Endeavor, a global firm that invests in entrepreneurs, announced that it has closed its endeavor Catalyst Fund IV raising $292 million, the largest fund to date, surpassing the fund’s initial $200 million – $250 million target. This brings Endeavor Catalyst’s total assets under management (“AUM”) up to $500M+.
Founded by Linda Rottenberg and Peter Kellner in 1997, Endeavor is an organization headquartered in New York City that supports entrepreneurs with potential for economic and social impact in their regions.
The organization provides the entrepreneurs in its network with services that help them grow ventures, create jobs, transform economies, and support future generations of entrepreneurs
The Endeavor Catalyst funds are designed as rules-based, co-investment funds that invest exclusively in companies led by Endeavor Entrepreneurs raising priced equity rounds from venture capital and growth equity funds, primarily at Series A, B and C. Among its portfolio, the most common investments are in the Fintech (26%), Retail & Consumer Tech (23%), and Enterprise Software & Services (18%) sectors.
Established in 2012, Endeavor Catalyst has made 260+ investments in 35+ different markets across Latin America, the Middle East, Africa and Southeast Asia, as well as underserved places in Europe and the United States. 49 investees of Endeavor Catalyst fund have reached the billion-dollar mark in valuation, including several IPOs and acquisitions. Some of the unicorns in Africa include Flutterwave in Nigeria and Swvl in Egypt.
According to Endeavor, these companies have collectively created nearly 2 million jobs and generated $17B+ of revenue in 2021.
With this fourth fund, Endeavor Catalyst will continue to co-invest alongside professional venture capital and growth equity firms into companies selected into the Endeavor network. Following an initial close earlier this year, Endeavor Catalyst has already made investments out of this fund alongside a16z, General Atlantic, Insight Partners, Lightspeed and Softbank, among others.
“We’re off to a great start with Fund IV,” added Taylor, noting that the current fundraising environment does not change anything about the fund’s core thesis. “We believe talent is everywhere, and we are building this for the very long-term. With Fund IV, we continue to double-down on the markets that have been most active for us over the past few years – Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia – and are excited about the opportunity to invest in new Endeavor markets like Pakistan.”
Endeavor opened an office in Nigeria in 2018 with Eloho Omame as the inaugural CEO. In 2021, Tosin Faniro-Dada took over from Eloho Omame as the new CEO.
