{"overrides":{},"collections":{"insights":[{"slug":"nigeria-unicorn-formula","topic":"ECOSYSTEM RESEARCH","title":"Nigeria’s Unicorn Formula","standfirst":"What Five Startups Prove About Building in “Impossible” Markets","summary":"Five Nigerian startups are worth more than $9 billion combined. The founders did not wait for the market to get easier, they built the systems that made it easier for the next founder.","seo":{"title":"Nigeria’s 5 Unicorns: The Startup Formula That Works","description":"Nigeria built 5 unicorns worth $9B+ despite tough conditions. Discover the startup formula behind Flutterwave, Andela, and Moniepoint’s rise."},"image":{"src":"/images/insights/africa-unicorns.webp","w":1056,"h":1340,"alt":"Table of Africa’s ten unicorns: company, country, year first valued at one billion dollars, and 2026 valuation.","credit":{"label":"Afridigest","url":"https://afridigest.com"}},"sources":[{"label":"Legit.ng · Nigeria’s Billion-Dollar Startups: Meet the 5 Unicorns Worth Over $9 Billion in 2026","url":"https://www.legit.ng/business-economy/technology/1714368-nigerias-billion-dollar-startups-meet-5-unicorns-worth-9-billion-202/"},{"label":"BusinessDay NG · Africa’s unicorn club grows to 10, Nigeria remains continent’s dominant hub","url":"https://businessday.ng/news/article/africas-unicorn-club-grows-to-10-nigeria-remains-continents-dominant-hub/"},{"label":"Rest of World · Africa-focused startup Andela becomes a unicorn after SoftBank and Zuckerberg investments","url":"https://restofworld.org/2021/africa-focused-startup-andela-becomes-a-unicorn-after-softbank-and-zuckerberg-investments/"},{"label":"Endeavor Nigeria · Flutterwave profile","url":"https://nigeria.endeavor.org/profiles/profile-one/"},{"label":"Endeavor Nigeria · Founders of TeamApt (Moniepoint) selected as Endeavor Entrepreneurs","url":"https://nigeria.endeavor.org/founders-of-teamapt-selected-as-endeavor-entrepreneurs/"}],"lede":["Nigeria does not look like a place where billion-dollar companies get built.","Power cuts happen almost every day. Millions of people have no bank account.",["And yet, five Nigerian startups are now worth more than $9 billion combined (",{"t":"Legit.ng, 2026","href":"https://www.legit.ng/business-economy/technology/1714368-nigerias-billion-dollar-startups-meet-5-unicorns-worth-9-billion-202/"},")."],"That is not a typo. Nine billion dollars, from a country everyone called “too hard” to build in.","So what is actually going on here?","The short answer: these founders did not wait for Nigeria to become “easy” before they started building.","They built the very systems that made it easier for the next founder to succeed too."],"sections":[{"heading":"First, What Is a “Unicorn”?","body":["A unicorn is a private company worth $1 billion or more.","It got that name because, for a long time, such companies were as rare as a mythical unicorn.","Today, they are still rare. But Nigeria keeps producing them."]},{"heading":"Meet the Five","body":[{"lead":"Interswitch","text":"started in 2002. It built the hidden plumbing that lets Nigerian banks talk to each other and move money safely."},"It became Africa’s very first unicorn in 2019, after Visa bought a stake in it.",{"lead":"Flutterwave","text":"founded in 2016, built payment pipes that let African businesses accept money from anywhere in the world."},"It is now valued at over $3 billion.",{"lead":"OPay","text":"gave phones and mobile wallets to people who never had a bank account."},"It is valued between $2.75 and $3.1 billion today.",{"lead":"Andela","text":"solved a different problem: brilliant software developers in Africa had no easy way to work for global tech companies."},"Andela connected them. It became a unicorn in 2021, backed by SoftBank and even Mark Zuckerberg.",{"lead":"Moniepoint","text":"(it started out as a smaller company called TeamApt) built simple digital banking tools for small shop owners who had no bank branch nearby."},"It is now valued at over $1 billion.","Together, these five companies employ thousands of people across Africa.","They also move billions of dollars every year for shops, families, and businesses that banks used to ignore.",{"pull":"Five companies. Five very different products. One shared pattern underneath."}]},{"heading":"The Endeavor Connection","body":["Two of these five founders were picked, early on, by a global organization called Endeavor.","Endeavor finds ambitious founders in “unexpected” places and gives them mentors, connections, and access to capital.",["Flutterwave is part of the ",{"t":"Endeavor Nigeria network","href":"https://nigeria.endeavor.org/profiles/profile-one/"},"."],"So are Tosin Eniolorunda and Felix Ike, the founders of Moniepoint.",["They were selected as ",{"t":"Endeavor Entrepreneurs in 2021","href":"https://nigeria.endeavor.org/founders-of-teamapt-selected-as-endeavor-entrepreneurs/"},"."],"This part matters. Great founders alone are not enough.","They still need a support system that connects them to the world.","Endeavor does not build the company for the founder.","It opens doors, to mentors who have done it before, and to investors who might say yes faster because of that introduction.",{"pull":"That single ingredient, connection, shows up in almost every unicorn story from Nigeria."