MIT Kuo Sharper Center for Prosperity and Entrepreneurship

(MIT) is proud to announce the renaming of the Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship to the MIT Kuo Sharper Center for Prosperity and Entrepreneurship, marking an exciting evolution in its mission to advance prosperity through entrepreneurship and innovation across global growth markets. This transformation is made possible by a generous gift from Sayuri Sharper, SB ’81, SM ’82, and Craig Sharper, SM ’80, whose deep commitment to entrepreneurship and global prosperity aligns with MIT’s values of excellence and innovation, collaboration, and service to society.

Unveiled at the Innovation in Global Growth Markets: Prosperity Through Entrepreneurship Conference, this milestone reflects an expanded vision—positioning the center as a catalyst for promoting entrepreneurship as a pathway to deeper economic agency in global growth markets. By fostering innovation capacity and accelerating the transition to knowledge economies, this vision encourages these markets to embrace the power of entrepreneurship and innovation in their ability to compete more effectively on a global scale. 

Since its founding in 2007 and with the support of the Legatum Foundation, the center has provided nearly $10.5 million USD in tuition support over 400 fellows from 67 countries—advancing solutions in fintech, healthcare, deep tech, sustainable energy, and beyond. These fellows have raised close to $1 billion USD in funding. Their work serves more than 17 million customers across 170 countries.

With the backing of the Kuo Sharper family, the center will accelerate its efforts to support more entrepreneurs, strengthen innovation ecosystems, advance research on development of innovation capacity in growth markets and shift narratives—positioning growth markets as engines of opportunity, dynamism, and abundance.

Under its new name, the MIT Kuo Sharper Center for Prosperity and Entrepreneurship will continue to expand its flagship programs—including the MIT Student Fellowship, Foundry Fellowship, research and thought leadership in addition to off campus educational initiatives like our bootcamp programs, while forging new strategic partnerships to mobilize capital, scale ventures, and embed entrepreneurship and innovation as a core component in achieving long-term prosperity.

The MIT Kuo Sharper Center for Prosperity and Entrepreneurship is a trusted space for entrepreneurs and ecosystem players, dedicated to advancing innovation-driven entrepreneurship in global growth markets. Through leadership and venture building education, tailored mentorship, and exposure to a dynamic, global community, the Center creates space for entrepreneurs to acquire the right tools to build and scale impactful ventures that tackle the world’s most pressing challenges. It also brings together key stakeholders to co-create solutions to support sustainable prosperity across global growth markets. Through its work, the Center is intentionally reshaping the narrative around growth markets, or what is more commonly referred to as ‘emerging markets’ or the ‘Global South.’ Our goal is to highlight the vast potential of growth markets, positioning them as places of abundance, dynamism, opportunity and innovation.