The Middle East North Africa region (MENA) is fertile ground for founders who want to start a business venture, but the environment wasn’t always so welcoming. In this virtual panel, four veteran business leaders from the region discuss the myriad ways in which the entrepreneurial ecosystem has transformed from a terrain that was once parched …

When Affiong Williams founded her snack-food company ReelFruit in Nigeria in 2012, she soon discovered she had to go beyond the typical managing and marketing required to put any new business on the map. Williams realized she had to take on a leadership role across the entire value chain of her products – from the …

At 23 years-old, Ankiti Bose started a digital supply chain company in Southeast Asia that would grow to be valued at USD 1.1 billion, create over 100k jobs, and improve labor practices across the region. National strategies are increasingly banking on young entrepreneurs like Ankiti create more prosperous economic futures. Globally, 600 million jobs need to be created to solve global unemployment needs over the next 15 years. Young entrepreneurs have the early tech exposure and drive to impact society that hold the potential to solve the world's most pressing issues. However, entrepreneurs like Ankiti are rare. In this article, Sufian explores how the enabling ecosystems of educational, corporate, risk capital, and government stakeholders can unleash the power of youth entrepreneurship to transform economies.

The Legatum Center for Development & Entrepreneurship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, MA) inaugural cohort of the Legatum Foundry Fellows tour Accra innovation ecosystem. Thirteen entrepreneurs from eight countries gathered in Ghana to tour the innovation and entrepreneurship community of Accra. CAMBRIDGE, Mass., November 4, 2021— This week, the Legatum Center for Development …

The Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology introduces the inaugural cohort of Legatum Foundry Fellows. Meet the 2021 Legatum Foundry Fellows Ehi Binitie, Rancard & Clear Space Labs As one of the continents pioneering tech entrepreneurs, Ehi has scaled multiple tech ventures across the world. Ehi co-founded Rancard, a …

The rise of the bottom up, and surprising lessons and leadership from Africa and other rising markets Christopher M. Schroeder Today I had, as I often do, a long call with a brilliant mind, and this time it was one of our partners, Falgu Shah. She has keen insight into fintech and a lens from abroad …

The Legatum Center at MIT is excited to introduce a new cohort of 19 entrepreneurs into the Legatum Fellowship. The Legatum Fellowship is a competitive program designed to help aspiring entrepreneurs gain a world-class education at MIT, as well as extensive mentor and community support, in order to maximize their likelihood of success as principled, …

This is the second in a series of posts from our conversations at the 2021 Lauder Africa Symposium with the Lauder Institute at The Wharton School. The Symposium focused on understanding the world of work in a rapidly changing Africa. Africans are waking up to their intrinsic creative prowess. The talent in the film, music, arts, …

In March, the Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship teamed up with the Lauder Institute at The Wharton School to host the 2021 Lauder Africa Symposium. The Symposium focused on understanding the world of work in a rapidly changing Africa. Over the next few weeks, we will publish reflections and insights from the conversations held …

2020-2021 was an exceptional year for the Legatum Fellowship. Even as the most well-established businesses struggled during the pandemic, starting a new venture was even riskier, if not folly. But the 2021 Legatum Fellows have grit. Not only did the cohort adapt to a remote environment that kept them from their peers and target markets, …

  In his 2009 book, “Idiot America: How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free,” Charles P. Pierce stated that in today’s age “any theory is valid if it sells books, soaks up ratings, or otherwise moves units.” He argues that today validity is determined by the decibel of the speaker not …

Digital health has the power and potential to unlock health services for any patient with access to a cell phone. With global expansion in mobile phone use and Internet connectivity, digital health—i.e., the application of information and communications technology (ICT) to health services—is playing a growing role in improving the efficiency and efficacy of health systems and …