YBI’s 2025 Highlights 

2025 has been an extraordinary year for Youth Business International (YBI). As we celebrate our 25th anniversary, we reflected on a quarter-century of working with our members to champion young entrepreneurs and strengthen the ecosystems that enable them to thrive.

Throughout this milestone year, we have witnessed once again the ingenuity and determination of young entrepreneurs who are not only building businesses but driving economic growth, creating jobs, and delivering solutions to global challenges. In 2025, YBI has expanded its reach, launched new initiatives, and deepened its role as a global advocate for systemic change.

Expanding Our Global Network and Deepening Collaboration

This year, we were delighted to welcome 13 new members working across 25 countries to the YBI network. Their expertise in social impact, enterprise development, youth leadership, and financial inclusion significantly strengthens our collective ability to support young entrepreneurs worldwide.

Peer learning remained a defining strength of the YBI network in 2025. Our Member Learning Exchange Scheme engaged 24 YBI members in visits focused on financial health, green and social entrepreneurship, digital innovation, and ecosystem-strengthening approaches. Members consistently shared that these exchanges were transformative, reinforcing how cross-border collaboration accelerates innovation across the network.

A major milestone this year was the launch of the YBI Africa Collaborative, a bold pan-African initiative with a 10-year vision to make Africa the best continent for youth entrepreneurship. The Collaborative brings together leading African enterprise support organisations (ESOs) from the YBI network to address systemic barriers through improved access to finance, strengthened business development services, and more enabling entrepreneurship ecosystems. It represents a significant shift toward long-term, locally led, and continent-wide impact.

Accelerating Impact Through Global Programmes

2025 saw continued momentum across our programmes, with new launches, extensions, and innovations enabling us to support young entrepreneurs in new and meaningful ways.

AI Ignite – Empowering Young Entrepreneurs to harness AI

With support from Accenture, we launched AI Ignite, an initiative to close the growing digital skills gap by equipping young entrepreneurs with practical, business-focused AI capabilities. As part of this, we delivered three cohorts of our AI Accelerator to 60 young entrepreneurs from around the world, enabling them to use AI to diagnose their sales processes, develop stronger pipelines, and apply AI tools to real business challenges. Based on insights and feedback from the accelerator, our AI Community of Practice began co-designing a global AI curriculum that will be rolled out network-wide in 2026.

Supporting Refugee and Migrant Entrepreneurs in Europe

We extended our Seeking Economic Empowerment and Resilience for Refugees and Migrants (SEER) programme, in partnership with Accenture, to support more than 1,000 young refugees and migrants across Germany, France, Sweden and Ireland over 12 months. The programme provides entrepreneurship training, employability support, and vital networks for young people rebuilding their lives in new contexts.

Final Year of the High Flyers Programme

2025 was the final year of YBI ‘s High Flyers programme, funded by Argidius, which supported underserved growth-stage young entrepreneurs across eight countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, and South America. Over three years, the initiative brought together 10 YBI members to codify best practices, deliver targeted scaling support, and gather evidence on what young entrepreneurs need to grow. Next year, YBI will release the High Flyers guidelines to the entire network, enabling members worldwide to strengthen their support for high-growth potential young entrepreneurs.

Following on from the success of the High Flyers initiative, our member Work Together Foundation has been delivering the High Flyers South Korea programme, supported by JPMorgan Chase, throughout 2025. The programme is supporting early-stage young entrepreneurs with high-growth potential to secure funding and expand their market reach – with a particular focus on reaching 50 underserved young entrepreneurs, including 70 per cent female entrepreneurs – and it will conclude in the new year.

Expanding Inclusive Economic Opportunities with Standard Chartered Foundation

Throughout 2025, YBI’s partnership with Standard Chartered Foundation continued to drive inclusive economic growth through two initiatives. Empower and Elevate – Enabling Inclusive Futures supported marginalised young entrepreneurs in Brazil, Poland, Türkiye, and the UK to grow their businesses and create jobs. Meanwhile, Unlocking Opportunities for Inclusive Financial Growth expanded this year as YBI member Instellar in Indonesia joined the programme with its InnoFund project, which will empower 100 underserved young entrepreneurs through capacity building and a Revolving Loan Fund to access finance. The programme now supports financial inclusion for young entrepreneurs across Indonesia, Kenya, Nigeria, and Vietnam.

Advocating for Global Investment in Youth Entrepreneurship

YBI continued to shape global discourse on youth entrepreneurship through a series of publications in 2025:

De-risking Youth Entrepreneurship and Unlocking the Missing Middle

This paper outlines practical solutions for ensuring youth-led businesses that sit between microfinance and mainstream investment are no longer overlooked. It presents recommendations for tailored finance, regulatory reform, and stronger mentoring models to unlock the economic potential of high-growth youth enterprises.

Harnessing AI and Digital Solutions to Empower Young Entrepreneurs

As AI continues to transform industries, this paper warns that without coordinated action, existing divides will deepen. It lays out six recommendations to ensure AI becomes a driver of inclusion rather than inequality, from expanding digital infrastructure to developing localised, culturally relevant AI tools.

Young, Green and Unfunded: How Three Myths Block Climate Innovation

This paper dismantles three pervasive myths that prevent investment from reaching youth-led climate adaptation businesses. It makes the case for new evaluation frameworks, enabling policies, and ecosystem reforms to unlock climate innovation where it is most urgently needed.

Introducing the EYE Academy

A major milestone this year was announcing the January 2026 launch of YBI’s new Excellence in Youth Entrepreneurship (EYE) Academy, a dynamic digital learning and community platform for young entrepreneurs, ESOs, mentors, and practitioners. Replacing the YBI Learning Portal, it will offer a rich library of resources, live and on-demand training, peer communities, credentials, and enhanced accessibility features. Building on 25 years of global expertise, the EYE Academy will make high-quality entrepreneurship support more scalable, inclusive, and accessible worldwide.

Looking Ahead to 2026

As we move beyond our 25th anniversary, YBI remains committed to championing young entrepreneurs as powerful drivers of economic and social progress. In 2026, we will launch the EYE Academy, roll out new learning resources around AI, targeted training modules to support African ESOs’ advocacy efforts, investment readiness, financial health, and mentoring, open applications for the second Youth Business International Bootcamp, and continue advocating for systemic reforms that unlock opportunity for all young entrepreneurs.

The global challenges ahead are significant, but so is the potential of the next generation. With our growing network, committed partners, and shared belief in the transformative power of youth-led enterprise, we are ready for the next chapter.

Together, we can ensure that every young entrepreneur has the support they need to build a better future for themselves — and for all of us.