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Endeavor was founded in 1997 on the belief that job creation, innovation, and overall prosperity flourish where there is robust support for High-Impact Entrepreneurs.

Endeavor is the leading global community of, by, and for High-Impact Entrepreneurs — those who dream bigger, scale faster, and pay it forward. Driven by our belief that High-Impact Entrepreneurs transform economies, Endeavor is on a mission to build thriving entrepreneurial ecosystems in emerging and underserved markets around the world.

Endeavor creates a Multiplier Effect by inspiring high-growth founders to dream bigger, supporting and investing in them to scale faster, and providing a platform to pay it forward — thereby compounding their individual impact.

Endeavor also serves as a global thought leader, demonstrating why high-impact entrepreneurship matters and how important innovations can come from anywhere in the world.

To sustain Endeavor’s long-term operations in a mission-aligned way, Endeavor created Endeavor Catalyst — a rules-based, co-investment fund set up to invest in the same High-Impact Entrepreneurs that Endeavor supports. Today, Endeavor Catalyst is among the world’s top early-stage funders of startups-turned $1B+ companies (“Unicorns”) outside of the U.S. and China.

Endeavor Catalyst is Endeavor’s rules-based, co-investment fund that invests in the companies of Endeavor Entrepreneurs. With $500M in Assets Under Management (AUM) across four funds, Endeavor Catalyst has made 300+ investments in 35+ markets and counts 57 $1B+ companies in its current portfolio as of May 2024. By investing in the companies of Endeavor Entrepreneurs via Endeavor Catalyst, we are not only providing a value-added service to our entrepreneurs, but we are also sharing diversified investment opportunities with our various stakeholders and setting Endeavor on a path to becoming a financially self-sustaining organization on both a Global and Local level. Learn more here.

Endeavor Entrepreneurs go through a rigorous selection process, which begins at the local level and culminates with an International Selection Panel (ISP), which is held either virtually or in-person in one of Endeavor’s global markets.

• To qualify for an International Selection Panel, entrepreneurs must demonstrate that their company has reached a clear inflection point and shows real potential for regional, or global, scale and influence. We typically work with entrepreneurs we feel have the ability to grow 10x from where they are today. Historically, fewer than 5% of candidates who enter the initial selection process move on to an ISP.
• At each ISP, only those final candidates gaining ​unanimous ​approval from expert panelists become Endeavor Entrepreneurs. While there is no quota for selection panels (all or none of the entrepreneurs could be selected), we find that on average 70% of the entrepreneurs who reach the ISP stage are selected into the Endeavor network. The ​Endeavor seal of approval carries significant weight with investors, partners, and other industry leaders.

Today, there are a myriad of organizations entrepreneurs can turn to to find support depending on the stage of their company’s growth or the challenges they look to solve. Network members can be affiliated with these organizations and Endeavor, and indeed many are.

Endeavor differentiates itself and complements other ecosystem initiatives in some of the following ways:

We focus on scaleups, not startups

• Scaleups are companies with clear product-market fit that are entering their next phase of growth. Entrepreneurs must demonstrate that their company has reached a clear inflection point and shows real potential for regional, or global, scale and influence. We typically work with entrepreneurs we feel have the ability to grow 10x from where they are today.

We are about high-impact entrepreneurs, not social impact entrepreneurs

• Endeavor defines high-impact entrepreneurs as those with the biggest ideas; the greatest potential to achieve meaningful scale; and the ones who generate a multiplier effect by paying it forward, paving the way for future generations of founders and turbocharging ecosystem growth.
• We believe in the power of high-impact entrepreneurs to solve big societal problems at scale and build a better tomorrow, but our criteria for selection do not focus on social impact.

We are not an accelerator program with a graduation date

• We select Endeavor Entrepreneurs with a company
• We are demand-driven and evolve our highly curated services to reflect what Endeavor Entrepreneurs need to scale.

We are not a lifetime achievement award

• We challenge Endeavor Entrepreneurs to continue growing.
• We expect them to pay their success forward at the right time.

We are not just another fund

• We have a rules-based fund, Endeavor Catalyst, that remains entrepreneur-first in execution and values alignment.
• We are the one whom entrepreneurs turn to when there are issues with investors.
• We view our selection process as a service (vs. diligence process), in which all entrepreneurs who go through it receive valuable mentorship and perspectives to grow their businesses and themselves as leaders.

We are not a life raft for entrepreneurs

• We are there in the good and bad times for entrepreneurs to provide tailored support in an environment of trust.
• But we can’t be everything to everyone. EEs have to engage and use the network to get the most value out of it. And we aim to select entrepreneurs who can lead through crises on their own, using Endeavor as a trusted resource, but not a crutch.

Our model is truly of, by, and for entrepreneurs

• Our founder remains our CEO.
• Endeavor Entrepreneurs go on to sit on Endeavor boards, serve as international selection panelists, and invest in Endeavor Catalyst, guiding and adapting our model according to what entrepreneurs need.
• Endeavor Catalyst will fund and sustain our operations to support the next generation in new and existing ecosystems. Our aim is to be fully funded based on the success and reinvestment of the very EEs we support.

We are a global community

• Our 500+ staff in our local offices and our global headquarters in London, New York, San Francisco, and Singapore operate as a unified organization with a shared mission, values, and model. Network members can:
  • Find a home base in your local market
  • Know you have an Endeavor home in any market we operate in
  • Access global connections and services through our headquarters
• Our community’s identity is rooted in the concept of #OneEndeavor: We — staff, entrepreneurs, board members, and mentors — are borderless, multi-dimensional, and unified by our commitment to helping one another find opportunities wherever we live.

As metrics of success, we measure annual revenue, jobs, and growth for our EEs, alongside their willingness to “pay it forward” by becoming mentors, investors, and even Endeavor board members. Today, hundreds of Endeavor Entrepreneurs serve as mentors in our network, and dozens as Board Members or investors in Endeavor Catalyst, our global rule-based, co-investment fund.

In 15 countries, the VERY FIRST unicorn ($1B+ company) was founded by an Endeavor Entrepreneur (in one case a former Endeavor Managing Director); in 20 countries, two thirds of the earliest unicorn cohort is composed of Endeavor Entrepreneurs. Our entrepreneurs are serving as aspirational role models and mentors for the next generation of founders as well as investing in future scale-ups that will, in turn, produce jobs and innovation in their markets.

The 600+ staff in the Endeavor network operate as a unified organization with the same mission. The Endeavor network welcomes opportunities to work with one another across borders and dedicates itself to facilitating valuable connections among our network. Once an Endeavor Entrepreneur is selected, they gain access to a dedicated and vibrant global network of peer and expert support that transcends borders, helping them reach scale, and multiplying their impact in their local ecosystems and beyond. Many of our former employees have gone on to work for Endeavor Entrepreneurs or become venture capitalists in their markets, furthering the Endeavor mission even beyond their full-time tours of duty.

Yes. We launch about two new markets a year on average. You can see all our local office locations here.