South Africa is officially on the radar of aspiring entrepreneurs around the globe, ranking among the 10 most searched-for countries for starting a business.
South Africa (05 September 2026) – According to a new international search analysis from MoneySuperMarket, South Africa has been named one of the world’s most searched-for countries for starting a business, placing 8th globally alongside the UK, Australia, Canada, the UAE, New Zealand and Singapore.
And for a country filled with entrepreneurs, side hustles, start-ups and people who can seemingly turn an idea into a business before the kettle has even boiled, that feels like a very good thing indeed.
The research analysed Google search volumes across 249 countries and cities, focusing on searches for “starting a business in [location]” to understand where aspiring entrepreneurs around the world are considering putting down commercial roots.
The United Kingdom took the top spot with 18,510 annual searches, followed by Australia with 13,080 and Canada with 11,890. The UAE, New Zealand, Singapore and Ireland followed before South Africa landed firmly in 8th place with 7,780 searches over the year. That puts South Africa ahead of Switzerland, Spain, Saudi Arabia, France, India, the United States, China, Germany, Thailand, Hong Kong, Japan and the Philippines.
Read that list again because the company we are keeping is pretty impressive.
The research comes at an interesting time too, with MoneySuperMarket reporting that searches for “entrepreneur visa” have increased by 450% over the past year, suggesting that more people are exploring the possibility of taking their ideas and investment across borders.
South Africa’s prominence in those searches is significant. Search data cannot tell us how many of those people ultimately establish businesses here, nor can it measure actual foreign investment, but it does offer a fascinating glimpse into global entrepreneurial interest. Thousands of people are actively searching for information about building businesses in South Africa, which means our country is very much part of the international conversation.
Interestingly, South Africans are doing plenty of searching themselves. The analysis found that South Africa ranks 9th among countries whose residents search most frequently for information about starting businesses abroad, recording 10,090 annual searches. The USA topped that list by a considerable margin with 165,760 searches, followed by the UAE, UK, India, Canada and Australia.
There is something encouraging in both sides of those numbers. South African entrepreneurs are thinking globally, while international entrepreneurs are considering South Africa. Ideas, skills, investment, and opportunity can increasingly move across borders, and South Africa is participating in that exchange rather than watching it happen elsewhere. Of course, opening a business in another country involves considerably more than a Google search. Regulations, visas, taxation, operating costs, insurance and local market conditions all need careful consideration.
We spend a lot of time talking about the challenges of doing business here, and those conversations are necessary but they are not the entire picture. South Africa also has extraordinary people, sophisticated industries, world-class financial and professional services, enormous markets to serve and entrepreneurs who have built businesses capable of competing anywhere.
And according to this research, people around the world are starting to notice (hulle weet nie wat ons weet nie).
