The report highlights that Angola is one of the most challenging countries in which to generate profits from a startup. In the category of market confidence, which assesses a country’s institutional credibility, Angola ranks as the seventh worst-performing nation globally. The ecosystem is considered unpredictable and insecure for investment purposes.
Luanda’s startup ecosystem is currently the fastest-growing in Africa, recording a growth rate of 76.9% this year, surpassing Lagos, Cairo and Cape Town, the continent’s three most established hubs for disruptive businesses.
Paradoxically, Angola also ranks among the countries with the most difficult environments in the world for launching and sustaining an innovative business. This contrast is highlighted in both the Global Startup Ecosystem Index (GSEI) and the Innovation Business Environment Index (IBEI), published by the Israel-based research centre StartupBlink and obtained by Expansão.
The country’s contrasting performance in the two indices is not accidental but rather a direct reflection of its economic and social reality. Around 65% of Angola’s population is under the age of 25, an age group generally more inclined towards innovation and entrepreneurship. Combined with limited formal employment opportunities, this demographic creates structural pressure for the creation of hundreds of new businesses, including startups.
As a result, the growth of the ecosystem can be understood as a response to necessity rather than purely an expression of opportunity. The problem is that the regulatory, financial and institutional environment has not kept pace with this momentum, making it the ecosystem’s main systemic weakness.
Globally, it is estimated that around 90% of startups fail due to the high-risk nature of such businesses. Even in mature ecosystems, this figure is concerning. In more fragile business environments such as Angola’s, the likelihood of success for scalable, technology-based ventures is even lower.
According to Emerson Paim, CEO and co-founder of Kubinga, the fact that roughly 80% of the economy is informal transforms opportunities into promising ideas and makes it possible to expand the base of new startups, particularly in a relatively young ecosystem.
“However, within the beauty of statistics, percentage points can be emphasised depending on the importance one wishes to assign to a particular variable in the equation,” the founder told Expansão.
The GSEI analysed the ecosystems of 122 countries, of which only 100 are included in the ranking while 22 compete for a place, as well as 1,556 cities worldwide.
The index measures the scale of ecosystem activity through indicators such as the number of startups, real demand for products and services, the number of investors, co-working spaces, and the availability of accelerators and incubators in the market.
Source: Expansão