}]},{"heading":"Reverse-Engineering the Formula","body":["Look closely, and these five stories follow the same four steps.",{"term":"Step 1: Pick a problem millions of people face every single day.","text":"Not a “nice to have.” A daily, painful problem, like moving money, or finding a job."},{"term":"Step 2: Build the boring infrastructure, not just an app.","text":"Interswitch built payment pipes. Andela built a talent pipeline. Infrastructure is harder, but it lasts."},{"term":"Step 3: Design for hard conditions, not perfect ones.","text":"No steady power. No bank branch nearby. No formal ID for many customers. These founders built for reality, not for a perfect world, and that made their products tougher and more useful."},{"term":"Step 4: Prove it at home first. Then let the world notice.","text":"Every one of these five companies solved a Nigerian problem before going global. Local proof became their passport to international investors."}]},{"heading":"Why “Impossible” Is the Wrong Word","body":["People call Nigeria a tough market. In some ways, that is true.","But tough conditions also force founders to build things that actually work, for real people, under real pressure.","A payment system that works despite unstable power tends to work anywhere.","A banking tool built for someone with no ID tends to include people other systems leave out.",{"pull":"Difficulty, in other words, can become a design advantage."}]},{"heading":"What This Means If You’re Building Anywhere Else","body":["You do not need to live in Lagos to use this formula.","The same four steps apply in any country, any city, any market that people call “too hard.”",{"list":["Find the daily problem nobody has fixed yet.","Build the unglamorous infrastructure underneath it, not just a shiny app on top.","Design for the conditions you actually have, not the ones you wish you had.","Solve it at home first, then let global investors come find you."]}]},{"heading":"The Bigger Lesson for Other Nations","body":[["Nigeria now produces 6 of Africa’s 10 unicorns, 60% of the entire continent’s billion-dollar startups (",{"t":"BusinessDay, 2026","href":"https://businessday.ng/news/article/africas-unicorn-club-grows-to-10-nigeria-remains-continents-dominant-hub/"},")."],"That is not luck. It is what happens when bold founders meet the right support system, again and again, in the same place.","This is the real takeaway for any country hoping to build its own unicorns.","It is rarely about waiting for perfect roads, perfect power, or perfect policy first.","It is about connecting the founders who are already solving real problems to the capital, mentors, and networks that help them scale.",{"pull":"The problem is almost never a lack of talent or potential. It is a lack of connection."},"Nigeria did not wait for ideal conditions to build five billion-dollar companies.","It built an ecosystem around the founders who refused to wait.","Mentors showed up. Investors leaned in. Global networks like Endeavor opened doors that used to stay shut.","None of it happened by accident.","That is the real unicorn formula, not luck, not perfect conditions, but founders and ecosystems growing together.","And the rest of the world is now paying close attention."]}]},{"slug":"why-copying-silicon-valley-does-not-work","topic":"ECOSYSTEM STRATEGY","title":"Why Copying Silicon Valley Doesn’t Work","standfirst":"And What to Build Instead","summary":"Estonia went digital-first. Saudi Arabia went policy-and-capital-first. Nigeria went problem-first. None of them tried to become the next Silicon Valley, and that is why they worked.","seo":{"title":"Why Copying Silicon Valley Doesn’t Work for Startups","description":"Copying Silicon Valley rarely works. See how Estonia, Saudi Arabia, and Nigeria built billion-dollar startup ecosystems their own way instead."