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For nearly 15 years, Endeavor supported entrepreneurs as “venture capital without the capital.”
Then founders in our community pointed to something missing: financial backing could be a powerful signal of confidence, helping unlock funding in overlooked markets.
In 2011, Reid Hoffman and other Endeavor Global Board Members helped us develop a model that would do both:
Endeavor Catalyst launched in 2012 as a rules-based co-investment fund. It has since seen and helped shape many eras of global entrepreneurship.
2012 – 2017
2017 – 2019
2019 – 2022
2022 – 2026
2026 →
Reaching a fifth fund is rare in venture. 80% of VC firms don’t even get to their fourth. Doing it by betting on overlooked markets is rarer still.
That is a testament to what these markets had in them all along, and why we keep expanding the map. With Fund V, we made our first-ever investments in Venezuela and Sudan.
Forbes’ 2026 AI 50 featured more than a dozen companies and founders built or based outside the traditional US hubs.
This list is early proof, and a blueprint for who comes after.
Through 2022, most liquidity came from commerce and consumer internet businesses reaching maturity. Since 2023, exits have moved decisively toward enterprise software, now the most active exit category.
As AI ecosystems mature across more markets, we expect another big shift: more of the category-defining companies being built and funded today will reach larger scale and, ultimately, exit.
Cumulative number of exits, by category
| Year | Commerce | B2B Software | Fintech | Other | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 2015 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 2017 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| 2018 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| 2019 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 6 |
| 2021 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 16 |
| 2022 | 8 | 7 | 4 | 2 | 21 |
| 2023 | 8 | 10 | 5 | 2 | 25 |
| 2024 | 8 | 11 | 5 | 2 | 26 |
| 2025 | 9 | 15 | 8 | 5 | 37 |
| 2026 | 9 | 15 | 9 | 7 | 40 |
Values read from the source chart; replace with the live dataset.
The 2020–2022 era generated $100M+ in proceeds. After a correction period, liquidity is building again: we have seen exits out of every fund in the past 18 months, driving $60M+ in gross proceeds, including the recently announced $4B+ Altruist M&A transaction.
The next wave of exits is projected to generate ~$300M in proceeds from 2027–2030.
Gross proceeds by liquidity era ($M)
| Era | Acquisition | IPO | Secondary | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Build-up 1 (Pre-2020) | 9 | 3 | 7 | 19 |
| Peak (2020–2022) | 65 | 20 | 19 | 104 |
| Correction (2023–2024) | 5 | 0 | 4 | 9 |
| Build-up 2 (2025–2026) | 44 | 0 | 16 | 60 |
| Next peak (2027–2030) | 100 | 100 | 100 | 300* |
* projected
Build-up 2 uses the corrected figures (acquisition $44M, secondary $16M, total $60M). Segment splits for other eras are read from the source chart.
Even some of the most established names in venture are still finding new ground to enter. In 2025 alone, a16z made its first-ever investment in Pakistan, TPG’s The Rise Fund made its first move into the Middle East, and Tidemark made its first investment in Latin America.
Every one of these firsts is a signal that capital is increasingly following opportunity to markets it hasn’t reached yet, and that the list of “next” is nowhere near exhausted.
Tier 1 funds’ first investments into a new market
Company marks are placeholders until logos arrive; the a16z → Zar pair is the requested addition.
Latin America was at the heart of our early investment strategy, accounting for 65% of capital deployed in 2012. As our strategy expanded globally, the conviction in the region remained strong even as its share evolved to 36% by Q2 2026. Europe’s share more than doubled, led by Spain and Türkiye, while the Middle East produced three breakout markets in succession: the UAE, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia.
We still have many “firsts” in our pipeline.
Share of cumulative capital by region, by year (%)
| Year | Latin America | Europe | Middle East | Asia | US & Canada | Africa |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 65 | 35 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2013 | 54 | 46 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2014 | 67 | 31 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 2015 | 60 | 32 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 2016 | 57 | 21 | 14 | 7 | 1 | 0 |
| 2017 | 55 | 17 | 16 | 8 | 2 | 2 |
| 2018 | 48 | 21 | 16 | 8 | 4 | 3 |
| 2019 | 42 | 18 | 20 | 10 | 5 | 5 |
| 2020 | 42 | 19 | 17 | 10 | 6 | 6 |
| 2021 | 40 | 16 | 17 | 9 | 8 | 10 |
| 2022 | 36 | 19 | 19 | 9 | 8 | 9 |
| 2023 | 36 | 18 | 19 | 10 | 8 | 9 |
| 2024 | 38 | 18 | 18 | 10 | 8 | 8 |
| 2025 | 38 | 20 | 17 | 9 | 8 | 8 |
| 2026 | 36 | 22 | 16 | 10 | 8 | 8 |
Approximate values read from the source chart; swap in the dataset behind it.
Thank you to our Endeavor Entrepreneurs, LPs, mentors, co-investors, partners, and the extended global community building Elsewhere.
Now see where we’re headed.
Where we’re headed
