According to research conducted by data research firm Duedil and small business network Enterprise Nation, the number of under-35s starting their own business has risen 70% from 2006 to 2013, jumping from 145,104 to 247,049 new companies. With so many new companies being founded, it can be difficult to keep track of all the exciting entrepreneurs who are making waves in the United States, let alone from around the world.
With that in mind, here are 50 entrepreneurs outside of the U.S. that you need to know.
1. Jordan Casey
At the age of nine, Ireland’s Jordan Casey became the youngest app developer for Apple. He went on to develop the game Alien Ball vs. Humans, founded his first company Casy Games in 2012, and has spoken at entrepreneurial events around the world. He’s currently in charge of TeachWare, an app to help teachers manage their students.
2. Alastair Paterson
Alastair Paterson is the founder and CEO of Digital Shadows. This London-based startup describes itself as “a cyber threat intelligence company that protects organisations from data loss and targeted cyber attack.”
3. Luis Iván Cuende
This Madrid-based winner of HackNow has already founded a number of companies – Asturix, Holalabs, Cardwee, and most recently Stampery. Despite being nineteen, Cuende is also an Advisor to the Vice-President of the European Commission.
4. Morten Wulff
After previously founding TraceWorks.com, Wulffmorgenthaler and SponsorHelp.com, Morten Wuff is now the founder and GM of GameAnalytics. This Copenhagen company provides analytics SaaS for game developers.
5. Christian Deilmann
This MIT graduate already founded the mobile telecommunication company BellPepper and tado° in 2011. This Munich-based company provides a heating app for homes and small businesses.
6. Marko Dukmenic
Growing up on a farm in Viljevo, Croatia, Dukmenic founded Farmeron in 2010. The startup provides dairy farm records so farmers can monitor production and adjust their production plans.
7. Fredrik Debong
Fredrik Debong founded mySugr in 2011 after living with diabetes. The Viennese company is a mobile app that helps diabetics manage their treatment process and is now available in over 50 countries.
8. Davide Scomparin
Davide Scomparin founded Desall on 2011 after growing in the venture incubator H-Farm. The company, which is based in Treviso, Italy, offers a web-platform for the industrial, craft, and interior design fields and has also secured clients like Alessi, Illy, and Luxottica.
9. Florian Meissner, Lorenz Aschoff, Ramzi Rizk, and Gen Sadakane
These four men founded EyeEm in 2011. The Berlin-based photo sharing and editing app has already accumulated over ten million users and had been discussed by publications like Forbes.
10. Siavash Ghorbani, Birk Nilson, Kaj Drobin, and Carl Waldekranz
This group founded Stockholm’s Tictail in 2012. Tictail helps indie brands set up an online store in just a matter of minutes. Since its launch Tictail now features over 70,000 stores in 110 countries.
11. Zena Sfeir
This young Lebanese entrepreneur founded Sohati, along with Naji Gehchan, Elsa Aoun, and Wassim Kari, in 2013. Sohati is a health and medical platform that shares medical information, as well as connects visitors with local doctors.
12. Ameer Sherif
Ameer Sherif founded Egypt’s leading recruitment platform WUZZUF in 2012. The platform now serves over 200,000 job seekers each month and is expanding into other Middle Eastern markets.
13. Shaima Albishtawi, Mohammed Albishtawi
Founded in 2011 by Shaima Albishtawi and Mohammed Albishtaw, Al-Hudhod is a Jordan-based company that creates fun, entertaining, and educational content for children in the Arab world.
14. Mohanad Ghashim
Mohanad Ghashim founded ShopGo, an eCommerce solution for MENA. The company, based out of Dubai, has been invested by 500 Startups.
15. Qais Al Khonji
Qais Al Khonji is an Omani businessman and entrepreneur who is the owner and co-founder of the medical education company Genesis International. He’s also founded Qais United Enterprises Trading and is a member of the Oman National Engineering and Investments and Entrepreneurs Organization: Oman.
16. Paul Saber
In 2012, Paul Saber founded the Arab World’s first online health platform, the Beirut-based eTobb, which connects patients and doctors.
17. Giora Kaplan
Gig is a product and technology inventor and entrepreneur located in Israel. Over the years he has founded OptiMedia Ltd., Promotix, Cymedia and the leading cloud-based web development platform Wix.
