1
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Global Startup
Ecosystem
Report 2017


By Startup Genome.
In close partnership with
2
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Contents
3
About Startup Genome
4
About Our Partners
5
Our Global Network
6
Foreword

The Rise of Emerging Entrepreneurial Cities
7
Introduction
7
A Word from a Founder
8
About This Research
10
The Urgency of Ecosystem Investments
14 Measuring an Ecosystem's Lifecycle
14
Introduction
15
The Ecosystem Lifecycle Model
21 The Need for Global Connectedness
25 Model Explanation
29
The Global Startup Ecosystem Ranking
30
Key Findings
40 Deep Dives into Top 20
41 Silicon Valley
43 New York City
45
London
47 Beijing
49
Boston
51
Tel Aviv
53
Berlin
55
Shanghai
57
Los Angeles
59
Seattle
61
Paris
63
Singapore
65
Austin
67
Stockholm
69
Vancouver
71
Toronto-Waterloo
73
Sydney
75
Chicago
77
Amsterdam-StartupDelta
79
Bangalore
81 Deep Dives Americas
82
Atlanta
84 Houston
86 Mexico City
88 Montreal
90 Ottawa
92 Quebec City
94
Santiago
96
So Paulo
98
St. Louis
100 Deep Dives Europe
101 Barcelona
103 Estonia
105 Frankfurt
107 Helsinki
109 Jerusalem
111 Lisbon
113 Malta
115 Moscow
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC (www.startupgenome.com), all rights reserved. You agree not to reproduce nor distribute the report, either by email, website download, or any other electronic or physical means without the prior
written authorization of Startup Genome. This material has been prepared for general informational purposes only and is not intended to be relied upon as professional advice. December, 2017. Version 1.8.
117 Deep Dives Asia-Pacific
118 Kuala Lumpur
120 Melbourne
122 New Zealand
124 Seoul
126 Sri Lanka
128 Deep Dives Africa
129 Cape Town
131 Johannesburg
133 Lagos
135 Acknowledgment and Partners
143 Methodology
147 Sources
3
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
About Startup
Genome
Every city has the right to participate in the global startup rev-
olution and reap the benefits of job creation, innovation, and
economic growth. As this Report documents, however, too many
places are currently excluded from this revolution. We invite more
people and organizations to join this growing global community
that seeks to identify the code of how startup ecosystems function,
evolve, and generate successful startups.
We provide a way for entrepreneurs everywhere to tell us about
their journeys and their ecosystems. The survey data, supple-
mented with secondary research and data from global and local
partners, helps create the world's most comprehensive primary
research on startups.
For startup leaders, investors, and other ecosystem stakeholders,
we provide data-driven insights to inform strategic decisions as
to locations and guide actions to mitigate ecosystem weakness-
es. We work with city leaders and members to capture and
assess the efficacy of policies and practices, and help them
learn from each other about what does and doesn't work.
Ecosystems develop along a lifecycle, and in each phase of the
lifecycle ecosystems have different strengths and weakness-
es. Scarce resources must be focused on the right actions at
the right time for maximum impact in increasing ecosystem
performance.
That requires clarity, objectivity, and local consensus, and
that's why we are building the first precisely evidence-based
policymaking engine to guide these efforts. We look forward
to working with more places and learning more about your
startup ecosystems.
4
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
About Our Partners
Global Entrepreneurship Network (GEN): Operates
programs in 170 countries that foster cross border
collaboration between entrepreneurs, investors, re-
searchers, policymakers, and entrepreneurial support organiza-
tions to fuel healthier start and scale ecosystems.
Crunchbase: Everyday investors,
journalists, founders, and the global
business community turn to Crunchbase for information on start-
ups and the people behind them.
Orb Intelligence: Database of firmograph-
ics that provides company information on 50
million companies worldwide and powerful
data matching capabilities to marketing software vendors and
B2B marketing agencies.
Dealroom: Helps corporations, in-
vestment firms and governments
to track innovative companies and identify strategic opportunities,
through data-driven software.
5
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Startup Delta
Metro Atlanta Chamber
Capital Factory
ACCO
Allan Gray Orbis
1871
Denver University
Startup Estonia
TechQuartier
Helsinki Business hub
Greater Houston Partnership
Government of Jerusalem
Simodisa
The Business Place
MaGIC
City of Lisbon
Tech City UK
Bixel Exchange
Cross Campus
Annenberg Foundation
Malta Communications Authority
LaunchVic
INADEM
ETS Montreal
Real Investments and Osmo Foundation
City of Montreal
NZ Angel
Association
Invest Ottawa
Quebec International
CORFO
Endeavor Brazil
Big Bang Angels
ROA Invention Labs
Academy X
SPRING Singapore
ICT Agency of Sri Lanka
Arch Grants
Stockholm Chamber of Commerce
University of Technology Sydney
StartupAus
Tech Sydney
Committee for Sydney
Tel Aviv Global
Startup Nations Central
MaRS Discovery District
City of Turin
Vancouver Economic
Commission
BC Tech
CommuniTech
Our Global
Network
Thank you!
Thank you to the startups, the global revolutionaries, the 10,000
founders across more than 100 cities and 50 countries who used
their valuable time to take our survey.
Thank you to the 300 organizations that support startups in
these cities. Thank you to our 40 city members who support this
research financially, indicated on the map right next to this text.
A special Thank you to GEN, our publication partner, and
Crunchbase and Orb Intelligence, our global data partners. And
thank you to everyone who has supported us since the first
Startup Genome report in 2011.
The Global Startup Ecosystem Report is yours, and and we could
not produce it without your continued support.
This map shows our network of members.
Contact us at member@startupgenome.com to join us.
6
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
The Rise of Emerging
Entrepreneurial
Cities
The mission of the Global Entrepreneurship Network (GEN) is to
help build one entrepreneurial ecosystem. People are mobile,
ideas fly around the world, and capital moves rapidly across
borders. Entrepreneurs no longer need to be constrained by
geographic boundaries: startups in Africa working on global prob-
lems will seek connections with startups in Europe and the United
States. Venture capitalists have followed this pattern, expanding
their global investment portfolio over the past two decades.
Yet we have lacked ways to fully capture the globalization of start-
ups and the progress of the global entrepreneurial ecosystem.
And, while we have evidence-based insights about the DNA of
specific innovation hubs such as London, New York, and Silicon
Valley, we have not understood what works in helping smaller
ecosystems accelerate their growth and increase their perfor-
mance. Until now.
The Global Startup Ecosystem Report (GSER), produced by Startup
Genome in collaboration with GEN, is a leap forward in our un-
derstanding of startup ecosystems and the global network of
capital and connections that drive them. It also provides advanced
analysis of the specific drivers of startup ecosystems, based on
survey responses from thousands of technology startups from
around the world.
Much work remains to be done, of course, and the Global Entre-
preneurship Network will continue to work with Startup Genome
and others to develop further insight. But, with the 2017 GSER, we
know much more today than we did yesterday. Here, I will highlight
four key findings that particularly resonate with our work at GEN
and our partners around the world.
First, original ideas emerge from unexpected places in unantici-
pated ways. What became Silicon Valley did not come into being
spontaneously, but was built over decades of strategic investment
in a vision for an innovation-driven economy. Today, while there
is no recipe for replicating Silicon Valley, this report offers plenty
of ideas as to the ingredients to use, how much preparation is
required and when to apply and mix each.
Second, there is a lifecycle to the development of startup eco-
systems. It may be true that people and ideas and capital are
fleet-footed, but competition for those resources is fierce. Doing
the right thing at the right time in the lifecycle promises higher
payoffs.
Third, we should all share a sense of urgency about developing
vibrant startup ecosystems. City and regional leaders no longer
need to be convinced of the value of new and young businesses
to the growth of their economies. However, leaders of smaller
economies need to invest aggressively in building and strength-
ening their entrepreneurship ecosystems. Amidst that sense of
urgency, this cross-border research offers key knowledge on how
today's leaders can build innovation ecosystems in an informed
and strategic way.
Finally, entrepreneurial ecosystems are multi-dimensional. In the
2017 GSER, Startup Genome uses extensive data to analyze their
performance plus eight factors driving startup success. At GEN, we
continue to work with a variety of research partners, through the
Global Entrepreneurship Research Network (GERN), to extend the
reach of such analyses. Innovative data collection and research
will enhance our ability to help startups.
Such research increases the global exposure of smaller ecosys-
tems and the innovative new recipes that can now be invented
anywhere. In doing so, it puts third-party objective analysis and
credible input into hands of many more entrepreneurship cham-
pions in a mission to capture their cities' fair share and standing
in this new economy.
Jonathan Ortmans
President
Global Entrepreneurship Network (GEN)
7
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
A Word from a
Founder
There is a revolution going on the global startup revolution.
We are changing the world together. All of us startup leaders and
all of us working in different parts of the ecosystem. We are chal-
lenging the status quo, putting new ideas to work, and holding fast
to the beliefthe knowledgethat anyone, anywhere should be
able to participate in this revolution. The work of startup leaders
in spreading this culture of meritocracy and equality is never fin-
ished, and we are all helping each other, paying it forward, and
expanding the boundaries of startup culture.
Two recent experiences really brought home for me how we, the
startup community, have built a shared global culture.
Last summer, on my way to a conference in Sri Lanka, I decided
to stop in China and visit Beijing and Shanghai for the first time.
As the plane was making its final descent, I realized I only had one
appointment set up in Shanghai, and none in Beijing. Not a good
feeling. Luckily, that lone scheduled visit was with Richard Tan,
CEO of Innospace. He received me like an honored guest, then
connected me to other leaders telling them they had to meet me,
that I was amazing and a good friend. He went out of his way to
help me connect. Then each organization I visited did the same
for me, and in the end I had visited 11 organizations in Shanghai
and Beijing in less than 48 hours!
When I arrived in Sri Lanka, I spent my time visiting with two
dozen startups about their products and experiences. Many of
them displayed impressive levels of innovation. One in particular
had developed PAYable, a Bluetooth chip and stripe credit card
reader technology earlier in 2016 only a few months after Square
released its chip reader. That small startup is helping lead a cash-
less payment revolution in Sri Lanka, right behind Square!
I know all of you have had similar experiences in every corner of
the earth. Every time, we are reminded that our culture is special
and truly global. The foundation of the revolution is the generos-
ity and pay-it-forward mentality of startup culture. Introductions,
favors, connectionspeople who are busy working on their own
ideas and organizations frequently take the time to make these
because they know it will come back around. This mentality of trust
and open support helps startup ecosystems thrive. We at Startup
Genome want to help spread this around the world.
So think of this as your report; we are a voice for the global revo-
lution and I encourage you to read about all the exciting startup
ecosystems we now cover, to pay them a visit and consider helping
their startups or investing in them. We are all part of this growing
global community.
Introduction
JF Gauthier
Founder and CEO of Startup Genome
8
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Introduction
About This
Research
Since 2011, we have been on a journey to increase the success
rate of startups globally. Our first big research focused on quan-
tifying the impact of internal success and failure factors those
under the control of a startup founder. We then turned to exter-
nal success factors to quantify how they affect a startup's ability
to succeed.
It is not about the secrets of Silicon Valley. One of those secrets is
that Silicon Valley, often mistakenly touted as a shining example
of unregulated free enterprise, was actually developed through
tens of billions of dollars in government investments since the
postwar era. While examining Silicon Valley certainly offers useful
insights, much of the useful knowledge comes from ecosystems
that successfully developed their ecosystems through proactive
policy and concerted private programs.
Those lessons can be applied anywhere, but doing so requires
rigorous data analysis, assessment of different factors, and sus-
tained benchmarking over time.
Early-stage startups are highly dependent on their surrounding
startup ecosystem, and so if we can create healthier startup eco-
systems, we can generate more successful startups. We can do
this by:
Codifying how ecosystems function and evolve,
Quantifying the factors that shape their performance, and
Identifying the public policies and private practices that can
accelerate growth.
Lifecycle and Ecosystem Assessment
This process involves two steps. First, it requires an assessment of
an ecosystem against our Lifecycle Model, using metrics to identify
its phase of development. This assessment provides a first set of
insights into the challenges an ecosystem faces and what policies
and practices its leaders ought to focus on.
Second, we quantify an ecosystem's overall performance, its score
across eight success factors, and the breakdown of each factor
score into sub-factors. The result is a precise understanding of
each ecosystem, how it compares to other ecosystems at similar
stages of development, and what are the most important gaps to
address. This in-depth assessment is performed for our member
cities, and informs the rankings found in this report.
The table later in this section contains a selection of about half of
the metrics contained in Startup Genome's ecosystem assessment
framework.
Rankings Guidance
The ranking is primarily driven by one question: in which ecosys-
tems does an early-stage startup have the best chance of building
a global success? Consequently it zeroes in on external factors
that directly influence startup performance. The strength of the
Global Ranking is the use of the performance model to validate
every metric. Necessarily, the rankings capture only a fraction of
9
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Introduction
Startup Genome's ecosystem assessment framework. They can
be useful in answering strategic questions related to location.
For startup leaders:
Where should I form my tech startup in order to maximize my
chances of building a global success?
Where should I open a second office and move a company
function, taking advantage of another ecosystem's strengths,
and compensating for weaknesses in my original ecosystem?

