EWOR

🫂 Thanks for the kind words Piers MacNaughton, ScD !

🚀🚨 7 days to go until our 𝐋𝐈𝐕𝐄 𝐆𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐏𝐢𝐭𝐜𝐡 at St. Gallen. Let's go START Global! ➡️ If you missed our virtual Grand Pitch on Wednesday, this is a great chance to catch 11 of our fellows who are actively raising, including: 📤 Viktoria Izdebska, revolutionising lead generation with Salesy 🛒 Anastasia Trofimova, revolutionising grocery shopping with Your Beet 🥼 Mark Golab, developing surgical tools with Cambridge Surgical Models -- 🫂 We will also be running multiple exclusive community events throughout the event - if you want to be involved, drop a comment below! 🎟️ And, of course, we have an exclusive discount for you: use "GrandPitch2000" on checkout for 20% off! (Ticket link in comments!) -- 🔜 We simply cannot wait to see you there :) #startup #tech #entrepreneur

11 Outlier Founders meet 400 Top-Tier Investors. 🚀 Yesterday, we hosted an Online Grand Pitch to show that the future of tech does not just reside in Silicon Valley. 🌍 That is why we have a remote structure: We want to support Nerds, Rebels and Visionaries from 𝘢𝘤𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘴 the globe to create globally impactful companies. ➡️ And yesterday, we did just that. 11 of our fellows from across the globe pitched to a sea of Tier-1 VCs, GPs and angels: ♻️ Matthew Pierre-Louis, creating circular economy with Möbius Industries 💸 Ariel Harmoko, building Agentic AI accountants with Artifact AI 📤 Viktoria Izdebska, revolutionising lead generation with Salesy 🏡 Tyler Sellars, revolutionising real-estate investment with Cactus AI 🏦 Johann Rozario, streamlining KYC and compliance with Supplied 🌲 Piers MacNaughton, tackling domestic pollution with SeeAir, Inc. 💳 Kyle Collier, democratising property ownership with Neobanc 🔬 Salil Patel, creating digital biomarkers with Oxford Neurolabs. 🏎️ Elio Assaf, helping enterprise teams to work faster with Optiverse 🛒 Anastasia Trofimova, revolutionising grocery shopping with Your Beet 🥼 Mark Golab, developing surgical tools with Cambridge Surgical Models 👀 Mark Golab even brought a very real-looking artificial liver to his pitch, putting the Nerd, Rebel and Visionary in "Nerds, Rebels and Visionaries"! --- 🫂 Thank you to our investor partners for joining in and completing our ecosystem: Fabrice (FJ Labs) Cornelius Menke (Sequoia Capital), Sebastian Becker (redalpine), Gabriel Matuschka (Fly Ventures), Marcel Doeppes (Flix), Fred (Stride.VC), Rupert Schaefer (10x Founders) and many, many more. ❤️ And thank you to our awesome team-members for making everything run so smoothly: Dr Sonia Amend, Adriana Del Solar, Gülce Horataci and more! -- Finally, a note for those who missed out: Don't Fret. 🔜 If you could not make it, be sure to catch the LIVE version of our Grand Pitch on 21st March at START Global Summit in St. Gallen. Ticket link in comments! #startup #investor #founder #entrepreneur

