot. Over the years, the company evolved into a full-stack e-commerce platform for used cars. The company offers quality inventory and a transparent customer experience to typically underserved, value-sensitive customers. To date, Spotawheel has sold thousands of vehicles in Greece and Poland, with plans to expand into a pan-European platform, capitalizing on a massive $540B second hand vehicle market with over 35M annual end-user transactions.

KENYA

Entrepreneurs: Greg Murray & Sagun Saxena
Company: KOKO Networks
Description: KOKO Networks is a venture-backed climate-tech platform based in Kenya and India, delivering carbon-negative cooking fuel to the urban mass-market. Urban Africans spend $40B per year on cooking fuel, most of which is deforestation-based charcoal. Annually, the African charcoal industry drives 1B tons of CO2e, 5M acres of deforestation and 600,000 deaths from indoor air pollution. KOKO’s hardware and software technologies enable clean bioethanol cooking fuel to be accessible at low cost within a short walk of homes, undercutting demand for charcoal and enabling a material quality of life upgrade for low-income households. Founded in 2014, KOKO’s 700-strong team is scaling rapidly in Kenya and investing in geographic expansion. 

MEXICO

Entrepreneur: Ángel Sahagún
Company: albo
Description: albo is the leading Mexican challenger bank, offering mobile banking, virtual/physical cards, peer-to-peer transactions, bill pay, cash advance loans, and budgeting tools and services for customers. albo focuses on the largest segment of Mexico’s market — lower and middle income — and since launch in 2016 has acquired 500K MAU. albo has raised $71M from Valar Ventures and Mountain Nazca as it scales its user base and increases its credit and other product offerings, including expanding into servicing SMEs. albo’s goal is to develop financial technology to transform people’s relationship with money and to become the top neobank in the region.  

SPAIN

Entrepreneurs: Christian Hense, Juan Martinez-Barea & Marko Bitenc
Company: Universal DX
Description: Early detection is one of the most powerful weapons we have in the battle against cancer. While traditional options are expensive, ineffective, and have low compliance rates, UDX is creating a cancer platform consisting of minimally invasive, blood-based solutions for early cancer detection. As colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most deadly cancer worldwide, the founders decided that CRC early detection would be their starting point. With $44M in funding from top tech entrepreneurs, family offices, and biotech funds and 2 approved and 6 filed patents, Universal DX is poised to tackle the $20B CRC screening test market before expanding to a broader panel of cancers on its mission to win the fight against cancer.

Endeavor is pleased to announce the launch of a new office in Romania. Leveraging partnerships with three local founders, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Dedeman, and Globalworth, and with backing from local business leaders, Endeavor Romania will support founders and companies that have passed through the initial start-up phase and can demonstrate the potential for rapid expansion and scale.

“We’re thrilled to launch Endeavor in Romania to help local entrepreneurs scale up and multiply their impact by investing in, mentoring and inspiring the next generation. With access to Endeavor’s global network, the Endeavor Catalyst co-investment fund, and support from a strong founding board, we’re confident Endeavor Romania will have a meaningful impact on Romania’s most innovative entrepreneurs and the country at large,” said Endeavor Co-Founder and CEO Linda Rottenberg.

Founded in 1997, Endeavor’s network spans nearly 40 countries today, across Latin America, Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and the U.S., leading the global entrepreneurial movement by selecting, mentoring and accelerating the best high-impact entrepreneurs in the world. Since its inception, Endeavor has supported over 2,000 entrepreneurs worldwide, which generate combined revenues of over $26 billion, have created over 4.1 million jobs in their local economies and, in 2019, raised over $3.6 billion in capital. Endeavor Catalyst is a rules-based fund designed to support the Endeavor selected entrepreneurs with their equity financing rounds and contribute to the sustainability of the network.

The office, which will be Endeavor’s sixth in Europe, will be led by Mihnea Craciun, an executive with over 20 years experience in banking and finance, working for the EBRD and ING Bank.

“Endeavor is a wonderful addition to the Romanian entrepreneurial support eco-system, providing a best-in-class seal of approval, an unrivalled personal and professional network, frictionless co-investment capital, and peer-to-peer idea exchange in a truly global setting,” commented Craciun. “This is a unique value proposition for the Romanian market.”

Endeavor’s aim in Romania is to search for, select, mentor, and dramatically accelerate the best high-impact entrepreneurs by helping them to think bigger, make better decisions by accessing talent, investors, and global markets and multiply their impact by becoming role models, mentors, and investors in their local ecosystems. The local Board of Directors includes Marius Stefan, CEO and co-founder of Autonom Group, Monica Cadogan and Calin Fusu, the co-founders of Vivre, Vargha Moayed, Chief Strategy Officer of UiPath, Tiberiu Moisa, Deputy CEO at Banca Transilvania, Voicu Oprean, CEO and founder of Arobs, Andrei Dunca, the Co-Founder and CTO of LiveRail, and Costin Taracila, Managing Partner of RTPR. Dan Lupu, Partner in Early Bird Venture Capital, will join as Senior Advisor. The board is completed by the representatives of the three founding partners, Karina Paval of Dedeman, Dimitris Raptis, CEO of Globalworth Group and Mark Davis, Regional Director at EBRD.

“We encourage entrepreneurship as a key factor for economic development which in turn leads to a sustainable and competitive entrepreneurship ecosystem,” commented Mr. Raptis. “We are glad to contribute to the expansion of the Endeavor organization in Romania, a country where we operate as an office market leader precisely because we consider it to be the most attractive business environment in South-Eastern Europe. We are convinced that our joint efforts will lead to the creation and consolidation of successful companies that will strengthen the Romanian economy. We are happy to share our know-how and experience in order to assist start-up companies on their journey to business success.”

“Entrepreneurship, risk taking and innovation are woven in the DNA of Dedeman’s story and we are thrilled that with the support of Endeavor, more young companies will get to experience the exciting scale up journey. We are confident that the marriage of talent, mentorship and access to capital will accelerate the growth trajectory of the next generation of local entrepreneurs, planting the seeds for a more equitable and prosperous future for Romania,” added Mrs. Paval.

“The missions of Endeavor and EBRD are complementary in many ways. We work towards catalyzing the development of the entrepreneurial environment in Romania and are delighted to join forces,” said Mr. Davis of EBRD.