},"image":{"src":"/images/insights/estonia-per-capita.webp","w":1200,"h":1200,"alt":"Bar chart titled Estonia leads Europe in startups per capita, with Estonia far ahead of every other country and the European average line.","credit":{"label":"Invest in Estonia","url":"https://investinestonia.com/estonia-leads-europe-in-startups-unicorns-and-investments-per-capita/"}},"sources":[{"label":"Manuel Stagars · Why You Can’t Replicate Silicon Valley","url":"https://manuelstagars.com/why-you-cant-replicate-silicon-valley/"},{"label":"Invest in Estonia · Estonia leads Europe in startups, unicorns and investments per capita","url":"https://investinestonia.com/estonia-leads-europe-in-startups-unicorns-and-investments-per-capita/"},{"label":"Saudi Press Agency · MAGNiTT: Saudi Arabia Leads the Region with Record $1.72 Billion in Venture Capital","url":"https://www.spa.gov.sa/en/N2494920"},{"label":"BusinessDay NG · Africa’s unicorn club grows to 10, Nigeria remains continent’s dominant hub","url":"https://businessday.ng/news/article/africas-unicorn-club-grows-to-10-nigeria-remains-continents-dominant-hub/"},{"label":"Legit.ng · Nigeria’s Billion-Dollar Startups: Meet the 5 Unicorns Worth Over $9 Billion in 2026","url":"https://www.legit.ng/business-economy/technology/1714368-nigerias-billion-dollar-startups-meet-5-unicorns-worth-9-billion-202/"}],"lede":["Almost every country wants its own Silicon Valley.","You have probably heard the nicknames, “Silicon Beach,” “Silicon Savannah,” “Silicon Mountain.” There are dozens of them.","Most never come close to the real thing.","Governments spend millions building parks, towers, and campuses, hoping unicorns will simply show up.","A few years later, the buildings are still there. The unicorns usually are not.","That is not because these countries lack smart people or big ideas.","It is because they are copying the wrong part of Silicon Valley."],"sections":[{"heading":"What Actually Made Silicon Valley","body":["Silicon Valley was not built in a few years. It took more than a century of very specific ingredients coming together.","Stanford University trained engineers and pushed them straight into local industry, instead of keeping research locked inside classrooms.","That single habit helped spin out thousands of companies over time.","Then came huge U.S. government military spending during the Cold War.","Defense contracts poured money into the region for decades, long before “startups” was even a common word.","Later, a new way of funding companies appeared: venture capital, structured so investors could share in the profits.","That model made it worth taking big risks on small, unproven companies.","Put together, that is over 100 years of history, policy, money, and culture layering on top of each other.",{"pull":"You cannot copy that by building a shiny office park and putting up a sign."}]},{"heading":"The Copy-Paste Trap","body":["Many governments have tried anyway.","Russia built Skolkovo, an entire innovation city designed to become its own Silicon Valley, complete with government funding and gleaming buildings.","Buildings alone do not make an ecosystem.","Without the deep university-industry habits, risk-tolerant capital, and decades of trust that Silicon Valley built up, the copies stay hollow.","So what actually works? Three very different countries show three very different answers."]},{"heading":"Estonia: Build a Digital Nation, Not a Tech Park","body":["Estonia has just 1.4 million people. It never tried to out-build California.",["Instead, it made almost its entire government digital. Today ",{"t":"99% of government services run online","href":"https://investinestonia.com/estonia-leads-europe-in-startups-unicorns-and-investments-per-capita/"},"."],"It also created e-Residency, letting anyone in the world register and run an Estonian company remotely.","Profits reinvested into a business are taxed at 0%, which keeps money working inside young companies instead of leaving early.","The results are hard to ignore. Estonia now has 7.7 unicorns per million people, the highest rate in Europe.","In 2022, startup investment per person there hit $1,056, compared to a European average of just $140.","Skype, Wise, Bolt, and Playtech all came from this tiny country."]},{"heading":"Saudi Arabia: Build Capital and Policy First","body":["Saudi Arabia took a different route entirely: use national policy and government-backed money to jump-start everything else.","The plan is called Vision 2030, and 2026 marks its tenth year.","In 2025 alone, venture capital funding in Saudi Arabia hit $1.72 billion, up 145% from the year before.","That came from a record 257 deals, the most ever recorded in the Kingdom.","Fintech led the way, pulling in $506 million across 55 deals.","For three years running, Saudi Arabia has ranked first in the entire Middle East for venture investment.","No one is calling it a copy of Silicon Valley. It is a nation using policy and capital as the starting engine, then letting founders build on top."]},{"heading":"Nigeria: Build Infrastructure for Real Problems","body":["Nigeria took a third path: solve painful, everyday problems first, and let the company grow out of that.","Unstable power. Millions with no bank account. No easy way to move money safely.","Founders built the unglamorous infrastructure underneath those problems instead of chasing app trends from abroad.","That approach has produced 6 of Africa’s 10 unicorns, 60% of the entire continent’s billion-dollar startups.","Five of them are worth more than $9 billion combined today."]