Which Countries Are Most Attractive for Investors?

President Obama’s support for Kenya’s young entrepreneurs and general appeal for less corruption and a greater reliance on trade rather than aid across Africa raises the question: where do the countries of Africa sit in terms of business friendliness and entrepreneurship? In fact how do all countries rank?

One way to look at this is to understand how Venture Capital and Private Equity investors view each country. Here a valuable tool is provided by researchers at IESE Business School and EMLyon Business School with the publication this month of the sixth edition of the Venture Capital and Private Equity Country Attractiveness Index. The index, unique in its broad assessment of the international Venture Capital and Private Equity market, aims to inform investors and encourage politicians to increase their countries’ attractiveness for international risk capital investors.

Unsurprisingly the US tops the table with the UK second, but encouragingly a number of emerging countries feature in the top 50.

VC and Private Equity investors are always looking for rewarding risk and return ratios. They often look for prime investment opportunities in emerging regions, making judgements looking several years ahead. They consider factors like: economic activity; size and liquidity of capital markets; taxation; investor protection and corporate governance; the human and social environment; the entrepreneurial culture; innovation capacity; and the ease of doing business.

DOWNLOAD A FREE COPY OF THE VC AND PRIVATE EQUITY COUNTRY ATTRACTIVENESS INDEX REPORT HERE

The report gives the results for 120 countries and describes the index structure and research approach. It also provides interpretations of the country ranking, a focus on BRICS, and an analysis which reveals that the index scores correspond with VC and Private Equity returns achieved in the past. It also provides summaries of the latest academic research on international VC and Private Equity flow, and offers a tool to benchmark all covered countries and regions.

Research for the 2015 Venture Capital and Private Equity Country Attractiveness Index was undertaken by: Prof Alexander Groh, Prof Heinrich Liechtenstein, Karsten Lieser and Markus Biesinger.