The OECD Start‑ups Database

This paper introduces the OECD Start-ups Database, a new global micro-level dataset tracking nearly 4.5 million start-ups founded between 2000 and 2025. Integrating proprietary and public sources, it offers a rich and standardised view of entrepreneurial activity worldwide, with detailed information on financing rounds, intellectual property, founding teams, financial indicators, and exit events. The paper documents the database construction process, methodological choices, and validation procedures, and then presents stylised facts and cross-country trends in start-up activity. The OECD Start-ups Database is benchmarked against national and international datasets to assess coverage and reliability, promoting transparency on its scope, strengths, and limitations.