Seven Outliers Who Became Regional Giants

Mercado Libre

Back in 1999, many investors in Silicon Valley wouldn’t have given Marcos Galperin a second glance. He was an Argentine founder trying to build an e-commerce company from his garage. 

To think that he could compete with leading American exports like eBay? Impossible.

But at Endeavor, we believed in Marcos, who became one of the first Endeavor Entrepreneurs in 1999. And the company Marcos was building was Mercado Libre, which became Latin America’s most popular e-commerce site and one of Time’s 100 Most Influential Companies, with a market cap of $100B+. (eBay’s, by the way, is currently $40B.) 

In 2007, Mercado Libre was the first Endeavor company to go public on Nasdaq. In 2017, it became our first decacorn — a unicorn scale-up with a market cap of $10B+. 

Amongst their many achievements, Mercado Libre provided Endeavor with the proof of concept, our go-to example when people want to understand just how big a company in an emerging market can be. Since our first class in 2018, Marcos and his team have been part of Endeavor Outliers — our annual program highlighting and supporting Endeavor’s top-performing companies.

“But over the years, we’ve seen other companies across regions step into that role. Whether they were first movers or emerged later, their impact is undeniable. They become reference points for their ecosystems and have a lasting ripple effect for the next generation of founders,” Nasim adds.

Here are six other Outliers making history in their regions.

Yassir

Car ownership remains in the single digits across much of Francophone Africa, while public transportation is often limited, unreliable, and unsafe. The issues affecting regular taxi services — random pick-ups, unavailability during peak hours, and poor customer service — have made the region ripe for mobility disruption. 

Led by Algerian founder and Stanford PhD Noureddine Tayebi — who became an Endeavor Entrepreneur in 2020 — the super-app Yassir is answering the call. With ride-hailing, grocery drop-off, and payment services, Yassir has more than eight million users across Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, South Africa, Senegal, and France. Founded in 2017, the app has already raised over $190M across several rounds and is one of the most valuable startups in North Africa. Since 2021, Yassir has been a consistent Outlier. And it’s not stopping anytime soon: Noureddine and his team are already eyeing fresh markets and products.

Careem

In Arabic, Careem means “generous.” It’s descriptive of the company’s internal mission, as a ride-hailing giant that transformed into a “digital butler” able to provide its users access to vehicle rentals, food delivery, grocery delivery, digital wallets, and more. But Careem now has a new definition: what success looks like in the MENA region.

Founded by Mudassir Sheikha and Magnus Olsson — later joined by co-founder Abdulla Elyas following the acquisition of his company — Careem’s footprint has been outsized in every possible measure, and the company has been an Outlier since 2018, too. It operates in over 70 cities covering 10 countries across the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia. In 2020, Uber acquired Careem’s ridesharing business for $3.1B, the largest tech acquisition in the Middle East at that point. In 2023, Careem spun out its non-ride-hailing services backed by a $200M investment from Emirates Telecommunications Group Company. 

Careem is the first company on the lips of anyone who wants to prove that massive regional success in the Middle East is possible — and the inspiration for a huge range of spin-offs and ex-employees founding their own companies, with $600M+ raised by the 10 largest startups founded by Careem alumni.

Rappi

“Hang on, let me do a Rappi.” This has to be one of the most common phrases in Colombia, where super-app Rappi has become so ubiquitous that it’s also its own neologism. Originally a food delivery app, Rappi now allows its users to buy food, pharmaceutical items, insurance, vacations, and much more, as well as expanding into entertainment and events. It’s become famous for its Turbo offer, which promises 10-minute delivery even in Bogotá’s hectic city streets.

And it’s been embraced eagerly by its regional users: all 35 million of them across nine countries. Simon Borrero and Sebastian Mejia co-founded Rappi in 2015 and became Endeavor Entrepreneurs in 2016, before Rappi became Colombia’s first unicorn in 2018 (and an Outlier the same year). Now with a market valuation of $5B, the company has recently expanded into AI to streamline services and predict demand, and many expect the company to aim for an IPO in late 2026.

MNT-Halan

While Egypt has made massive strides in financial inclusion, a significant portion of its 121 million citizens remains underserved by traditional banks. The financial inclusion rate surpassed 75% in 2026, a monumental shift from a decade ago when the majority were unbanked. However, access to credit remains limited: credit card penetration is still relatively low, at approximately 5%–8%. The problems are even more pronounced in underserved sectors and among women and young people. But fintech MNT-Halan, founded in 2018 by CEO Mounir Nakhla (who became an Endeavor Entrepreneur in 2019) and CTO Ahmed Mohsen, is determined to change this — not one person at a time, but in a burst of growth that has already seen them issue over $11B in loans and a million new credit cards to more than eight million customers.

The key to MNT-Halan’s success is a combination of technology-driven solutions — including Neuron, the first and only proprietary core banking software in MENA — and local market expertise. In 2023, MNT-Halan became Egypt’s first fintech unicorn and was also qualified as an Outlier for the first time. The company has since expanded to operate in Türkiye, the UAE, Egypt, and Pakistan.

Carousell

In 2012, three Singaporean friends bonded over their gadget enthusiasm and frustration with trying to sell old gadgets on clunky, desktop-focused, multi-step online forums. Searching in vain for a mobile-first alternative, they built their own prototype and joined a weekend hackathon, which they won conclusively. The interest they garnered at the hackathon prompted Co-Founder and CEO Siu Rui Quek to pull out of his honors program at the National University of Singapore and graduate earlier than planned, to focus all his energy on what became Carousell.

From a student-led project, Carousell grew to become Southeast Asia’s largest online marketplace for secondhand items, operating across Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, connecting millions of sellers to millions more of buyers. The company became a unicorn in 2021 and has continued to grow and eye options, including an IPO. Siu Rui Quek became an Endeavor Entrepreneur in 2025 and Carousell qualified as an Outlier the same year.

Toters

During COVID and a series of economic shocks in the MENA region, delivery app Toters stepped forward to bridge the gap between small businesses and the customers who could no longer visit them. Offering a “lifeline” at the time, Toters has now established its footprint as a leader in the region and become part of daily life for users in 10 cities across Lebanon and Iraq. 

Co-Founders Tamim Khalfa and Nael Halwani became Endeavor Entrepreneurs in 2018 while pursuing outside funding. In 2022, Toters raised an $18M Series B and became an Outlier for the first time. Since then, the company has consistently qualified as an Outlier and ranked in the top five of Lebanese delivery apps.

Discover the full class of companies building the future from Elsewhere. Meet the 2026 Endeavor Outliers class.