Village Capital, in partnership with the Dutch Good Growth Fund (DGGF), has released a report titled – Unlocking the Pipeline MENA: Getting High Growth Potential Ventures Investment Ready. The insights report explores the key themes and trends impacting the early-stage venture ecosystem in the MENA region, encouraging stakeholders to collectively collaborate to drive sustainable entrepreneurial and economic growth within the region.

“Our primary objective was to address the question: How can ecosystem builders best support entrepreneurs to succeed?,” shared Alicia Sornson, MENA Region Lead, Village Capital.

To answer this question, we connected with over 50 key ecosystem players including investors, development agencies, ESO leaders, entrepreneurs, and others working with early-stage ventures in the region, to collectively share insights on what’s working in the ecosystem and areas we can improve upon to further drive the region’s entrepreneurial potential towards sustainable growth and prosperity.”

The report highlights four key aspects of ecosystem growth namely; talent, market fragmentation, access to finance, and support systems. It also delves into the current state of affairs, outlining gaps and opportunities to address as the ecosystem works towards unlocking pipelines in the region and improving upon sourcing, due diligence, and technical assistance for entrepreneurs.

This report will also act as a reference tool to inform the program design of the MENA Ecosystem Builders program – an accelerator for accelerators that is looking to support locally-led ESOs based in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, and Tunisia, to better meet the needs of youth-led, high-growth potential ventures, and drive capital towards them.

Download the report here.