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.
GEN community news
- Global Entrepreneurship Network is recruiting! Join us as Community Manager and help us build and manage relationships with entrepreneurship organizations globally! (GEN)
- PRODEM and Global Entrepreneurship Network have launched the 2024 Index of Dynamic Entrepreneurship. The report evaluates and ranks the conditions for ‘dynamic entrepreneurship’ – startups and young firms with growth potential – across 50 countries. (GEN)
News
- Japan will further ease startup visa rules to lure foreign entrepreneurs. Starting next year, visa holders will be granted a two-year grace period to fulfil eligibility requirements. At present, the grace period is granted only in certain municipalities (Nikkei Asia)
- South Korea’s Ministry of SMEs and Startups has announced its plan for 2025, which focuses on revitalizing the local economy, fostering innovation and scaling businesses, and proactively addressing future challenges (Ministry of Startups and SMEs)
- Greece saw 64,262 new businesses launched in 2024 - an 11% increase compared to 2023. Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis highlighted 2024 as a “milestone year” (Ekathimerini)
- Cyprus has announced startup visa changes to provide more flexibility and the opportunity to attract startups at all stages of their development (IMI)
Research and publications
- Startup Enabler Capability Assessment (SECA): A toolkit for understanding startup ecosystems through the capabilities of intermediaries
This World Bank toolkit measures the capabilities of startup enablers using 44 dimensions grouped under seven organizational capabilities. Comprising four phases - classification, consultation, data gathering, and interviews, it enables comparisons over time and geography. Piloted in Romania, it showcases methodology using insights from the Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digitalization collaboration. - The global public impact of GovTech: A $9.8 trillion opportunity
This World Economic Forum and Global Government Technology Centre report highlights the opportunity for GovTech to revolutionize government operations and citizen engagement. Showcasing success stories from countries like Azerbaijan and Rwanda, it emphasizes the need for governments to embrace innovation, foster collaboration, and invest in digital solutions for a sustainable future. Read a summary
Comment and analysis
- Japan’s Y10 trillion ($64bn) startup investment target more improbable than ever (Kazuaki Nagata, writer, Japan Times)
- Government investments in failed tech ventures aren’t a waste of taxpayer money (Colin Mason, University of Glasgow, and Blair Watts Winsor and Jacqueline Bartlett, Memorial University of Newfoundland)
- Tech hubs or tech dispersion? (Robert D Atkinson and Trelsysa, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation)
- Silicon Valley stifled the AI doom movement in 2024 (Maxwell Zeff, senior reporter, TechCrunch)
- How Japan pioneered the global phenomenon of entrepreneur pitch shows like Dragons’ Den (Robyn Klingler-Vidra, associate professor in entrepreneurship and sustainability, King’s College London)
- The evolution of tech unicorns: From traditional software to AI and deep tech (Forrest Wright, research assessment lead, Startup Genome)
- Startups: Reforms, challenges (Gohar Ali Khan, writer, The (Pakistan) Express Tribune)
- Bridging the missing middle of Gulf startup funding (Andy Cairns, head of Middle East and Africa, capital markets, Houlihan Lokey)
Features
- Kazakhstan’s digital strategy for 2029 and beyond: Minister Zhaslan Madiyev talks AI and startups (AsiaTechDaily)
- In 2025, “a return to basics for French startups, according to Maya Noël (Maddyness - in French)
- Brno’s “dynamic startup scene” on the charge (Tech.eu)
- From socialist roots to a free-market startup renaissance: Estonia (Startup Economist)
- Deep tech is thriving in Atlantic Canada (Betakit)
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
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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.