DUSTIN POH

March 21, 2017

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – March 21, 2017 – Endeavor selected 12 entrepreneurs leading nine companies from seven countries at the 70th International Selection Panel (ISP) held March 15-17, 2017, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Endeavor now supports 1,433 entrepreneurs leading 895 companies in 27 growth markets around the world.  Panelists at the event, hosted by the Endeavor Brazil office, included top global business leaders and investors who were drawn from Endeavor’s extensive network of mentors and supporters.

The ISP is the culmination of a rigorous multi-step selection process to identify innovative and driven entrepreneurs who are committed to advancing an ecosystem of entrepreneurship.

“As Endeavor celebrates 20 years, it was amazing to host a selection panel with one of our first-ever offices launched, Endeavor Brazil, which has grown to be a true a leader in the local ecosystem,” said Endeavor Co-founder and CEO Linda Rottenberg. “A big congratulations to the entrepreneurs selected in Rio de Janeiro!”

In Rio de Janeiro, panelists from around the world interviewed entrepreneur candidates about their businesses, evaluating them on their potential for high-impact growth, and then deliberated on which candidates should be selected to become Endeavor Entrepreneurs. Once selected, Endeavor Entrepreneurs gain access to comprehensive customized services, including introductions to local and international business mentors and volunteers from Fortune 500 consulting firms who will help them address key needs.

Endeavor Entrepreneurs have had a significant track record of creating hundreds of thousands of jobs, generating billions of dollars in revenues, and building sustainable growth models in their home countries.

Endeavor would like to thank Santander for their generous sponsorship of the event, and Endeavor Brasil for hosting.

Endeavor will host the year’s upcoming ISPs in London, United Kingdom (May 15-17), Lima, Peru (June 28-30), Beirut, Lebanon (24-26), New York City (September 13-15), Sofia, Bulgaria (October 23-25), and Miami (December 11-13).

Learn more about the companies and entrepreneurs selected below.

ARGENTINA

Entrepreneur: Gastón Parisier
Company: BigBox
Description: Big things may come in small packages, but great gifts come in Bigboxes. Bigbox alleviates the pressure from gift givers to find the “perfect” gift by curating unique portfolios from over 2,500 experiences. Say your significant other really enjoys spas, but you don’t know the first thing about them. If you purchase a “Wellness” Bigbox for them, they can then choose from a portfolio of relaxing experiences such as a spa getaway, an in-home massage, or a personalized facial. Bigbox offers six carefully crafted portfolios: Gourmet, Wellness, Adventure, Stay, Mix, and Custom. Each bucket contains top-notch excursions such as skydiving in Lobos or dining at “The Best Restaurant in Argentina.”

BRAZIL

Entrepreneur: Fabiana Salles
Company: Gesto
Description: Disrupting the status quo in the US$500 million insurance brokerage market in Brazil, Gesto is a new world insurance agent that allows large corporates to offer competitive benefits while controlling costs. Driven by intelligent software, Gesto’s platform allows its clients to identify and manage risks, choose the best health insurance scheme for their employees and negotiate better rates. With over 150 clients, two million individuals on the database and 200 million data points, Gesto hopes to impact 10 million lives and increase revenues by over 100% by 2020 .

Entrepreneurs: Sergio Rogal & Marcus Figueredo
Company: Hi Technologies
Description: Brazil’s Hi Technologies (HiT) hopes to increase access to quality healthcare through its product ‘Milli’ – a multifunctional device that monitors vital signals. With the ability to measure blood oxygen levels, sleep apnea, heart rate, and other vitals, Milli can be operated by any user (doctors, patients and family members) in any environment (ambulances, ICUs and at home). Operating in the US$8 billion medical device market for vitals monitoring, HiT distributes its device across 22 out of the 27 states in Brazil, as well as over 15 countries globally including Israel, Canada, USA and Germany.

Entrepreneur: Roberto Nogueira
Company: Brisanet
Description: Millions of households in Brazil’s rural Northeast region are still cut off from the internet and with that the global economy at large. Providing coverage to this huge neglected swathe is Brisanet, Brazil’s third largest regional internet service provider, which has found a way to provide not just internet but the highest-speed internet to the countryside. Its fiber optic network (today’s most advanced technology for data transmission) spans 18,000 kilometers and 32 cities, bringing 96,000 individuals and companies online.

COLOMBIA

Entrepreneur: Mauricio Osorio
Company: Crezcamos
Description: Nearly 35% of the Colombian population lacks access to financial services, especially in the country’s rural and remote areas, where only 16% of farmers have access to formal lending. In the wake of a peace agreement ending half a century of civil conflict, strengthening rural finance will be critical to advancing Colombia’s economic future and the consolidation of peace. Crezcamos is a leading Colombian microfinance institution (MFI) with an extensive rural footprint, offering financial services and insurance to unbanked farmers and merchants, thereby enabling them to increase their productivity and protect their livelihoods.

DETROIT

Entrepreneurs: Kyle Hoff & Alex O’Dell
Company: Floyd
Description: Floyd is a new kind of furniture company. Founded in Detroit in 2013, Floyd makes beautifully designed furniture for city living: simple to purchase, assemble, and move — and built to last. Starting with a bed frame and a table that ship right to your door, Floyd’s aim is to make furnishing an apartment an easy and enjoyable experience. Launched with a Kickstarter campaign, Floyd has since shipped its unique furniture to over 50 countries and built a loyal, impassioned following along the way.

ITALY

Entrepreneur: Davide D’Atri
Company: Soundreef
Description: Soundreef is the first private European company that collects and distributes music royalties on behalf of artists and publishers. Following a directive enacted by the EU in 2014 to liberalize the music copyright collection industry, Soundreef worked fast to defeat a royalty collection monopoly of 27 European Collective Management Organizations. Soundreef revolutionized its industry by establishing itself as an independent management entity to offer an alternative to inefficient and non-transparent collecting societies. It provides music users with cost-effective licenses and pays rights holders their royalties with full transparency letting artists, record labels and publishers know how their earnings are calculated. Operating in a US$7B European music copyright market, the company distributes background music to stores in 20 countries and pays royalties to artists and publishers worldwide.

PERU

Entrepreneur: Rodrigo Bedoya
Company: La Grama
Description: Through their experience in organic, food safety and social certifications, La Grama´s founders understood that quality, social responsibility and success go hand in hand. Yet, even as demand for organic goods was growing throughout the world, Peru’s most exotic and natural products were not reaching international markets. In 2006, La Grama was founded to fill this gap. The company exports high quality organic produce sourced from smallholder farmers across the Peruvian coast, mountains, and jungles to North America and Europe.

URUGUAY

Entrepreneurs: Fernando López & Diego Licio
Company: The Urban Haus
Description: The Urban Haus (TUH) offers denim and casual clothes with one-of-a-kind designs that change at a quick pace fit for fashion-forward consumers. Targeting customers who are trendsetters with unique styles, TUH creates an inviting shopping environment with detailed-oriented decoration and a relaxed ambiance in its stores. With 10 stores of its own and two franchises, this fast fashion brand is one of the local leaders in its segment in Uruguay. Capitalizing on the US$200B LatAm and North American retail industry, the company seeks to establish itself as a top international brand.

 

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