The Global Entrepreneurship Network has a long history in China, with programs spanning nearly two decades to make it easier for anyone to start and scale businesses.
GEN began operating in China in 2007 when it piloted Global Entrepreneurship Week, a movement to celebrate and empower entrepreneurs in every country and community around the world, in partnership with the Shanghai-based Entrepreneurship Foundation for Graduates (EFG). The initiative was met with great enthusiasm across China’s growing entrepreneurship ecosystem and the national Chinese campaign laid the foundation for the expansion of the program that now streches across the world reaching 200 countries and territories.
In the years since then, GEW has engaged influential leaders in China including President Xi Jinping, several government ministers, and 300+ partners annually, and has reached hundreds of thousands of aspiring entrepreneurs across the nation. Over the years, GEW has had the support of the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Education, the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League of China, and the Shanghai Municipal People's Government.
GEW has provided invaluable opportunities for participants to network and collaborate through hundreds of specialized events that have attracted China’s leading investment institutions and venture capital firms. It continues to be one of the largest and most successful Global Entrepreneurship Week campaigns in the world. Its impact has been well documented in China, and the example it set is felt the world over.
GEC Shanghai 2011
In 2011, GEN and EFG hosted the third Global Entrepreneurship Congress at the Shanghai Technology Convention and Exhibition Center. GEC Shanghai set a new bar for the Congress by expanding its size, scope and scale. The GEC is now the world's leading annual gathering of ecosystem leaders providing a forum for them to share and strengthen innovative approaches to empowering entrepreneurs everywhere.
The leaders of Global Entrepreneurship Week host organizations from 100 countries were joined by more than 1,000 participants from across China for the extravagant opening session of the Congress. The importance of the event to China was evident through the participation of a number of high-level government officials, led by Yan Junqi, vice chair of the standing committee of the National People’s Congress of China, as well as Wan Gang, the Minister for Science and Technology and a number of other government representatives from the federal and local levels. The Congress was also attended by several of China’s wealthier entrepreneurs and angel investors who had been leading the way toward new economic growth.
For its leading role in convening entrepreneurship ecosystem players from around the world, GEN awarded its local partners in China the One Global Ecosystem Award, a recognition given to an individual, organization or community that has had the largest impact on reaching across national borders and connecting stakeholders to help entrepreneurs start and scale.
Global Competitions
In 2019, GEN expanded its programming in China by partnering with the Innovation Education Center, College of Engineering at Peking University, to provide Chinese entrepreneurs with opportunities to compete on the global stage. The Entrepreneurship World Cup (EWC) is a large and diverse pitch competition that provides mentoring support and acceleration. The program is supported by the Beckstone Group, the Founder H Fund and Techcode SME Service Company. In 2020, Peking University won global recognition when it won the Entrepreneurship World Cup Campaign of the Year award for its outstanding performance securing partnerships with prestigous entrepreneurship ecosystem partners; attracting a high number of quality applicants; and the strength of its leadership team, particularly during a pandemic that presented new challenges to event organizers.
Startup Huddle
In 2019, GEN and EcoKMC Global Accelerator launched Startup Huddle, a GEN program that helps one entrepreneur at a time while strengthening the local ecosystem, in Suzhou. Startup Huddle Suzhou also helps to capture and share the culture of innovation and learn how effective communications can bridge startup entrepreneur intentions with investor expectations.
Jonathan Ortmans, President of GEN, is a frequent visitor and keynote speaker at events in China. He has addressed large audiences at universities, investor and trade mission meetings in Beijing, and other major conferences and innovation forums. He opened GEW in November 2023 in Shanghai and most recently addressed the September 2024 Pujiang Innovation Forum hosted by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China and the Shanghai Municipal Government as the keynote address for the Unicorn Innovation and Development Forum.