18 High-Impact Entrepreneurs from Eight Countries Join Endeavor Network at the 69th Selection Panel in Kuala Lumpur

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – February 23, 2017 – Endeavor selected 18 high-impact entrepreneurs representing ten companies and eight countries at its 69th International Selection Panel (ISP) held February 20-22 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia — the first of 2017. In total, Endeavor now supports 1421 entrepreneurs leading 886 companies in 27 growth markets around the world. Panelists at the event, hosted by the Endeavor Malaysia office, included top global business leaders and investors who were drawn from Endeavor’s extensive network of mentors and supporters.

Two previously selected Endeavor companies, Alissar of Jordan and Gift Card Indonesia, also returned to the ISP as Global Acceleration Panel candidates — a program that allows Endeavor Entrepreneurs selected at least two years prior that have reached another inflection point in their company’s growth to receive structured and comprehensive feedback.

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.

“Bringing together entrepreneurs, staff, board members, mentors and supporters from all corners of the world in Kuala Lumpur, the International Selection Panel was a true testament to how far and wide the Endeavor network has grown since our “crazy idea” 20 years ago,” said Endeavor Co-Founder and CEO Linda Rottenberg. “Thanks to our wonderful staff at Endeavor Malaysia for supporting the event, and to our teams around the globe who believe that no place is too far and no idea too big for the #OneEndeavor network.”

In Kuala Lumpur, 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 our generous worldwide ISP sponsor EY, as well as Asia School of Business for hosting the Interview Day.

In 2017, Endeavor will host ISPs in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (March 15-17), 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). 

View photos from the Kuala Lumpur ISP here: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3.

Learn more about what happens during the ISP in this video from Endeavor Malaysia, below.

Brief descriptions of the selected entrepreneurs and companies follow.

BRAZIL

Entrepreneurs: Lucas Queiroz, André Ferraz, Alan Gomes & Denyson Messias
Company: In Loco
Description: Brands are constantly looking for ways to learn more about their customers, but lack the technology to be targeted in their advertising approach. GPS technology is used to geo-locate potential customers’ smartphones and serve them ads according to their location, however, the signal is too weak to penetrate concrete restricting a brand’s reach to mobile devices that are outdoors. In Loco’s proprietary indoor location technology enables advertisers to push targeted ads to consumers with accuracy of seven feet and precision of 90%, giving brands the unprecedented ability to influence consumers’ in-store purchasing decisions. Through integrations with mobile apps, In Loco gathers over 250 billion monthly data points from 55 million users, which allows brands to serve ads that are eight times more effective than those of Google and Facebook.

BULGARIA

Entrepreneurs: Nikolay Nedev & Simeon Lukov
Company: Browswave
Description: Browswave’s software helps retailers and vendors track their price positioning relative to competitors across product categories and markets. Its innovative web crawler technology sifts through two million URLs to extract pricing and availability information on millions of products at a time. Clients including Samsung, LG, ASUS and Toshiba currently use Browswave to make more informed and instantaneous pricing decisions. 

INDONESIA

Entrepreneurs: Nirmal Rajaram, Stefanie Kurniadi & Rex Marindo
Company: Cita Rasa Prima
Description: Cita Rasa Prima Group (CRP) develops brands and products that showcase the unique and rich flavors of Indonesian cuisine. In 2013, CRP launched its first restaurant brand, “Nasi Goreng Mafia” which gave new life to beloved street foods with unique flavors and entertaining mafia-themed eateries. CRP restaurant brands are known for their fun takes on national dishes, constantly updated menus, and always-fresh décor. With high-quality ingredients and top-notch service, CRP is serving elevated Indonesian food at a price anyone can afford.

JAPAN

Entrepreneur: Satoshi Sugie
Company: WHILL
Description: WHILL is reinventing the wheelchair. Inspired when a wheelchair user told him, “I’ve given up on even going to the grocery store two blocks away,” founder Satoshi Sugie and his team went to work designing a lighter, smaller and more mobile device than the market’s other options. Already awarded numerous accolades for their design, the company has a presence in both Japan and the US, where it has received FDA approval.

MALAYSIA

Entrepreneurs: Fadzarudin Shah Anuar & Vivy Sofinas Yusof
Company: FashionValet
Description: FashionValet (FV) is Malaysia’s first multi-label fashion company that provides women access to the best Southeast Asian designers and designs through its ecommerce website and retail stores. With over 400 designers under its belt and four privately owned labels, FV has positioned itself as one of the largest online fashion players in the regional market. In 2015, the company launched its own clothing line, as well two retail stores in Kuala Lumpur and one in Singapore. With a growing presence in Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, and Brunei, FV aims to deliver the best Southeast Asian brands to the world.

Entrepreneurs: Aaron Patel
Company: iHandal
Description: iHandal designs and installs heat energy recovery and recirculation hybrid systems for commercial and industrial facilities, reducing energy consumption by up to 75%. With its established presence in the Malaysian hospitality sector, iHandal is expanding to the industrial sector, providing more complex solutions that simultaneously lead to increased industrial productivity. ​

PERU

Entrepreneur: José Armando Hopkins
Company: Sentinel
Description: Sentinel is a Peruvian credit bureau that is modernizing the credit reporting industry by taking a proactive approach to traditional credit monitoring. The company’s subscription-based fintech platform minimizes its clients’ risk of overlooking important changes in the debt status of their customers, suppliers, employees or competitors by analyzing their portfolio on a daily basis and notifying them if any changes occur. Although private credit bureau coverage in Peru increased in the last decade, the country’s credit bureau market is ready for a growth spurt. Sentinel’s clients range from large corporations and financial institutions to SMEs and individuals. 

PHILIPPINES

Entrepreneur: Simon Bakker
Company: Kennemer Foods International
Description: Kennemer Foods International (KFI) sells high-quality fermented cacao internationally that it sources from thousands of smallholder farmers across more than 30 provinces in the Philippines. KFI’s integrated model proactively increases the productivity of each cacao farmer by 4x by providing access to high quality planting materials (seeds), farm inputs (fertilizers), ongoing technical training, financing, and global markets, with a guaranteed off take of a minimum of 70% of the cacao world market price. As a result, the model is helping smallholder farmers’ income increase by 300-600%.

Entrepreneur: Mikko Perez
Company: Ayannah
Description: Ayannah is a leading provider of digital financial services to the world’s emerging middle class, most of whom are migrants or unbanked coming from the base of the pyramid. Currently, 70 million Filipinos remain unbanked. Ayannah offers a suite of financial products and services from remittances to micro-insurance through its web-based platform Sendah. It has a network of over 7,000 direct agents, making its products easily accessible and convenient.

SOUTH AFRICA

Entrepreneurs: Melvyn Lubega & Andrew Barnes
Company: GO1
Description: People are often described as an organization’s most important asset. However, ensuring staff are well-trained across professional development areas can be challenging, time-consuming, and expensive. Recognizing the difficulty many organizations face in curating training content, GO1 has set out to make employee training as simple as clicking a button. GO1 serves as the “Expedia” for corporate training by allowing organizations to easily search, view, and book courses (both online and in-person) from GO1’s marketplace of 350,000 learning items, which seamlessly integrate with an organization’s existing Learning Management System. Established as a global business from the start, with operations in six countries and clients in over 20, GO1 is expanding its market presence globally, with the goal of serving as the world’s go-to resource for professional learning.