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Bahrain’s start-up ecosystem has been recognised for its strong growth potential and Islamic finance regulation, according to two research reports released in the last week, writes Naman Arora.
The Global Startup Ecosystem Report 2020 released by US-based research firm Startup Genome ranked Bahrain the highest in the region and second globally in terms of Islamic finance regulation, while also recognising that the ecosystem has faced challenges with fewer exits compared to the rest of the MENA region in the past year.
In Startup Blink’s rankings, Bahrain jumped 20 spaces globally and is now among the world’s top 100 start-up ecosystems at rank 75.
Both reports acknowledged the significant impact that the Covid-19 pandemic has had on the global start-up scene with Startup Genome calling it a “mass extinction event for startups globally.”
Amongst the worst affected sectors is Travel and Tourism as well as Beauty and Fashion, with Blockchain and Crypto as well as Cybersecurity the least affected.
While 12 per cent of start-ups have seen a growth in revenue exceeding 10pc, 71pc have seen significant declines in revenue.
Additionally, four of 10 start-ups today are in the red zone, which means that they have less than three months of capital runway. African and South American start-ups are most at risk, while European start-ups are doing slightly better.
