JoyCorps Expands Into Myanmar

This year, JoyCorps will be embarking on a plan to expand our entrepreneurial accelerator program into Myanmar.

Myanmar (still known as Burma to many) is a mysterious place that evokes wonder and intrigue. In 2011, after more than 60 years of military dictatorship, Myanmar embarked on an ambitious set of social, political and economic reforms, breaking years of self-isolation and emerging into the global world. 

Myanmar is considered one of Asia’s great final frontiers. With 53 million people—55% of them under the age of 30—the country is located strategically between giants India and China. The impact of globalization has brought new opportunities, particularly for middle class, urban residents. The numbers back it up: Myanmar has experienced one of Asia’s highest GDP growth rates for three years running.

Population (millions): 53.70 
GDP in 2018 (billions): USD 71.215 
GDP per capita (USD): USD 1,326
GDP Growth Rate: 6.6% 

 

Myanmar’s middle class is growing. Pegged at 2.5 million in 2010, by 2030 the middle class will explode 8-fold to over 19 million people (export.gov). Myanmar’s consumers are growing rapidly in purchasing power parity, resulting in drastic changes in their consumption patterns. A young, urban middle-class with increasing incomes, diverse tastes and a preference for new brands and products is creating opportunities for growth, new skills, jobs, and industry. Indeed, by 2030, annual consumer spending is projected to grow exponentially by 300% to over $100 billion/per year (GAIN Report).

Yet opportunity is not equal. A rising urban middle class contrasts with Myanmar’s rural, agriculture-based food-producing areas. This is the nation’s largest employer and sector, accounting for 70% of all industrial production. Myanmar’s rural communities are home to the most impoverished, least educated, and most inequitable communities. In Myanmar’s hinterland, one will find endless cultural diversity as well as generational civil war and overwhelming illicit economies.

The consequence is mostly predictable: rural-urban disparity has led to mass migration to urban centres and neighbouring countries, hollowing out rural villages and robbing new generations of the hope of building better lives in the communities in which they were raised. But, a growing divide is not inevitable. Surging domestic consumer demand satisfied by a market built on the timeless creative impulses of agrarian and craft-based entrepreneurship, and small and mid-sized innovative business rooted in rich cultural traditions, have the potential to bring real economic and community change across Myanmar.

The entrepreneurial and small business sector remains the greatest generator of employment, value, and innovation in every well-functioning economy. But with this sector languishing in Myanmar, these would-be entrepreneurs need new technology, knowledge, skills, and innovations as well as space to work, collaborate, meet new people, share resources, and explore new business opportunities and markets.

This is where JoyCorps has the opportunity to make a difference. We have discovered that entrepreneurs operating in vulnerable communities face tremendous challenges to build profitable businesses. Our team’s combined 30+ years of experience working with startups in Asia gives us a solid window into the realities and needs of these entrepreneurs.  

Through the launch of our new accelerator for small and growing businesses in Myanmar, we desire to contribute to a new breed of entrepreneurs who take seriously their mission to renew culture and change communities economically, socially and physically.

Through our JoyCorps Fellowship, we equip, resource, train and empower these entrepreneurs to operate their businesses through a redemptive lens.  We take seriously and humbly our own brokenness and that of the world around us.  Our end game is for our ventures to be agents of redemption in the world. 

We are now accepting applications from entrepreneurs and small-business owners in Myanmar with plans to launch our program later this summer. As we look to the year ahead, we are excited to be part of expanding this growing movement of redemptive entrepreneurs in the beautiful country of Myanmar.