For investors, support organizations, advisors, and others:
How can I help address the ecosystem's weaknesses?
For example, seeing a funding gap, an angel investors might
reach out to and co-invest with investors from other ecosys-
tems, raising the likelihood that startups can raise a Series A
round later.
What are the factor gaps we need to work together to solve?
10
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
In the 2015 Startup Ecosystem Report we discussed the great transition
the world is undergoing from the Industrial Era to the Information
Era. Companies, sectors, jobs, and entire economies are being swept
up in this transition. The Information Era is now fully blooming.
Technology is generating wealth and innovation at an exponential
pace but only a handful of places in the world are capturing most
of that value creation. Everywhere else, regions and people are
falling further behind. Without immediate and aggressive actions
to develop stronger startup ecosystems, this divergence will con-
tinue and more places will miss out on technological growth and
dynamism.
While technology always creates winners and losers, today the gap
between them is widening at a rapid pace. Startups are the key
vehicle by which regions and their citizens can take advantage of
technological change, and startups depend on strong ecosystems.
They, however, can take years, even decades, to develop.
Those places that fail to boldly and immediately invest in startup
ecosystems, and thus fail to produce startups, will experience
economic stagnation.
Technology Sector Growing Twice
as Fast as Global Economy
By any measure, the global technology sector has been growing
rapidly, outdistancing most other economic sectors over a sus-
tained period of time. Projections indicate that this growth will
continue at its current rate and perhaps even increase.1
Global gross domestic product today is around $100 trillion. The
technology sector (information and communications technolo-
gy) is roughly 4.5 percent of that, compared to only 2 percent
in 1992.2 If the pace continues at current growth rates, then the
tech sector will be 8 percent of global GDP within the next 15 to
1
CompTIA, "IT Industry Outlook 2016," January 2016, at https://www.comptia.org/
resources/it-industry-outlook-2016-final; Robert Cohen, "The Impact of the New
IP on the U.S. Economy: The rise of the "Megadigital" Economy," Economic Stra-
tegy Institute, working paper, January 2017. See also, Robert Cohen, "The New IP
Economy: Software Innovation drives the Economy's Evolution to Software-Defined
Infrastructure," Economic Strategy Institute, paper for OECD Initiative on Digital
Data Innovation, May 2016.
2
M. Selvam and P. Kalyanasundaram, "Global IT/IT Enabled Services and ICT In-
dustry: Growth & Determinants," Proceedings of the International Symposium on
Emerging Trends in Social Science Research, April 2015, at http://globalbizrese-
arch.org/Chennai_Symposium/conference/pdf/C549.pdf.
The Urgency of Ecosystem Investments
11
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
The Urgency of Ecosystem Investments
20 years. Global growth, meanwhile, is projected to be about 2.6
percent, which means that the tech sector is growing twice as fast
as the global economy.3 Long-term growth rates, however, give
short shrift to the economic dominance of the technology sector:
Technology is one of the few sectors worldwide where the
return on equity for public companies has increased.
Ten years ago, technology companies accounted for 17 percent
of the foreign earnings of American multinationals. Today, this
number is 46 percent.
Technology companies now lead the rankings of largest public
companies. On any given day, depending on the stock market's
gyrations, technology companies may occupy the five top spots
in the world in terms of market capitalization.

These numbers arguably understate the magnitude of the trends.
When even old-line industrial corporations such as Boeing, Ford,
General Electric, and John Deere are turning large parts of their
businesses into software as a service (SaaS) offerings, it dramat-
ically illustrates Marc Andreessen's "software is eating the world"
idea. Many technological advances, moreover, are excluded from
official economic statistics. Since the advent of smartphones, for
example, sales of cameras have plummeted. Yet this is calculated
as a decline in GDP because the inclusion (and improvement) of
cameras in smartphones is not captured in economic data. Similar
effects are true for a wide variety of technological change.
3
PwC, "The Long View: How Will the Global Economic Order Change by 2015?"
February 2017, at http://www.pwc.com/gx/en/world-2050/assets/pwc-the-world-in-
2050-full-report-feb-2017.pdf.
Trillions of dollars in economic value is being created by the tech-
nology sector, with much of that growth driven by startups. This is
good news. Areas of the economy with greater use of information
technology enjoy faster employment growth than those that have
slower adoption.4 Technology creates more jobs than it displaces
overall, and advances such as artificial intelligence will improve
living standards in many ways.
Yet as we discuss next, the technological payoff is not uniform. For
this major engine of the world economy, with trillions of dollars
in wealthand much of it created by startupsonly a handful of
regions around the world are capturing these benefits.
Concentration of Technology's
Benefits
Rapid technological change is today creating three economic
challenges. We see divergence between geographic regions driven
by technology. We see concentration of startups and their value.
And we see growing inequality among different types of workers
because of that concentration. At a high level, these gaps are not
new. But the expansion of the tech sectorand its infiltration of
other sectorsis exacerbating them. Only strong startup ecosys-
tems can ensure wider participation and benefits, and all regions
must urgently take up this task.
4
James Bessen, "How Computer Automation Affects Occupations: Technology, Jobs,
and Skills," Boston University School of Law, Law and Economics Working Paper
No. 15-49, October 2016, at https://www.bu.edu/law/working-papers/how-compu-
ter-automation-affects-occupations-technology-jobs-and-skills/.
1) Divergence Between Regions
For many decades, the economic fortunes of different places
across and within countriesconverged pretty steadily. In recent
years that steady convergence turned into accelerated divergence
instead: metropolitan areas have increasingly outperformed
non-metro areas. This shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone.
However, new research suggests a divergence among seemingly
successful American citiesplaces like San Francisco, New York
City, and Boston have outpaced other cities.5 This divergence
helps explain sluggish global growth. The Great Recession nomi-
nally ended in mid-2009, but the subsequent expansion has been
comparatively weak by historical standards.
More broadly, new business creation (across all types of firms,
not just tech startups) has become increasingly concentrated.
From 2010 to 2014, five American metro areas had the same
level of business creation as the entire rest of the country.6 This
divergence is driven by tech companies.
If we compare, for example, the performance of the five largest
public tech companies in four U.S. cities that are among our top
10 startup ecosystems, with that of the five largest public non-tech
companies in other American cities, we see a marked difference
(see Figure 1). The speed at which large tech companies create
wealth (as measured by their market capitalization growth rate)
has been nearly three times higher than for non-tech companies
since 2012. The average market cap per employeea rough
5
Richard Florida, "Welcome to the 'Great Divergence,'" CityLab, February 14, 2017.
6
Economic Innovation Group, "Dynamism in Retreat: Consequences for Regions,
Markets, and Workers," February 2017.
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Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
The Urgency of Ecosystem Investments
measure of productivityat those tech companies is 2.5 times
higher, with $2.8 million for tech companies versus $1.3 million
at companies in other sectors.
As a result, cities leading the global tech startup revolution, such
as Silicon Valley, Seattle, New York City, and Boston have experi-
enced much faster growth in this key resource than Philadelphia,
Houston, Denver, and Atlanta. These four cities also have growing
tech startup ecosystems, but ones that are not nearly as effective
at creating unicorns and large tech winners.
2) Concentration of Startup Ecosystem Value
We see the effects of this concentration among startup ecosys-
tems when we look at the global distribution of Ecosystem Value
and Exit Values.
Figure 2 shows that that overall value of startup ecosystems is also
highly concentrated. For Ecosystem Value (Exit Value plus Startup
Valuations), 11 of the 55 ecosystems in our sample account for
78 percent of global Ecosystem Value. These 11 ecosystems are
in seven countries.
Figure 3 shows that despite some ups and downs, the concen-
tration of Exit Value has remained fairly steady among the top
10 ecosystems for at least 10 years. While their share fell slightly
after 2011, likely reflecting the aftershocks of the global financial
crisis, concentration has remained stable since.
Within the tech sector, companies reliant on network effects have
outpaced their competitorsthese "category kings" are growing
faster and larger than all other public companies, thus captur-
ing a bigger slice of market value.7 Based on data compiled by
7
See https://www.battery.com/powered/network-effects-keys-ascending-consu-
mer-internet-throne/.
Battery Ventures, these roughly three dozen companies account
for around one-fifth of the entire global market value of software
companies.8 Among top ecosystems, there is a decided skew in
where these "category kings" are located. Five ecosystems (Silicon
Valley, New York City, Beijing, Seattle, and Shanghai) account for 49
percent of the market value of these dominant public companies.
The skew will be exacerbated in coming years as most of the
leading technology companies in the IPO pipeline (such as Uber
and Airbnb) are based in California56 percent, to be exact.9
8
Deepak Ravichandran, Jeff Lu, and Roger Lee, "Network Effects - The Key to Ascen-
ding the Consumer Internet Throne," Venture + Growth, February 3, 2017, at
https://www.battery.com/powered/network-effects-keys-ascending-consumer-in-
ternet-throne/.
9
CB Insights, 2017 Tech IPO Pipeline Report.
Market Cap
Growth 2012
to 2016
Median Market
Capitalization per
Employee
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
0
$50
$100
$150
$200
Productivity Divergence Between Tech and
Non-Tech Companies
Annual Growth RateMarket Capitalization per Employee (in thousand U.S. dollars)5 Largest Public Tech
Companies in
Silicon Valley, NYC,
Boston, Seattle
5 Largest Public Non-Tech
Companies in
Atlanta, Philadelphia,
Houston, Denver
Figure 1

0
$50
$100
$150
$200
Global Distribution of Ecosystem Value
Ecosystem Value (in billion U.S. dollars)Ecosystems (from large to small)
Figure 2

0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
Share of Global Exit ValueConcentration of Exit Value by Ecosystem
Silicon Valley
Top 10 Ecosystems
Top 4 Ecosystems
2-year moving average
Figure 3

