Welcome to ‘The Startup State’ - a weekly bulletin from the GEN Policy and Research team highlighting key entrepreneurship announcements, reports, commentary and features from around the world.
News
- Doha, Qatar will host the Global Entrepreneurship Congress from September 21 to 24, 2026. The event, led by the Global Entrepreneurship Network and Qatar Development Bank, will bring together more than 3,000 entrepreneurs, investors, policymakers and ecosystem builders from 200 countries and territories (GEN)
- India has been urged to clarify it will not use a landmark Supreme Court decision on tax evasion using Mauritius-based entities to scrutinise foreign investments into Indian startups - many of which have been routed through the island nation (Reuters)
- Nigeria has brought the 'Delaware Flip' to an end. New tax reforms now see the 'flip' from a Lagos incorporation to a Delaware C-Corp as a disposal event, triggering 30% capital gains tax on the company value gain (Launch Base Africa)
- Washington, United States, is facing pushback from startup leaders who warn that a new proposal to expand capital gains tax to profits from the sale of qualified small business stock could spur founders and investors to leave the State (Geekwire)
- Zimbabwe has introduced a 15% digital services tax, a cyber and data protection act, and a national digital roadmap for the next four years (Tech in Africa)
Ecosystem developments
- The Next Web, under new ownership, is moving its flagship annual conference from Amsterdam to London (TNW)
- Slush has appointed a new CEO and is aiming for a smaller event in 2026 (Slush)
- SXSW Sydney will not return in 2026 after the New South Wales Government ended its funding agreement three years into a five-year agreement (Smart Company)
Research and publications
- Innovators Business Environment Index 2026
This inaugural StartupBlink report analyses 125 countries based on how easily innovators can start, operate, and scale a business across 30+ indicators - Africa Investment Report 2025
This Briter annual report brings together research from Briter Intelligence and learnings from direct market engagement to examine how Africa's investment landscape has evolved following the 2022-2023 market correction. - Fintech Innovations Across Emerging Markets: Multiple Models, Shared Lessons
This ERIA report examines how different fintech ecosystem models evolve under varying institutional, regulatory, and technological conditions.
Comment and analysis
- Africa Incorporated: Is it time to domesticate the Delaware Flip? (Udoh Charles, contributor, Launch Base Africa)
- How Latin America can break the innovation paradox and jumpstart growth (William Maloney, chief economist for LAC, World Bank)
- Why Lagos wants to fix innovation, not just fund startups (Temitayo Jaiyeola, senior reporter, TechCabal)
- Government doesn't create wealth; it decides whether entrepreneurs can (Paul O'Brien, author, Startup Economist)
- What South East Asian startups reveal (Akito Tanaka, editor in chief, Nikkei Asia)
- How the Brussels Effect hinders innovation in the Global South (Ayesha Bhatti, head of digital policy for UK and EU, ITIF Center for Data Innovation)
- AI may unleash the most entrepreneurial generation we've ever seen (Thomas Arnett, senior research fellow, Clayton Christensen Institute)
Features
- A $50m fund without rules and a law without passage: Ghana's startup policy paradox (Launch Base Africa)
- When war destroys the internet economy (Rest of World)
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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.