},{"heading":"The Pattern Underneath All Three","body":["Estonia went digital-first. Saudi Arabia went policy-and-capital-first. Nigeria went problem-first.","None of them tried to become the next Silicon Valley.","Each one looked honestly at its own people, its own problems, and its own natural advantages.","Then it built an ecosystem around those specific strengths, not around someone else’s history."]},{"heading":"What This Means for Any Country Building Its Ecosystem","body":["Stop asking, “How do we become Silicon Valley?”","Start asking: “What problem do our people face every day? What do we already have that nobody else does?”",{"pull":"An ecosystem cannot be imported in a shipping container. It has to be designed around what is actually there."},"That could mean digitizing an entire government, like Estonia did.","It could mean using national policy and capital to kick-start founders, like Saudi Arabia did.","Or it could mean fixing the most painful daily problem your people face, like Nigeria did.","There is no single template. There is only the honest work of looking at your own country and asking what it truly needs.",["That is the core belief behind organizations like ",{"t":"WOI.eco","to":"/model"},", which works with governments and founders to design ecosystems around a nation’s own people, problems, and ambitions, never a copy-paste template."],"Silicon Valley took a century to become itself.","Every other nation’s best shot is not to rebuild that century.","It is to build their own, starting from exactly where they stand."]}]},{"slug":"the-great-funding-divide","topic":"CAPITAL","title":"The Great Funding Divide","standfirst":"Why 64% of Global Capital Now Flows to One Continent","summary":"Capital does not flow toward the best ideas. It flows toward the best-connected ecosystems, and those get built on purpose, over years.","seo":{"title":"The Great Funding Divide: 64% of Capital, One Continent","description":"64% of global late-stage funding now flows to North America. Discover why the gap is widening, and what closes it for other nations."},"image":{"src":"/images/insights/funding-divide.webp","w":1600,"h":872,"alt":"Collage of a person looking through binoculars, surrounded by clippings of startup funding headlines."},"sources":[{"label":"Startup Genome, The Global Startup Ecosystem Report 2026","url":"https://startupgenome.com/report/the-global-startup-ecosystem-report-2026/introduction"},{"label":"Endeavor, 8 Global Venture Capital Trends to Watch in 2026","url":"https://endeavor.org/stories/global-venture-capital-trends-2026/"},{"label":"Saudi Press Agency · MAGNiTT: Saudi Arabia Leads the Region with Record $1.72 Billion in Venture Capital","url":"https://www.spa.gov.sa/en/N2494920"},{"label":"BusinessDay NG · Africa’s unicorn club grows to 10, Nigeria remains continent’s dominant hub","url":"https://businessday.ng/news/article/africas-unicorn-club-grows-to-10-nigeria-remains-continents-dominant-hub/"}],"lede":["Here is a number worth sitting with.",["North America now receives ",{"t":"64% of all late-stage startup funding","href":"https://startupgenome.com/report/the-global-startup-ecosystem-report-2026/introduction"}," in the entire world."],"In 2021, that number was 56%.","One continent is pulling further ahead, not falling back.","And the gap is not closing on its own. It is widening.","For founders, investors, and governments outside North America, that raises an uncomfortable question.","If the “biggest pool of money in the world” keeps concentrating in one place, what happens to everyone else?"],"sections":[{"heading":"How Big Is the Gap, Really?","body":["Silicon Valley alone is now worth over $3 trillion as an ecosystem, nearly three times the size of the second-largest hub on Earth.","North America’s total ecosystem value grew 51% in a single year, compared to 33% growth worldwide.","It is not just growing faster. It is growing faster than the rest of the world combined.","The overall exit market also came roaring back, with total exit value jumping 164% year-over-year to nearly $800 billion.","That means the payoff for building a great startup just got bigger, and most of that payoff is still landing in one region."]},{"heading":"The AI Wave Is Making It Worse","body":["Artificial intelligence is the biggest wealth-creation wave startups have seen in years.","Funding for AI-native startups grew 218% between 2021 and 2025.","But North America is capturing almost all of it.","It now takes 73% of early-stage AI funding worldwide, and 86% of late-stage AI funding.",{"pull":"If AI is the next 20 years of the global economy, most nations are currently watching it happen from the sidelines."