NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Thursday, July 19, 2012

NEW YORK, July 18, 2012 — Endeavor, the world-wide leader in selecting, mentoring and accelerating high-impact entrepreneurs, announced that it has closed an investment round with AirTies, an innovative Turkish developer of wireless networking equipment with worldwide sales, as the third investment of Endeavor Catalyst.

Endeavor Catalyst is a revolutionary and high-impact initiative that uses donated capital to allow the organization to co-invest in Endeavor Entrepreneurs in a neutral, unbiased way. The main goal of this program is to use the returns of the investment both to support Endeavor’s operations and to be reinvested into Catalyst to provide funding for other Endeavor Entrepreneurs.

The investment is the first for Endeavor Catalyst in an Endeavor Entrepreneur in the MENA region and is part of a larger financing round led by international investment firm Invus which has headquarters in New York. It follows closely on investments in Argentine IT outsourcing leader Globant and Brazil’s Minha Vida health advisory website. Today, Catalyst investments total nearly $3.5 million.

The pioneering supporters of Endeavor Catalyst have each pledged $1MM to the investment vehicle, citing it as an innovative new model of philanthropy. The founding members of this Entrepreneurs’ Circle include Michael Ahearn, Chairman of True North Venture Partners; Edgar Bronfman, Jr., Former Chairman of Warner Music Group; Michael Cline, Managing Partner of Accretive LLC; Reid Hoffman, Partner of Greylock Partners and Co-Founder of LinkedIn; Arif Naqvi, Founder and Group CEO of Abraaj Capital; Pierre Omidyar, Founding Partner of Omidyar Network, Founder and Chairman of eBay.