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A structural shift is under way in global venture capital, with investors increasingly turning to emerging markets as performance in traditional tech hubs moderates.
The best risk-adjusted returns are no longer concentrated in a handful of established ecosystems — and this is not a philosophical shift, it’s a performance-driven one.
In saturated tech hubs, competition for talent is intense, valuations are stretched and customer acquisition costs are punishing. Increasingly, investors are finding stronger risk-adjusted outcomes in markets that were previously viewed as peripheral.
Endeavor is seeing this trend play out across its global network. Founders in markets such as Poland, Turkey, Greece, Latin America, the Middle East and across Africa are building capital-efficient, globally ambitious companies shaped by local constraints that demand discipline from day one. Capital is increasingly following execution, not geography.
The shift was evident in December 2025 when South Africa hosted an international Endeavor event with global founders, investors and business leaders from its network in Stellenbosch. Fifteen companies from 11 countries were evaluated, with 10 entrepreneurs being selected to join Endeavor’s global community that includes the founders of unicorn companies — privately held businesses valued at over US$1-billion — such as GoTyme Bank (formerly TymeBank), Mercado Libre, Careem, Go1 and InstaDeep.
Imbalance correcting
Among those selected was Pineapple, a South African insur-tech company rethinking insurance for digitally native consumers. Its inclusion reflects the growing global relevance of South Africa’s scale-up economy and the calibre of businesses emerging from the region.
The broader context is significant. Regions spanning Africa, Latin America, Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe and the Middle East are home to more than 60% of the world’s population and nearly 40% of global GDP, yet historically received a disproportionately small share of global venture funding. That imbalance is beginning to correct.
Read: At last, South Africa is fixing its biggest VC bottleneck
A decade ago, most unicorns were founded in the US. Today more than half are built outside it, with capital beginning to follow.
South Africa has increasingly become part of this momentum. The country has attracted meaningful international investment, produced multiple billion-dollar technology companies, and developed depth across fintech, digital payments, health-tech, gaming, enterprise software and green technologies.
Companies like GoTyme Bank demonstrate that South African entrepreneurs can successfully scale across continents and compete globally.
The most competitive entrepreneurs today are not anchored to a postcode. They design for cross-border markets from the outset, leverage distributed teams and serve global customers regardless of where they are headquartered.
What stood out most at the Stellenbosch gathering was the shared ambition among founders from Vietnam, the UAE, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Kenya, Mexico and Ukraine. Many of them operate in complex environments marked by limited access to capital and volatile currencies, which demand resilience and disciplined capital allocation.
That resilience, paired with ambition, is becoming one of the defining advantages of this generation of entrepreneurs.
As capital continues to diversify geographically, markets like South Africa are positioned to benefit, provided founders build for scale and investors recognise where performance is emerging.
The evidence is already there. The question is no longer whether emerging ecosystems can produce world-class companies but rather how quickly these companies will reshape global markets as investment follows performance.
Read: VC funding in South Africa bucks international trend
With venture capital increasingly distributed rather than concentrated, 2026 may mark a turning point in how global investors allocate capital. South Africa is ready.
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