Lendorse

Last week, Bjoern attended the Frankfurt Digital Finance Conference to reconnect with industry leaders and decision-makers. It was a great opportunity to catch up with Ferdinand from European Investment Fund (EIF) and explore the forged collaboration to support students from developing countries studying in EU.

Many companies use off-the-shelve Aptitude/IQ/Cognitive tests to assess the candidates. Lendorse forward-looking underwriting and talent assessment is much more nuanced and holistic. The reason? Industry-standard tests can be gamed - with no extra prep and no smart uncle feeding him answers, Evgenii was able to jump from lousy 41st to more promising 85th CCAT percentile in a span of 30 min (and a cup of tea in between) by A/B testing precision vs speed tactics. Uncovering and nurturing potential is both an art and a science. At Lendorse, we blend objective data with deeper personality insights, integrating both ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ traits into our decision-making and ongoing support. #futureofwork #education #studentfinance #ccat #HumanPotential

We're hiring a Founders Associate to join Lendorse and to help us shape the future of education! Why join? 🚀 Get a front row seat to the fast-paced world of an early stage startup 🚀 Work directly with the CEO, Bjoern Christian Wolf, who has experience in McKinsey and building a unicorn startup 🚀 Your work makes a difference! See the impact of your actions, every day 👉 If you're great at getting stuff done, we'd love to hear from you. You can apply with the link below. Or, 👉 Spread the word and share it with your network!

Research papers consistently highlight that gaining relevant work experience during studies significantly increases the chances of securing full-time employment after graduation. A great example of this is Lendorse talent Ege Hassürücü, who began his career at Siemens Gamesa as a Working Student in July 2023. Thanks to his dedication and hands-on experience, he recently secured a full-time role at the same company as an MS Power Platform Developer—a fantastic achievement! We are proud to have supported Ege throughout his journey and are excited to see what future milestones he will reach.

A long-time supporter of fax machines and all things bureaucratic, our home turf Germany, has just taken a step in the right direction, embracing its digital future. On January 1st, 2025, a new digital platform has been launched for visa applications that aims to help people looking to work, study, or join family in Germany. Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock highlights the urgency: Germany is short at least 400,000 skilled workers annually in various sectors including tech, and modernizing the visa process is a crucial step to compete globally for students and trainees. The platform has already gathered ample critical feedback and is by no means perfect, but we nevertheless embrace these long-overdue digital transformation efforts. As Germany works to attract more talent from abroad, startups like Lendorse play a vital role in ensuring these efforts succeed. We help talented students from developing countries access education and build careers in Europe, contributing to a stronger and more inclusive workforce. 👉 See the link in the comments #talentmigration #skilledworkers #futureofwork #education #studentfinance

Whilst 2023 was our year of testing, 2024 was our year of raising the bar (and literally, raising). 👉 We received a term sheet of €10m in debt capital to help ~1000 students from developing and emerging countries to afford the education they have always dreamed of. 👉 We released our first marketing commercial. 👉 We pitched on one of the world's biggest startup stages. 👉 We fortified our underwriting and streamlined our payment process. 🌟 Most of all, we had the pleasure of meeting so many talented, bright and ambitious students from ALL over the globe, who dream of studying in Europe. Lendorse would not exist without its amazing community of people. To everyone who cheered us on, challenged us or simply said hello in 2024 - thank you for the support. To our ambitious and talented students from developing and emerging countries - we stand here like proud parents watching you grow, achieve your goals, and land the jobs that you worked hard to get. To our incredible team and all of our contributors - we would not be here without you! Thank you for all your effort. As for 2025, well, the next chapter is already in the works! Bjoern Christian Wolf Evgenii A. Hannah Sharpe #lifelonglearning #accesstoeducation #financialinclusion #socialimpact

At Lendorse, we believe that talent is universal, but opportunity is not. That’s why stories like Ravtej Singh Chandhok’s inspire us every day. With Lendorse’s support, he pursued his Master’s degree in Germany and then found a job. #Lendorse #SocialImpact #EducationMatters #TalentBeyondBorders

What a week at Slush! The Lendorse team hosted an SDG-Sauna event, braved cold dips in the Baltic, exchanged ideas with brilliant founders, and attended founder-centric events (thank you Kia & Kalle). Our absolute highlight though, is that out of nearly 1,000 startups, Lendorse was selected to pitch as part of the Slush Top 20, on one of the world's biggest startup stages. Our CEO, Bjoern, shared our mission in helping students from developing and emerging countries to access quality university education. Talent exists in every country, but when financial barriers stop it from thriving, it’s a loss not just for individuals but for society as a whole. It was great to share the stage with Europe's most promising startups, and a big congratulations to OASYS NOW for the win! Our event tour is not over yet, stay tuned. #qualityeducation #sdg4 #slushtop20 #slush2024

Today is the day! Bjoern Christian Wolf will be pitching on stage in front of thousands of attendees at Slush! Head to the Startup Stage at 11.40am (local Finnish time) to hear him explain how Lendorse is solving financial exclusion, the labour shortage gaps and the unequal access to education. Hear him introduce our amazing team, why we're passionate about education, and the moat that we've built that allows Lendorse to fund the education of >1000 students from developing countries. Lendorse will compete against 19 other incredible startups not only to win the pitching competition, but also the chance to work with the founder-first investors, Cherry Ventures and General Catalyst. Go team Lendorse! 🤩

We're so excited to announce that Lendorse is a Slush TOP 20 company! Come watch our CEO Bjoern Christian Wolf pitch on stage on 20th November!