Berlin-based EWOR, a Founder fellowship, has dedicated €60 million to supporting early-stage entrepreneurs, providing chosen Founders €500k in capital which incorporates €110k from EWOR GmbH and an extra €390k from the funding fund by way of an uncapped convertible observe or related instrument.
On common, EWOR alumni have gone on to boost €1-11 million through the fellowship, together with “Europe’s largest-ever pre-Seed spherical by a first-time Founder“.
Daniel Dippold, Co-founder and CEO of EWOR, says: “The primary worth of our fellowship just isn’t cash. Most of our fellows don’t even want the cash. They be part of as a result of they’re obsessive about constructing one thing nice — they usually know that is the one place they’ll be actually challenged. EWOR just isn’t for everybody. It’s for the few who’ve the potential to construct trillion-dollar corporations.”
EWOR, based in 2021, is run full-time by six entrepreneurs who’ve constructed corporations price over €12 billion, together with SumUp, Regulate, ProGlove, united-domains, and Sigma Squared Society: Daniel Dippold, Alexander Grots, Florian Huber, Petter Made, Quinten Selhorst, and Paul Müller.
Collectively they’ve contributed and attracted €60 million in contemporary capital, with €30 million going towards a Collection A financing spherical for its working enterprise, EWOR GmbH, and one other €30 million allotted to a Luxembourg-based funding fund.
Petter Made, associate at EWOR, says: “EWOR’s strategy is to offer as a lot worth as an skilled full-time Co-founder by mixing scientific perception, real-world expertise and deep empathy for the founder’s path. We reject standardisation as a result of customary doesn’t work for the distinctive. Our mannequin is about curating situations the place the world’s rarest expertise can thrive.”
Based on knowledge offered to EU-Startups, out of greater than 35,000 candidates every year, EWOR accepts simply 35 entrepreneurs, who EWOR refers to as ‘fellows’. The choice course of relies on a mix of ML-driven sample recognition, intensive associate interviews and evidence-based testing.
Fellows are supported by means of a virtual-first mannequin constructed on 1:1 mentorship (together with 1 to five hours per week with a unicorn Founder), bespoke modules, and a curated community of over 2,000 mentors, VCs, and material consultants.
In contrast to the usual one-size-fits-all programme, EWOR’s fellowship embraces the Founder’s non-linear journey. It’s virtual-first, decentralised and borderless – to replicate the present actuality the place a Founder may construct a product in Nairobi, rent in Europe and fundraise in Silicon Valley.
For instance, they supported the crew behind Side Well being, a Moldova-based startup that raised funding in Silicon Valley and New York, and scaled to a €43.8 million valuation in lower than one yr after becoming a member of the fellowship.
Ten founders have to date been accepted into this yr’s cohort. They embody:
- UK-based Mark Golab, a 3D printing pioneer making use of the expertise to organ transplants with Cambridge Surgical Fashions.
- US-based Matthew Pierre-Louis, Founding father of Möbius Industries, a full-stack recycling robotics answer with a crew from MIT, Tesla, SpaceX and Boston Dynamics.
- UK-based Salil Patel, an Oxford PhD in Computational Neuroscience and NIHR educational radiologist, harnessing the ability of digital biomarkers to measure mind well being.
- Vienna-based Viktoria Izdebezka, Austria’s youngest supervisory board member in a public company and 2-time Founder, innovating AI-powered lead era with Salesy.
- UK-based Nick D’Aloisio, a 2-time Founder with two exits > €30 million, constructing a stealth mode startup.
EWOR fellow Ariel Harmoko, Founding father of Artifact AI, says: “I selected EWOR as a result of they arrive in extremely early, against many US fashions, and supply hours of hands-on assist each single week – from code evaluations to serving to construct our AI fashions. Working with EWOR seems like working with a Co-founder, not with an investor.”
Earlier EWOR fellows embody:
- Ricky Knox, who achieved two 9-figure exits with Azimo and Tandem Financial institution.
- Andrew Nutter, who constructed house exploration startup Gama after efficiently main Westwing to IPO.
- Tim Seithe, who led Tillhub to a bootstrapped exit at virtually €100 million.
- Ariel Harmoko, who just lately raised a €3.5 spherical led by a16z for his startup Artifact AI, after ten months inside EWOR’s fellowship.
- Jörgen Tveit, Founding father of vitality storage startup Thaleron, which raised Europe’s largest ever pre-Seed spherical (€11.4 million) by a first-time Founder.
EWOR fellow Jörgen Tveit, Founding father of Thaleron, says: “EWOR gives a community of individuals you possibly can construct the longer term with. No fluff, simply actual assist and world-class friends. The founders of EWOR are deeply technical and perceive the challenges of constructing a world-changing tech firm.”
