Petit Salon: Astella & Endurance on AI Investing
Petit Salon: Astella & Endurance on AI Investing For this intimate, invite-only conversation, Made in Rio brings together Astella and Endurance Global Ventures to look at AI investing from both ends of the market: Brazil early-stage:where AI is being applied, which categories can produce local winners, and what still looks underpriced. U.S. & Europe late-stage:what investors are seeing at the frontier, from foundation models to infrastructure and high-growth technology companies. Infrastructure vs. applications:Where value is accruing across the AI stack. Entry price vs. access:what matters when the best companies are either still very early or already very expensive. Risk, liquidity and time horizon:How the investment case changes across stages and geographies. Join Edson Rigonatti (General Partner at Astella), and Rafael Hansen (Managing Partner and CIO at Endurance), for this intimate conversation on AI investing. Founded in 2008, Astella is one of Brazil's pioneering VC firms. It invests from pre-seed to Series A and usually leads rounds in SaaS, marketplace and consumer businesses. Across its Journey funds, Astella has backed 58 companies, including RD Station, whose 2021 sale to TOTVS was the largest SaaS exit in Latin America. Its active portfolio includes Omie, Sallve, Birdie, Cayena, BotCity, Livance and JOTA. Endurance Global Ventures (EGV) invests in high-growth, late-stage technology companies in the US. Its portfolio includes some of the most influential companies of the AI era: Anthropic, OpenAI, xAI, Neuralink. EGV's philosophy is built on endurance: the belief that real value comes from sustaining high performance over long periods. Made in Rio is an ecosystem and media platform on a mission to position Rio de Janeiro as the AI capital of Latin America. It connects companies, investors, government, academia, and startups through the madeinrio.tech platform and its flagship event, AI Salon Rio. AI Salon Rio is the city's only recurring monthly AI e