While VCs crowd into San Francisco, Endeavor Catalyst raises $320M for founders ‘elsewhere’

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Endeavor Catalyst has closed its fifth fund with $320 million in capital commitments, bringing the firm’s total assets under management to more than $850 million. The raise is good news for founders outside the Bay Area who risk getting overlooked as more funds focus squarely on AI companies in Silicon Valley.

Endeavor Catalyst 已完成其第五支基金的募集，获得 3.2 亿美元的资本承诺，使其管理的资产总额超过 8.5 亿美元。对于湾区以外的创始人来说，这是一个好消息，因为随着越来越多的基金将目光完全锁定在硅谷的 AI 公司上，他们面临着被忽视的风险。

Endeavor Catalyst is the venture arm of Endeavor, a New York-based global nonprofit that has spent 30 years supporting founders outside major tech hubs. (It calls all those other places “elsewhere” throughout its marketing materials.) The fund is run by managing partner Allen Taylor, a 20-year veteran of the organization, and managing director Jackie Carmel, who joined Endeavor Catalyst 12 years ago, along with a 16-person team.

Endeavor Catalyst 是 Endeavor 的风险投资部门。Endeavor 是一家总部位于纽约的全球性非营利组织，过去 30 年一直致力于支持主要科技中心以外的创始人。（在其营销材料中，它将所有这些其他地方称为“别处”。）该基金由在该组织工作了 20 年的执行合伙人 Allen Taylor 和 12 年前加入 Endeavor Catalyst 的董事总经理 Jackie Carmel 以及一个 16 人的团队共同管理。

The official general partner, though, is Endeavor itself. What that means, says Linda Rottenberg, who co-founded Endeavor and helped start Endeavor Catalyst in 2012, is that “half of the fund’s profits go back to Endeavor, so every investment helps the next generation of founders who are building elsewhere.”

不过，官方的普通合伙人是 Endeavor 本身。Endeavor 的联合创始人、并在 2012 年协助创办 Endeavor Catalyst 的 Linda Rottenberg 表示，这意味着“基金一半的利润将回馈给 Endeavor，因此每一笔投资都在帮助下一代在‘别处’创业的创始人。”

The bar for those founders is pretty high. A person first has to get into Endeavor’s network, where he or she can access Endeavor’s mentoring and extensive network, and that’s hard. Last year, the group says it screened more than 10,000 candidates and picked 88. The network now has more than 3,100 entrepreneurs in over 50 countries.

对于这些创始人来说，门槛相当高。一个人首先必须进入 Endeavor 的网络，才能获得其指导和广泛的人脉资源，而这并不容易。该组织称，去年他们筛选了超过 10,000 名候选人，最终选出了 88 位。目前，该网络在 50 多个国家拥有超过 3,100 名企业家。

When one of those founders’ companies raises at least $5 million in a round led by another institutional investor, Endeavor Catalyst can join in on the same terms as that lead. The team tells TechCrunch that checks usually run $1 million to $3 million but can’t exceed 10% of the round. Over the next few years, they plan to make 40 to 50 investments annually, investing in up to 150 companies altogether with this new fund, they say.

当这些创始人创办的公司在由其他机构投资者领投的一轮融资中筹集到至少 500 万美元时，Endeavor Catalyst 可以以与领投方相同的条款参与投资。该团队告诉 TechCrunch，投资金额通常在 100 万至 300 万美元之间，但不能超过该轮融资总额的 10%。他们表示，计划在未来几年内每年进行 40 到 50 笔投资，通过这支新基金总共投资多达 150 家公司。

Taylor, via an email exchange, wouldn’t share numbers on cash-on-cash returns tied to its earlier funds, but he did point to some impressive-sounding numbers. Across all five funds, he says, Endeavor Catalyst has backed 437 companies in 44 markets. Eighty-three of those startups are currently valued at $1 billion or more, he says, and the unit has seen 39 exits and 11 IPOs.

Taylor 在电子邮件交流中没有透露与早期基金相关的现金回报率，但他指出了一些令人印象深刻的数据。他说，在全部五支基金中，Endeavor Catalyst 已在 44 个市场支持了 437 家公司。其中 83 家初创公司目前的估值达到 10 亿美元或以上，该部门已实现 39 次退出和 11 次 IPO。

Some of the venture arm’s most valuable holdings right now include four-year-old ElevenLabs, the maker of AI voice tools that was recently valued at $22 billion in a secondary sale (it was founded in Poland originally), and Bending Spoons, the 13-year-old Italy-based conglomerate that went public in July and that currently boasts a $26 billion market cap.

