Business

Endeavor seeks female founders for acceleration program focused on fintechs

The Scale-up Endeavor Fintech program will preferably select 12 scale-ups that have female founders or co-founders. Registrations are open until April 2

Sergio Furio (Creditas) and Maria Teresa Fornea Caron (Bcredi). Photo: Creditas/Courtesy

LABS

07.Mar.2021 15:48 BRT
UPDATED 15:53 BRT

The Scale-up Endeavor Fintech program will preferably select 12 scale-ups with female founders or co-founders; and which are ready to scale their businesses aiming at the revolution in the sector;
Endeavor is looking for the following segments: payments, investments, trading markets, financial management, financial efficiency, fintech as a service, digital banks, crypto, blockchain, open banking, loans, receivables and insurance;
The five-month program will offer mentorship and meetups with C-level execs from fintechs such as Guiabolso, EBANX and Creditas;
Registrations are open until April 2.

The global network of entrepreneurs Endeavor is looking for female founders for its Scale-up Endeavor Fintech program. The initiative seeks to promote diversity and inclusion within financial technology firms.

Sponsored by Movile, MAG Seguros and Warburg Pincus, the Scale-up Endeavor Fintech program seeks 12 scale-ups that are ready to scale their businesses aiming at the revolution in the financial sector.

In the two previous editions, which featured 30 companies, the program accelerated six fintechs with female founders or co-founders: BCredi, Avec, Linker, Liber, Pismo and Kickante.

According to Endeavor, such a number reflects the inequality in the ecosystem and also in the financial sector: 63% of Brazilian fintechs are founded by men and only 21% have at least one woman in the founding team, according to the Brazilian Fintech Association (ABFintechs) in its 2020 report.

“The size of the potential fintech market is huge, it is estimated to be around US$ 4.7 trillion, in Brazil we already have 5 fintechs as unicorns and 4 have gone public. The market is very promising, but it lacks more diversity,” says Victor Xavier, Business Acceleration Manager at Endeavor.

“I joined two classes of the Scale-up Endeavor and, in all of them, I felt the receptive and welcoming environment. For this reason, I encourage women to sign up for the Scale-up Endeavor and use Endeavor’s support network to scale their businesses,” says Maria Teresa Fornea Caron, BCredi’s founder and participant in the Scale-up Endeavor Fintech 2020.

The initiative will preferably select 12 scale-ups that have female founders or co-founders and, from there, it will scale solutions aimed at accelerating the financial sector.

Endeavor is looking for the following segments: payments, investments, trading markets, financial management, financial efficiency, fintech as a service, digital banks, crypto, blockchain, open banking, loans, receivables and insurance.

Fintechs applying for the five-month length program (May to September) need to have a solid and validated business model.

The program offers mentorship and meetups with big names in the Brazilian fintech ecosystem, such as Thiago Alvarez, from Guiabolso; Ann Willians, from Creditas; Laura Melo, from Astella Investimentos; Alphonse Voigt, from EBANX; and Marcos Boschetti, from Nelogica. Registrations are open until April 2.