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
- Japan is to loosen residency rules for foreign entrepreneurs, letting a broader range of funding sources count toward minimum capital requirements (Nikkei Asia)
- South Africa has partnered with UNDP to launch the Higher Education Innovation Fund – a new fund that will support budding student entrepreneurs. It aims to mobilize the private sector to boost the fund to 1bn Rand ($53m) (UNDP)
- Saudi Arabia has seen a 14% increase in business registrations over the last five years with 192,000 new businesses, bringing the total to 1.12m (Economy Middle East)
- The Netherlands has devised a €1bn ($1.08bn) plan to keep ASML – Europe’s largest tech company – in Amsterdam. The plan involves investment in infrastructure, housing and an expansion of the Eindhoven University of Technology (TNW)
- The Democratic Republic of the Congo has partnered with fintech startups in the country to launch an association to accelerate financial innovation and inclusion (Bitcoin)
Publications & analysis
- Unicorn founder DNA report
This Defiance Capital study of 845 unicorns and 2,018 unicorn founders summarized by TechCrunch finds that most have “underdog” founders who are often drawn from the top 10 universities. - Entrepreneurship in Egypt: Policy recommendations to reverse establishment of startups outside Egypt
This African Development Bank report compares the Egyptian policy framework for startups with international best practices and sets out how Egypt can improve the entrepreneurial environment and retain more startups in-country. - 2024 National Security Innovation Base report card
This second annual Ronald Reagan Institute report measures the effectiveness and resilience of the U.S. defense innovation ecosystem. Federal News Network summary - Angola: Entrepreneurship policy review
This UNCTAD report reviews progress against the national entrepreneurship policy of 2023 in line with the country’s national development plan and Angola 2050 strategy.
Comment
- African entrepreneurship has a knowledge problem (Dr. Phumlani Nkontwana, founding academic director, Allan Gray Centre for Africa Entrepreneurship, Stellenbosch University)
- Digital public infrastructure for the developing world: The “India Stack” provides a model for how developing economies can empower informal business and drive inclusive growth (Sreevas Sahasranamam, professor, Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow and Jaideep Prabhu, professor of business and enterprise, Judge Business School, University of Cambridge)
- Biden Administration proposal would turn back the clock on American innovation (Barbara R Snyder, president, Association of American Universities)
- Mumpreneurs: A growing entrepreneurial force in Chinese society (Lisa Ziong, associate professor in strategy & organization, EM Lyon Business School)
- The least developed countries are falling behind on digital transformation – here’s what to do (Ratnakar Adhikari, exec director, Enhanced Integrated Framework and Taffere Tesfachew, member, UN Committee on Development Policy)
- Tony Elumelu’s entrepreneurs: A decade of impact (Ehi Braimah, publisher / editor-in-chief, Naija Times and Lagos Post)
Features
- Defense One: Meet the army’s tech incubator
- Reuters: Ukrainian women’s startups drive tech sector resilience, offer economic recovery hope
- Politico: How Dresden became Germany’s chips city
To suggest content for inclusion in future editions of 'The Startup State', please email matt@genglobal.org.
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