About GEN in Madagascar

GEN initiated Madagascar’s first Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) campaign in partnership with the Association Actions Sans Frontières in 2010. The entrepreneurial community responded enthusiastically, and Rendez-vous des Entrepreneurs, a monthly roundtable backed by the Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie, joined the coalition. By 2012, the national campaign reached roughly 23,000 people, laying the foundation for more than a decade of ecosystem building on the world's fourth-largest island.

GEN's presence deepened in 2013 when the Habaka Madagascar Innovation Hub—co-founded and led by TED Fellow Andriankoto Harinjaka Ratozamanana—became a focal point for GEW activities in Antananarivo. As the campaign grew, recognition and government participation escalated in parallel. Madagascar sent senior delegations to the Global Entrepreneurship Congress (GEC), including Deputy Prime Minister Hajo Andrianainarivelo Herivelona, responsible for development and spatial planning, and Deputy Prime Minister Botozaza Pierrot, responsible for economy and industry.

To continue GEN’s ecosystem-building work on a year-round basis, GEN established an affiliate, GEN Madagascar, in 2018 with Prospérin Tsialonina—a Malagasy business consultant who led the monthly entrepreneurs’ roundtable—as managing director. The affiliate works to connect Malagasy founders with international training and global pitch competitions. It also advises the government on policy frameworks and consolidates public, private, and donor efforts under one coordinating body.

During the 2020 global pandemic, GEN and its partners adapted to national circumstances by reorienting the campaign toward economic resilience, youth inclusion, and public policy, while examining the effects of COVID-19 on the country's startups and small and medium enterprises. In 2024, GEN Madagascar coordinated a national GEW program of workshops, networking sessions, pitch contests, and policy advocacy centered on young founders. Leaning into training and skills-building, GEN worked with local incubation hubs to deliver free business training in partnership with the U.S. Embassy in Antananarivo. Through roundtables and pitch formats designed to widen participation, GEN focused specific attention and support on women founders.

A consistent feature of GEN's work in Madagascar is government engagement. President Hery Martial Rajaonarimampianina participated in GEW in 2015, and the Ministry of Industry and Private Sector Development, represented by Andry Ravalomanda, took part in GEN's global congresses. In 2025, the Ministry of Youth and Sports coordinated GEW activities, tying the national campaign directly to public efforts to support entrepreneurs.

GEN connects Madagascar's founders to its global programs. Antananarivo is home to a Startup Huddle chapter, GEN's community-development program that provides founders with peer-driven support. Through the Entrepreneurship World Cup (EWC)—the global pitch competition GEN launched in 2019 offering training, mentorship, and a share of $1 million in prizes—Malagasy startups have reached the global Top 100: Ikiray Miel de Madagascar in 2019 and Paraloon in 2022. In 2024, Startupscale360 organized the EWC Madagascar National Finals in partnership with JCI Larivo and Fliptin. Moli Company represented Madagascar at the global finals.

GEN maintains relationships with a wide range of leading Malagasy ecosystem organizations built up over more than 15 years, including the Habaka Madagascar Innovation Hub, Association Actions Sans Frontières, Azimut, Startupscale360, JCI Larivo, Fliptin, the Ministry of Industry and Private Sector Development, and the Ministry of Youth and Sports. These partnerships have extended GEN’s reach beyond the capital to founders across the country, drawing students, educators, public officials, and business leaders into a single national program each year.

As GEN Madagascar continues to widen its reach, its goal remains to lower the barriers that Malagasy founders face in registering and scaling a business, and to connect them directly with the knowledge, networks, capital, and policy support they need to compete regionally and globally. GEN's work positions Madagascar's founders to move from local to international markets.