GEC 2025: The Bold Change The World

GEC 2025: Impact

In 2025, the Global Entrepreneurship Congress returned to the United States for the first time since 2009. Co-hosted by GEN and the Indiana Economic Development Corporation, GEC 2025 convened more than 3,400 investors, founders, ecosystem builders, and policymakers from 132 countries in Indiana, a rising startup hub and one of the country’s top states for business.

Shaping Bold Leadership for a New Era

Against the backdrop of a rapidly evolving global landscape marked by AI breakthroughs, deep tech advancements, and increasingly complex challenges, GEC 2025 embraced the theme “The Bold Change the World.” Attendees from nearly every nation renewed their commitment to collaborate and lead boldly, with some institutions and governments facing new roadblocks to global action.

Key Moments:

Mark Cuban, known as one of reality TV’s most popular and toughest investors, took attendees behind the scenes on some of the boldest moves he’s made in his career, including as a star of the Emmy Award-winning show Shark Tank – to disrupting markets with his latest venture, Cost Plus Drugs.
Brad Feld, an architect of the modern startup community movement in the United States, took the stage to launch his newest book, Give First: The Power of Mentorship.
Ministers and senior officials from 20 countries attended the Startup Nations Ministerial to prioritize bold visions – how governments can think bigger in formulating innovative strategies and policies; focused delivery – the art of implementing complex public policies; and measured performance – tools and approaches for evaluating programs, policies and ecosystems.

New Initiatives + Announcements

GEN unveiled major new partnerships on stage with Alibaba, GoDaddy, PayPal and Verizon
GEN launched Exponeur Academy in partnership with Entrepreneurship Vision, offering free training and mentorship to more than 40 emerging entrepreneurs with top performers representing their countries at Expo 2025 in Osaka.
GEN debuted the APEXE Nations Ranking with Startup Genome, ranking the top national startup ecosystems through a new, bold methodology.
GEN introduced multiple new programs such as the GEN Catalyst Index to drive our field in a performance race to the top, and our new GEN Connect tools for matchmaking founders to mentors and investors, speakers to events and ecosystem connectors to each other.
OECD launched a new entrepreneurial ecosystem diagnostics report, providing robust, evidence-based insights to identify systemic bottlenecks and guide national strategies.

Philanthropic + Corporate Engagement:

GEC 2025 would not have been possible without generous sponsorship regional and global brands like ALL-IN Kosciusko, Indiana University, Eli Lilly and Company, Meta, Applied Research Institute, BioWorks, gener8tor, Google, Silicon Crossroads, University of Notre Dame, and many others.
GEC 2025 attracted robust support and participation from multiple philanthropies, including the Kauffman Foundation, Wells Fargo, Allan Gray Philanthropies, Eli Lilly School of Philanthropy, Don Wood Foundation, Entrepreneurship Funders Network, and Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth.

Impact Survey

In a post-event survey,

95% of respondents expected the connections they made at GEC 2025 to impact their work over the next 12 months.
93% of respondents planned to apply information gained from GEC 2025 to impact their work in the next 12 months.
76% of respondents indicated their perception of Indiana as a place for entrepreneurship has improved.