EWOR is a Germany-based founder fellowship and early-stage venture support platform that defies traditional accelerator models. Founded in 2021, EWOR exists to identify and back the world’s most exceptional, unconventional founders - individuals with the ambition and ability to build transformational companies from day one. Rather than focusing on startup ideas or traction, EWOR focuses first on extraordinary individuals, selected through a multi-layered process involving machine learning pattern recognition, rigorous interviews, and psychological assessments. With over 35,000 applicants each year and only 35 founders selected (a 0.1% acceptance rate), EWOR is among the most selective programs in the world. The organisation positions itself less as an investor and more as a co-founder-level support system, providing capital, mentorship, and global access to help outlier founders scale quickly and deliberately.
EWOR invests in pre-seed stage founders before a company is even formed or funded. Its selection process emphasizes individuals solving deep, systemic problems, often in complex or overlooked markets.
Core focus areas include deep tech; AI & machine learning; health-tech & digital biomarkers; space, robotics, and hard-tech; climate & energy storage; neuro-inspired software and computing.
EWOR founders are often academics, PhDs, technical experts, or serial entrepreneurs with a track record of exceptional performance in unconventional settings—such as military cyber divisions, elite academic labs, or prior successful exits. The fellowship is global and virtual-first, allowing founders to build across borders from day one.
In April 2025, EWOR announced a €60 million commitment from a group of unicorn founders and global investros fund its next generation of fellows. This fund is used to invest €500,000 in each selected fellow, making it one of the largest capital deployments per founder in any global accelerator or fellowship model.
Unlike traditional venture funds, EWOR’s capital is fully integrated with its fellowship structure, which includes weekly co-building sessions, mentorship from unicorn founders, and over 2,000 VC and expert partners. The fund is designed not just to inject capital, but to ensure that every single fellow successfully closes a funding round during the program.
Historically, EWOR fellows have gone on to raise between €1 million and €11 million within six months of joining, including setting a European record for the largest pre-seed round by a first-time founder.
This fund is not sector-restricted and was created with flexibility to back founders wherever their ideas evolve. The capital is deployed virtually, across continents, and supports the borderless nature of the companies EWOR helps build - enabling, for instance, a product developed in Moldova to be funded in Silicon Valley and scaled globally within a year.
Leadership
EWOR was co-founded by Daniel Dippold, who also serves as CEO. He is joined by partners Alexander Grots, Florian Huber, Petter Made, Quinten Selhorst, and Paul Müller - a group of highly accomplished entrepreneurs with over €12 billion in combined company value from ventures including SumUp, Adjust, ProGlove, and united-domains. Together, they bring operational depth, technical fluency, and founder empathy to every EWOR fellow.
Investment Strategy
EWOR’s investment strategy is entirely founder-first and model-breaking. Instead of funding startups, it funds individuals, offering capital before a company exists. Each fellow receives €500,000 in investment, hands-on support, and weekly check-ins with the EWOR team. Their approach mimics the commitment level of a full-time co-founder - reviewing code, designing GTM strategies, helping build AI models, and guiding fundraising.
The firm combines scientific insight, personalized coaching, and a high-touch venture studio environment, removing the friction most founders face in the early days of company-building. With a 10-year time horizon and no pressure to follow traditional VC timelines, EWOR focuses on helping fellows build trillion-dollar businesses from the ground up.
Notable Investments
Notable investments by EWOR are reflected through the extraordinary achievements of its fellows rather than a traditional equity portfolio. Alumni include Ricky Knox, who achieved two nine-figure exits with Azimo and Tandem Bank; Andrew Nutter, former IPO lead at Westwing, now building the space exploration company Gama; and Tim Seithe, who bootstrapped his company Tillhub to a near-€100 million exit.
Other standout fellows include Ariel Harmoko, Cambridge’s youngest machine learning researcher, who secured a $4 million seed round led by a16z just 10 months into the fellowship, and Jörgen Tveit, who raised Europe’s largest-ever pre-seed round of $13 million for his energy storage startup Thaleron.
The 2025 cohort continues this trajectory of excellence, featuring innovators such as Mark Golab, advancing 3D-printed organ transplant tech at Cambridge Surgical Models; Matthew Pierre-Louis, building full-stack robotics with Möbius Industries; Salil Patel, leveraging digital biomarkers to measure brain health; Nick D’Aloisio, a 3-time founder now developing a neuro-inspired AI platform in stealth; and Viktoria Izdebezka, leading AI-powered lead generation through her startup Salesy.
Notable Exits
EWOR’s model is still relatively new, but several founders have achieved exits or major rounds, including exits by Ricky Knox (Azimo, Tandem) and Tim Seithe (Tillhub), and funding rounds from firms like a16z, Atomico, and General Catalyst.