13
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
The Urgency of Ecosystem Investments
The upshot is that, while the technology sector is growing twice as
fast as the world economy and transforming all types of different
industries, the vast majority of that wealth creation is concentrated
in only a handful of places. Without attending to creating a strong
startup ecosystem, the slice of global technology and economic
returns that is captured by other regions will fall.
3) Technological Inequality Among Workers
The global technology sector is on its way to doubling its share
of world GDP within the next two decades, with trillions of dollars
in economic value being added by the expansion of software in-
novation. Much of that increase is driven by tech startups. Yet if
current concentration levels persist, 80 percent or more of the
value created by the tech sector will accrue to only a few cities in
only a handful of countries.
Concerns about what technological growth means for individual
workers are high. It's commonly cited that 47 percent of occupa-
tions in the United States are susceptible to automation. Already,
technology-fueled job creation in the United States has been
mostly concentrated among high-wage workers, worsening labor
market polarization.10
Emerging markets look to be worse off: at current projections,
60 to 80 percent of jobs in China, Thailand, Argentina, and South
10
James Bessen, "How Computer Automation Affects Occupations: Technology, Jobs,
and Skills," Boston University School of Law, Law and Economics Working Paper
No. 15-49, October 2016, at https://www.bu.edu/law/working-papers/how-compu-
ter-automation-affects-occupations-technology-jobs-and-skills/.
Africa, among others, are threatened by automation. Some coun-
tries, in fact, are experiencing "premature de-industrialization,"
wherein they shed manufacturing jobs before fully developing
industrial economies. The twin forces of increasing automation
and de-industrialization mean serious economic difficulty for
many countries.11
This creates economic inequality, which can lead to political unrest.
We've already seen examples of this in the United States and Great
Britain with economic divergence creating political disquiet. Not
coincidentally, these are the two countries where the most suc-
cessful tech startup ecosystems are located, and where wealth
creation based on technology has outpaced wealth creation in
other parts of the economy.
Other countries, especially those struggling with different de-
mographic challenges, will see similar unrest. To mitigate that,
countries and regions need to focus on building stronger startup
ecosystems. This work must begin immediatelystrong startup
ecosystems do not pop up overnight.
Focus on Startup Ecosystems
In his landmark book, Startup Communities, Brad Feld posited that
it takes about 20 years for a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem
to develop in a city or region.12 This is a good estimate. In New
York City, where a vibrant startup ecosystem has coalesced in
11
Citi GPS, Technology at Work v2.0: The Future Is Not What It Used to Be, January
2016, at http://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/downloads/reports/Citi_GPS_Technolo-
gy_Work_2.pdf.
12
Brad Feld, Startup Communities: Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Your
City (Wiley, 2012).
the last few years, the seeds were planted at least two decades
ago. Building on prior efforts, Israel and Singapore implement-
ed innovative and aggressive policies in the 1990s to spur the
growth of their startup ecosystems. In Israel, Tel Aviv has been a
top-performing startup ecosystem for several years, and in our
2017 rankings, Jerusalem was a close runner-up, scoring strong
in Talent and Market Reach. Singapore appeared in the top 10
ranking for the first time in 2015 (though it fell slightly to 12th in
the current ranking).
Over the next 15 years, global economic value from technological
change will double. But, because it takes roughly 20 years for a
thriving startup ecosystems to develop, aggressive investments
are needed urgently, or else more places will miss out on that
wealth creation. The world needs more vibrant startup ecosys-
tems to be part of the global circulation of innovation.
This can be done if we work together to build a more distributed
global startup ecosystem. We know this is possible because a
handful of places have successfully taken steps to foster thriv-
ing startup ecosystems. Applying the knowledge and lessons
from those places, adapting them to different contexts and local
strengths and weaknesses, and investing scarce resources in the
right way can create more startup ecosystems in more places.
14
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
National strategy with regards to industry clusters is to grow
their size and increase their performance so they produce more
economic value and become increasingly globally competitive,
sustainably creating jobs and wealth for its population.
City and regional leaders struggle to accelerate the growth of their
ecosystems because the structure and dynamics of tech startup
ecosystems differ radically from that of other industries, requiring
a brand new model of economic development.
In most industries, while the early phase is characterized by the
creation of many companies, it is predictably followed by a period
of stability and finally, consolidation when a set of big, old com-
panies dominates for long periods of time. This is true of most
of industries: Tesla is the first real new entrant to automobiles in
decades. Even in part of the tech sector, large companies such as
IBM, HP, Intel, and Microsoft (youngest age, 42 years) are stable,
predictable, and straightforward for regional leaders to grasp.
Tech startup ecosystems are completely different. Companies
come and go, directions shift rapidlythe leading companies are
younger and some of them will be displaced every five years by a
new upstart. Imagine if the automobile sector were characterized
by 1,000 new car companies each year, with only one becoming
a large global leader every five years, only to be dethroned within
a decade.
That dynamic, especially with rapidly-changing software technolo-
gy, makes the evolution of tech startup ecosystems very complex.
Like their ecological analogs, they evolve through different phases.
Each phase has different features, resource characteristics, and
needs. The quantification of the factors that capture and explain
their evolution across each phase is challenging. Yet it is crucial
to the ability of local leaders to focus on the right actions at the
right time.
How can regional leaders keep up? By quantifying the phases of
startup ecosystem evolution and the factors and triggers that
shape that evolution. This is why we have developed a new Lifecy-
cle Model of startup ecosystems, based on research and original
data from our global survey of thousands of startups across 55
ecosystems.
Local resources are limitedleaders can use this Lifecycle Model
to identify the right actions to take at the right times for maximum
impact. This is the only way for smaller ecosystems to accelerate
and capture a share of the new economy within the next 10 to
20 years, rather than be left behind.
Measuring an Ecosystem's Lifecycle
Introduction
15
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Measuring an Ecosystem's Lifecycle
Lifecycle Phases
Startup ecosystems go through the following four phases, each
with distinct characteristics such as size, strengths and challenges,
what triggers them to the next phase, and more importantly, what
should be the objective of local leaders.
Activation
a. Low Output (number of startups), around 1,000 or fewer, limited
local experience, and generalized resource gaps causing resource
leakages.
b. Main Objective: grow and build a larger and more connected
community by activating local entrepreneurs, talent and investors.
Globalization
a. Large exits (over $100 million) placed the ecosystem on the map
as one of the best places in the state, province, or nation to build
a startup, attracting resources and startups from nearby regions.
b. Growing towards 2,000 startups (and more in very large metro-
politan areas) through National Resource Attraction, but important
resource gaps still exist across several factors.
c. Main Objective: foster connections with global ecosystems so
local startups can develop world-leading startups and unicorns.
Expansion
a. Several multi-million dollar exits and unicorns have elevated
the ecosystem to the global stage and made the world its pool
of resources.
b. Growing past 2,000 startups, with more abundant resources
but still some gaps in Funding and Global Connectedness, ability
to produce a rhythm of billion-dollar startups.
c. Main Objective: expand, fill remaining resource gaps and in-
crease global connectedness by enabling and taking advantage
of Global Resource Attraction.
Integration
a. Grown past 2,000 startups or many more, resources are bal-
anced and competitive with other top ecosystems.
b. Main Objective: Integrate the ecosystems within the global,
national and local flows of resources and knowledge inside and
outside of the tech sector, optimizing laws and policies to sustain
its competitiveness and growth, and spread its benefits (e.g.
culture, source of competitiveness, wealth, innovation) to other
sectors of the economy and parts of the nation.
The Startup Ecosystem Lifecycle model is captured in Figure 4.
The Ecosystem
Lifecycle Model
16
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Measuring an Ecosystem's Lifecycle
Size
Ecosystem size is a multi-faceted concept that can be captured by
Output (the number of startups) but also by ecosystem Startup
Valuation. Output is the most useful measure of size because it
precedes both the growth of other resources, such as talent and
capital (see Resource discussion below), and a reliable increase
in ecosystem performance (see 'Bigger is Better' at the end of the
section 'Model Explanation').
At an early phase (e.g. Activation), Output varies according to other
factors such as the size of the ecoystem's population. For this
reason the concept of density, which is the number of thousand
startups per million people, is also useful in framing the size of an
ecosystem. The following chart (Figure 5) shows how an ecosystem
evolves through the lifecycle. This growth in Output is driven by
the Resource Attraction described later.
An analysis of density reveals the that highest densityat around
two is found only in Silicon Valley. It is interesting to think of it as
an upper limit and combine it to the ranges of Output 2,000 and
more found in well-resourced, more productive ecosystems.
It leads to the hypothesis that a metropolitan city with a popula-
tion lower than one million people will have difficulty growing an
ecosystem into the Integration phase.
Relatedly, the large increase in Output with a lesser increase in
Density from the Expansion to the Integration phase is due to the
fact that startup ecosystems in larger cities have developed faster
Ecosystem Lifecycle Model
Activation
Globalization
Expansion
Integration
Startup Experience
PerformanceRate of
Unicorns
Rate of
Exits
Rate of
Early-Stage
Success
Size & ResourcesResource AttractionNationalGlobalImmigration Constraints
LeakagesGlo
ba
l A
mb
itio
n &

Co
nn
ect
ed
ne
ss
Figure 4

17
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Measuring an Ecosystem's Lifecycle
on how to grow and scale a startup, both technically and from
a business perspective. This expertise is built in the ecosystem
through the accumulation of significant exits which, over time,
drives up ecosystem performance.
Resources and Resource Attraction
Exits drive up ecosystem size in a more direct way: Resource At-
traction. In tech ecosystems large companies are built more suc-
cessfully in regions where ecosystem experience and resources
abound. Large exits act as a beacon to the rest of a country or
the world, putting an ecosystem on the map and telling entrepre-
neurs, talent, and investors that the complex conditions required
to build a large startup are present. Entrepreneurs, startups, and
investors are attracted to these ecosystems from locations per-
ceived as having less resourcesto the point some of them move.
Therefore large exits are also the reason for resource leakages in
ecosystems perceived as less conducive to startup success.
During the Activation phase, ecosystem resources grow at an
organic rate, i.e. the rate local (city) resources grow and become
activated to participate in its nascent tech sector, minus resource
leakages. Because of leakages this can be a very slow process.
The following chart (Figure 6) shows how Resource Attraction
varies across Lifecycle phases. Resource Attraction becomes posi-
tive during the Globalization Phase with National Resource Attrac-
tion. From the Expansion phase, with Global Resource Attraction,
the world becomes the ecosystem's pool of resources. Another
benefit of Resource Attraction is that it increases entrepreneurs'
Global Connectedness, which, as demonstrated in our research
(see the Global Connectedness Section), leads to an increase in a
startup's ability to develop globally leading products and business
models and to attract foreign customers.
and reached the Integration phase earlier than smaller cities.
This is related to the relationship between growth and access to
resources, which a larger city provides in larger amount.
Startup Experience
Ecosystem size, and later its performance, is driven by Startup
Experience. Over time an ecosystem and its labor force accumu-
late know-how through the successful development of startups.
This experience is generally captured by exits (and unicorns) but
also includes different aspects. At the very beginning this includes
entrepreneurs sharing their experience and knowledge of forming
and structuring a startup, the Customer Development and Lean
Startup methodologies, etc. Later it is about sharing expertise
Activation
Globalization
Expansion
Integration
-4%
-2%
0
2%
4%
6%
8%
Net Resource Attraction by Phase
Percentage of Resource Attraction Minus LeakageActivation
Globalization
Expansion
Integration
2%
4%
6%
8%
10%
12%
14%
Global Connectedness by Phase
Proportion of Oversea Entrepreneurs with Connections (Inbound)Activation
Globalization
Expansion
Integration
0
1,000
2,000
3,000
4,000
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
Startup Output & Density by Phase
Output (number of startups)Density (thousands of startups per million people)Output
Density
Figure 5

Figure 6

Figure 7

18
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Measuring an Ecosystem's Lifecycle
have to move to work for a startup at the Expansion phase. Ac-
cordingly, despite the Global and National Resource Attraction
that ecosystems at the Expansion phase enjoy, the growth in
startups through increased local entrepreneurial activity and
Global and National Attraction of startups is so high that startup
access to experienced engineers goes down. In other words, the
number of engineers that early-stage startups have access to
(now that they also compete with more scale-ups) grows slower
than Output. This suggests that from the Expansion Phase, Global
Attraction of engineers becomes extremely important, which
requires proactive immigration policy and the removal of other
immigration barriers (see Expansion phase for details).
Triggers
Triggers are the externally impressive exits and high startup valu-
ations that spark a sharp increase in Resource Attraction, driving
the growth of an ecosystem and its evolution to the next phase
of the Lifecycle.
Ecosystem development is not natural or continuous: the global
concentration of exit values and tech startups is one indication of
just how hard it is to develop a strong startup ecosystem. Without
large exits ecosystems can get stuck or trapped in one phase: this
is the "ecosystem trap."1 Momentum may stall, enthusiasm might
wane, the rhythm of exits can slow down or fail to materialize.
The number and size of exits needed to trigger Resource Attrac-
tion varies with
1
Dane Stangler, "The Ecosystem Trap," Growthology, April 18, 2016, at http://www.
kauffman.org/blogs/growthology/2016/04/the-ecosystem-trap.
a) the relative attractiveness, geographic distance, and number
of other ecosystems in the country (relative National Attraction),
or continent and the rest of the world (relative Global Attraction);
b) the rhythm of follow-on exits (one per year rather than one-
offs);
c) Immigration Barriers;
d) the type of exit (IPO and unicorns often creating more At-
traction); and
e) the attractiveness of the sub-sector (an Artificial Intelligence
exit may create more Attraction than an eCommerce one).

