Endeavor Catalyst, the venture arm of the global nonprofit Endeavor, has closed its fifth fund with $320 million in commitments, bringing total assets under management to more than $850 million. The money is earmarked for founders outside the traditional tech hubs — what Endeavor's own marketing calls 'elsewhere'.
The fund is run by managing partner Allen Taylor and managing director Jackie Carmel with a 16-person team, with Endeavor itself as general partner. 'Half of the fund's profits go back to Endeavor, so every investment helps the next generation of founders who are building elsewhere,' said co-founder Linda Rottenberg.
Access is deliberately narrow. To be backed, a founder must first be admitted to Endeavor's network, which screened more than 10,000 candidates last year and selected 88; the network now has more than 3,100 entrepreneurs in over 50 countries. When one of those founders' companies raises at least $5 million in a round led by another institutional investor, Endeavor Catalyst can join on the same terms. Cheques usually run $1 million to $3 million and cannot exceed 10 percent of the round.
With the new fund the team plans 40 to 50 investments a year and up to 150 companies in total. Across all five funds, Endeavor Catalyst has backed 437 companies in 44 markets; 83 are currently valued at $1 billion or more, with 39 exits and 11 IPOs. Its most valuable holdings include the AI voice company ElevenLabs — recently valued at $22 billion — the Italy-based software group Bending Spoons, which went public in July at a market capitalisation of about $26 billion, Reflection AI founded by two former Google DeepMind researchers and valued at $25 billion, plus Checkout.com, Flutterwave and Replit.
About 90 percent of the venture arm's investments sit outside the US, with Europe its fastest-growing region. The new fund counts 400 limited partners, including Reid Hoffman, Bill Ackman and the Dutch investment group Prosus; roughly 30 percent of those backers are Endeavor founders themselves. The raise lands at a moment when a growing share of venture capital is concentrating on AI companies in and around San Francisco — a concentration the fund's backers are betting leaves good companies elsewhere overlooked.
