Endeavor Selects 12 Entrepreneurs from 7 Markets at the 23rd Virtual International Selection Panel
Endeavor selected 12 entrepreneurs leading seven companies at the 23rd Virtual International Selection Panel (vISP) held January 24-26, 2021. Endeavor now supports 2,274 entrepreneurs leading 1,412 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 interviewed a small group of high-caliber entrepreneur candidates about their businesses. Then, in “deliberation rooms,” panelists evaluated the entrepreneurs on their potential for high-impact growth, discussed which candidates should be selected to become Endeavor Entrepreneurs, and voted unanimously to select the newest Endeavor Entrepreneurs.
Panelists at the ISP included: Andy Hwang, Startup Investor/Advisor; Christopher M. Schroeder, Next Billion Ventures; Dan Caruso, Caruso Ventures (Endeavor Colorado Board Chair); Firat İşbecer, Commencis (Endeavor Entrepreneur; Endeavor Turkey Board Member); Hristo Hristov, HR Capital (Endeavor Bulgaria Board Member); Koichiro “Koh” Nakamura, Sozo Ventures; Luis Arbulú, Salkantay (Endeavor Entrepreneur; Endeavor Peru Board Member); Mariano Gomide de Faria, VTEX (Endeavor Entrepreneur); Monica Brand Engel, Quona Capital; Pablo Fernandez, Clicars.com (Endeavor Entrepreneur); Shari Loessberg, MIT Sloan School of Management; Vargha Moayed, UiPath (Endeavor Romania Board Member).
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:
Athena
Entrepreneur: Luke Nguyen
Vertical: Gaming
Market: Vietnam
Description: Athena is one of the pioneers and top mobile casual game companies in the ad-based model worldwide. Founded in 2015, the company has 10M monthly active users, it has logged 2B+ hours of usage to date, and its signature games are amongst the top 50 mobile puzzle and board games in the US. By focusing on data science and marketing and production excellence, the Athena team has developed 60 games so far and has processed over 7K TB of data per year.
Chari
Entrepreneur: Sophia Alj & Ismael Belkhayat
Vertical: Smart City
Market: Morocco
Description: Chari is a B2B e-commerce app with operations in Morocco, Tunisia, and France that connects traditional retailers to FMCG suppliers, providing a greater selection of goods (>600 SKUs), competitive prices, 24-hour delivery and free returns, as well as financial services including bookkeeping and closed-loop credit. Founded in January 2020, Chari was a member of the S21 cohort at YCombinator and raised $5M in Seed funding, one of the largest Seed rounds in Morocco to date. Now, the company seeks to launch new markets and further expand its financial services, becoming the B2B commerce leader throughout Francophone Africa.
Clara
Entrepreneur: Gerry Giacomán Colyer & Diego Iván García Escobedo
Vertical: Fintech
Market: Mexico
Description: Clara is an end-to-end corporate spend management solution for growing businesses in Latin America. The company is creating the future of how company finances are run and helping its customers be more successful, growing itself over 10x in the second semester of 2021. Clara’s credit cards, spend management solution, and payments platform are already being used by many top startups and enterprises in LatAm. The company is backed by leading regional and global investors, such as Coatue, DST Global, monashees, Kaszek, A*, ICONIQ Growth, Box Group, Global Founders Capital, Canary Ventures, Picus Capital, Avid Ventures, SV Angel, and notable angel investors.
Cora
Entrepreneur: Igor Senra, Leonardo Mendes, & Gustavo Viegas
Vertical: Fintech
Market: Brazil
Description: Cora is a Brazilian 100% digital bank that provides small and medium businesses with “the digital account your company deserves”. Its services include opening an account in minutes and access to a debit and a credit card. The company has grown its customer base 40% MoM from Oct. 2020-Oct. 2021 and already has 250K+ clients. With over $150M raised thus far from renowned investors including Ribbit Capital, Kaszek Ventures, QED Investors, Tiger, and Tencent, Cora is paving the way towards a more digitized, accessible, and flexible financial landscape for SMBs in Brazil.
Payhawk
Entrepreneur: Hristo Borisov
Vertical: Fintech
Market: Bulgaria
Description: Payhawk is a next-generation financial system that combines credit cards, payments, expenses, cash management, and pre-accounting into one integrated experience to give CFOs maximum control and visibility over their company spend. Its plug & play solution transforms payments and business spending, increasing operational efficiencies without the need to change banks, ERPs, or add IT resources. Founded in 2018, it has raised more than $130M from top investors including Greenoaks Capital Partners, QED Investors, Earlybird VC, and more, and is now used by organizations including Luxair, ATU, and Nexo, across 30 countries in the UK and Europe.
Tabby
Entrepreneur: Hosam Arab & Daniil Barkalov
Vertical: Fintech
Market: UAE
Description: Tabby is the first licensed FinTech company to provide a Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) solution across the GCC. Tabby enables consumers across the UAE and Saudi Arabia to flexibly pay for their online and in-store purchases either in a one-time deferred payment or in monthly zero-interest installments at checkout. Over 1M shoppers have used Tabby’s payment solution from 2,500 merchants and Tabby’s app has over 650K monthly users (4.8 App and Play Store rating).
360VUZ
Entrepreneur: Khaled Zaatarah
Vertical: Consumer Tech
Market: Jordan
Description: 360VUZ is a leading immersive Social Mobile App with the biggest international immersive premium content library of over 20K+ hours. The company is building a hyperconnected SVOD product to teleport, empower, and entertain its users by capturing and delivering live and on-demand 360° video and immersive experiences. Its mission is to build the ecosystem for immersive and virtual experiences for sporting events, influencer appearances, concerts, and more; building on the Metaverse while removing the barriers of TTA (Travel, Time, and Access). Founded in 2017, the company reached 120M monthly screen views and 5M users in 2021 and has ranked #1 on the App store in the Middle East and Asia in the entertainment category ahead of top players.