‼️ 🚀 We are beyond excited to announce our new cohort of Ideation Fellows, a group of rebels, nerds, and visionaries tackling the world’s biggest challenges. This is one of the most talented cohorts we’ve ever brought together, including: 🌍 Josh Raine, co-founder of Wasoko, Africa’s leading B2B e-commerce platform, which scaled to $26M MRR and raised a $125M Series B. Josh is now ideating alongside Dr. Ghaz Samandari, PhD, a behavioral scientist, humanitarian, and tech founder with 20+ years of experience improving women’s and adolescents' well-being across nearly 30 countries. 🤺 Dila Ekrem, an 11x Turkish national fencing champion with 35+ medals from international tournaments who met her co-founders, David Podolskyi and Leon Stawowiak, while studying Management and Computer Engineering at Technical University of Munich. 🛰️ Anirudh Aggarwal, an aerospace engineer and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University graduate who worked on aero-engine manufacturing for GE, Pratt & Whitney, and Rolls-Royce. He recently co-founded Turbolence, a UAV startup focused on offshore cargo delivery. -- 🚀 Over the next few months, our Ideation Fellows will develop their ventures with guidance from our unicorn-founder-turned-mentors. We can’t wait to see their ideas take flight. 👀 In the meantime, we’ll be sharing their founder origin stories. (Trust us, it’s tempting to spill the details now, but it’s worth the wait). -- 🫂 Welcome to the EWOR community: Alexander Wolters, Alramina Myrzabekova, Anirudh Aggarwal, Célian Riboulet, David Podolskyi, Dila Ekrem, Dylan Nguyen, George Cheng, Dr. Ghaz Samandari, PhD, Greg Tucker, Josh Raine, Leon Stawowiak, Leonardo Benini, Luc Mahoux-Nakamura, Lyndon Leong, Maximilian Winter, Dr. Mykhaylo (Миша / मिशा) Filipenko, Nicolas Dehandschoewercker, Yimeng Li, Zebo Furqatzoda, Ziping Ye

🚨 𝐃𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐬 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐨𝐧 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐓 𝐒𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐢𝐭 (𝐰𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐚 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮)! ➡️ On March 20-21st in St. Gallen, we will be combining forces with START Global for our biggest ever LIVE Grand Pitch! 🚀 12 EWOR Fellows, each raising between €250k and €5M, will be taking centre stage to pitch to a crowd of top-tier investors. 🫂 Following the main event, we will be hosting an EWOR Community Meet Up with all of our Fellows, Investment Team and Partners. 🎟️ You can get a 20% discount using the code "GrandPitch2000": https://lnkd.in/eunrnzpJ -- 🔜 We can't wait to see you there - DM us if you're coming! #entrepreneur #startup #startsummit

🎙️ Daniel W. Dippold and Petter Made (Co-Founder of SumUp) recorded a podcast with Startup Insider about outlier founders. It’s a must listen conversation for any investors or founders out there who are too focused on products and commercials, rather than what really matters. Check it out, as linked in the comments! — ➡️ This podcast is Episode #1 of a new series which Petter Made will host called “Founder DNA”. 👀 Be sure to keep your eyes peeled as interviews with the likes of Fabrice Grinda (FJ Labs) and Markus Villig (Bolt) are on the way! #startup #founder #entrepreneur #tech

🗣️ Exciting news: Our new Fellow, Dr. Bjol R. Frenkenberger, has closed a €600k round for MIR Insight! 🔎 MIR Insight is an AI-based forecasting tool for manufacturing industries, with an initial focus on textiles, fibers, and plastics. ♻️ For context, the textile industry alone accounts for up to 8% of global CO₂ emissions, driven by 40% overproduction. Bjol’s mission is to tackle this waste at its root by making manufacturing smarter and more efficient. And we believe he will do just that. -- 🎹 Before entering the world of tech, Bjol was a child piano prodigy. At just 12, he won the Austrian National Piano Competition and achieved perfect grades in every subject at school. 📈 After earning a Master’s in Musicology from King's College London, an internship at Bloomberg took him to Japan, where he led business development at FiNC Technologies, a health tech data analysis platform.   🧑🏫 During that time he developed an interest in uncertainty and decision-making in business, which led to a PhD at University of Oxford where he secured over £35k in scholarships and ultimately graduated with Distinction. 💡 While at Oxford, he recognised how advancements in forecasting technology could revolutionise industries plagued by inefficiencies, particularly in manufacturing. That realisation became the foundation for MIR Insight. 🚀 In late 2023, he founded MIR Insight, using proprietary AI to forecast supply, demand, and pricing with up to 97% accuracy; and helping clients to avoid multimillion-euro costs while cutting CO₂ emissions. 📈 In 2024, the company secured €36k in ARR. In the last month alone, they’ve already secured €36k in revenue. With this momentum, MIR Insight is on track to hit £1m ARR in 2025. And with that prospect, the future of manufacturing looks a lot smarter than before. #entrepreneur #founder #tech

