Top lessons from the Start-Up Nation on building an innovation ecosystem

Officials paystack, the Nigerian company which was bought by the American giant Stripe for $200 million. / Net photo.

By

Yariv Cohen

Two weeks ago, the African entrepreneurship and innovation sector received a huge boost of encouragement when the American payments giant Stripe announced the acquisition of the Nigerian company Paystack for $200 million USD.

 But the most important news was not the impressive amount, or the expression of confidence in the local technology: according to a press release announcing the acquisition, Stripe bought the company in order to "expand into the African market".

While this sentence may seem insignificant next to a number like $ 200 million, it does tell an important story: a story of confidence not only in technology or the team, but in the local market. Stripe, one of the leading fin-tech players in the world, executed the deal because it believes in the economic potential of entering the emerging African market, and was willing to pay a lot of money for it.

Together with Facebook's announcement from last month of opening a second African office in Lagos, the long list of indications that the local ecosystem is developing just got a little longer.

The recent developments are not a result of luck or coincidence, but of investment of many efforts and resources. To reach such achievements and enable the creation of mega-companies, a whole ecosystem is needed; one that will support entrepreneurs and allow innovative, bold companies to thrive. But developing such an ecosystem is not so easy. It is a complex and complicated task, requiring not only investment, but in-depth planning and research. Fortunately, different countries have already done this successfully, and now we can learn a thing or two from their experience. And who better to start with, than the startup nation?

Small Country, Big Tech

Over the past few years, Israel has been known as the "start-up nation," and for good reason. Despite its small size (only 9 million citizens), Israel has released some of the most innovative companies and entrepreneurs in the world, including some of the glittering exits that came out of the Middle East (such as MobilEye, which was sold to Intel for about $ 14 billion, the famous navigation app Waze that was acquired by Google, and many more ).

But beyond being a powerhouse of technology, research and entrepreneurship, Israel also presents one of the most developed and leading ecosystems in the world. If we analyze and learn from it, we can refine some "guiding principles" with which we can lay the foundations necessary for a thriving innovation ecosystem, and lead countries and regions to a more advanced and innovative future.