Unicorn founders commit €60M to EWOR to back ‘founder prodigies’ scaling globally

Germany-based EWOR, an emerging founder fellowship, has emerged as a powerful ally. With a €60 million commitment, the fellowship program is dedicated to supporting the world’s most exceptional new founders through a model that defies conventional accelerator structures.With over 35,000 applicants annually, EWOR selects just 35 fellows each year, a 0.

1% acceptance rate. The fellowship targets true outliers: from national security hackers to deeptech prodigies. Their approach combines machine learning-driven pattern recognition, intensive partner interviews, and evidence-based testing to select founders with the potential to tackle the world’s most significant challenges.



Every selected fellow receives €500,000, which is among the largest investments globally for an accelerator or fellowship. Historically, fellows have gone on to raise between €1 million and €11 million within just six months of joining the program, including setting the record for Europe’s largest-ever pre-seed round by a first-time founder. EWOR’s model ensures that every founder has successfully closed a funding round during their fellowship.

A virtual-first, borderless model backed by unicorn foundersFounded in 2021, EWOR is led full-time by six entrepreneurs who have built companies worth over €12 billion. These include Daniel Dippold, Alexander Grots, Florian Huber, Petter Made, Quinten Selhorst, and Paul Müller, veterans behind ventures such as SumUp, Adjust, ProGlove, united-domains, and Sigma Squared Society. Their combined experience and €60 million in contributed capital provide fellows with unparalleled mentorship and access to a network.

Reflecting the global nature of startups today, EWOR operates virtually, offering 1:1 mentorship, custom modules, and access to over 2,000 mentors, VCs, and experts. The model supports a founder’s non-linear journey, building a product in Nairobi, hiring in Europe, and fundraising in Silicon Valley is not an exception but the norm. An example of this approach’s success is Aspect Health, built in Moldova, funded in Silicon Valley and New York, and scaling to a $50 million valuation within a year.

The 2025 cohort: Innovators across fieldsSo far, ten founders have been accepted into the 2025 cohort:Mark Golab (UK): A 3D printing pioneer advancing organ transplant technology with Cambridge Surgical Models after his own experience surviving a life-threatening infection.Matthew Pierre-Louis (USA): Founder of Möbius Industries, creating a full-stack recycling robotics platform with a team sourced from MIT, Tesla, SpaceX, and Boston Dynamics.Salil Patel (UK): An Oxford PhD and academic radiologist leveraging digital biomarkers to measure brain health.

Anastasia Trofimova (Sweden): Founder of Your Beet, reshaping the plant-based grocery sector.Viktoria Izdebezka (Austria): A young leader and 2-time founder revolutionising AI-powered lead generation with Salesy.Nick D’Aloisio (UK): A 3-time founder with €100M in exits, now building a neuro-inspired deep learning platform currently in stealth mode.

Proven success from past fellowsPrevious EWOR fellows illustrate the fellowship’s impact:Ricky Knox achieved two nine-figure exits with Azimo and Tandem Bank.Andrew Nutter moved from leading Westwing’s IPO to building space exploration company Gama.Tim Seithe bootstrapped Tillhub to an exit nearing €100 million.

Ariel Harmoko, Cambridge’s youngest ever machine learning researcher, secured a $4 million round led by a16z after only ten months at EWOR.Jörgen Tveit raised Europe’s largest ever pre-seed round ($13 million) for his energy storage startup Thaleron.What’s ahead? EWOR’s approach of blending significant upfront capital, mentorship from unicorn founders, and a decentralised global model is setting new standards for early-stage support.

As new fellows embark on their journeys, the fellowship’s growing track record suggests that EWOR is fast becoming a launchpad for the world’s next generation of transformative companies.Daniel Dippold, co-founder and CEO of EWOR, said: “The main value of our fellowship is not money. Most of our fellows don’t even need the money.

They join because they’re obsessed with building something great — and they know this is the only place they’ll be truly challenged. EWOR is not for everyone. It’s for the few who have the potential to build trillion-dollar companies.

” Petter Made, partner at EWOR, said: “EWOR’s approach is to provide as much value as an experienced full-time co-founder by blending scientific insight, real-world experience and deep empathy for the founder’s path. We reject standardisation because standard doesn’t work for the exceptional. Our model is about curating conditions where the world’s rarest talent can thrive.

” EWOR fellow Jörgen Tveit, founder of Thaleron, added: “EWOR provides a network of people you can build the future with. No fluff, just real support and world-class peers. The founders of EWOR are deeply technical and understand the challenges of building a world-changing tech company.

” EWOR fellow Ariel Harmoko, founder of Artifact AI, added: “I chose EWOR because they come in incredibly early, opposed to many US models, and provide hours of hands-on support every single week – from code reviews to helping build our AI models. Working with EWOR feels like working with a co-founder, not with an investor.”The post Unicorn founders commit €60M to EWOR to back ‘founder prodigies’ scaling globally appeared first on Tech Funding News.

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