🗣️ Exciting update: Onur Demirci, who became an EWOR Fellow 2 years ago, has just hit £40 Million ARR in booked revenue with FINVISE! 🦄 (And with that revenue becoming effective, FINVISE will become a unicorn!) ➡️ FINVISE is the first and only RICS-regulated digital valuation company, specialising in regulated, AI-powered hybrid valuation reports for residential and commercial assets. 🏦 By combining industry expertise with advanced AI, FINVISE delivers fast, accurate, and unbiased valuations for leading financial institutions, including major lenders and banks. 👏 Traditional valuation methods are slow and outdated. FINVISE generates reports in a matter of seconds, a staggering 600,000x increase in efficiency.   🔐 Moreover, as a London Stock Exchange marketplace member and dual ISO-certified (27001 & 42001), FINVISE meets the highest standards of security and compliance.   👀 To meet growing demand, FINVISE is now preparing for a large Series A to scale its team and expand operations. Keep your eyes posted. -- Onur’s achievements are a strong testament to EWOR’s central hypothesis: Rebels, Nerds, and Visionaries create companies with global impact. Before founding FINVISE, Onur: 👨🏫 Became one of the UK’s youngest Senior Lecturers (Associate Professor), with a 5-year tenure. 💸 Spent a decade in the financial industry. ✈️ Spent many years as a cadet in the Royal Air Force (RAF). 📜 Alumnus of University of Cambridge with a focus on the mathematical principles shaping cognitive and pedagogical mechanisms underlying quantitative comprehension and abstract reasoning. 🏡 Alumnus of UCL, with a focus on valuations and the regulatory and strategic aspects of International Real Estate and Planning, accredited by both the RICS and RTPI. If you want to hear more about FINVISE, or Onur, send him a message - he’s always open to chat! #founder #outlier #startup #AI

Why do people in tech mistrust each other? 🔎 Whether in the context of investor negotiations, co-founder agreements or client contracts, Game Theory provides a plausible answer: When two parties have their own short-term self-interests in mind, even if they both think they are acting rationally, they may both end up worse off. The solution? "𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐲 𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐠-𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐦 𝐠𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐠-𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐦 𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞", as Naval Ravikant would put it. ⏩That is, abandon short-term thinking and select a group of business partners, peers, and friends whom you want to trust long-term. The minimum up-shot: you'll be efficient and save time. 👀At least, that is what Daniel W. Dippold thinks. Read his full-thoughts on how trust from the outset and long-term thinking create value in life: https://lnkd.in/eMvtUGAc #founder #gametheory #startup

🗣️ Excited to announce that Ricky Knox has closed a €4.5m round for Prosper! 🚀 Prosper is a wealth management platform for high-net-worth individuals, which uses AI to unlock private markets with transparent, low fees. 📈 First focusing on the €8tn pension savings market in the UK, Prosper already has over €200m AUM and is on track to reach over €1bn AUM by 2026. 🫂 We're immensely proud to call Ricky an EWOR fellow, and it is no surprise that he has hit the ground running with his latest venture. Why? He is the definition of a serial entrepreneur. --   📞 Ricky's first venture was GSM Systems, a telecom marketplace that now operates in over 70 countries and partners with over 170 mobile operators. Today, GSM Systems is run by Ricky's brother and manages 10% of Africa’s spare mobile parts market. 💰 After GMS Systems, Ricky founded Small World Financial Services, which grew to become the world’s fifth-largest remittance company with over €4 billion in ARR before its acquisition in 2018. 💸 In parallel, he built Azimo, a social digital payments platform that has facilitated remittances to 198 countries worldwide before being sold to Papaya Global in 2022. 🌱 With an 8 and a 9 figure exit under his belt, Ricky then launched Tandem Bank, a neo-bank for environmentally conscious consumers. 👏 Under his leadership, Tandem raised over €25 million, expanded to a team of more than 500 employees, and was recognised by The Sunday Times in 2024 as one of the UK’s top 100 fastest-growing tech companies. -- ➡️ Ricky stepped down as CEO of Tandem this year to focus on his two (!) latest ventures: Carbontricity, a marketplace for monetising green energy, and Prosper. (Define "Serial Entrepreneur".) When we asked Ricky why he keeps going, his answer was, simply: People. He wants to make a significant contribution to the value of individual lives. Now, with Prosper, Ricky is looking to democratise wealth management. And with his track-record, we are confident he will do just that. #startup #tech #founder