Small, start-up businesses offer huge potential for the people of sub-Saharan Africa, but gaining access to funding and adequate infrastructure has not always been straightforward. Are innovation hubs the answer?

Once living in a small town meant isolation and a lack of opportunity. That is all changing as remote, rural communities embrace the digital age and link up with the global economy.

Providing IT solutions for back offices is not the most high profile of businesses to work in, and this goes a long way to explaining why New York-based software company IPsoft is little known outside its core market, despite having offices located around the globe. Will its focus on 'autonomics' bring the company out of its relative obscurity?

California, once the undisputed home of the film industry, is facing increasingly stiff competition from as far afield as the UK and India, as other locations wake up to the possibilities of this lucrative industry and attempt to attract production companies with incentive packages.

Located at the heart of Europe and housing one of the world's busiest airports, the German region of Hessen ticks plenty of boxes for would-be foreign investors. Add to that mix a vibrant ICT sector, a world-renowned financial services industry and a workforce that is as skilled as it is large, and it becomes apparent why Hessen has been a star FDI performer over the past few decades.