Welcome to ‘The Startup State’ - a weekly bulletin from the GEN Policy and Research team highlighting key entrepreneurship news, reports, commentary and features from around the world.
News
- The United Kingdom has announced a range of policies to support startups and scaleups in this week's Budget. The Government published a prospectus setting out why founders should start, scale and stay in the UK and issued a call for evidence on tax policy support for high-growth companies, while the British Business Bank set out a five-year strategy that will see 60% of its investments directed towards scaleups (gov.uk)
- Germany is planning to raise a second €1 billion ($1.16bn) fund of funds to support the European venture capital industry. The first fund, dubbed 'Growth Fund Germany', launched in 2023 and has now deployed more than 80% of its capital (Sifted)
- Morocco has launched a program to spur the creation and financing of investment funds and reduce risk for private investors. The initiative is part of the Maron Digital 2030 strategy, which aims to help produce 3,000 startups and 1-2 unicorns, and raise over $754m (7bn Dirhams) by 2030 (Ecofin Agency)
- Azerbaijan and the International Telecommunication Union have partnered to open a new ITU Regional Acceleration Center in Baku. The Center, the first of its kind in the CIS region, is one of 17 ITU innovation hubs established to strengthen regional innovation ecosystems (Ministry of Digital Development)
Research and publications
- Building high-performing entrepreneurial ecosystems in Latin America
This GEIAL - Latin American Group of Smart Ecosystems - report, authored by Hugo Kantis and Juan Federico and endorsed by David Audretsch and Erik Stam, measures and compares the conditions for entrepreneurship across 30 ecosystems. - Venture capital in the Caribbean: A study of the ecosystem in five countries
This Inter-American Development Bank report analyses the VC ecosystem across Barbados, The Bahamas, Jamaica, Suriname, and Trinidad & Tobago. - Advancing regional innovation economies: Mapping the momentum of America's top entrepreneurial regions
This Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center report analyzes how capital, education, relocation, and policy interact to influence entrepreneurial outcomes across U.S. metropolitan areas. - Harnessing AI and digital solutions to empower young entrepreneurs
This Youth Business International policy paper explores how AI can become a force for inclusion, lowering barriers, driving innovation, and creating opportunity for young people everywhere. Op-ed
Comment and analysis
- Innovative people, stifling laws: The 'mystery' behind Libya's tech space (Ejike Kanife, contributor, Technext)
- There is a point to startup ecosystems (Steph Bailey, head of content, Sifted)
- Dark venturing: How to weaponise startups for your corporate ambition (Jose Antonio Pascual, former head, Cencosud Ventures)
- Thailand: The startup ecosystem rising from centuries of ingenuity (Paul O'Brien, author, Startup Economist)
- What CEE startups need more than money (Serhiy Tokarev, co-founder and general partner, Roosh)
- What the European Innovation Act really needs to deliver (Cinzia Colosimo, Research and Development Magazine)
Features
- The UAE's AI strategy winds through Silicon Valley (Rest of World)
- 'Build here, stay here': Ogun (Nigeria) wants to retain its tech founders (TechCabal)
- 'Hong Kong startup ecosystem to grow explosively over next five years' (Chosun interview with Jayne Chan, head of start-up, Invest Hong Kong)
- The solo capitalists: Sector mandates, not partners, rule African seed investing (Launch Base Africa)
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The opinions expressed in the articles above are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the view of the Global Entrepreneurship Network.