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About Endeavor

Founded in 1997, Endeavor fosters economic growth in countries worldwide by selecting, mentoring, and accelerating high-impact entrepreneurs. Endeavor’s entrepreneurs lead fast-growing businesses that generate jobs in Latin America, the Middle East, Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America. Endeavor provides its entrepreneurs with a network of seasoned business leaders who provide key ingredients to entrepreneurial success: mentorship, networks, strategic advice, and inspiration. Over the past 17 years, Endeavor Entrepreneurs have created more than 400,000 high quality jobs, directly reaching more than two million people across the world. Endeavor has achieved tangible results, with individuals working for Endeavor companies doubling their income over baseline or previous jobs, and Endeavor companies growing revenue 2.4 times faster than comparable firms over three years.

Current Operations of Endeavor

Endeavor is dedicated to high-impact entrepreneurship. Its main operations focus on identifying and supporting the continued growth of a select group of entrepreneurs, creating jobs, and adding revenues to foster entrepreneurship in those societies. Endeavor currently works in 21 countries across the world. In recent years, Endeavor’s operations have expanded into several countries; Endeavor launched in Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, and Greece in 2012, Miami (US), Malaysia, and Morocco in 2013, and Peru and Spain in 2014.In 2011, Endeavor launched Endeavor Catalyst, a passive co-investment pool that uses donated funds to support Endeavor Entrepreneurs’ professional funding rounds and to provide funding for Endeavor’s growth and financial sustainability. Endeavor Catalyst has raised approximately $15 million to date and has made its first nine investments.

Approach and Distinguishing Features

Endeavor is an organization of, by, and for entrepreneurs. Endeavor believes that entrepreneurship is vital to economic growth and job creation, and recognizes the reality that entrepreneurs in growth markets face obstacles that inhibit successful scaling of businesses, such as limited management expertise, lack of role models, contacts, investors, etc. To this end, Endeavor provides immense support to rising entrepreneurs and acts as a springboard to catalyze their success with business establishment and job creation. Over 80% of Endeavor’s entrepreneurs give back to their local affiliates and commit to mentoring the next generation of entrepreneurs.

Endeavor’s entrepreneurs lead fast-growing, typically for-profit businesses that generate jobs and create revenues in growth markets. Endeavor looks for businesses with the potential to scale and become world-class ventures and industry leaders. Endeavor is distinct from many other organizations in its focus on high-growth, high-impact, for-profit companies that can scale. Academic research demonstrates that high-impact entrepreneurs generate a disproportionate number of jobs over other entrepreneurs.

2015 Kravis Prize

Endeavor

Endeavor fosters economic advancement in growth markets by launching high-impact entrepreneurs.

FAST FACTS

400,000+

high-quality jobs created by Endeavor companies

2 million

people impacted directly by Endeavor companies

97%

of Endeavor companies are still in operation, compared to most entrepreneurial ventures in the same markets, which close within 42 months

FAWE: Gender is My Agenda Campaign (GIMAC) Summit

by | Jan 18, 2013 | Community Development, Education, FAWE, Female Empowerment, Poverty Reduction

At the Kravis Prize, we’re proud to honor those at the forefronts of their fields and exemplary leaders in the nonprofit community, knowing that their work has a tremendous impact on the larger world. In 1992, female education ministers of from five African countries established Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE) to advocate for the education of girls across Africa. At the time, an estimated 24 million girls were out of school in sub-Saharan Africa and FAWE’s founders recognized not only the personal benefits for girls who attend school, but also the extensive benefits for society at large. Since then, FAWE has been a tireless and effective advocate for education, constantly innovating and implementing programs to address the multifaceted problems facing educators and students throughout the region. Among the group’s activities is co-chairing the annual GIMAC (“Gender is My Agenda Campaign”) Summit, which this year featured as keynote speaker the African Union’s first woman chair, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma. All Africa contributor Samantha Nkirote Mckenzie reported on Dlamini-Zuma’s address during the summit’s first day, which focused on education: With the majority of Africa’s population being youth, there is a particular responsibility to ensure that the continent’s young people have the skills they need, Dlamini-Zuma said. “Education does not wait – it is a window that closes in time,” she said, underscoring the urgency of the situation. Several FAWE scholarship recipients attended the 21st annual summit, which also featured a welcoming address by FAWE Executive Director Oley Dibba-Wadda She said: “It is imperative that women and youth are supported and provided with the right tools so that they can engage and make...

Escuela Nueva: Learning Guides in Action

by | Jan 14, 2013 | Community Development, Education, Escuela Nueva, Vicky Colbert

Since founding the nonprofit educational organization Fundacion Escuela Nueva (FEN) 25 years ago to improve the quality and relevance of basic education in Colombia’s low-income schools, 2011 Kravis Prize winner Vicky Colbert has gained international acclaim as an educational innovator. The cornerstone of the world-renowned Escuela Nueva (“new school”) education model she co-authored is its Learning Guides – interactive tools that help children learn concepts through activities. As shown in this video, these educational tools promote collaborative learning and encourage reflection on the concepts being taught. This has a tremendous impact on students in low-income schools – and their teachers. In the coming weeks, FEN has announced that Learning Guides will be provided to nearly 200,000 students in need. Escuela Nueva Learning...

Egypt: Soraya Salti puts her money on Egypt’s youth

by | Jan 8, 2013 | Community Development, Entrepreneurship, INJAZ Al-Arab, Soraya Salti

2012 Kravis Prize winner Soraya Salti has spent more than a decade mobilizing the private sector and ministries of education across the Arab world to join forces in creating a new generation of business-minded youth. All Africa News recently published an article by Salti regarding Egypt’s development potential under the country’s new government. In their article entitled, “Egypt: Harness the Youth to Create a Culture of Social Entrepreneurship,” Salti argues that the key to Egypt’s success is to invest in its young people. Salti formulates her argument around three divisions of Egyptian culture that have shaped the country’s identity: rising Internet usage, a large private sector economy, and the region’s most celebrated media industry. She provides the following statistical analysis to contextualize the country’s online mobility: “Magnified by the Arab Spring, millions of young Egyptians are now active on online platforms. As of June 2012, nearly 30 million Egyptians had access to Internet, a 30 percent penetration rate (Internetworldstats.com). Twenty-five percent of all Facebook users in the Arab World live in Egypt, and in 2012 it added more users than any other country in the region, 70 percent of whom were in the 15-29 age bracket (Dubai School of Government, 2012). On top of this, a recent study from the Dubai School of Government found that Arabs increasingly view social media as a tool for developing entrepreneurial skills and gaining productive knowledge. She continues by offering three examples of how to most effectively engage these principles into Egypt’s entrepreneurial culture. As the Regional Director for INJAZ Al-Arab, an organization that uses mentorship by Arab business leaders to inspire entrepreneurialism and innovation among Arab...