The analysis demonstrates that over the last ten years, exits
greater than $100 million have triggered an ecosystem into Glo-
balization and National Resource Attraction. But over the years
The following chart (Figure 8) shows how Resource Attraction
drives the growth in resources accessible to local early-stage
startups across ecosystem phases.
During the Globalization and Expansion phase, not only does
early-stage funding increase rapidly, but also early-stage funding
per startup increases. From the Globalization phase startups are
formed at a faster pace locally, plus they move in from national
then international locations. Global Resource Attraction has an
even more acute impact on capital because it can flow in large
amounts from all over the world without investors having to move.
This is not the case for Talent. Engineers (at least most of them)
Activation
Globalization
Expansion
Integration
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
Startup Attraction by Phase
Number of Startups AttractedGlobal Attraction
National Attraction
Activation
Globalization
Expansion
Integration
$200
$300
$400
$500
$600
70%
72%
74%
76%
78%
Accessible Resources by Phase
Early-Stage Funding per Startup(in thousand U.S. dollars)Proportion of Experienced EngineersEarly-Stage Funding per Startup
Proportion of Experienced Engineers
Figure 8

Figure 9

19
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Measuring an Ecosystem's Lifecycle
they have done so at a reducing rate as they have become less
and less "relatively impressive". Exits of over $1 billion and the
creation of unicorns have triggered Globalization phase ecosys-
tems into Expansion and Global Resource Attraction, but also at
a reduced rate.
The following heat maps show the timing and rhythm of triggers
of different sizes and types in each of the top 20 ecosystems.
Because it is not rare to see one large exit happen once in a while
in random locations, a single event rarely triggers much Resource
Attraction. However, when two consecutive exits happen in the
same ecosystem, it changes the regional or global perception of
that ecosystem's ability to produce scale-ups. To help distinguish
this effect, years have been grouped in pairs so two exits hap-
pening within the same year or within two consecutive years (2-0
or 1-1) show as light blue (a trigger), whereas one exit happening
every other year (e.g. 1-0 or 1-0-1) will show as light gray (not a
trigger).
By contrasting the relative timing of triggers across ecosystems,
the heat map helps explain, for instance, why a few billion-dol-
lar exits in Chicago in 2013-2014 did not produce as much Re-
source Attraction as it did for Boston five years earlier. Geographic
distance explains why, despite the late timing (2013-2014) of
2000-20012001-20022002-20032003-20042004-20052005-20062006-20072007-20082008-20092009-20102010-20112011-20122012-20132013-20142014-20152000-20012001-20022002-20032003-20042004-20052005-20062006-20072007-20082008-20092009-20102010-20112011-20122012-20132013-20142014-20152000-20012001-20022002-20032003-20042004-20052005-20062006-20072007-20082008-20092009-20102010-20112011-20122012-20132013-20142014-2015Silicon Valley
New York City
Boston
London
Los Angeles
Beijing
Seattle
Chicago
Tel Aviv
Austin
Berlin
Bangalore
Amsterdam
Shanghai
Stockholm
Singapore
Paris
Toronto
Sydney
Vancouver
Ecosystem
#Exits > $100M
# Exits > $1B
# Valuations > $1B
Figure 10

20
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Measuring an Ecosystem's Lifecycle
Activation
Globalization
Expansion
Integration
Phase 1
Phase 2
Phase 3
Phase 4
Foundational Issues
Entrepreneurial Spirit, English Proficiency, Education, Culture
Ease of Doing Business, Adapted Tax Laws
Focal Issues
Local Connectedness, Community
Seed Funding
Series A Funding
Global Know-How: inward and outward programs
Global Connectedness
Fuel Growth and Fill Gaps by Amplifying Attraction
Remove Immigration Barriers: laws, culture, etc.
Global, National,
Cultural Integration
Other Issues
Other Issues
Global Growth Programs
Technical & Growth Talent Work Visas
Proactive Legislation: Remove Roadblocks, Adapt
Assess & Work on Specific Gaps
Entrepreneur, Team, Investor Work Visas
Corporate Involvement & Scale-up Programs
billion-dollar exits relative to other ecosystems and the lack of
prior $100 million exits, Singapore has enjoyed some important
Global Attraction within Southeast Asia for many years, and in-
creasing Global Attraction since.
From Lifecycle to Policy
Because each Ecosystem Lifecycle phase faces different
challenges, and because there is always more to do than can be
done with scarce resources, local leaders must focus their actions
and policies on the issues that will have the most impact. The ac-
companying table offers a first glance at the primary issues that
local leaders should focus on in each phase.
In a forthcoming article to be published on our blog and emailed
to research subscribers, Startup Genome will dig into each phase,
providing quantitative analysis and focusing on the public policies
and private actions that can be taken to move startup ecosystems
through the Lifecycleand prevent backsliding to earlier phases.
Figure 11

21
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Networks and connections have long been assumed to be import-
ant in determining the strength of startup ecosystems. Attempts
to quantify this have been good but limited by data availability.
Here, based on rigorous analysis, we definitively find that global-
ly-connected startup ecosystems grow faster and perform better
than less-connected places.
"My theory is that inequality comes from differential
connectedness."
Ricardo Hausmann1
These ecosystems tap into a worldwide circulation of ideas, knowl-
edge, talent, and capital. Through global networks that are rooted
in relationships between entrepreneurs, startups in these eco-
systems can access global customers at a very early stage and
develop globally-leading products and business models. This is
the foundation of unicorns and, as seen in the Lifecycle model, the
trigger of ecosystem evolution and accelerated growth through
attraction of international resourcesand more global connec-
tions. Conversely, ecosystems that are not well-connected do not
experience fast growth.
1
Quoted in, Philip E. Auerswald, The Code Economy: A Forty-Thousand Year History
(Oxford, 2017).
Global Markets of Innovation
As Steve Blank emphasizes, startups must focus on global custom-
ers from the outset. In the Waterloo Startup Ecosystem report,
we established that startups which focused on foreign customers
grow 2.1 times faster than others. Startups in many large North
American cities with numerous Fortune 1000 companies fail to
achieve this faster growth. Domestic customer access is good but
can limit foreign customer reach.
So who are these global customers? More importantly, where
are they? Contrary to what might be assumed, multinational
companies are very rarely global customers of innovation. They
are global sellers of whatever products or services they market.
Customers worthy of the focus of tech startups may be individual
consumers or businesses with only 50 employees (or multina-
tionals), but if startups from all over the world try to sell to them,
they will become knowledgeable of the latest global innovations
satisfying their needs and which needs are still unmetand in
this way, become Global Customers of innovations.
Silicon Valley, for example, emerges as the global startup hub
in our Global Connectedness metrics. One out of every three
The Need for Global Connectedness
22
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
The Need for Global Connectedness
startups located outside the United States report having multiple
connections to Silicon Valley. When we include U.S. startups, that
figure rises to 47 percent. This means that even small compa-
nies located in Silicon Valley are global customers, because they
become knowledgeable of what the latest and greatest technol-
ogies are by drawing on global startups competing locally. And, it
means that more easily than anywhere else, Silicon Valley found-
ers, investors, and advisors can also become knowledgeable of
the latest global customer needs and the latest innovations pretty
much anywhere in the world.
Silicon Valley, together with London and New York City, forms the
top tier of startup ecosystems. One-quarter of startups around
the world have multiple connections to London; for New York City,
it's one in five (but 30% when including U.S. startups). No other
startup ecosystem comes close to these three in terms of what
we call "inbound" global connections.
These three ecosystems cast the widest net of Global Connect-
edness: these are the places that startups everywhere want to
connect to for access to advice, money, and ideas.
Connectedness creates two-way exchanges, and we can also look
at the level of "outbound" connections that places have to leading
startup ecosystems. To do this, we measure the ecosystems where
startups report having the highest average number of significant
connections to seven of our top ecosystems: Silicon Valley, New
York City, London, Tel Aviv, Singapore, Berlin, and Shanghai.
Here, Tel Aviv stands out as not only a high-performing ecosystem
but also one that is well-connected to others. Singapore, Silicon
Valley, and London are also well-connected to their peers at the
top, yet Berlin, New York City, and Shanghai are not as connect-
ed. Outside of those six, Stockholm, Toronto-Waterloo, Sydney,
and Mexico City are the most connected to the top-performing
ecosystems.
Global Market Reach
In the context of the customer development framework, reaching
foreign customers allows startups to identify problems and solu-
tions that are relevant to broad parts of the world.2 Additionally,
productivity and innovation increases as startups go globalin
any given economy, companies with more exposure to foreign
markets are the "frontier" firms that drive growth.3 A focus on
foreign customers should therefore mean faster growth for start-
ups and ecosystems.
When we look at where startups report having the highest shares
of customers elsewhere, we see a mix of top-performing ecosys-
tems and smaller places. Tel Aviv ranks first, where one-third of
startups sell to customers outside of the immediate region.
What we are seeing with many of these ecosystems is a function
of the small size of their national economies or their geographic
locations. Startups in New Zealand have a few options beyond
Australia, so most of them must go global quickly. In Stockholm,
Berlin, and Helsinki startups have an incentive to go global
beyond Europeif they want to grow faster. The best examples
of this are Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Because of its small economy
and thanks to their global community, Israeli startups have suc-
cessfully executed go-global strategies for years.
This metric captures startups with customers outside their imme-
diate region. For example, Berlin startups have access to a large
2
See Steve Blank's methodology at https://steveblank.com/category/customer-de-
velopment/
3
Dan Andrews, Chiara Criscuolo, and Peter N. Gal, "Frontier Firms, Technology
Diffusion and Public Policy: Micro Evidence from OECD Countries," OECD, Future of
Productivity Series, 2015.
Inbound Entrepreneur Connections
Top 20
Other
Bubble size indicates the percentage of foreign entrepreneurs
reporting 2+ connections to entrepreneurs in a given ecosystem.
Outbound Entrepreneur Connections
Top 20
Other
Bubble size indicates the average number of connections reported by local
entrepreneurs with foreign entrepreneurs in 7 ecosystems
(SV, NYC, London, Berlin, Tel Aviv, Singapore, and Shanghai).
Figure 12
Inbound connections. Percentage of startups around the world (ex-
cluding the United States) saying they have 2+ connections to other
ecosystems.
Figure 13
Average number of connections startups have to top
ecosystems.
23
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
The Need for Global Connectedness
domestic market and the European Union, but these are not taken
into account here. Instead, the high score of Stockholm, Berlin,
and Helsinki reflects the global orientation of startups in these
cities and their ability to expand globally, outside of the European
Union, at a higher rate than other ecosystems.
While Silicon Valley and a few other top U.S. ecosystems fare well,
many American ecosystems don't. In Chicago and Los Angeles,
only eight and twelve percent of startups, respectively, report
having customers outside of North America. Even in Los Angeles,
only 14 percent of startups say they sell to customers in the rest
of the world. However, because the U.S. is not only the largest
national market to scale in but also the leading global market for
innovation, U.S. startups can focus on addressing the U.S. market
first and then go on to win over the world. Many Tel Aviv startups
have done this successfully by targeting the U.S. from the onset
and bypassing their local market entirely.
Interestingly, city size guarantees nothing. Large metropolises that
are otherwise well-connected within the global economy aren't
necessarily plugged into global startup networks. In fact, the size
of a metropolitan area's economy may be a pitfall, misleading
startups to focus on the large local market rather than go global.
For this reason the ecosystems of Chicago and Los Angeles have
seen their growth plateau and ranking go down, while Seoul,
despite its global reach in other industries, is not achieving the
same success with its startup ecosystem.
Most Connected Ecosystems
By Region
While there is a hierarchy of Global Connectedness within each
region of the world, Silicon Valley, London, and New York form
the Global Connectedness core. Analyzing these hubs can tell us
which ecosystems have the strongest gravitational pull for startup
ideas and resources and, thus, where startups are best positioned
to go global in terms of market reach. Silicon Valley dominates the
connections of nearly every single other startup ecosystemsome
sort of connection with a startup founder or executive in Silicon
Valley, it seems, is almost a prerequisite for startups elsewhere.
In each region of the world, the most connected ecosystems are
those with the most connections to Silicon Valley.
The exception, of course, is North America, where Silicon Valley is
the dominant startup ecosystemit has the most connections to
New York City, followed by London and Tel Aviv. Likewise, London
and New York City dominate the "secondary" connections. After
Silicon Valley, the most connected ecosystems in each region have
the strongest connectedness with London and New York. The
lone exception is Singapore, which has Shanghai as its secondary
connection city.
Concluding Remarks
Greater Global Connectedness leads to higher performance for
startups and their ecosystems. Establishing more relationships
between founders and executives in other parts of the world
brings in more ideas and more innovation, resulting in faster
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
Bangalore
Helsinki
Melbourne
Malta
Berlin
Stockholm
Silicon Valley
Jerusalem
New Zealand
Tel Aviv
Top Ten for Rest of the World Users
Proportion of Users Reported in the Rest of the World
Average percentage of users based outside an ecosystem's immediate region.
E.g. the number for Toronto excludes U.S. users.
Silicon Valley
London
New York City
Beijing
Los Angeles
Toronto
Sydney
Tel Aviv
Singapore
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
0
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
Entrepreneur Connections and Global Market Reach
Average Number of Outbound Entrepreneur Connections
Proportion of Users Reported in the Rest of the WorldBubble size indicates the percentage of Inbound Entrepreneur Connections.
Figure 14
Average percentage of startups' customer base that is outside an
ecosystem's immediate region. This excludes the immediate region
or continent: the responses for Stockholm, Berlin, and Helsinki, for
example, exclude customers in European markets.
Figure 15

