What Canva and Spotify say about the future of VC

Spotify wasn’t born in California; it came from Sweden. Canva was sketched out in Australia. Shopify is a Canadian story, and SHEIN, while born in China, scaled out of Singapore. These platforms didn’t rise to prominence because of where they started, but because of what they built.

And yet, we still talk about “the rest of the world” as if innovation has a fixed center. Although it may sound benign, “rest of world” quietly positions most markets as peripheral, secondary, late to the game.

At Endeavor, we often use the term Elsewhere because it invites us to look beyond what’s familiar, no matter where we’re standing. We believe the margins will be the next centers, and that disruption is coming from elsewhere — especially the least expected spots. 

Here’s what we see from over here.

1. Venture Capital is going global

Twenty years ago, it was undeniable that venture capital was a predominantly US industry, with close to 95% of global venture-capital investments being made in the United States. Ten years later, that number was down to 70%. In 2018, the scale tipped, and now about 40% of VC dollars go to US-based companies — meaning most of it is deployed internationally.

But the rise in “international” investments is credited to only five countries: China, India, Germany, the UK, and Israel. If you include the United States, then only 8% of global private capital investment is deployed outside of those established economies, despite markets elsewhere having a 40% share (and growing) of the world’s GDP.

However, to Endeavor Catalyst, our rules-based fund, that’s an opportunity. And we can see the shift in capital flow happening in real time, led by Endeavor Entrepreneurs who increasingly attract international capital and the world’s attention.

Not by chance, 91% of our investments are in countries whose potential is overlooked — and we’ve also expanded our geographic scope over the years. When we first launched Catalyst in 2012, we were heavily focused on Latin America. Today, our top markets span across four continents. We expect growing Endeavor operations in countries like Vietnam, Pakistan, Nigeria, and the recently launched Ukraine to be among our top markets in the next five to seven years.

2. There are increasingly more unicorns outside the main hubs

In 2013, Aileen Lee coined the term “unicorn” to describe the rare breed of private billion-dollar startups. At the time, there were 39 of them, all US-based. Fast forward to today, and there are over 1,400 unicorns globally. Half of them are outside the US.

If this follows a similar path as capital deployment did, likely, we’re only a year or two away from having a majority of non-US unicorns around the world.

We support 88+ unicorns in 26 countries across Latin America, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and beyond, all ecosystems once dismissed as too small, too risky, or too slow. Of those, 14 were the first unicorns in their countries.

Kavak in Mexico, Rappi in Colombia, Insider in Turkey, Moniepoint in Nigeria, Tamara in Saudi Arabia, and Bukalapak in Indonesia are just a few examples — and part of a broader rebalancing. As they become mentors, investors, and role models for up and coming founders in their communities, they create a Multiplier Effect™ that compounds with each generation — yet another peek into what the future holds.

3. Industry shapers come from where you least expect

It’s no longer just that good companies come from Elsewhere — it’s that the best ones do. And there are reasons for it.

In the world’s least expected markets, founders are building with fewer resources, tougher hiring environments, and far less institutional capital available. But when connected with a community of world-class founders and mentors, any constraint becomes sharpened execution, focus, and urgency.

You might have heard of Mercado Libre, Latin America’s biggest marketplace with a market cap of $121B. Or Careem, a UAE-born super-app that beat every outsider in MENA and was acquired by Uber in 2020 for $3.1B.

Founded by Endeavor Entrepreneurs, these and many other companies elsewhere take the world’s center stage:

• Italian Bending Spoons has grown into a €350M+ revenue machine by quietly acquiring products like Evernote, Filmic Pro, and Komoot, and scaling them with a proprietary AI-native M&A engine from a country rarely mentioned in tech headlines.
• Codeway, based in Istanbul, has become a consumer AI powerhouse with over $100M in revenue. No outside funding. No HQ in London or SF. Just a hyper-efficient app factory that reaches millions of users across the globe — and does it profitably.
• Meanwhile, from Brazil, Wellhub powers wellness for over 18,000 companies and their millions of employees across the U.S., Europe, and Latin America. Formerly known as Gympass, Wellhub is valued at $2.4B and a category leader on all three continents.

Just like them, there are more popping up each month. From Poland, where we just hosted our 103rd in-person International Selection Panel, we selected 21 entrepreneurs leading 14 companies. Among them were Jooble, an international job search website born in Ukraine that serves an average of 30 million monthly users in 67 countries, and Docplanner, a Polish platform that connects patients with healthcare professionals that’s a market leader in Poland, Italy, Brazil, and Mexico.

These are all proof that global success also happens outside Silicon Valley — and the future will hold many more stories like theirs.

We believe this is a three-decade story and that we’re only about halfway through. If founders from overlooked markets have already built this much with limited tools, the real question isn’t, ‘Can they compete?’ but rather:

 ‘What’s possible when they’re given everything they need to scale?’

Capital flows are shifting. New playbooks are emerging. And the foundations of tomorrow’s most impactful companies are already being laid — in places the world still doesn’t pay attention to.

If you’re still asking whether elsewhere can win, you’re not seeing what’s already unfolding. The future is Elsewhere.