}]},{"heading":"Why This Isn’t Bad Luck","body":["It is tempting to see this as a natural result of talent, weather, or history.","But capital does not flow toward the best ideas. It flows toward the best-connected ecosystems.","Deep capital networks, founder support systems, and decades of investor trust do not appear by accident.","They get built, on purpose, over years. Nations that never build them get left further behind every single funding cycle.","Think of it like a river. Capital does not spread out evenly across the land.","It flows toward the channels someone already dug, the networks, the trust, the track record.",{"pull":"No channel, no river. That is the entire story behind the 64% number."}]},{"heading":"Where the Gap Is Actually Closing","body":["A handful of nations are proving the gap is not permanent, because they built ecosystem strategy on purpose.","Saudi Arabia used national policy and government-backed capital as its opening move.","Venture funding there hit $1.72 billion in 2025, up 145% year-over-year, across a record 257 deals.","Nigeria built infrastructure around real daily problems: payments, banking, talent, instead of copying trends.","That approach produced 6 of Africa’s 10 unicorns, 60% of the entire continent’s billion-dollar startups.","Latin America is preparing a wave of liquidity, with 39 unicorns and over 60 companies worth $150 million or more heading toward exits.","Secondary market deals there already topped $60 billion in 2025.","And across Africa and Latin America, stablecoins are growing 40% year-over-year, roughly ten times faster than in North America, a sign that regions without deep banking infrastructure are building around the gap instead of waiting for it to close.","Europe is closing a different piece of the gap: deep tech.","Nearly a third of all European venture funding in 2024 went into deep tech, backed by €200 billion in government AI investment.","Instead of competing with Silicon Valley on consumer apps, Europe chose the one race it could still lead."]},{"heading":"The Pattern Behind Every Nation Closing the Gap","body":["None of these nations are waiting for global capital to notice them.","Saudi Arabia used policy and sovereign capital. Nigeria used infrastructure built around real problems. Latin America is building the exit pathways it never had.","Europe used its research strength and picked deep tech instead of chasing every trend at once.","Different tools, same underlying move: deliberate ecosystem strategy, built on purpose.","Capital, policy, and founder networks working together, not one of them alone."]},{"heading":"What Closing the Gap Actually Takes","body":["It rarely starts with more money. It starts with three things working together.",{"list":["Capital networks that connect local founders to global investors, not just local ones.","Policy that removes friction instead of adding it, the kind Saudi Arabia leaned on to triple its deal volume.","Founder support systems that catch promising companies early, the way Endeavor did for Nigeria’s own unicorns."]},["This is exactly the gap ",{"t":"WOI.eco","to":"/model"}," exists to close."],["As a global ecosystem architect, WOI works with governments and founders to build the ",{"t":"capital networks, venture studios, and entrepreneur programs","to":"/projects"}," that connect a nation’s talent to the world’s capital, instead of leaving that connection to chance."]]},{"heading":"The Real Question for Every Nation","body":["The question is no longer “why does North America have so much capital?”","It is “does our nation have an ecosystem deliberately built to compete for the next wave, or are we hoping to be noticed?”","The nations already closing the gap did not wait for an invitation.",{"pull":"They built the ecosystem first. The capital followed."},"Sixty-four percent is not a ceiling. It is simply where things stand today, for as long as most nations keep waiting instead of building."]}]}],"roles":[{"slug":"chief-operating-officer","title":"Chief Operating Officer","org":"WOI.ECO","location":"UAE","level":"Executive Leadership","type":"Full-time","summary":"Build the operating architecture of WOI.Eco and translate global strategy into execution across countries.","opening":["As we enter our next phase of global expansion, we are looking for a Chief Operating Officer to help turn this vision into execution."],"blocks":[{"kind":"list","kicker":"THE MANDATE","title":"This is not a conventional COO role.","lede":["You will work directly with the Chairman and global leadership team to build the operating architecture of WOI.Eco and help translate our strategy into execution across countries.","Your mandate will include:"],"items":["Building and executing WOI.Eco’s global operating strategy","Translating country-level opportunities into structured execution roadmaps","Building leadership teams, operating systems and