该风投部门目前持有的最有价值的资产包括成立四年的 ElevenLabs，这家 AI 语音工具制造商最近在二级市场交易中估值达到 220 亿美元（最初在波兰成立）；以及 13 年历史的意大利企业集团 Bending Spoons，该公司于 7 月上市，目前市值达 260 亿美元。

Other holdings include New York-based Reflection AI (founded by two former Google DeepMind researchers — one of whom was born in Greece), which is now valued at $25 billion; Checkout.com, whose founder is Swiss and which was valued last year at $12 billion; the African payments infrastructure company Flutterwave, valued this summer at $3.2 billion; and AI coding startup Replit, co-founded by Amjad Masad, who is Palestinian-Jordanian. Replit snagged a $9 billion valuation earlier this year.

其他持股包括总部位于纽约的 Reflection AI（由两名前 Google DeepMind 研究员创立，其中一人出生于希腊），目前估值为 250 亿美元；创始人为瑞士人的 Checkout.com，去年估值为 120 亿美元；今年夏天估值为 32 亿美元的非洲支付基础设施公司 Flutterwave；以及由巴勒斯坦裔约旦人 Amjad Masad 共同创立的 AI 编程初创公司 Replit。Replit 今年早些时候获得了 90 亿美元的估值。

Endeavor, the nonprofit, has especially well-connected people associated with it, including board members Reid Hoffman; Nick Beim, a career VC who has spent the last 25 years at Matrix Partners, then Venrock; and Edgar Bronfman Jr., the former head of Warner Music and Seagram, who chairs Endeavor’s board. Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is a longtime friend of Endeavor, too, having gone to Harvard with Rottenberg.

非营利组织 Endeavor 拥有人脉极广的关联人士，包括董事会成员 Reid Hoffman；在 Matrix Partners 和 Venrock 工作了 25 年的资深风投人 Nick Beim；以及曾任华纳音乐和施格兰公司负责人、现任 Endeavor 董事会主席的 Edgar Bronfman Jr.。希腊总理基里亚科斯·米佐塔基斯也是 Endeavor 的老朋友，他曾与 Rottenberg 一起在哈佛大学就读。

Altogether, Endeavor Catalyst’s newest fund includes 400 limited partners, including Hoffman; famed hedge fund manager Bill Ackman; and the Dutch investment group Prosus. According to Taylor, roughly 30% of those backers are Endeavor founders themselves, including founders of Nubank, Revolut, and Checkout.com.

总而言之，Endeavor Catalyst 的最新基金包括 400 位有限合伙人，其中包括 Hoffman、著名对冲基金经理 Bill Ackman 以及荷兰投资集团 Prosus。据 Taylor 称，这些支持者中约有 30% 是 Endeavor 的创始人，包括 Nubank、Revolut 和 Checkout.com 的创始人。

While so much attention is paid to what’s happening in San Francisco and its immediate environs right now, the bets of Endeavor Catalyst suggest what other investors may be missing, and Endeavor, with local teams and mentors in dozens of countries, seems particularly well-positioned to see it. Indeed, about 90% of the venture arm’s investments are outside the U.S., it says.

虽然目前人们将大量注意力集中在旧金山及其周边地区发生的事情上，但 Endeavor Catalyst 的押注表明了其他投资者可能错失的机会。凭借在数十个国家拥有的本地团队和导师，Endeavor 似乎处于发现这些机会的绝佳位置。事实上，该风投部门约 90% 的投资都在美国境外。

Europe is its fastest-growing region, with 12 new investments in the first half of 2026 compared with 14 in all of last year, though Latin America is still the largest. Repeat founders are also becoming a bigger part of the mix. Taylor tells TechCrunch that roughly 14% of Endeavor Catalyst’s fourth fund went to second companies started by Endeavor founders at the seed or Series A stage. With this new fund, the team expects that number will reach 20%.

欧洲是其增长最快的地区，2026 年上半年新增投资 12 笔，而去年全年为 14 笔，尽管拉丁美洲仍然是其最大的市场。连续创业者在投资组合中的占比也在增加。Taylor 告诉 TechCrunch，Endeavor Catalyst 第四支基金中约有 14% 的资金投向了 Endeavor 创始人在种子轮或 A 轮阶段创办的第二家公司。对于这支新基金，团队预计这一比例将达到 20%。