World Of Forbes: Stories Of Entrepreneurial Capitalism Across Our 43 International Editions

Across the planet, our 43 licensed editions span six continents, 69 countries and 31 languages. They all share the same mission: celebrating entrepreneurial capitalism in all its forms.

BULGARIA

Forbes Bulgaria calls Rossen Ivanov (left) an “investor at the top.” He and three partners cofounded BlackPeak Capital, named for a mountain summit near the city of Sofia, in 2014. It now has $164 million in assets under management and had a 25% annual return last year thanks to bets on global, export-focused companies in southeast Europe. Among its portfolio companies: Slovenian deferred-payments outfit LeanPay and Bulgarian courier euShipments, which delivers e-commerce orders to 27 countries.

ECUADOR

Patricio Ortiz, 67, heads GO Corp, a Cuenca-based family business that began as a grocery store in 1953. Named for his father, Gerardo Ortiz, the holding company now comprises various business units ranging from liquor to plastics to motorcycles. Altogether, the enterprise generates nearly $1 billion in annual sales and employs some 10,000 people.

GEORGIA

Elven Technologies, a Sacramento, California–based startup that launched in Tbilisi in 2019, produces fire-resistant battery storage compartments for electric-car makers such as Tesla and Lucid. The enclosures surround the vehicles’ lithium ion batteries, which have a tendency to spontaneously ignite at extremely hot temperatures that are difficult for firefighters to suppress. “Our goal isn’t to solve the problem of battery ignition—that’s for other companies to tackle. We’re creating packaging that protects lives and property if a battery does catch fire,” explains Elven’s CEO, Farid Ismayilzada.

HUNGARY

István Tiborcz (pictured) lands at No. 15 on Forbes Hungary’s recent list of the country’s 50 richest people, with an estimated fortune of more than $370 million. The entrepreneur and real estate investor, who hails from a wealthy family, married the daughter of right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Ráhel, in 2013. Tiborcz’s net worth doubled last year, thanks in part to his shares in European logistics leader Waberer’s Group and Hungarian digital bank Gránit Bank, which went public in December in the Budapest Stock Exchange’s largest IPO in 25 years.

ISRAEL

“I didn’t think antisemitism was a problem of our time,” says billionaire hedge fund titan Bill Ackman. “I thought of it as a problem of the past.” The Wall Street activist tells Forbes Israel in a recent interview how he spoke out against hatred of Jews in 2024 amid the Israel-Hamas conflict and delisted his company from the Euronext stock exchange in Amsterdam following violent acts on Israeli soccer fans in that city last year. Ackman also discusses his transformation from longtime Democratic donor to Donald Trump advocate, plus the best investment he made in 2024: spending $25 million on a 4.9% stake in the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange—which has yielded a 100% return to date.

KAZAKHSTAN

Forbes Kazakhstan 30 Under 30 alumni Kassym Kabylgali (left) and Daniil Matskevich created a sharing-economy startup, Squares, in 2021. The Almaty-based company lists venues available to rent—whether for corporate gatherings, weddings or coworking—plus offers related services such as catering and design at some 2,000 locations in 10 cities across Kazakhstan and Georgia. The idea came to chief marketing officer Matskevich in his previous job at a marketing agency that had difficulty finding studios suitable for client photo shoots. Up next: locations in Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Texas, where Matskevich resides.

POLAND

High school friends from Warsaw, Mati Staniszewski (right) and Piotr Dąbkowski cofounded ElevenLabs in London in 2022. The company builds and licenses AI-based audio tools in 32 languages—whether a client wants a lively Irish male narrator for an audiobook, a soothing American female instructor for a recorded meditation or realistic dubbing of a podcaster’s voice from English to Hindi. The startup, which has attracted more than $100 million from investors including Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital at a valuation north of $1 billion, has committed $10 million to opening an office in Poland.

SLOVAKIA

“Venture capital is the most difficult business I’ve ever done,” says Ján Kasper, a 69-year-old Slovak serial entrepreneur who founded companies in telecom and mobility and also bought into real estate and energy endeavors—all before he entered the VC arena in 2020. That was the year he cofounded ZAKA. So far the Prague firm has invested $12 million in 60 pre-seed or seed-stage startups with a focus on health care and life sciences. Kasper describes the significant risks of startup investing and the challenges of Europe’s entrepreneurial ecosystem compared to those of Silicon Valley. “We are not one market with one language,” he says. “Cultural and linguistic limitations simply hinder exponential growth.”

SOUTH AFRICA

An estimated one in five adults in Africa has started his or her own venture, more than on any other continent. Forbes Africa highlights 15 “solopreneurs” navigating the small-business landscape with little or no hired help—and the systems in place to support entrepreneurial job creation. For example, Thando Makhubu (second from right) opened an ice cream shop called Soweto Creamery in 2020 thanks to a government unemployment grant; his store now has 60,000 Instagram followers. Glorinah Khutšo Mabaso (center) creates custom wallpaper, decor and apparel featuring colorful tribal bespoke patterns and employs only a virtual assistant to help run her Pretoria-based brand, Renaissance Design.

SWITZERLAND

“If you keep trying big things, you will often lose. Then you have to get up again and train even better, like an athlete.”