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 European Union has nominated Bulgaria’s Ekaterina Zaharieva to become the European Commission’s first-ever commissioner for startups, research and innovation (Sifted)
- Germany will commit €12bn ($13.4bn) to strengthen its startup and VC ecosystem. The institutional capital was committed at the government’s Startup Summit this week as part of the ‘WIN Initiative’ (Startup Port)
- India will consolidate all initiatives and bodies of Startup India under a new non-profit organization. Launched in 2016, Startup India currently sits under Invest India (Indian Web2)
- Japan has announced a framework to encourage startups to participate in the defense industry. It is expected to be modeled on the U.S. Defense Innovation Unit (The Japan News)
- Ukraine will award UAH 500m ($12m) in grants for business development to veterans and their spouses. The 17th wave of applications features 39 recipients (Ukrainian Government)
- In Kenya, default rates for loans from the “Hustler Fund”, hat offers credit at cheaper rates than commercial banks, now surpass 50%, raising questions about the viability of President Ruto’s flagship economic program (African Business)
Research
- The world’s innovation fire-breathing dragon
This International Economy article examines whether the U.S. can maintain its lead over China. - Entrepreneurship in the Arab world: A pathway to inclusive prosperity
This Friedrich Naumann Foundation report sets out how reforms in regulation, education and financing can tackle challenges including crony capitalism and bureaucracy that are holding back economic growth in the Arab world. - Unlocking innovation: A systems approach to addressing the shortage of chemistry labs for startups
This Royal Society of Chemistry report calls on the British government to build more deep tech chemistry labs to unlock economic growth and accelerate innovation.
Comment and analysis
- From shadows to sunrise: How to overcome the middle-income trap (Ufuk Akcigit, University of Chicago and Somik Lall, World Bank)
- Want more startups, Australia? Fund schools, not incubators (Joan Westenberg, founder, Idle Ventures)
- Leveraging innovativeness of Africa’s youth through startups (Zuzana Brixiova Schwidrowski and Zoubit Benhanmouche, UN Economic Commission for Africa)
- Unlocking Africa’s potential: Creating jobs for youth through tech (Rishon Chimboza, managing director for Africa, Tony Blair Institute for Global Change)
- Why tech insiders are worried about the EU’s proposed startup commissioner (Thomas Macaulay, senior reporter, TNW)
- What companies can learn from Kazakhstan’s startup ecosystem (Murat Abdrakhmanov, venture investor and serial entrepreneur)
- By failing to support migrant entrepreneurs, Europe is missing out on opportunities for economic growth (Daniela Bolzani, University of Bologna, Rosana Silveira Reis, ISG International Business School and Vittoria G Scalera, University of Amsterdam)
Features
- How China has 'throttled' its private sector (Financial Times)
- Science is breeding a new generation of booming deeptech startups in Estonia (TNW)
- Governments around the world have Big Tech on the defensive. Politics could change that (Politico)
GEN Atlas insights
The GEN Atlas is the world’s largest entrepreneurship policy compendium, featuring over 400 case studies from 70 countries. Using these case studies, we publish Country Deep Dives examining the policies underpinning countries’ entrepreneurial success, Policy Deep Dives comparing different countries’ approaches to common policy challenges, and Atlas Spotlights highlighting the best examples of policies under a broad theme. Recent highlights:
- Policy deep dives: Employee share schemes | Startup visas | Youth entrepreneurship | Supporting ethnic minority entrepreneurs
- Country deep dives: South Africa | France | The Netherlands | Australia | Spain
- Atlas spotlights: Finance
To suggest content for inclusion in future editions of 'The Startup State', please email matt@genglobal.org.
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