Endeavor’s network is growing and welcomes two entrepreneurs with an impressive global traction, Andreas Raptopoulos (Matternet) and Tasso Roumeliotis (NumberAI). The companies, based in San Francisco, were selected during the 90th International Selection Panel (ISP) held in Atlanta, USA on September 23rd-25th. The ISP is the final stage of the multi-step selection process for choosing the new Endeavor Entrepreneurs. Andreas Stavropoulos, partner of Threshold Ventures (ex DFJ), was among the panelists.
Matternet, represented by founder Andreas Raptopoulos, has developed one of the world’s leading technology platforms for on-demand, aerial delivery of small parcels in urban environments. The company currently provides drone delivery services for hospitals in the United States and Europe, transporting life-savings parcels over dense, urban environments. Matternet was the first company to begin revenue-generating drone flights in the United States and recently entered into an exclusive, multi-year partnership agreement with UPS to roll-out services at other hospitals across the country. With proprietary cloud-based software, installed infrastructure solutions, cutting edge hardware, and regulatory backing, Matternet is poised to seize upon the coming revolution in drone delivery. The company has already raised more than $25 million from investors such as Boeing, Andreessen Horowitz and Sony.
NumberAI, represented by founder Tasso Roumeliotis, is a business messaging platform that enables SMEs to engage in two-way conversations with customers across different messaging services including SMS, Facebook and WhatsApp. The technology turns landlines into messagable numbers and provides small businesses with the tools and functionality to deal with an array of consumer needs, before they move to competitors. Numa, the AI platform, learns from interactions and can automate an increasing portion of customer service, including responses to FAQs, ordering, appointments, and reputation management. The company is strategically leveraging telecoms as a growth channel to access SMEs at scale.
Endeavor’s Managing Director, Panagiotis Karampinis, said: “Endeavor Greece’s strategy is to integrate into our global network the rapidly growing Greek entrepreneurs in our country, as well as the Greek entrepreneurs that operate abroad. We will provide them with the global support of the Endeavor network and we will create all the necessary conditions for them to start new divisions and develop investment activity in Greece. Their global traction and their extroversion as well as the networks they have developed will have enormous benefits for the Greek economy and Endeavor is a platform that can enhance and multiply these connections.”
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Endeavor is an international non-profit organization, which selects and supports the most promising companies around the world with the help of the most prominent business leaders and investors globally. Since 1997, more than 1900 Endeavor Entrepreneurs from more than 1200 companies have been selected globally, who have created more than 3 million jobs and in 2018 generated more than €20 billion in revenues. Since 2012, when Endeavor started operating in Greece, we support 23 greek companies: Blueground, Centaur, CHB – Christodoulou Brothers, Dust+Cream, Ergon, FrezyDerm, Green Cola, Hellas Direct, HotelBrain, InstaShop, Konva, NumberAI, Matternet, MTI, Oseven Telematics, Papadimitriou, Pollfish, Raymetrics, Softomotive, SYCHEM, Think Digital Group (TDG), Workable, Yodiwo.