Endeavor

Two thousand years ago, philosophers gathered at an amphitheater under the Acropolis to debate the big questions of their time. Last month, I stood on that same stage — the Odeon of Herodes Atticus — to tackle one of the biggest of ours: How can the rise of AI strengthen democracy, innovation, and shared prosperity? The conversation brought together Sir Demis Hassabis, Co-Founder & CEO of Google DeepMind and 2024 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. At a moment when technology is moving faster than policy, and with tensions surrounding innovation vs. regulation, this kind of exchange between a world-leading scientist and a head of government feels not just valuable, but essential. As Demis said: “If AI is going to affect every corner of the world, it’s important for the world to have a say in how this technology is developed — not just a small part of California.” That belief lies at the heart of Endeavor’s mission: ensuring innovation comes from everywhere by empowering entrepreneurs from markets “elsewhere,” namely those outside Silicon Valley and China, to shape how technology serves humanity. Watch the full conversation here → https://lnkd.in/eRniDTKA

Only 12% of the top GenAI mobile apps come from the US, meaning nearly 9/10 are being built Elsewhere. And they’re not just models. They’re products users love and that scale fast, often without the usual playbook of Sand Hill Road capital. 🔹 In Türkiye, Codeway is building AI-powered mobile apps: three of which appear in a16z’s top 50 AI apps. With zero venture capital, they’ve already hit $100M+ in revenue. 🔹 In Italy, Bending Spoons is quietly reshaping the mobile landscape, using AI as a tool to identify and acquire breakout apps like Evernote, Remini, and Splice. 🔹 In Tunisia, InstaDeep scaled frontier AI from Africa to the world — and was acquired by BioNTech for $682M. 🔹 In Vietnam, ELSA is teaching English to more than 50 million people worldwide. The story is the same across Spain, Brazil, and beyond: the future of AI is global and it’s already happening. 👉 Read the full article through the comments to explore how founders elsewhere are scaling the next wave of GenAI. #Elsewhere #GenAI #Entrepreneurship #Endeavor

Marcelo Cavazzoli saw a future where crypto belonged to everyone. So he built Lemon to make it real. Born out of Argentina’s economic volatility, Lemon began as an idea to make digital finance accessible when traditional finance was limited and digital currencies were still on the fringe. In 2019, Marcelo introduced a model that didn’t exist in the region: a dual wallet integrating fiat and crypto for everyday transactions, making digital assets simple, intuitive, and mainstream. Today, Lemon is one of Latin America's leading fintech innovators, with 5M users, 1.8M VISA cards issues, and operations across seven countries. Selected as an Endeavor Entrepreneur at the International Selection Panel (ISP) in Miami in 2024, Marcelo and his team embody innovation, resilience, and purpose. After a major financial turnaround and a sustainable growth strategy, Lemon is now entering a new chapter, expanding to new markets and doubling its user base across Latin America. According to Marcelo: “Now is the right time to do the impossible again: expand into four new countries in 12 months, doubling the number of users across the continent. We’re going to become the crypto platform with the widest reach in the entire region, and that will prepare us to bring the future of the internet closer to millions of people across Latin America” 👏 Congratulations to Marcelo and the Lemon team on this new round. #EndeavorEntrepreneurs #Fintech #Crypto #Innovation #Argentina #LatinAmerica #Entrepreneurship

The 2025 Nobel Prize in Economics feels like a powerful validation of our core belief at Endeavor: that innovation, not location, is the true driver of thriving economies. For decades, the world’s narrative around innovation has centered on Silicon Valley or Shenzhen. But this year’s Nobel Prize, awarded to Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion, and Peter Howitt “for explaining innovation-driven economic growth”, reminds us that the engine of economic progress — entrepreneurial innovation — exists everywhere. At Endeavor, we see this daily across our 50+ markets worldwide. From Lagos to São Paulo, Jakarta to Athens, founders are building companies that harness the power of artificial intelligence and deep tech to solve real problems and accelerate inclusive growth. As the Nobel laureates’ work shows, innovation fuels productivity, competition, and long-term growth. However, it also requires risk-takers, the entrepreneurs, willing to challenge incumbents, to adapt technologies to local contexts, and reimagine what’s possible. Those are the very people Endeavor exists to support. This Nobel moment is a reminder that economic growth depends on empowering more innovators, everywhere, and of why Endeavor’s mission to back high-impact entrepreneurs “elsewhere” and scale their breakthroughs globally has never been more urgent. Because the next generation of AI breakthroughs and the next wave of growth will not come from just one or two hubs, it will come from everywhere. #NobelPrize #Entrepreneurship #AI #Innovation #EmergingMarkets #GlobalGrowth #Endeavor #Elsewhere

The AI race isn’t won, it’s just beginning. In 2024, 80% of all AI venture dollars went to the US and China. But history reminds us: capital may be concentrated, innovation never is. At Endeavor, we see the greatest opportunities not in building models, but in applying AI to the problems people care most about. And those breakthroughs are emerging in the places we call Elsewhere: from Istanbul to Milan, Bengaluru to Tunis. These are markets where talent is abundant, entrepreneurs are scaling without traditional backing, and ecosystems are learning faster than ever. The next AI success story won’t come only from Silicon Valley or Beijing, it could be anywhere. 👉 Read our latest article, through the comments. #Endeavor #Elsewhere #MultiplierEffect #AI #Entrepreneurship #Innovation

