Endeavor closes third fund with Careem and Property Finder founders among LPs
Source: Endeavor
Endeavor Catalyst announced the final closing of Fund III, a $134M venture capital fund through which it plans to continue to invest in Endeavor Entrepreneurs in emerging and underserved markets globally.
Since launching Endeavor Catalyst in 2012, the fund has invested into more than 150+ Endeavor Entrepreneur-led companies across 30 different markets, including businesses like Globant (NYSE:GLOB) and Rappi (valued at $3.5B+) in Latin America, Peak Games (acq’d Zynga $1.8B, 2020) and Checkout.com (valued at $5.5B+) in EMEA, and Bukalapak (valued at $2.5B+) in Southeast Asia.
This $134M Fund III represents Endeavor Catalyst’s largest fund to date, surpassing the $120M target goal that had originally been set. It also brings Endeavor Catalyst’s total assets under management (“AUM”) up to $250M.
“Reaching $250M in AUM is an amazing milestone!” shared Linda Rottenerg, Endeavor’s co-founder and CEO. “I couldn’t be more proud of this amazing Endeavor team of 500+ people around the world who make this all possible. When we created Endeavor Catalyst eight years ago, we had a big dream: to build the world’s most founder-friendly investment fund that could be truly of, by and for entrepreneurs. Today, we are well on our way to making that dream a reality!”
Hande Cilingir, Co-founder & CEO of Insider. Endeavor Catalyst participated in Insider’s recent $32M Series C round as one of the first investments out of Fund III. Photo credit: useinsider.com
Endeavor Catalyst is backed by some of the world’s leading entrepreneurs and investors, including Reid Hoffman (LinkedIn), Michael Dell (Dell Technologies), and Pierre Omidyar (eBay), as well as General Atlantic’s Bill Ford and Pershing Square’s Bill Ackman.
Endeavor Catalyst Managing Director Jackie Carmel notes that that fund has also become “a powerful platform for Endeavor Entrepreneurs to reinvest their success in their peers,” with more than 60 Endeavor Entrepreneurs as investors in this latest fund. In Latin America, where Endeavor has been active since 1997, Fund III LPs include the founders of some of the region’s most successful scale-ups, including MercadoLibre, Nubank, 99, Creditas, eBanx, dLocal, Clip and others.
Across Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), dozens of Endeavor Entrepreneurs have also joined Fund III as LPs, including the founders of Careem, Yemeksepeti.com, Property Finder, Checkout.com, Softomotive, Moneyfarm, and Flutterwave, among others.
Careem co-founders Mudassir Sheikha, Abdulla Elyas, and Magnus Olsson. Endeavor Entrepreneurs and pioneers reinvesting their success in the MENA region — both directly into companies and via platforms like Endeavor Catalyst. Photo by Kieran Kesner for Endeavor.
As Mudassir Sheika, CEO of Careem (acquired by Uber for $3.1B) sees it, investing in Endeavor Catalyst is a “great way to ‘pay-it-forward’ and invest in high-quality entrepreneurs in frontier markets!”
With this new fund, Endeavor Catalyst plans to continue to co-invest in the Series A, B and C rounds of Endeavor Entrepreneurs — partnering with some of the world’s leading venture capital and grown equity funds as co-investment partners.
“We are proud to have at least one investor from every single country where Endeavor operates,” shared Managing Director Allen Taylor, “and we hope soon to be able to say that have at least one investment in every Endeavor market as well. We hold a deep conviction that entrepreneurial talent is globally distributed, and that this talent can build multi-billion dollar ‘scale-up’ companies everywhere.”
