Endeavor Selects 13 Entrepreneurs from 9 Markets at the 15th Virtual International Selection Panel
Endeavor selected thirteen entrepreneurs leading seven companies at the 15th Virtual International Selection Panel (vISP) held May 17-19, 2021. Endeavor now supports 2,175 entrepreneurs leading 1,356 companies in nearly 40 markets around the world (read more about the newly selected entrepreneurs below).
The vISP was presented by General Atlantic, with additional support from AXA, Bain, Cooley, EY, HSBC, Silicon Valley Bank, and Zoom.
The ISP is the culmination of a rigorous multi-step selection process to identify high-impact entrepreneurs who demonstrate the potential to leverage Endeavor’s resources and mentorship to create large-scale wealth and jobs, and are committed to reinvesting their time and money in their local entrepreneurship ecosystems to help others take off.
During the vISP panelists utilized Zoom breakout rooms to interview a small group of high-caliber entrepreneur candidates leading four companies about their businesses. In “deliberation rooms” — private Zoom meetings with only Endeavor staff and panelists — panelists evaluated the entrepreneurs on their potential for high-impact growth, discussed which candidates should be selected to become Endeavor Entrepreneurs, then voted unanimously to select the newest Endeavor Entrepreneurs.
Panelists at the ISP included: Mohamed Azab, CEO and Founder, Seha Healthcare Co-Founder, AR ventures (Endeavor Entrepreneur, Endeavor Egypt Board Member); Cesar Carvalho, Co-Founder & CEO, GymPass; Dan Green, Corporate Partner, Gunderson Dettmer LLP; Anne Heraty, CEO, Cpl Resources (Endeavor Ireland Board Member); Hristo Hristov, CEO, HR Capital (Endeavor Bulgaria Board Member); Steve Kessel, Fmr. Senior Vice President, Amazon.com; Monica Mandelli, Global Head of High Net Worth Group, KKR (Endeavor Italy Board Member); Shu Nyatta, Managing Partner, Softbank (Endeavor Global Board Member); Raoul Oberman, Co-Founder and CEO, Artemis Impact (Endeavor Indonesia Board Member); Veronica Allende Serra, Founding Partner, Pacific Investments & Innova Capital Fund (Endeavor Global Board Member); Anderson Thees, Managing Partner & Co-Founder, Redpoint eventures (Endeavor Ambassador); David Wells, Fmr. CFO, Netflix.
As part of Endeavor’s network, the newly selected entrepreneurs will gain access to comprehensive, strategic, global support services, including introductions to local and international business mentors, investors, and volunteers from Fortune 500 consulting firms who will help them address key needs.
Endeavor Entrepreneurs have had a significant track record of impact. Endeavor Entrepreneurs have created more than 3.9 million jobs, generate combined revenues of over $28B, and help build sustainable growth models in their home countries.
Learn more about the companies selected below:
Aruna
Entrepreneur: Farid Aslam
Vertical: Commerce – Marketplace
Market: Indonesia
Description: Aruna is a commerce startup creating a fair and transparent marine-fisheries trade through technology innovation. It provides two solutions for fishermen: a digital fish auction platform to sell their catch at a fair price and a marketplace for seafood products, which utilizes data from the auction platform to ensure fair trade. With more than 20K fisherman and 32 fish processing miniplants throughout Indonesia, Aruna makes the sea a better livelihood for all by offering efficiency in trading seafood, providing wider access to local and overseas markets, and empowering the local fishermen community.