24
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
The Need for Global Connectedness
Global Connectedness
Bangalore
Vancouver
Barcelona
Chicago
Mexico City
Sydney
New Zealand
Paris
Amsterdam
Santiago
Los Angeles
Stockholm
Toronto
New York City
Kuala Lumpur
London
Berlin
Johannesburg
Austin
Silicon Valley
Singapore
Boston
Seattle
Beijing
Shanghai
Tel Aviv
Line thickness indicates the degree of Outbound and Inbound Entrepreneur Connections.
startup growth and more vibrant ecosystems. Startups thrive on
relationships and the exchange of ideaswith customers, inves-
tors, corporations, and, especially, other startups. These ideas
include "hard" knowledge such as technical ideas about product
improvement, new scientific ideas, and how to sell into different
markets. But global connectedness also brings the benefits of a
global network to startups and their ecosystems, including giving
introductions and being exposed to a pay-it-forward mentality.
The exchange of this knowledge occurs through personal rela-
tionships, and more relationships leads to faster-growing start-
ups. The broader those connections are, the better the growth
outcomes will be for startups and their ecosystems.
Figure 16

Region
Ecosystem with
Highest Global
Connectedness:
Most Entrepreneurial
Connections To:
Africa
Johannesburg
Silicon Valley
Asia Pacific
Singapore
Silicon Valley
Europe
Tel Aviv
Silicon Valley
Latin America
Mexico City
Silicon Valley
North America
Silicon Valley
New York City
25
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Startup Genome's Ecosystem Assessment Framework and 2017
ranking are based on the following key concepts and some new
factors, as described below (see the Methodology section for
more details).
Made of more than 100 metrics, the broader methodology better
captures the factors that drive the success of startups. It also
better measures the performance of smaller, yet high-perfor-
mance ecosystems like Stockholm. This leads to important down-
ward movements in the ranking among some large ecosystems. It
also provides the ability to better compare Silicon Valley to other
ecosystems and discern where it is getting challenged.
Key Rankings Concepts
Performance
The ranking is primarily driven by one question: In which ecosys-
tems does an early-stage startup have the best chance of building
a global success?
Early-Stage Startups
At that stage startups are almost completely dependent on the
resources and skills present in their city, so the ranking and other
metrics essentially measure their access to resources.
Ecosystem Boundaries
We defined ecosystems, with some exception, around the concept
of a shared pool of resources generally located within a 60 mile
(100 km) radius around a center point.
Ecosystem assignment
Because we are assessing an ecosystem based on its ability to
provide the right resources for an early-stage startup to become
a big success, we prefer to assign each startup to the ecosystem
where it was started. This year we invested a great deal into re-
searching the ecosystem where successful startups were actually
started rather than use their location at exit.
Resource access
We use access rather than availability. For example, Silicon Valley
has the largest pool of skilled and experienced software engineers.
Model Explanation
26
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Model Explanation
That's high "availability," but it is difficult for early-stage startups to
access (or attract) that experienced talent pool away from large
local tech companies.
Current and lagging indicators
We use a mix of current indicators, such as funding and funding
growth, and lagging indicators such as Exit Value, which reflects
the ability of the ecosystem to develop successful startups formed
five to 10 years prior.
Bigger is (generally) better
Michael Porter1 asserted that the performance of every player in
an industry cluster increases with the size of the cluster. It is also
1
Porter, M.E. (1990). The Competitive Advantage of Nations. New York: The Free
Press..
generally true of startup ecosystems. Larger ecosystems see their
startups perform better on average: they have a higher rate of
success from Series A to Series C, and their valuation grows faster
(see Figures 17 and 18). Figure 19 suggests this is essentially due
to the greater ability of larger ecosystems to create globally-lead-
ing startupsthe focus of the rankingsome of which evolve
into large exits and unicorns. Once the top and bottom 10% of
startups are removed from the analysis, the valuation growth of
startups in large and medium-sized ecosystems is similar.
For a given ecosystem size, however, performance varies sig-
nificantly based on other factors, and these other factors can
sometimes influence ecosystem performance more than size.
Stockholm is a great example; it produces more and bigger exits
than some larger ecosystems.
In recognition of this, we developed new variables (see next
section) capturing a more complete set of success factors, and
reduced the weights for ecosystem size.
New Metrics
The following is a list of some of the new factors and metrics de-
veloped this year as part of our expanded Ecosystem Assessment
Framework, some of which are not scored as part of the ranking.
Global Connectedness: quantifies the valuable international
relationships that exist between startup leaders, and how they
were developed. It translates into a startup's ability to reach out
outside its own ecosystem and highly correlates with the ability
to attract foreign customers. For this reason it is categorized
within market reach inside the ranking model.
New York City
Los Angeles
Boston
Tel Aviv
London
Chicago
Seattle
Berlin
Paris
Moscow
Austin
Toronto
Denver-Boulder
Silicon Valley
Singapore
3
4
5
6 7 8 9
$10
2
3
4
5
6 7 8 9
$100
2
3
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
Series C/Series A Success Ratio
Ecosystem Value (in billion U.S. dollars)
C/A RatioFigure 17

Figure 18

Beijing
Boston
London
Los Angeles
New York City
Paris
Seattle
Silicon Valley
Tel Aviv
$10
2
3
4
5
6
7
8 9$100
2
3
30k
40k
50k
60k
Valuation Growth vs Ecosystem Value (Middle 80%)
Valuation Growth Rate Over TimeEcosystem Value (in billion U.S. dollars)
Figure 19

Beijing
Boston
London
Los Angeles
New York City
Paris
Seattle
Silicon Valley
Tel Aviv
$10
2
3
4
5
6
7
8 9
$100
2
3
50k
100k
150k
200k
250k
300k
Valuation Growth vs Ecosystem Value (All)
Valuation Growth Rate Over TimeEcosystem Value (in billion U.S. dollars)
27
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Model Explanation
Resource Attraction and Leakages: a function of ecosystem
performance and lifecycle evolution, these quantify the move-
ment of startups and entrepreneurs between ecosystems, as
well as the attraction of secondary offices of VC firms.
Founder Ambition: quantifies the degree to which the product
is considered to be new or first in the world, or a local version,
and whether going global is an objective.
Founder Go-Global Strategy: measures whether a startup is
going global from the outset or first targets its local market, and
whether its customer acquisition team is located, targeted, and
skilled to succeed.
Corporate Involvement: measure the perception that corpo-
rations are interested in working with startups.
Startup Genome's Ecosystem Assessment Framework (selection of ~45 metrics out of 100+)
Figure 20

Sub-Factor
Metric
Silicon ValleyNew York CityLondonEcosystem Value
Ecosystem Value
Exit Value
Exit Value Growth Index
Exit Growth Rate
Startup Valuations
Startup Valuations
Output
Output Growth Index
Unicorns
# Unicorns
Early-Stage Funding
Early-Stage Funding Growth Index
Median Seed Amount
Median Series A Amount
Quality
Experienced VC Firm Index
Rest of the World Customers
Foreign Customer
International Outbound
International Inbound
Locally-Made Global Connections
Global Attraction
National Attraction
Leakage
Leakage Intent
Global Attraction
National Attraction
Leakage
Ecosystem
# Exits > $50M USD (last 10 years)
Advisors with Equity
Stock Options to All Employees
Founder Hypergrowth Experience
Experienced Engineers
Time to Hire Engineer
Visa Success Rate
Days to Visa
Experienced Growth Employees
Level Positive Involvement
Level Negative Involvement
Ambition
Globally Leading Product
Targeting Global Market First
# Product Languages
Growth Leader Global Experience
Growth Team Global Focus
% Serial Founders
% Immigrant Founders
% Female Founders
% Biz & Tech Founders
Go-Global Strategy
Global Reach
Access
Founder Relationships
Market Reach
Global Connectedness
Resource Attraction
Startup Experience
Talent
Corporate Involvement
Founder
Exit Value
Output
Performance
Funding
Interest
Entrepreneur
Startup
Access
Team
Sub-Factor
Metric
Silicon ValleyNew York CityLondonEcosystem Value
Ecosystem Value
Exit Value
Exit Value Growth Index
Exit Growth Rate
Startup Valuations
Startup Valuations
Output
Output Growth Index
Unicorns
# Unicorns
Early-Stage Funding
Early-Stage Funding Growth Index
Median Seed Amount
Median Series A Amount
Quality
Experienced VC Firm Index
Rest of the World Customers
Foreign Customer
International Outbound
International Inbound
Locally-Made Global Connections
Global Attraction
National Attraction
Leakage
Leakage Intent
Global Attraction
National Attraction
Leakage
Ecosystem
# Exits > $50M USD (last 10 years)
Advisors with Equity
Stock Options to All Employees
Founder Hypergrowth Experience
Experienced Engineers
Time to Hire Engineer
Visa Success Rate
Days to Visa
Experienced Growth Employees
Level Positive Involvement
Level Negative Involvement
Ambition
Globally Leading Product
Targeting Global Market First
# Product Languages
Growth Leader Global Experience
Growth Team Global Focus
% Serial Founders
% Immigrant Founders
% Female Founders
% Biz & Tech Founders
Go-Global Strategy
Global Reach
Access
Founder Relationships
Market Reach
Global Connectedness
Resource Attraction
Startup Experience
Talent
Corporate Involvement
Founder
Exit Value
Output
Performance
Funding
Interest
Entrepreneur
Startup
Access
Team
International Outbound
International Inbound
Locally-Made Global Connections
Global Attraction
National Attraction
Leakage
Leakage Intent
Global Attraction
National Attraction
Leakage
Ecosystem
# Exits > $50M USD (last 10 years)
Advisors with Equity
Stock Options to All Employees
Founder Hypergrowth Experience
Experienced Engineers
Time to Hire Engineer
Visa Success Rate
Days to Visa
Experienced Growth Employees
Level Positive Involvement
Level Negative Involvement
Ambition
Globally Leading Product
Targeting Global Market First
# Product Languages
Growth Leader Global Experience
Growth Team Global Focus
% Serial Founders
% Immigrant Founders
% Female Founders
% Biz & Tech Founders
Go-Global Strategy
Founder Relationships
Global Connectedness
Resource Attraction
Startup Experience
Talent
Corporate Involvement
Founder
Interest
Entrepreneur
Startup
Access
Team
28
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Model Explanation
Startup Genome Ecosystem Assessment
Ecosystem (External) Success FactorsInternal FactorsPerformance
Resources
Funding
Talent
Attraction
Access
Quality
Cost
Other Factors
Market Reach
Startup Experience
Global Connectedness
Corporate Involvement
Founders
Ambition, Go-Global Strategy, Team
Ecosystem Lifecycle Model
Activation
Globalization
Expansion
Integration
Startup Experience
PerformanceRate of
Unicorns
Rate of
Exits
Rate of
Early-Stage
Success
Size & ResourcesResource AttractionNationalGlobalImmigration Constraints
LeakagesGlo
ba
l A
mb
itio
n &

