CANARY WHARF – LONDON, UK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Endeavor invited 17 High-Impact Entrepreneurs from Brazil, Colombia, Jordan, Lebanon, Mexico, and Uruguay at its 44th International Selection Panel. Endeavor now supports 708 High-Impact Entrepreneurs from 443 companies in 13 growth market countries. The entrepreneurs were chosen at a Panel held from June 25 - 27 in London, UK. The Panel was followed by a full-day Investor Network event, engaging 18 leading investment firms and more than two dozen early- and growth-stage companies that Endeavor invited from 12 growth markets including Brazil, Argentina, Jordan, Turkey, South Africa, and Indonesia.
“High-Impact Entrepreneurship has become a global movement. By holding this judging panel and Investor Network event in the world’s global financial center, we were able to attract panelists from 12 countries,” said Endeavor co-founder and CEO Linda Rottenberg. “Panelists included high-level executives from companies including Amazon, Bain, Barclays, Ernst & Young, and Microsoft. We also welcomed venture capital experts from Silicon Valley to Amman and Dubai.”
While the panelists deliberated, the candidates enjoyed a day-long educational program at the UK headquarters of Facebook, where they heard from several top executives.
At the Investor Network event, attendees participated in workshops, several customized “speed-networking” rounds, and informal networking.
Endeavor Entrepreneurs have had a significant track record of creating thousands of jobs and building sustainable growth models in their home countries. The International Selection Panel is the culmination of a rigorous multi-step Search & Selection process where top local and international business leaders interview and then offer guidance to entrepreneur candidates. Post-selection, Endeavor provides entrepreneurs with customized services provided by local business mentors and volunteers from Fortune 500 companies, consulting firms and top U.S. business schools. Additionally, Endeavor’s Catalyst program co-invests in Endeavor Entrepreneurs’ professional funding rounds.
Endeavor will host two more International Selection Panels this year in Istanbul (October) and Miami (December).
Entrepreneur(s)/Companies selected:
Brazil
Entrepreneur: Leonardo Lima de Carvalho
Company: ToLife
Description: ToLife makes the patient intake and care processes safer and more efficient through products that reduce the average wait time for treatment, assist in determining how to triage patients, and lower the risk of error in generating patient records.
Entrepreneurs: Luiz Noronha, Marco Ferras
Company: Britec
Description: Britec offers an innovative solution for construction demolition followed by the crushing and recycling of rock into gravel. With highly mobile machinery, Britec provides an on-site solution for construction companies, which helps them reduce the cost and time required to remove rubble and bring in gravel.
Colombia
Entrepreneur: Diego Saez-Gil
Company: WeHostels
Description: WeHostels is building the first social-mobile accommodation booking service, initially targeted at young backpackers. The service offers a simple yet powerful set of social features: users can not only browse and book different hostels around the world but can also see who else will be staying in each accommodation, allowing them to find travelers with shared interests, friends, or travel destinations. Through WeHostels, travelers can connect, interact, share tips, and plan activities together within the platform, even before arriving at their destination. The products are designed mobile-first for the “post-pc” era, considering that travelers are increasingly planning their trips from mobile devices.
Jordan
Entrepreneurs: Fadi Bargouti & Majdy Abo Mathkoor
Company: Curlstone
Description: Curlstone is an animation studio that creates original IP for 2D and 3D content (such as video and games) on a variety of platforms, including TV, film, and mobile and web-based channels. The studio is aiming to become a regional player through a Middle Eastern cultural focus in some of their projects while simultaneously establishing an international body of work.
Entrepreneurs: Jalil Allabadi
Company: Altibbi
Description: Altibbi provides Arabic-speakers across the world with a comprehensive online medical health portal entirely in Arabic. Altibbi’s users enjoy free access to a medical dictionary of over 65,000 terms, a “symptom checker”, health-related news and videos, Q&A opportunities with qualified doctors, and a directory of medical institutions in the Middle East and abroad.
Lebanon
Entrepreneur: Brahms Chouity
Company: At7addak
Description: At7addak (“I challenge you” in Arabic) is the first gaming community catering to the Arab world. The company hosts in-person game tournaments sponsored by the likes of EA and Activision and has a website where gamers in the region can find English and Arabic game reviews, videos, and chat rooms. The website also enables registered users to challenge each other to their favorite titles on existing platforms (console, PC, mobile) and At7addak’s “Automated Scoring software” uploads their scores to their At7addak profiles.
Entrepreneur: Rabih Nassar
Company: ElementN
Description: ElementN consists of two separate business divisions, the first a highly customized enterprise software solution for telco operators and the second a highly scalable back-end solution for mobile developers.
Entrepreneur: Taline Assi
Company: Mosaic Marble
Description: Mosaic Marble is the leading mosaic producer in the Middle East. The company’s mosaics are featured in over 15,000 homes across 13 different countries, including the residences of the King of Congo, Queen Alia of Jordan, and Oprah Winfrey herself. Employing 400 artisans across Lebanon and Syria, Taline is a role model for female entrepreneurs in the region.
Mexico
Entrepreneur: Gabriela León
Company: Gresmex
Description: Gresmex produces a line of surgical and medical disinfectants that features Virufin, its proprietary, bioselective active ingredient that is effective against almost all pathogens and safer for healthy cells than other disinfectants. Gresmex also has a private label business that produces products for Walmart and other similar retailers to resell using their brands.
Entrepreneurs: Diego Solórzano Cervantes & Jimena Pardo Díaz
Company: Carrot
Description: As Mexico’s first car sharing service, Carrot seeks to make it as easy and convenient as possible for individuals to get around Mexico City—a metropolis of over 20 million people—by allowing its customers to rent cars by the hour or day at key locations around the city.
Entrepreneurs: Hector Sepulveda, Luis de Yturbe
Company: Litebuilt
Description: Serial entrepreneurs Hector Sepulveda and Luis de Yturbe never believed there needed to be a tradeoff between environmental impact and bottom line results. In 2008 they developed a LEGO shaped cement block that is both environmentally friendly and up to 30% less expensive than traditional bricklaying practices. Since then Litebuilt’s construction materials have become a favorite of construction companies across Mexico.
Uruguay
Entrepreneurs: Daniel Armand-Ugon & Nicolas Batlle
Company: ConectaGames
Description: Since 2009, Uruguay-based ConectaGames has been creating multiplayer online and mobile versions of the most popular board and card games of each of the eleven countries in which it operates, including Argentina, Brazil, Portugal, Chile, Spain and Uruguay.
About Endeavor
Hailed by New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman as “the best anti-poverty program of all,” Endeavor is leading the global movement to catalyze long-term economic growth by selecting, mentoring, and accelerating the best high-impact entrepreneurs around the world. To date, Endeavor has screened more than 30,000 entrepreneurs and selected 708 individuals leading 443 high-impact companies.
With support from Endeavor’s worldwide mentor network, these high-impact entrepreneurs:
-Have created over 180,000 jobs
-Generated over $5 billion in revenues in 2011
-Inspire future generations to innovate and take risks
Headquartered in New York City, Endeavor currently operates in 15 countries throughout Latin America, Africa, Southeast Asia and the Middle East. As the high-impact movement expands globally, Endeavor will continue to prove that anyone with a big idea can succeed, from Silicon Valley to Latin America, the Middle East, and beyond.