Stories Of Entrepreneurial Capitalism Across Our 47 International Editions

Across the planet, our 47 licensed editions span six continents, 25 languages and 14 time zones. They all share the same mission: celebrating entrepreneurial capitalism in all its forms.

ANGOLA

Over five days in July, the annual Luanda International Fair showcased 627 of the region’s most innovative companies. SOCIA, for one, is an Angolan e-commerce business enabling split wholesale purchases among multiple customers.

ARGENTINA

Miguel Zonnaras heads Georgalos, a Buenos Aires–based confectionery and cereal maker that his grandfather founded in 1939. The $72 million (revenue) company recently bought back beloved candy bar Mantecol, which British giant Cadbury had acquired in 2001.

BENIN

Angélique Kidjo, a five-time Grammy Award–winning singer from Benin with 2.4 million Facebook followers, fronts Forbes Africa’s list of the continent’s top 20 musicians.

BRAZIL

“I’ve been through countless prejudices for being a woman. Economic crises. I lost my husband. And I’m here helping to reinvent my company.”

BULGARIA

Bulgaria-born soft ware engineer Vince Gaydarzhiev has raised nearly $50 million for Alcatraz AI, the Cupertino, California–based company he founded in 2016. Its facial recognition security systems are used by American banks, hospitals and stadiums.

CHILE

In August, Swedish home furnishings chain IKEA opened its first location in South America and is scheduled to open additional stores in the Chilean capital and Colombia by 2023. Retailer Falabella acquired franchise rights in 2018.

COLOMBIA

A Salvadoran pilot and 53-year veteran of the airline industry, Roberto Kriete is forming a low-cost Latin American group, Abra, that will bring together regional carriers Avianca and Viva from Colombia and GOL from Brazil.

CYPRUS

Born in the Philippines and raised in California, Dominique Laconico now heads the 33-year-old Cypriot gaming company Megabet Plus, which operates 170 casino and sports betting locations on the island.

CZECH REPUBLIC

As the face of its 11th annual Most Influential Women issue, Forbes Czech features Tamara Kotvalová, who opened Carollinum in 1996. The luxury watch retailer, which has four boutiques in Prague, generates roughly $30 million in yearly revenue.

ECUADOR

As CEO of Teojama Comercial, Manuel Malo Vidal leads the family business, started by his father in the 1960s. It is Ecuador’s official distributor of Japanese-made Hino and Daihatsu commercial trucks, with more than 300 employees. Annual revenue is about $80 million.

FRANCE

Since May 2021, entrepreneur and osteopath Claire Hermet has opened four Faciology locations between Paris and Lyon. The centers treat patients for facial paralysis and signs of aging, and to ease pain.

GERMANY

GetYourGuide, a Berlin-based travel booking website, lets tourists peruse 60,000 tour options offered by 13,000 providers from Rome to Dubai to Hawaii. The company has raised north of $883 million since Johannes Reck cofounded it as a college student in 2009.

GREECE

A country with a population of just 10 million, Greece nonetheless manages about 20% of the world’s maritime trade. Angelicoussis Group, led by third-generation shipwright Maria Angelicoussis, tops Forbes Greece’s list of the 50 largest Greek shipping companies.

HUNGARY

As a mother of two unable to find hormone-free contraceptives on the Hungarian market, Janka Cserháti-Herold founded Hormonmentes in 2015. The online store, which sells condoms, multivitamins and menstrual products, is profitable and has attracted more than 3,000 women to its fertility education course.

INDIA

In his nine years at the helm of Unilever subsidiary HUL, a Mumbai-based consumer goods giant, Sanjiv Mehta has nearly doubled its revenue to $6.8 billion by individualizing its marketing approach to 15 geographic clusters.