Co
nn
ect
ed
ne
ss
Figure 21

29
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
2017 Global Startup Ecosystem Ranking
Performance
Funding
Market Reach
Talent
Startup Experience
1 Silicon Valley
1
1
1
2
1
2 New York
3
2
3
7
4
3 London
4
4
2
10
5
4 Beijing
2
5
19
8
2
5 Boston
6
6
12
4
3
Performance
Funding
Market Reach
Talent
Startup Experience
6 Tel Aviv
9
8
4
11
7
7 Berlin
7
9
6
5
10
8 Shanghai
8
3
10
9
13
9 Los Angeles
5
7
15
14
11
10 Seattle
12
13
14
3
6
Performance
Funding
Market Reach
Talent
Startup Experience
11 Paris
14
14
9
16
8
12 Singapore
16
16
11
1
20
13 Austin
15
11
18
6
9
14 Stockholm
17
20
8
18
12
15 Vancouver
19
19
7
15
15
Performance
Funding
Market Reach
Talent
Startup Experience
16 Toronto
18
12
5
20
18
17 Sydney
20
10
13
12
17
18 Chicago
13
15
20
13
14
19 Amsterdam
10
17
17
19
16
20 Bangalore
11
18
16
17
19
30
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
2017 Global Startup Ecosystem Ranking
Key Findings
0
0
3
NEW
-1
-1
2
NEW
-6
-2
0
-2
0
NEW
3
1
-1
-11
0
-5
Ranking
Performance
Funding
Market
Reach
Startup
Experience
Talent
Growth Index
Silicon Valley
1
1
1
1
2
1
4.2
New York City
2
3
2
3
7
4
4.5
London
3
4
4
2
10
5
4.8
Beijing
4
2
5
19
8
2
4.4
Boston
5
6
6
12
4
3
4.0
Tel Aviv
6
9
8
4
11
7
4.5
Berlin
7
7
9
6
5
10
4.6
Shanghai
8
8
3
10
9
13
5.5
Los Angeles
9
5
7
15
14
11
4.2
Seattle
10
12
13
14
3
6
4.5
Paris
11
14
14
9
16
8
4.2
Singapore
12
16
16
11
1
20
4.6
Austin
13
15
11
18
6
9
4.3
Stockholm
14
17
20
8
18
12
5.3
Vancouver
15
19
19
7
15
15
4.3
Toronto
16
18
12
5
20
18
4.7
Sydney
17
20
10
13
12
17
6.3
Chicago
18
13
15
20
13
14
3.9
Amsterdam
19
10
17
17
19
16
4.8
Bangalore
20
11
18
16
17
19
4.7
Figure 22

31
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
2017 Global Startup Ecosystem Ranking
Value (a proxy for job creation and economic growth). While many
governments in Europe and Asia have identified the growth of
their innovation ecosystem as a priority and invested aggressively
to directly support its growth, the United States has more heavily
relied on its private sector. The result is a marked increase in
shares of Exit Value and Startup Valuations for Asian and Euro-
pean ecosystems.
The Exit Value, because it is a lagging indicator, still reflects the
strength of Silicon Valley and some other U.S. ecosystems during
the second wave of the Internet which was focused on creating
complex platform services and horizontal plays (e.g. Google,
Facebook, and Amazon Web Services). Because of this strength,
while U.S. Exit Values fell during the 2008-09 financial crisis and
recession, they later recovered rapidly. Since 2013 however, with
the beginning of the Third Wave1 of the Internet, there has been
1
Steve Case (2015). The Third Wave: An Entrepreneur's Vision of the Future. The
Free Press.
We assessed 55 startup ecosystems across 28 countries and
ranked the top 20. While every ecosystem enjoyed improvement
in at least one dimension of their ecosystem, several places stand
out for particularly strong growth.
Ecosystems all over the world are growing and producing suc-
cessful startups. Our data include 28,000 startups (or 30 percent)
outside of the top 20 ecosystems. Many of these ecosystems
ranked highly on different metrics. Those that did will be listed as
runner-ups below the sub-factor rankings.
Concentration by Region and
Ecosystem
While still dominant, the United States has been seeing a con-
cerning decline of both its share of Startup Valuations and Exit
2006-2007
2007-2008
2008-2009
2009-2010
2010-2011
2011-2012
2012-2013
2013-2014
2014-2015
0
20%
40%
60%
80%
Concentration of Exit Value by Region
2-year moving average
Share of Global Exit ValueUSA
Europe
Asia Pacific
Americas (excl. USA)
Africa
2006-2007
2007-2008
2008-2009
2009-2010
2010-2011
2011-2012
2012-2013
2013-2014
2014-2015
0
20%
40%
60%
80%
Concentration of Startup Valuations by Region
2-year moving average
Share of Global Startup ValuationsUSA
Europe
Asia Pacific
Americas (excl. USA)
Africa
Figure 23

Figure 24

a sharp decline in the U.S. share of global Exit Values. This looks
to be caused by strong competition from government-supported
ecosystems in other regions, as well as the changing character of
software innovation. In the Third Wave of the Internet revolution,
vertical plays and industry expertisegenerally distributed all over
the worldmatter more than the deep technical web expertise
in which Silicon Valley and a few other U.S. ecosystems enjoyed
a quasi-monopoly.
The dislocation between Startup Valuations and Exit Values for
Asia, where changes in Startup Valuations are not directly reflected
in changes in Exit Value, is due to two issues. First, Startup Valu-
ations is a leading indicator, therefore its impact on Exit Value is
delayed by about 5 years (the average age of startups is about
3 years while the average age at exit is about 7 or 8 years). This
explains that American downward movement starts in 2009 for
Startup Valuation, while the decline in Exit Value starts in 2014.
The second issue is informed by the Ecosystem Lifecycle section.
In the first two phases of ecosystem developmentActivation
and Globalizationgrowth does not immediately translate into
increased performance at creating exits. But, as more ecosystems
in Europe and Asia-Pacific become larger and better resourced
across different success factors, they evolve into the third and
fourth phases, Expansion and Integration. At that point they are
more successful at producing large exits.
This is what we've already seen since 2013: Berlin, Beijing, Shang-
hai, Singapore and, more recently, Stockholm, have joined London
and Tel Aviv among the top ranks of non-American ecosystems.
The result is an accelerated decline of U.S. ecosystem dominance.
32
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
2017 Global Startup Ecosystem Ranking
This may continue: when looking at the proportion of Exit Value (a
lagging indicator) captured by the U.S. compared to its proportion
of Startup Valuations and Output (respectively current and leading
indicators), the trends suggest a continued reduction in the U.S.
share of Exit Value (see Figure 26).
Yet the concentration of Exit Value among the top 20 ecosystems
(Figure 25), remains alarming2 (see especially 'The Urgency of
Ecosystem Investments' article for the consequences of this con-
centration). Among our top 20 ecosystems, the top 10 capture 87
percent of the Exit Value.
2
While it looks lower than in our 2015 report, this is due to the addition of Beijing
and Shanghai to our coverage and the fact that we re-assigned exits based on
the original location of the startup rather than its location at exit or the one of its
acquirer.
Ecosystem Ranking
Among the top 20 startup ecosystems, nine are located in North
America, six in Europe, with the remaining five in Asia. This com-
pares to ten and six respectively for North America and Europe
in our 2015 ranking. Nonetheless, there was considerable move-
ment within the top-ranked ecosystems.
First, it is important to note that the new coverage of Beijing and
its #4 rank explains why the positions of Boston and Tel Aviv are
one spot lower. And had Beijing and Shanghai both been ranked
last year, Seattle and Singapore would have the same rank as last
year, and Paris, Austin, and Amsterdam would be up two positions,
Sydney would have moved up one position, Toronto two, etc.
The biggest upward movement was Stockholm, which entered the
top 20 with an impressive 14th place, thanks to its high Market
Reach and amazing ability to create unicorns despite its small
size. London moved up to the number three overall rank, and
Vancouver moved up three spots to the 15th spot. Two Chinese
Top Runners-Up for Top 20 Ecosystems (alphabetical order)
Atlanta
Delhi
Denver-Boulder
Jerusalem
Helsinki
Moscow
Mumbai
Salt Lake Provo
Silicon ValleyBeijingLondonNew York CityBerlinBostonAmsterdamTel AvivChicagoLos AngelesAustinSydneyStockholmSeattleParisShanghaiTorontoVancouverSingaporeBangalore0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
Distribution of Exit Value
Among Top 20 Ecosystems
Share of Global Exit ValueFigure 25

USA
Europe
Asia Pacific Americas (excl. USA)
Africa
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
Exit value
Startups value
Output
Concentration of Exit Value,
Startup Valuation, and Output
Concentration (as percentage of global total)Figure 26

