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
- Europe's startup associations, led by Allied for Startups, European Startup Network, and EU-INC, have published a joint letter to the European Commission president expressing concern about the leaked plan for the '28th Regime'. While startup advocates have campaigned extensively for a single framework to allow one company form across the EU, the leaked draft 2026 EC work program reveals plans to propose the 28th Regime as a Directive, meaning that each member state would implement a separate version, thus negating the vision of one single framework (Allied for Startups)
- Botswana has announced a citizenship-by-investment program as the country looks to diversify its economy away from its largest export, diamonds (Reuters)
- Vietnam has launched a national venture capital fund to support the country's technology sector. The government has allocated an initial $20m capital, with the target to raise $100m (Deal Street Asia)
- United Arab Emirates has launched a national billboard campaign under the 'Startup Emirates' brand to ignite entrepreneurial drive and encourage Emiratis to make the move towards starting their own businesses (Insite)
Research and analysis
- Portugal: Europe's best-kept digital secret (Anda Bologa, Center for European Policy Analysis)
- Unlocking €250bn ($291bn) economic growth through female entrepreneurship (Amazon and Frontier Economics)
- Where is Spain's most promising technology? The government's plan to prevent startup exodus (Tenerife Weekly)
- Beyond 2025 national audit: Korea's MSS bets on AI, youth founders, and regional venture funds to drive inclusive innovation (KoreaTechDesk)
- How East Asian investors are reshaping Silicon Valley (Robyn Klinger-Vidra and Ramon Pacheco Pardo, King's College London)
- Beyond big tech: National strategies for platform alternatives (Alina Kontareva, Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society)
Comment and analysis
- 2025 Nobel: Growth through technology and culture (Jon Murphy, assistant professor, Nicholls State University)
- India's burgeoning financial technology sector could teach Keir Starmer something about levelling up (Thankom Arun and Sheri Markose, University of Essex)
- How entrepreneurship education can bridge the global leadership gap (Jean Daniel LaRock, president and CEO, Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship and Irina Bullara, member of the board, RenovaBR)
- Forget demo days, this is where startup ecosystem building happens (Paul O'Brien, author, Startup Economist)
- The transatlantic partnership in a changing world (Valdis Dombrovskis, European commissioner for economy and productivity and former prime minister of Latvia, delivers remarks at the American Enterprise Institute)
- Australia's next boom: Why young entrepreneurs need the same backing as first home buyers (founder and principal accountant, Nanak Accountants and Associates)
Features
- Why innovators can't afford to ignore geopolitics (MIT Sloan School of Management)
- Africa's tech leaders shift focus from hype to the 'mechanics of scale' (Launch Base Africa)
- The world's first AI-powered minister tests the future of government (Time)
GEN community news
- Global Entrepreneurship Week is almost here! This year's theme is "Together We Build" - shining a spotlight on the collective power of community, collaboration, and shared ambition. Explore the ideas bank | Promotional toolkit | Add your event to the GEW calendar
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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.