18. Sohaib Thiab
Sohaib Thiab is a serial entrepreneur who has founded a number of gaming and internet startups in the Middle East, including talkhomebusiness.com and faye3.com. He’s recently founded Tamatem, a mobile app and games publisher located in Jordan.
19. Dana Al Taji
Dana Al Taji is a Palestinian designer who launched LAYAL in 2007. The clothing line consists of both couture and affordable abayas. LAYAL now has its own clothing boutique in Cairo.
20. Manal Kelig
Manal Kelig is a serial entrepreneur who focuses on the tourism industry. Her endeavors have included founding Great Wonders of Egypt and Gateway To Egypt. She has also founded TEDxCairoWomen.
21. Uche Pedro
Uche Pedro founded the popular Nigerian lifestyle, entertainment, and fashion website BellaNaija in 2006. The site attracts more than 10 million page views each month.
22. Ronak Shah
Established in 2013 by Ronak Shah, Kronex Chemicals Ltd is a producer of affordable, quality household cleaning products in Kenya, such as Basil Dish Washing Liquid and Basil Multi-Purpose Detergent.
23. Clarisse Iribagize
Clarisse Iribagize founded HeHe Limited in 2010 after winning the Rwandan TV entrepreneurial contest Inspire Africa. HeHe Limited provides cloud storage, mobile apps and 24/7 support for businesses.
24. Eric Kinoti
Established in 2007 Eric Kinoti, Shades System East Africa is a Kenyan company that manufactures and sells everything from tents, gazebos, car parking shades, restaurant and balcony canopies, shade sails, garden umbrellas, and even bouncing castles.
25. Ally Edha Awadh
As the founder and CEO of Lake Oil Group, Ally Edha Awadh has seen his company become one of the fastest-growing energy companies in East Africa. This distributor of petroleum products serves Tanzania, as well as Rwanda, Zambia, D.R.Congo, and Burundi.
26. Nick Kaoma
Cape Town native Nick Kaoma founded Head Honcho clothing in 2008. The clothing line appeals to South Africa’s young urban dwellers and includes both mens’s and women’s clothing.
27. Alain Nteff
This Cameroonian entrepreneur was the recent recipient of the annual Anzisha Prize for launching Gifted Mom. This mobile app uses low-cost technology to calculate due dates to help reduce the high newborn and pregnant women death rates.
28. Christian Ngan
Christian Ngan is the founder of Madlyn Cazalis, which has been featured in CNBC Africa, The Guardian, Forbes, and TEDx. Madlyn Cazalis is a cosmetic company that produces hand-made soaps, oils, lotions, and creams and is sold by retailers in Cameroon and other countries in Central Africa.
29. Mark Essien
Mark Essien is the founder of Nigeria’s largest hotel booking website, Hotels.ng. The site currently has more than 6500 hotels listed and has been featured in Forbes, BBC, Newsweek, and Ventureburn.
30. Senai Wolderufael
Founded in 2012 by Senai Wolderufael the Feed Green Ethiopia Exports Company is leading food export company that specializes in Ethiopian spice blends. It now has reached markets in Europe, Middle East, India, China, and the United States.
31. Ali-shah Jivraj
Ali-shah Jivraj is a third generation Asian-Ugandan entrepreneur. In 2006 he founded Royal Electronics, which has become Uganda’s number one television brand offering affordable appliances. He’s also working on constructing over 50 residential apartments in Kampala.
32. Shivakumar Ganesan
Shivakumar Ganesan is the founder and CEO of Exotel. The Bangalore-based company was founded in 2011 and has become one of India’s largest cloud telephony companies with over 1000 business clients.
33. “Brian” Kim Bum-Soo
“Brian” Kim Bum-Soo launched KakaoTalk in 2010. Since then the multi-platform texting application has become South Korea’s number one mobile-messaging service.
34. Xuhao Zhang
This graduate from Shanghai Jiao Tong University established the online food ordering site Ele.me in 2009. Already this year the Chia-based site has raised a $350M Series E from Sequoia Capital China, Tencent, CITIC Capital PE, and Jingdong.
35. Dawn Soo
Dawn Soo, a certified physician and budding entrepreneur, founded DocDoc in 2012. The online medical appointment-booking and health-related information portal located in Singapore now lists over 29,000 doctor profiles.
36. Steven Lam
Steven Lam launched GoGoVan in 2011. Not only is GoGoVan Hong Kong’s first Logistic Booking mobile app, it’s also the most popular. Service is rapidly expanding into other South East Asia markets like Singapore.
