"This report offers a trend analysis of women’s entrepreneurship in 50 countries, five global regions and three national income levels. We focus on four key themes in the first half of the report, followed by a closer analysis of region- and country-specific patterns in the second half. The four themes are (1) gender differences in rates at various points in the entrepreneurial lifecycle, from intentions through to startup activity, new business, established business and business exit; (2) gender differences in COVID impacts, both positive and negative; (3) structural inequalities and women’s participation in high-potential startups; and (4) factors in the enabling environment that likely influence gender differences in entrepreneurial activity.

Our findings offer insights to a diverse audience of researchers, policymakers, educators and practitioners. Our goal is to highlight areas where women entrepreneurs have made significant progress, where the COVID-19 pandemic impacted their business outcomes, and where there are still gaps, challenges and opportunities that can be better addressed."

Enterprise growth in the developing world is often constrained by capital, lack of training and skilled labor, market frictions and a general difficulty in identifying ventures with greater growth potential. In the case of women, entrepreneurship or self-employment is constrained further by several additional factors, such as lower levels of education and skills acquisition, restricted mobility, a higher burden of care work and social norms regarding appropriate work for women. The expansion of e-commerce and internet access in recent years has led us to investigate if digital technology could be leveraged in our setting to improve these skilled women’s access to wider product markets and enhance their earnings. This project update shares the methodology used to address this research question and early insights that have emerged so far.

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is the region with the lowest rates of female-owned business, as only 10% of all firms are owned by women. Increasing and promoting female entrepreneurship is therefore very important and has a high potential to broaden labour force participation and diversify the economic landscape of MENA countries. This project aims to address this issue by assessing the effectiveness of an export promotion program targeted at female-owned enterprises in Tunisia who have the objective to export to other African markets. This project update shares the methodology used to address this research question and early insights that have emerged so far.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) act as drivers of economic growth due to their positive impact in creating jobs and driving social change. However, their owner-managers (entrepreneurs) generally face a lot of stress in running a business through role conflicts, working long hours, high time pressure, coping with past failures and managing many economic demands. This project examines the impact of a psychosocial intervention on the business performance of female entrepreneurs in Nigeria. This project update shares the methodology used to address this research question and early insights that have emerged so far.

"A growing body of research has shown that business accelerators programs can effectively help ventures move to the next stage of growth. However, further examination has revealed that women entrepreneurs do not experience the same benefits as their male counterparts, showing that women are still underrepresented and underperforming in accelerator programs. This brief synthesizes the key findings of four selected research projects and draws actionable insights for practitioners aiming to fill the evidence gap on the needs of women entrepreneurs and in what ways accelerators can address key barriers."

Entrepreneurs who lead innovative companies and spearhead transformative solutions are needed to address some of the world’s most pressing issues. Endeavor Insight offers in-depth research on innovation and entrepreneurship across agriculture, healthcare, and clean energy sectors, made possible with support from the Lemelson Foundation, and additional funding for agriculture-specific research by Small Foundation.

These studies evaluate the challenges and opportunities for founders creating positive impact in emerging markets, specifically sub-Saharan Africa and India. Based on data from more than 500 innovative companies and interviews with over 130 entrepreneurs, the research draws lessons from high-performing companies, identifies how they are addressing urgent needs, and analyzes the role of ecosystem actors such as support organizations in enabling their success.

"Endeavor Insight has partnered with the Argidius Foundation to promote further learning among organizations that support entrepreneurs. This guide draws from Endeavor Insight’s body of research on ecosystem development and summarizes the most effective ways that stakeholders, primarily entrepreneurial support organizations and donors, can incorporate lessons into their decisions."

"Endeavor Insight partnered with HSBC to examine the challenges that climate tech founders face as they scale their companies, and the opportunities for investors and supporters to help them succeed. This study demonstrates how global connectivity can further drive innovation and highlights what decision makers can do to better support female-led and minority-led companies."

"The Climate Capital Network’s (CCN) first annual India Climate Finance Report explores the direction of climate finance in India, uncovers funding opportunities and gaps, and showcases organisations that are using innovative approaches. This report consolidates survey findings, interviews, and articles from leading climate finance organisations allocating in India. The universe of funders in India has grown significantly to encompass everyone from the Climate Committed (core mandate and/ or deploying in these sectors for a number of years) to the Climate Crossover (newly part of the mandate and starting to actively deploy/ refine thesis) to the Climate Curious (will opportunistically deploy, but no specific mandate at this point). We reached out to funders who are actively and strategically looking at climate right now. The focus of this report is on the data as a way to provide context and background, but equally importantly on the insights and areas of emergence."

"Entrepreneurship To the Point (eTTP) conducted research in South Africa on accelerating women-owned businesses in male-dominated sectors. To better understand the key barriers to entry and growth that women-owned businesses face in male-dominated sectors, they conducted surveys of 97 women and interviews with 17 women entrepreneurs in the male-dominated sectors in South Africa. The key findings of this report are 1) women’s participation in male-dominated sectors has increased, 2) the increase is driven by women entrepreneurs' passion, 3) but they still face multitudes of challenges in entering the sector and growing their businesses, 4) while the government has pushed for some policy frameworks to support women-owned businesses, 5) women entrepreneurs need both men and women mentors, and 6) there is more need for sector-focused accelerator/incubator programs"