33
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
2017 Global Startup Ecosystem Ranking
Ecosystem Value. The Performance factor, including its three
sub-factors, is the main part of the ranking that favors larger eco-
systems, but it does so to a lesser degree than in the past (see
Methodology section for details).
Accordingly Vancouver, a successful ecosystem in a small city,
ranked low across the three sub-factors. But surprisingly, Stock-
holm, an even smaller ecosystem and city, ranks #9 and demon-
strates its ability to create and scale startups into global leaders.
Beijing shows its size with a #1 rank in Startup Valuation and
second place in Exit Value, passing New York City on both metrics.
London also passed New York City in Exit Value, a testament
to how much it has grown in the last few years. Berlin has also
climbed in the rankings to a 5th place in Exit Value, still riding its
$14 billion in exits achieved at the end of 2014. As these exits
move out of the ranking timeframe in the next report it will be
interesting to see how this affects Berlin's position.
Exit Value is a metric where Chicago and Los Angeles rank high
despite their drop in the overall ranking, respectively in 11th and
12th place. Sydney and Amsterdam also especially ranked high
in Exit Value, respectively in 7th and 8th place. Finally Bangalore's
10th place in Startup Valuation and 15th place in Output are worth
mentioning because these factors might indicate a future upward
trajectory in the rankings.
Delhi, Sao Paulo, Denver-Boulder, Atlanta, and Seoul showed the
size of their ecosystems competed closely with that of the top 20
ecosystems.
cities, Beijing and Shanghai, were assessed for the first time and
took the 4th and 8th position respectively.
On the downside, two U.S. cities, Los Angeles and Chicago, moved
lower several spots, with Chicago falling out of the top 10 com-
pletely. In both cases, this downward movement was driven by
relatively low scores on Global Connectedness. Three ecosys-
temsMoscow, Sao Paulo, and Montrealfell all the way out
of the top 20. In Moscow's case, this fall was despite its overall
number one ranking globally in Talent. Sao Paulo scored low on
Market Reach and Startup Experience, while Montreal scored low
on Talent. Sao Paulo's drop means that in our 2017 ranking, there
are no Latin American cities in the top 20, a deplorable situation.
Silicon Valley continues to dominate overall, ranking first in Perfor-
mance, Funding, Market Reach, and Startup Experience. It ranked
third globally in Talent, behind Moscow and Singapore. In some
areas, detailed below, Silicon Valley fell behind other ecosystems,
likely reflecting its maturity in development. The surge in the
rankings by Beijing and Shanghai reflected strong showings in a
few areas. Beijing performed well in Startup Output and Startup
Experience, while Shanghai scored highly on Funding.
Individual Score Highlights
Performance
Our analysis of Performance looked at Startup Output, Exits, Val-
uations, Early-Stage Success, Growth-Stage Success, and overall
Exit ValueOutputStartup ValueSilicon Valley
1
1
1
New York City
4
2
3
London
3
4
4
Beijing
2
3
1
Boston
6
6
7
Tel Aviv 10
8
9
Berlin
5
11
6
Shanghai 17
12
5
Los Angeles 12
5
8
Seattle 13
13
13
Paris 16
10
16
Singapore 20
14
17
Austin 14
17
14
Stockholm
9
19
11
Vancouver 18
20
18
Toronto 15
16
19
Sydney
7
18
20
Chicago 11
9
15
Amsterdam
8
7
12
Bangalore 19
15
10
Runner-ups
Performance
Delhi
Sao Paulo
Denver-Boulder
Atlanta
Seoul
s-up
Figure 27

34
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
2017 Global Startup Ecosystem Ranking
Funding
Our analysis of the Funding factor looked at: Access through
metrics of total and per startup early-stage investments as well as
growth in early-stage investments; and, Funding Quality through
the presence of experienced VC firms .
Figure 28 shows how our top 20 ecosystems compared against
each other on the overall Funding factor. Here, Silicon Valley and
New York City topped the list on Funding Access and Funding
Quality. Other ecosystems scoring strongly on Funding Access
were Singapore, London, and Los Angeles. Meanwhile, Boston,
Paris, and Shanghai did well on Funding Quality.
Nearly all of the top 20 ecosystems have above-average Funding
Quality, as measured by the presence of experienced venture
capital firms. The lone exception is Berlin.
In the early phases of an ecosystem local investors will lead a
high share of seed rounds. As ecosystems evolve through the
lifecycle and attract outside investors, that share will go down, in
turn increasing Funding Quality.
Outside of the top 20, ecosystems with relatively high Funding
scores are Salt Lake-Provo, Atlanta, Seoul, Helsinki and Melbourne.
Market Reach
When we analyze an ecosystem's Market Reach, we want to know
how well its startups can "go global" and how well the ecosystem
AccessQualitySilicon Valley
1
1
New York City
2
2
London
5
3
Beijing
4
7
Boston
7
4
Tel Aviv
8
8
Berlin
9
20
Shanghai
3
6
Los Angeles
6
12
Seattle 13
10
Paris 15
5
Singapore 16
11
Austin 10
19
Stockholm 20
9
Vancouver 19
17
12
13
Toronto
Sydney 11
16
Chicago 14
14
Amsterdam 18
14
Bangalore 17
18
Funding
Runner-upsSeoul
Salt Lake-Provo
Atlanta
Mumbai
Melbourne
s-upFigure 28

Global ConnectednessGlobal ReachLocal Reach (GDP)Silicon Valley
1
9
1
New York City
4
13
1
London
2
7
11
Beijing 12
20
8
Boston 16
14
1
Tel Aviv
6
3
19
Berlin
9
5
10
Shanghai 14
8
8
Los Angeles 17
17
1
Seattle 18
16
1
Paris
8
6
12
Singapore
3
11
20
Austin 19
18
1
Stockholm 10
2
18
Vancouver 13
1
14
Toronto
7
4
14
Sydney
5
15
16
Chicago 20
19
1
Amsterdam 15
10
17
Bangalore 11
12
13
Runner-ups
Market Reach
Helsinki
Malta
Jerusalem
Estonia
Lisbon
s-up
Figure 29

35
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
2017 Global Startup Ecosystem Ranking
helps in doing so. The sub-factors for this are Global Connected-
ness and Global and Local Reach, based on the startups' propor-
tion of foreign customers and the National GDP. The Global Con-
nectedness article contains a deeper discussion of these issues.
This factor had the greatest variety in terms of how many ecosys-
tems scored well on the different sub-factors. Even though Silicon
Valley, New York City, London and Tel Aviv clearly outperform all
other places in the ability of their startups to "go global", several
other places outside of our top 20 scored well on the components
of Market Reach. And a few top 20 ecosystems performed poorly
on Market Reach.
Canadian cities score particularly well on Market Reach, driven by
the high share of foreign customers that startups in Toronto-Wa-
terloo, Vancouver, and Ottawa are able to reach. Toronto-Water-
loo and Vancouver respectively rank fifth and seventh overall in
Market Reach, ahead of Stockholm, Boston, and Shanghai. This is
largely because of Canadian startups' access to the U.S. market
when we remove that from Market Reach calculations (captured
in our Rest of World Customers metric), Toronto-Waterloo and
Vancouver both rank below the 10th position.
Similarly, startups in smaller ecosystemssuch as New Zealand,
Jerusalem, and Stockholmdemonstrate a greater ability to reach
global customers than those in larger ecosystems. They also
scored highly on Global Connectedness, measuring a startup
leader's relationships with entrepreneurs in other countries.
Outside of the top 20, Helsinki, Malta, Jerusalem, Estonia and
Lisbon also fared well on Market Reach.
Global Connectedness is highly correlated with the percentage
of foreign customers, indicating how global connections are im-
portant to the understanding and penetration of global custom-
ers. Global Connectedness is also highly correlated with Global
Resource Attraction. This means cities that see a large flow of
startups and entrepreneurs move into the ecosystem benefit
from this flow, capitalizing on it through global relationships which
enhances the ability to "go global".
Talent
Now that platform services allow startups to rapidly focus on de-
veloping the product rather than investing heavily in coding the
back end, high quality developers can be found anywhere in the
world. Silicon Valley has lost the edge it had when, five to fifteen
years ago, it enjoyed a quasi-monopoly on very experienced
back-end engineers, which were the indispensable foundation of
a startup's engineering team.
What matters, then, is Talent Access, as startups compete with
large tech companies on quality hires. With this new context
Silicon Valley is seeing its top position challenged.
For this factor, we analyzed Access, Cost, and Quality of Talent. The
Access sub-factor includes the proportion of software engineers
and growth employees with two or more years of experience at a
prior startup, the time required to hire an engineer, and the ability
to obtain a visa for hires from abroad (a form of Access that can
mitigate a challenging local talent market). The Cost is engineer
AccessQualityCostSilicon Valley
1
1
20
New York City
7
1
18
London
9
12
7
Beijing
8
1
3
Boston
4
6
17
Tel Aviv 11
14
12
Berlin
5
17
8
Shanghai 10
1
2
Los Angeles 14
7
16
Seattle
2
8
19
Paris 17
1
6
Singapore
3
10
4
Austin
6
11
15
Stockholm 16
15
10
Vancouver 15
18
9
20
19
11
Toronto
Sydney 12
16
13
Chicago 13
9
14
Amsterdam 19
13
5
Bangalore 18
20
1
Talent
Runner-ups
Moscow
Malta
Phoenix
Mumbai
Helsinki
s-up
Figure 30

36
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
2017 Global Startup Ecosystem Ranking
salaries while Talent Quality is based on the country score at
coding contests and online tests, the engineering community's
experience with scaling applications (based on the number of
exits over $50 million) and the ability to attract top engineers from
other countries (estimated using the resource attraction score).
Within the top 20 ecosystems, Singapore ranked ahead of Silicon
Valley. While Singapore trailed below the average top 20 at 10th
place in Talent Quality, it more than made up for it by being the
fourth and second best ecosystem for startups to access expe-
rienced software engineers and growth employees, respectively.
American cities in the top 20 scored well overall on Talent, except
Los Angeles and Chicago where startups have a difficult time hiring
experienced engineers and growth talent. Vancouver, Paris, Stock-
holm and Toronto-Waterloo ranked towards the bottom of the top
20 as well due to similar Access issues, despite their much lower
engineering salaries. Beijing and Shanghai maintained a good
balance made of solid Talent Access, low salaries and top Quality.
Outside the top 20, Moscow scored above Silicon Valley thanks
to the highest quality score, ahead of Chinese and Estonian en-
gineers.
Startup Experience
In startup ecosystems, experience mattersit is the pool of
knowledge and networks that startups can draw on. Our Startup
Experience Factor captures how well an ecosystem "recycles"
experience into future startup performance. The analysis relies
on two sub-factors: Team Experience and Ecosystem Experience.
The former is based on founder hyper-growth or unicorn expe-
rience, advisors with equity, and startups providing options to all
their employees. Option grants to employees reflect a founder's
knowledge of aligning incentives, as well as whether employees
value stock options, indicating a strong startup culture in the eco-
system). Ecosystem Experience is based on the number of exits
above $50 million achieved within the last 10 years.
After Silicon Valley, Beijing and Boston show the most Startup
Experience. It is interesting to note that Beijing is a very new eco-
system which gained tremendous experience rapidly through
massive government investments and huge exits, while Boston
is one of the oldest startup ecosystems.
As expected, fast-rising ecosystems (not including Beijing) score
better on performance than they do on Startup Experience. Sin-
gapore, Sydney, and Bangalore score at the bottom of the top 20
on this Factor. (In Bangalore's case, it enjoyed fast growth in our
2015 report, though it now has an average growth rate).
Focusing on Team Experience, Vancouver (ranking first) and Austin
join much larger Beijing, Silicon Valley (in second place), and Boston
to complete the top 5, while Stockholm places eighth. This metrics
showcase well the importance of tech in these three smaller cities
of about one million people. This results in a concentration of ex-
perience available to startups, with tech entrepreneurship being
a strong career option.
Turning to Ecosystem Experience, Chicago shows it is also an old
ecosystem by placing sixth, just above Seattle, another ecosystem
with a deep software industry foundation.
EcosystemTeamSilicon Valley
1
2
New York City
3
11
London
2
16
Beijing
5
3
Boston
4
5
Tel Aviv
7
15
Berlin 12
10
Shanghai 16
6
Los Angeles
8
17
Seattle
9
9
Paris 11
7
Singapore 20
12
Austin 13
4
Stockholm 15
8
Vancouver 18
1
Toronto 17
18
Sydney 14
14
Chicago
6
20
Amsterdam 10
19
Bangalore 18
13
Startup
Experience
Runner-ups
Denver-Boulder
Salt Lake-Provo
Atlanta
Jerusalem
Houston
s-up
Figure 31

