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
Morocco will invest up to MAD 347 million ($38m) over three years through the Catalytic Startups Fund, a Ministry of Digital Transition initiative managed by TAMWILCOM, into venture capital funds backing digital startups. Nine fund managers have been pre-selected and are expected to mobilize close to MAD 2.5 billion ($275m) in total. (Tech In Africa)
Saudi Arabia has approved a National Strategy for Entrepreneurship and Small and Medium Enterprises at a Cabinet meeting chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. (Argaam)
Bangladesh will offer young entrepreneurs up to Tk20 lakh ($16,000) with no collateral, split evenly between a bank loan and a grant, under a Bangladesh Bank program open to applicants aged 28 or under across tech, agriculture, food processing, light engineering, renewable energy and handicrafts. (Daily Observer)
Saint Lucia will establish a cross-sector regulatory sandbox for digital identity and fintech, supported by UNECLAC and forming part of the DigiGov programme, to let firms test digital products under regulatory oversight before market entry. (Government of Saint Lucia)
Thailand has selected 17 projects worth a planned 121 billion baht ($3.66bn) for the third intake of its FastPass regulatory fast-track, and unveiled a BOI-to-IPO scheme offering promoted companies up to three extra years of corporate income tax exemption if they list domestically. (TNGlobal)
India will lower entry barriers for MSMEs and deep-tech startups in defense through initiatives unveiled at the Defence Research and Development Organisation's VIMARSH 2026, including direct funding, incubation support, dedicated access to DRDO testing facilities, and a framework for securely sharing DRDO software source code with licensed industries. (IndianWeb2)
The United States has launched a $20 million, two-year NSF pilot to help small businesses commercialize deep-technology ventures, providing commercialization funding, mentorship and investor connections through the University of Central Florida's National Commercialization and Translation Institute. (NSF)
Australia has softened its proposed startup capital gains tax carve-out, cutting the minimum shareholding period from five years to three, scrapping the AUD $10 million (USD $7.1m) lifetime cap on gains, and extending company eligibility from 10 to 15 years. (Information Age)
Comment and analysis
Canada’s young entrepreneurs are fleeing south. We need to keep them here (Artem Katalinin and Brandon Rudick, contributors, National Post)
Is AI pulling Brazil out of the startup investment slump? (Maija Palmer, editor, Global Venturing)
Westminster stifles start-ups before they can hire anyone (Ryan Bourne, R. Evan Scharf chair for the public understanding of economics, Cato Institute)
Policy, program development, and promotion: the three Ps of startup ecosystem development (Paul O'Brien, author, Startup Capitalism)
It's time savers benefited from Britain's scale-up success (Saul Klein, co-founder and chair, Phoenix Court)
If you want to teach social innovation, teach power (Ahmed M. Badr, director, Patricelli Center for Entrepreneurship, Wesleyan University)
From Soviet Silicon Valley to Armenia's third reinvention (Ashot Arzumanyan, co-founder, SmartGateVC)
Singapore startups show that AI isn’t just a big tech playground (Ovais Subhani, senior business correspondent, The Straits Times)
Five years that changed Cyprus — and the one layer we still have not built (Alexey Gubarev, board member, TechIsland)
Why a $103,000 US visa tax might be the best thing to happen to Africa's tech ecosystem (Emmanuel Nwosu, reporter, TechCabal)
From idea to enterprise: designing startup programmes that deliver long-term impact (Vijay Bawra, vice president of new initiatives and growth, SanchiConnect)
What Von der Leyen's State of the Union means for Europe's tech ambitions (Joana Soares, freelance journalist, and Ramsha Jahangir, deputy editor, Tech Policy Press)
How Europe can escape a captured AI ecosystem (Frederike Kaltheuner, adviser, and Leevi Saari, EU policy fellow, AI Now Institute)
Growth, investment and innovation: The UK’s defence tech opportunity (Matt Hammerstein, chief executive, Barclays UK Corporate Bank)
Features and ecosystem insights
MaRS targets foreign customers for Canadian startups with a new global network (The Logic)Another side of Poland: factories, startups and city-building in Lower Silesia (Daily News Hungary)
'Pakistan is good at launching women's businesses. It's bad at sustaining them' (Business Recorder)
Deep tech rises in Korea's venture market, while global ties remain weak (The Korea Times)
Estonia's e-Residency programme sees record growth in business creation (Biometric Update)
Africa has more AI founders and fewer first cheques (iAfrica)
Get updates delivered directly to your inbox
Subscribe by selecting 'The Startup State' under communications permission in the form below.
The opinions expressed in the articles above are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Global Entrepreneurship Network.