performance frameworks","Driving partnerships with governments, investors, corporations and institutions","Establishing governance, reporting, financial discipline and decision-making systems","Ensuring that strategy consistently translates into measurable outcomes"]},{"kind":"tags","kicker":"WHAT YOU WILL BE BUILDING","title":"WOI.Eco is developing platforms that can include:","tags":["National Entrepreneurship Ecosystems","Startup Parks","Venture & Innovation Platforms","Centres of Excellence","Venture Studios","Investor Networks","Institutional Platforms","Ecosystem Cities"],"after":["These platforms will be developed across different nations, working with governments and key stakeholders to build stronger entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystems.","The COO will help create the systems, people and execution engine required to operate these initiatives at scale."]},{"kind":"list","kicker":"WHO WE ARE LOOKING FOR","title":"A senior operator who has already built, scaled or transformed organizations.","lede":["Ideally:"],"items":["10–15+ years of senior leadership experience","Experience as a COO, Managing Director, Business Head, Country Head or equivalent","Strong experience in strategy execution and organizational scaling","International or multi-market exposure, and comfort in complex stakeholder environments","A high level of ownership and comfort operating in ambiguity"],"after":["Most importantly, you should be someone who can look at an ambitious vision and answer:"],"pull":"How do we actually build this?"},{"kind":"prose","kicker":"WHY THIS ROLE MATTERS","title":"We are building a global network of entrepreneurial ecosystems.","text":["WOI.Eco is not building another company that operates within one market.","The opportunity is to work on initiatives that sit at the intersection of economic development, entrepreneurship, innovation and investment, and to play a direct role in shaping how ecosystems are built and scaled across nations."],"pull":"This is a role for someone who wants to build the institution, not simply operate the institution."}]},{"slug":"chief-executive-officer-malaysia","title":"Chief Executive Officer","org":"WOI.ECO Malaysia","location":"Malaysia","level":"Country CEO · Executive Leadership","type":"Full-time","summary":"Build and lead WOI.Eco Malaysia from the ground up, and the foundation for a long-term entrepreneurial-led national ecosystem.","opening":["As WOI.Eco expands into Malaysia, we are looking for a Chief Executive Officer, Malaysia to lead the country’s mandate and build the foundation for a long-term entrepreneurial-led national ecosystem."],"blocks":[{"kind":"list","kicker":"THE MANDATE","title":"This is not a conventional Country CEO role.","lede":["The CEO will be responsible for building and leading WOI.Eco Malaysia from the ground up, working closely with the global Chairman and leadership team to develop a national ecosystem that brings together entrepreneurship, innovation, capital, talent, infrastructure and institutions.","The mandate will include:"],"items":["Establishing and leading WOI.Eco’s Malaysia national strategy","Building strategic relationships with federal and state governments, ministries and agencies","Developing partnerships with investors, corporations, universities and ecosystem leaders","Designing and executing Malaysia’s entrepreneurial ecosystem roadmap","Building and leading the Malaysia leadership and operating team","Connecting Malaysia’s ecosystem to WOI.Eco’s global network and technology platform"]},{"kind":"tags","kicker":"WHAT YOU WILL BE BUILDING","title":"An ecosystem where entrepreneurs can start, build, scale and expand globally.","lede":["With access to the infrastructure, capital, talent, institutions and networks required at every stage. This can include:"],"tags":["National Entrepreneurship Ecosystems","Startup Parks","Startup Cities","Ecosystem Cities","Venture Studios","Investor Networks","Centres of Excellence","Innovation Platforms","Founder Communities","Capital Platforms","Global Market Access"],"after":["The objective is not simply to create another startup program."],"pull":"It is to help build the connective infrastructure of an entrepreneurial economy."},{"kind":"list","kicker":"WHO WE ARE LOOKING FOR","title":"A leader with the credibility, relationships and execution capability to build something of national significance.","lede":["Ideally, you will have:"],"items":["15+ years of senior leadership across business, government, investment or entrepreneurship","Experience as a CEO, Country Head, Managing Director, Business Head or equivalent","Strong understanding of Malaysia’s business, government and institutional landscape","A proven ability to build relationships with senior government, corporate and investor stakeholders","International exposure and the ability to connect Malaysia with global markets"]},{"kind":"tags","kicker":"THE PERSON","title":"We are looking for someone who is:","tags":["Visionary","Strategic","Entrepreneurial","Connected","Commercial","Institutional","High Ownership","Execution Driven"],"after":["Someone who can sit across the table from a government, investor, university, corporation or entrepreneur, and understand how to bring them together around a common economic opportunity."],"pull":"Most importantly, you should be comfortable with building something that does not yet exist."