37. Hai Ho
Hai Ho is a serial entrepreneur who has founded 360THEMES.COM and TRIIP. Triip takes the Airbnb model and applies it to customized tours of Vietnam. It’s been discussed by CNN, Forbes, and Techinasia.
38. Issei Takino
Issei Takino co-founded Mujin Inc. in 2011. Mujin Inc. is a Tokyo-based works with “robot makers, manufacturing engineers, and research institutions around the world to push industrial robotics and factory automation (FA) with fast, efficient, and general solutions that will revolutionize manufacturing.”
39. Andrea Loubier
Andrea Loubier has been recognized as one of the top female entrepreneurs and thought leaders in South East Asia. In 2011 she co-founded the Balil-based Mailbird. Mailbird is a desktop email client that was awarded Best Windows Email Software Program 2013 by PC World.
40. Fiza Farhan
In 2009 Fiza Farhan established Buksh Foundation, a microfinance institution that works to bring clean energy projects to poor and rural areas of Pakistan. She was recently included in Forbes 2015’s 30 Under 30: Social Entrepreneurs.
41. Frances Valintine
Frances Valintine is the marketing director of Auckland Zoo who founded the Media Design School and founder/chair of The Mind Lab by Unitec in 2014. She won the Best Start-Up Award at the Talent Unleashed awards in 2014 and spent a week at Branson Centre for Entrepreneurship in Cape Town for her reward.
42. Cameron Adams
After working for Google as a UI designer Cameron Adams went on to start Fluent, and more recently Canva in 2012. Canva uses a drop-and-drag tool to make graphic design and photo editing a breeze.
43. Bel Pesce
This Brazilian native previously founded Tisk-Task and Talenj before launching FazINOVA, a school that helps people of all ages achieve their dreams. This influential entrepreneur has also authored three best-selling books; “The Brazilian Girl from Silicon Valley”, “Superheroes: WANTED” and “The Girl from Silicon Valley 2”
44. Eduardo Stekel
Eduardo Stekel founded Buscalibre in 2007. Buscalibre is a Chilean online book retailer that provides the Spanish-speaking market easy access to purchase products that are outside of their countries. Buscalibre.com now has a presence in Chile, Colombia, Spain, Mexico, Argentina, and plans to keep expanding into more Spanish-speaking countries.
45. Martín Migoya
Martín Migoya is a lifelong entrepreneur who, along with three friends, started Globant in 2003. The Buenos Aires-based company creates innovative software and has a presence in the US, UK, Mexico, Colombia, Chile and Brazil. Migoya has been named the Endeavor Entrepreneur 2005 and Entrepreneur of the Year award by Ernst & Young (2013).
46. Santiago Bilinkis, Andy Freire
These two reputable Argentinian entrepreneurs founded office supply company Officenet, which was acquired by Staples. In 2011 they launched Restorando, which has become one of the leading online reservation platforms in Latin America.
47. Ariel Burschtin
PedidosYa was founded by three college graduates in 2009 – Alvaro Garcia, Ruben Sosenke, and Ariel Burschtin. PedidosYa has become Latin America’s leading online and mobile food-ordering company that, today, is available in eleven countries. Prior to launching PedidosYa, Uruguay’s Burschtin founded Evolutiva Software Factory in 2008.
48. Carol Lue
Carol Lue is a Jamaican social entrepreneur who is looking to resolve energy deficiencies in the Caribbean with CaribShare Biogas. The company converts organic waste into biofuel and won the 2012 IDEAS Energy Innovation Contest for the Caribbean.
49. Ulises Navarro, Humberto Ramos and Alfonso Gonzalez
These three entrepreneurs from Mexico have created a biodegradable and energy-efficient liquid laundry detergent that doesn’t require a rinse called Newen. In November 2014 Newen was the winning entry in the reality show The Entrepreneur Mexico ‘s World of Business Ideas (WOBI).
50. Ben Grynol
Ben Grynol has been an entrepreneur for most of his life – he even started his first business at the age of thirteen. Over the years he has founded Bonafide Clothing, Soul Shoes and Accessories and i3 Innovation & Design Consultancy. In 2012 he co-founded Top & Derby, a Winnipeg company that creates designer canes. The company now distributes to people in 200+ cities and 15 countries worldwide and recipient of an IDEA Silver design award for one of the top Medical & Scientific Products of 2014.