This company has given warehouses new eyes and ears on the ground. And the idea didn’t come from Silicon Valley. It came from Bucharest 🇷🇴 Dexory began as a small team of Romanian engineers building robots that could see what humans couldn’t. Today, their 40-foot autonomous robots move through some of the world’s largest logistics hubs, scanning over 10k pallet locations an hour and feeding that data into a digital twin that shows what’s missing, what’s moving, and what’s worrying. But beyond technology, this milestone represents something deeper: 🌍 Global expansion: from roots in Romania to scaling across the UK, and now powering logistics in the US and APAC. It’s a story that didn’t start in Silicon Valley, but is transforming global supply chains from Elsewhere. 🧠 AI at work: Dexory’s robots are building one of the world’s richest real-world datasets for logistics. 🦾 A trillion-dollar industry: logistics has long been complex and hard to digitize, and Dexory is setting new benchmarks for how it can be done. This is the kind of story that inspires the next wave of deep tech innovation from Elsewhere. With roots in Romania, Dexory’s founders have become global leaders and local role models — a powerful example of the Multiplier Effect in action, as their success fuels new innovation in infrastructure and automation. Congratulations to Endeavor Entrepreneurs Andrei Danescu, Oana Andreea Jinga, and Adrian Negoita and the entire Dexory team. We’re proud to have participated in this round through Endeavor Catalyst and to see the ripple effects this success will generate for entrepreneurs worldwide. #AI #Endeavor #ElsewhereMarkets #Entrepreneurship

Startups outside Silicon Valley aren’t following the rules. ❌ They’re proving the rules don’t apply. While Silicon Valley offers us one model of success, we’ve seen firsthand that that playbook doesn’t travel well. In Elsewhere markets, founders write their own. Take three Endeavor Entrepreneurs: ▶︎ Sergio Furio (Creditas, Brazil) built fintech before smartphones were widespread, and survived long enough for the market to catch up. ▶︎ Michael Lahyani (Property Finder, UAE) turned a fragmented offline market into a digital movement across the Gulf. ▶︎ Tjaart van der Walt (TymeBank, South Africa) spiraled through ownership changes to become Africa’s first profitable digital bank. In Elsewhere markets, survival, resilience, and ecosystem-building matter more than speed. There isn’t one playbook, there are many. And that’s exactly where the opportunity lies. 👉 Read more in the comments. Endeavor Brasil, Endeavor UAE, Endeavor South Africa #Entrepreneurship #Endeavor #Scaling #EmergingMarkets #Founders

Two founders. Two continents. One bold vision for Brazil. 🌎🇧🇷🇦🇺 Endeavor Entrepreneurs Henrique Weaver (Brazil) and Michael Greer (Australia) joined forces to launch Pagaleve, a fintech tackling one of Brazil’s biggest financial barriers: access to credit. Their solution builds on PIX, Brazil’s instant payment system, to let over 60% of Brazilians who don’t have a credit card buy now, pay later — interest free and without barriers like minimum installment amounts. With a transaction-based credit approval model, Pagaleve increases approval rates and offers a more inclusive alternative for millions of consumers, while cutting costs for retailers. From Brazil’s Scale-Up program to becoming Endeavor Entrepreneurs in 2024, Henrique and Michael are now on a mission to make installment payments in Brazil as common and as accessible as cash itself. Congratulations to the Pagaleve team on this milestone! 🎉 #EndeavorEntrepreneur #MultiplierEffect #Fintech #Elsewhere

Every investor talks about discovering the next frontier. Few are actually looking there. Lots of VCs are interested in “international” companies, just not ones from there. That’s exactly what Marcos Galperin and his co-founders ran into when building Mercado Libre. Too many investors dismissed Latin America as an unworkable market for e-commerce and missed out on the company that helped launch an entire startup ecosystem. But this mindset hasn’t disappeared. VCs are still overly cautious about so-called “unproven” regions. “What’s next?” is the right question. But great investors should be asking a second one: 🔎 Where’s next? If you rely on the same signals, you’ll only see part of the story. It’s time to factor in the unique dynamics of local markets, not just their GDP. Talk to founders who didn’t go to Stanford or raise from Sequoia. Be curious about companies building in places you’ve never set foot. Because when the next big thing from Elsewhere lands on your desk, you’ll actually recognize it. Read the full article in the comments to learn more. #Elsewhere #Endeavor #EndeavorCatalyst #VC #Startups

 “If you become important enough, you’ll eventually move to San Francisco.” That's what one prominent VC from a Top 5 venture firm told a room full of Endeavor Entrepreneurs over a decade ago. And despite the fact that the world has now seen more than 700+ Unicorn ($1B+ valuation) companies built outside the United Sates - including companies like Mercado Libre (Latin America), Careem (MENA) and Paystack (Africa) - we're hearing the same thing again today, especially when it comes to building in AI. At Endeavor and Endeavor Catalyst, couldn't agree LESS. We don't buy the narrative that "everyone has to move to SF." We agree that some of the most exciting AI companies are being built in California today. But we also believe they are being built elsewhere. We see the future of AI being written in Polish dubbing studios, Spanish WhatsApp chats, Romanian banks, and beyond. • ElevenLabs (Poland) → a $3.3B voice AI company born from a frustration with bad movie dubbing • Luzia (Spain/Latin America) → 65M users in 2 years, one of the fastest-growing AI assistants in the world • DRUID AI (Romania) → powering enterprise chat + voice for global banks These companies aren’t building the infrastructure layer of AI. They’re applying it to the problems that matter most. And that’s where the real opportunities lie. Read more on this in Elsewhere: https://lnkd.in/gM7-kC8t Linda Rottenberg Pete Benedetto Mihnea Craciun Bartosz Lipnicki Antonio Iglesias