},{"kind":"prose","kicker":"WHY THIS ROLE MATTERS","title":"The opportunity is much larger than building a company in Malaysia.","text":["Malaysia already has a strong policy foundation around entrepreneurship, startups, digitalisation and innovation. WOI.Eco’s opportunity is to work across these stakeholders and help connect the different parts of the ecosystem into a stronger, more integrated platform.","You will be helping build a national platform for entrepreneurship and innovation, while connecting Malaysia to a growing global network of ecosystems."],"pull":"This is a role for someone who wants to shape ecosystems, build institutions and contribute to the economic future of a nation."}]}],"markets":{"japan":{"slug":"woi-japan","name":"WOI Japan","country":"Japan","stage":"research","accent":"#EC3B2E","hero":"/images/hero-japan.webp","title":"WOI.ECO · WOI Japan","eyebrow":"WOI JAPAN","kicker":"ECOSYSTEM RESEARCH","status":"IN RESEARCH","headline":"EXPLORING JAPAN’S NEXT GENERATION INNOVATION ECOSYSTEM","lede":["Japan combines world-class technology, research, industry and capital with a growing national focus on startups and innovation. Japan’s latest government research estimates that startups generated ¥25.69 trillion in total GDP impact and 591,000 jobs, with total economic impact growing 15% year-on-year."],"themes":[["Capital & Investment","Connecting Japan’s deep capital base with emerging ventures and international investment."],["DeepTech & Research Commercialisation","Strengthening pathways from advanced research and technology into scalable companies."],["Global Talent & Founders","Exploring stronger pathways for international entrepreneurs and talent to build in Japan."],["Corporate Innovation","Connecting Japan’s established industrial base with startups and emerging technologies."],["Global Market Access","Creating stronger pathways between Japanese companies, international partners and global markets."]],"glance":[["¥25.69T","Startup GDP Impact"],["591,000","Jobs Generated"],["13","Government-Designated Startup Cities"],["¥10T","Annual Startup Investment Target by FY2027"],["World-Class","Technology & Research Base"]],"glanceNote":"Japan’s government has selected 13 cities for intensive startup ecosystem development through cooperation between local governments, universities and the private sector.","opportunity":{"heading":"Connecting Japan’s Strengths to Global Growth","line":"Our research is exploring how WOI could help connect startups, corporations, universities, investors, talent and international ecosystems to accelerate commercialisation and global expansion.","steps":["Connect existing strengths.","Accelerate innovation.","Enable global growth."]},"closing":"WOI Japan, Ecosystem Research in Progress"},"kenya":{"slug":"woi-kenya","name":"WOI Kenya","country":"Kenya","stage":"research","accent":"#026F43","hero":"/images/hero-kenya.webp","title":"WOI.ECO · WOI Kenya","eyebrow":"WOI KENYA","kicker":"ECOSYSTEM RESEARCH","status":"IN RESEARCH","headline":"EXPLORING EAST AFRICA’S INNOVATION & ENTREPRENEURSHIP GATEWAY","lede":["Kenya has emerged as one of Africa’s leading startup ecosystems, with strong entrepreneurial activity, a growing digital economy and increasing international investment. Kenyan startups attracted $984 million in funding in 2025, maintaining Kenya’s position as Africa’s leading startup funding market."],"themes":[["Agriculture & Agritech","Technology, value addition and new ventures across Kenya’s agricultural economy."],["Digital & FinTech","Building on Kenya’s strong digital and mobile-finance ecosystem."],["Youth & Entrepreneurship","Strengthening pathways from entrepreneurship programmes into scalable ventures."],["Climate & Green Innovation","Exploring opportunities across renewable energy, climate technology and sustainable development."],["Manufacturing & Industry","Connecting innovation, industrial capability, commercialisation and global markets."]],"glance":[["$147B","Nominal GDP"],["4.6%","2025 GDP Growth"],["$984M","Startup Funding in 2025"],["200+","Innovation & Digital Hubs"],["55M+","Population"]],"opportunity":{"heading":"Connecting Kenya’s Existing Strengths to Global Growth","line":"Our research is exploring how WOI could help connect 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