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
- China has loosened some of the guardrails it proposed for AI in finalized guidelines published this week (Yahoo Finance)
- NATO has announced the management team of the €1 billion ($1.12 billion) deep tech venture fund that launched at this week’s annual summit (TNW)
- The United Kingdom is to unleash £50 billion ($64 billion) for tech startups by announcing an agreement with the country’s largest define contribution pension schemes to allocate 5% of assets in their default funds to unlisted equities by 2030 (CNBC)
- Kenya and Congo will abolish visa restrictions and open up investment under the African Free Continental Trade Area framework as part of 18 agreements across multiple sectors (Citizen Digital)
- Kenya has reversed its 30% shareholding rule under which foreign ICT companies registered in Kenya were required to cede at least 30% of their shareholding to persons who are Kenyan citizens by birth (Benjamin Dada)
Research and analysis
- Regulatory sandboxes in artificial intelligence
This OECD report points out the challenges, risks and policy considerations for AI sandboxes, emphasizing interdisciplinary cooperation, building AI expertise, regulatory interoperability, and trade policy.
Comment
- Reviving the spit of the early (Korean) entrepreneurship (Chung Dae-yul, professor, management information department, Gyeonsang National University)
- To scale up, we must also scale deep (Mark Logan, chief entrepreneur, Scottish Government)
- Entrepreneurship is for everyone. Investing in entrepreneurs should be, too (Tani Chambers, founder, RAVN)
- On AI and tech, the US must avoid Europe’s mistakes (Adam Kovacevich, founder and CEO, Chamber of Progress)
- How to impede technological progress (Matt Clancy, senior innovation economist, Institute for Progress)
Features
- First-ever funded startup sparks Somaliland investment hopes (African Business)
Caafisom, a health-tech startup, secures $110k funding and sets a precedent for tech investment in Somaliland, a de facto independent state striving for international recognition. - The Commission wants the EU to lead on ‘Web 4.0’ - whatever that is (Politico)
The executive’s ambitious communication on ‘virtual worlds’ expounds on a concept that is in flux. - Vietnam’s digitalization efforts fuel startup scene (CNBC)
Vietnam’s tech startups are reaping the benefits as the country sets its sights on becoming a fully digital society by 2030.
To suggest content for inclusion in future editions of 'The Startup State', please email matt@genglobal.org.
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