Global Entrepreneurship Week 2015 to assist entrepreneurs with $100m

The 2015 edition of Global Entrepreneurship Week will see around 30,000 events take place featuring 10 million participants in November, with an estimated US$100 million to be dished out to assist entrepreneurs in launching new startups.

Global Entrepreneurship Week, founded in 2008 by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, will run this year on November 16-22, featuring events and competitions involving 160 countries.

“Interest in startups and entrepreneurship continues to grow in all parts of the world,” said Jonathan Ortmans, president of the Global Entrepreneurship Network.

“Global Entrepreneurship Week provides a shot of adrenaline at one concentrated moment to help provide nascent entrepreneurs with access to research, programs and network they need to maximize their potential.”

Activities will include events designed to inspire and inform young minds, and competitions that help founders sharpen their skills.

Global Entrepreneurship Week 2015 will also include Startup Open, a global competition that recognises 50 of the most promising ventures from around the world, with the grand prize winner receiving an all-expenses paid trip to Medellin, Colombia for the Global Entrepreneurship Congress in March 2016.

The Startup Nations Summit will take place in Monterrey, Mexico, aimed at facilitating the exchange of ideas among startup-savvy policy advisors and startup community leaders. The week will also see the release of the 2016 Global Entrepreneurship Index, offering a detailed look at the entrepreneurial ecosystem of 132 countries by combining individual data such as opportunity recognition and risk perception with institutional components such as the depth of capital markets, globalisation and spending on research and development.