Brimore
Entrepreneur: Mohamed Abdulaziz and Ahmed Sheikha
Vertical: Retail
Market: Egypt
Description: Established in 2017, Brimore uses direct social selling as an alternative trading channel with the aim of providing the consumer a wide range of diverse high-quality products at affordable prices. Through a social commerce with a parallel distribution platform Brimore allows local suppliers to develop coverage nationwide through a network of individual distributors (mostly housewives) selling products through their circles. With a retail market size of $150B, currently 65% of Egyptian manufacturers are extremely underutilized due to their inability to reach the end customer. Brimore solves this by providing local suppliers a tool that connects them with individuals that can sell the products with efficient distribution costs, giving local suppliers a chance to distribute products that do not usually win shelf space. Brimore has 50K active sales champions, 9K monthly sales champions, 6000+ SKUs, 200 suppliers, operating across 9 categories
Cameo
Entrepreneur: Steven Galanis and Devon Townsend
Vertical: Consumer Tech: Entertainment
Market: Detroit, Greece and Miami
Description: Cameo is an online marketplace that connects fans directly with more than 40K of their favorite pop culture icons via personalized video messages, live calls, and direct messages. With more than $150M in capital raised from investors including Lightspeed, Jeff Weiner, Kleiner Perkins, Bain Capital, and Google Ventures, including a recent $100M Series C, Cameo’s success to date has been significant. In 2020 alone, Cameo was awarded Best Product in Forbes’ 2020 Social Media Awards; ranked #1 on The Information’s TI50 Most Promising Startups; and among Fast Company’s 50 Most Innovative Companies, Inc.’s Best In Business 2020, and Business Insider’s Top 100 Startups of 2020.
FintechOS
Entrepreneur: Teodor Blidarus and Sergiu Negut
Vertical: Fintech
Market: Romania
Description: FintechOS (FTOS) offers its bank and insurance customers a digital overlay platform on top of their existing legacy infrastructure to enable them to design, build and manage next generation end-to-end capabilities. The platform enables clients to aggregate data across internal and external sources, automate basic functionality, and deliver an environment for product and customer journey development in a low-code environment. By April 2021, the company had achieved over 2x YOY growth, with 40+ clients, while rapidly increasing its headcount to over 300. Also at the end of April 2021, the company successfully raised its $60M Series B round led by Draper Esprit, a record for Romania and second only to UiPath.
Honest Greens
Entrepreneur: Christopher Fuchs
Vertical: Food & Beverage
Market: Spain
Description: Honest Greens is creating a new booming niche in the healthy food industry offering farm-to-table chef-driven food from local suppliers in a quick, convenient, and affordable format. Consumers have a choice of customizable signature salads and entrees made from sustainably-sourced chef-prepared foods, and can order in-store, or on the Honest Greens app. Founded in 2015, Honest Greens has profitably bootstrapped its growth to $15M in 2019 with 10 locations in Madrid, Barcelona, and Lisbon.
Tembici
Entrepreneur: Mauricio Villar, Tomás Martins
Vertical: Smart City
Market: Brazil
Description: Tembici is the leading micro-mobility player in Latin America, offering a docked bike-sharing platform that provides more than 1.5 million monthly rides in 10 cities across Brazil, Argentina, and Chile. Tembici also leverages its docking structure for digital media advertising and ESG-related sponsorship contracts to Enterprise clients, like Bank Itau and Mastercard. With 14.6K bikes and 1K e-bikes, Tembici’s solution addresses the problem of daily urban commute with a solution that is cheap, fast, and environment-friendly, helping reduce more than 14,000 tons of CO2 gas emissions in the past 2 years.
TradeDepot
Entrepreneur: Kachi Izukanne, Ruke Awaritefe, and Michael Upkong
Vertical: Smart City
Market: Nigeria
Description: TradeDepot is a B2B e-commerce platform that enables retailers to order inventory through multiple channels (Web, Mobile, USSD and WhatsApp) and have it delivered the next day. Since launching in 2018, the company has grown its retailer base and has built out an extensive warehousing and logistics infrastructure, offering a wide catalogue of products. In Q3 2020, it launched a pilot of its inventory financing product and has since disbursed affordable loans to retailers on its platform. TradeDepot is organizing Nigeria’s fragmented retail landscape of 16M informal retailers and wholesalers which account for 90% of the country’s annual $105B retail spend.