37
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
2017 Global Startup Ecosystem Ranking
While at the overall Factor level Silicon Valley managed a first
place, it found itself only ranking among the top 10 of the 55
ecosystems assessed with the proportion of its founding team
with hypergrowth experience, and proportion of founders with
at least two years experience in a prior startup. Despite having
more such experience than any other ecosystem, being home to
14,000 startups results in dilution of this experience.
Denver-Boulder, Atlanta, Helsinki, Jerusalem and Houston scored
well on Startup Experience, including the use of advisors by Helsin-
ki startups and the level of hyper-growth experience in Houston.
Resource Attraction
This new set of metrics is very powerful. It measures an ecosys-
tem's gravitational pull by the attraction of entrepreneurs who
moved specifically to form a startup, the attraction of existing
startups, the opening of secondary VC offices, and the intent of
a startup leader to move the startup. Knowing where the person
or startup moved from allows us to compute negative attraction,
in addition to breaking down attraction into national and interna-
tional, a much more powerful metric.
These provide a clear view of the phase of lifecycle development of
an ecosystem because they evolve faster by growing inorganically
through the attraction of resources, growing the fastest when the
world becomes their pool of resources. And with international
attraction comes global connectedness which leads to a greater
ability to "go global".
Not surprisingly, Silicon Valley is the king of attraction, with 21
percent of its entrepreneurs and 15 percent of its startups saying
they moved from another country. Multiplying by the output we
estimate that in Silicon Valley at least 2,900 startups count an
entrepreneur who moved from another country, and more than
2,000 startups moved from another country. This is in addition
to more than 1,200 that moved from within the United States. No
ecosystem has even one third of this level of attraction.
The attraction of startups is an especially meaningful indicator,
correlating much better with Global Connectedness and Market
Reach metrics than any other attraction metric. Focusing on the
attraction of startups, New York City is second just short of one
third the attraction, followed by London and Berlin, an ecosystem
Silicon ValleyNew York CityLondonBerlinBostonLos AngelesAustinSeattleChicagoSydneyAmsterdamParisSingaporeBangaloreTorontoStockholmTel AvivVancouver0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
International Attraction
Number of Moved EntitiesEntrepreneur
Startup
Figure 32

that entered the Expansion phase of lifecycle ecosystem only in
2014. It has enjoyed rapid growth with Attraction of Resources
as the fuel.
Singapore has a surprisingly low level of startup attraction, but
a competitive level of entrepreneur attraction. In Santiago, At-
traction has been driven by government programs rather than
"natural" gravitational force. Chicago's lower lever of Attraction
than other large U.S. ecosystems helps explain its low Global
Connectedness and lack of Market Reach, factors that are mostly
responsible for its drop in the rankings.
Individual Ecosystem Highlights
In addition to those discussed already, many other surprises or
happy findings emerged from our analysis.
Salt Lake-Provo and Seoul both scored well on overall Funding.
This was driven by good access to early-stage funding for start-
ups in Salt Lake-Provo, and good Funding Quality in Seoul.
Malta and Phoenix both enjoy solid scores in Talent Access.
Lisbon, Jerusalem, Helsinki, and Estonia fare strongly on Global
Connectedness, driven by strong connections to the top-per-
forming ecosystems and high shares of startups reaching
foreign customers.
Atlanta, Helsinki, and Houston do well on Startup Experience,
including the use of advisors by Helsinki startups and the level
of hyper-growth experience in Houston.
38
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
2017 Global Startup Ecosystem Ranking
Other Notable Highlights
Here, we highlight some additional Key Findings that emerged
from our analysis.
European ecosystems are best at reaching a global
customer base
For startups in Europe, 20.7 percent of their customers come
from outside of the continent, whereas the average for all other
regions is 12.8 percent.
Employee stock options are more widely used in the
United States
Among American ecosystems, 42 percent of startups offer stock
option plans to all their employees, compared to an average of
22 percent in the rest of the world. (This is likely related to differ-
ences in tax law.)
Advisors are most heavily used by startups in Asia-Pacific
ecosystems
Startups in the Asia-Pacific region have 48 percent more advisors
with equity than the rest of the world.
39
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
2017 Global Startup Ecosystem Ranking
Global Connectedness
Top20
Other
Connections
Figure 33

40
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Deep Dives into Top
20 Global Startup
Ecosystems
41
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Silicon Valley
While we've seen enormous growth in several regions around the
world, Silicon Valley still stands as the dominant global ecosystem.
Defined geographically as the Bay Area, it boasts 12,700-15,600
active startups and two million tech workers, all looking for the
next big thing.
Despite a high cost of living that threatens to drive out talent, the
region's exceptional culture, professional networks, and industry
leadership help attract and retain talented and ambitious people.
Silicon Valley is notable for its attraction of international talent,
confirmed by the highest value in Global Resource Attraction at
21% and almost half of all founders in the region being immi-
grants. London and Berlin are the only other ecosystems to have
shares above 40 percent, and in the closest American ecosystem,
Boston, 30 percent of founders are immigrants.
Large-scale exits and breakneck growth are daily business in the
Bay Area. Despite a drop by more than 10 percent, more than
a third of the global value creation in exits is still captured right
here in Silicon Valley.
Along these lines, over one-quarter of the world's unicorns are
located here as well and it's difficult to even keep track of them.
Take Airbnb as just one example. The online marketplace for
accommodations launched in 2008 and recently raised its third
billion at a $30 billion valuation, making it as valuable as the es-
tablished Marriott International hotel imperium.
Silicon Valley may see structural challenges around affordability of
housing and access to talent but there's no questioning its reign:
The ecosystem ranks first in four of the five overall variables in
this year's Index. Still, Silicon Valley will continue to face pressure
from the growth of startup ecosystems elsewhere. Overall venture
funding fell in 2016, as did valuations for later stage companies.
Even the top-ranked global ecosystem, populated by unicorns and
deca-unicorns, is not immune to setbacks in performance and an
increase in global competition.
In times of aggressive startup ecosystem investment across the
globe and the internet moving into its third wave, it becomes clear
that Silicon Valley will have to tackle its challenges in a real way.
#1
USA
Voices and Findings
"Silicon Valley's thriving startup ecosystem is one of America's
greatest assets, and its record of success has helped to fuel a
broader movement towards entrepreneurship across the rest
of the country."
Evan Engstrom
Executive Director at Engine
28% of the global investments into Early-Stage startups
are captured by Silicon Valley companies. Its top con-
tenders are NYC and Beijing, which capture about 11%
each. Silicon Valley also has the highest Global Resource
Attraction score, at 21%.
"Silicon Valley's private economic infrastructuretalent,
capital, cultureis without peer. Yet, our public institutions
have not been up to the great challenges that confront
usaround housing access and affordability, mobility, and
education. We need sound policy in these areas. But to get
there we might need to re-think our institutions of gover-
nance, shifting to regional structures that can lead regional
solutions."
Brian Brennan SVP SVLG
Co-Author of SVCIP.com
(SV Competitiveness and Innovation Project)
Silicon Valley startups employ the highest Percentage of
Engineers with prior Startup Experience of two or more
years.
42
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Silicon Valley
Metrics
Startup Output
Ecosystem Demographics
Ecosystem Performance
Growth Index
Funding
Metropolitan Population
Metropolitan GDP
Early-stage Funding

per Startup
Ecosystem Value
Experienced VC Firm Index
Foreign Customers
Market Reach
Global
Connections

Experienced Software Engineers
Experienced Growth Employees
Talent
Software
Engineer Salary

Visa Success Rate
Founders
Demographics
Women Founders
Immigrant Founders
Resource
Attraction
Entrepreneurs
Startups
Startup Experience Index

Global Avg: $267 bn
Global Avg: $252 k
Global Avg: 1,762
Global Avg: 7
Global Avg: 5
Global Avg: 23%
Global Avg: 72%
Global Avg: 60%
Global Avg: 41%
Global Avg: 16%
Global Avg: 300
Global
Avg: 5
Global Avg: 83
Global Avg: 19%
Global Avg: 49 k
Global Avg: 6.1
Global Median: $4.1 bn
7.6 m
$619 bn
$264 bn
$762 k
13 - 16 k 4.2
16%
2,896
2,049
46%
30%
10.9
11.0
87%
76%
58%
7.4
Early-stage Funding Growth Index
4.4
$112 k
Silicon Valley also claims a little less than one third of the
Exit Value of the global startup ecosystem, down by 15%
compared to the 2015 report. Beijing and London rank
#2 and #3 with 10% and 8%, respectively.
"The explosive growth in tech over the last decade was ori-
ginated by engineers in Silicon Valley to establish enabling
tools and platforms that will benefit businesses around the
world. These platforms now provide the infrastructure for a
new wave of tech companies to emerge from any city in the
world."
Daniel Saks
President and Co-CEO at AppDirect
In Silicon Valley, 6% of founding teams are composed of
founders who were all part of hypergrowth companies,
six times bigger than anywhere else in North America,
South America, or Europe.
"One of the biggest challenges for Silicon Valley will continue
to be the rising cost of housing in the area. If the region can-
not offer a reasonable and comfortable living situation for
its population, young talent may choose to reside in more
affordable part of the world, thus robbing Silicon Valley of
one of its greatest assetsyoung talent."
Robert Siegel
Partner at XSeed Capital and Lecturer in Management at the Stanford
University Graduate School of Business
Silicon Valley has the highest Percentage of Founders
that are Immigrants at 46 percent.
43
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
New York
For decades, New York City's technology sector was overshad-
owed by the high-flying and high-paying financial sector. With a
thick web of 6,300-7,800 active tech startups, things look quite
different today. New York remains the global capital of capital,
but is now also at the forefront of information technology and
consumer technology trends.
The ecosystem of the Big Apple has come a long way, from a
decade ago, when it was often criticized as not being a "real" tech
hub. This did not happen overnight. As documented by Endeavor
Insight,1 two landmark events in the history of New York City tech
were the founding of DoubleClick in 1996 and its subsequent
acquisition by Google in 2007. This set off a big push for talent
and an explosion of startup activity, leading to a steady march of
acquisitions and IPOs. In fact, for four years in a row, New York
City has seen at least one $1 billion exit per year.2
Meanwhile, dozens of major tech companies have opened offices
in New York as well, and employ more than 15,000 people. For
many of the startup success stories covered in this report, New
1
http://www.nyctechmap.com/nycTechReport.pdf
2
http://www.builtinnyc.com/2015/12/10/numbers-behind-new-york-techs-steady-
growth
York has been the the number one destination for entering the
U.S. market, too. This Global Resource Attraction floods financial
wealth and tech-savvy talent into the ecosystem, which then accel-
erates the next wave of growth. Earlier in 2017, the city announced
that all subway stations now have Wi-Fi and cell service, enabling
constant connection.
New York City's pipeline of growth companies and exits continues
to be strong, with successful ventures such as Warby Parker, Blue
Apron, Buzzfeed, and others with a valuation north of $1 billion.
In summer 2016, another success story made headlines with the
acquisition of Jet.com by retail giant Walmart at $3.3 billion, the
largest e-commerce deal ever recorded.
As a result, New York City remains the world's second highest
ranked startup ecosystem, with impressive results across all of
the five factors. It's biggest blemish in the Index would be its high
Cost for Engineers, which is compensated with a competitive
Quality and Time to Hire. As with Silicon Valley, venture funding
went down in 2016, but the current momentum means New York
City's tech startup ecosystem will continue to flourish.
#2
USA
Voices and Findings
New York City has the 2nd highest absolute Number of
Early-Stage Investments in the world, trailing only Silicon
Valley, and the 5th highest Number of Early-Stage Invest-
ment per startup.
"New York City has the largest concentration of financial
resources along with high quality talent in a city of over eight
million people. While the percentage of experienced founders
vs. the population is low, the sheer numbers outweigh all
other ecosystems. It's not percentages or arbitrary valuations
without viable exit paths that are essential to an ecosystem.
It's about real revenue, real exits, and real value."
Joshua Siegel
General Partner at Rubicon Ventures
The availability of engineers in New York is improving.
New York City has the fastest Average Time to Hire an En-
gineer of all U.S. ecosystems, at 24 days, 3 weeks faster
than in Silicon Valley.
"Finding great engineers is a pain point for every tech ecosys-
tem, and the competition from Wall Street exacerbates that
pain point in NYC. That's why the city is working to increase
the supply by creating CornellTech, which will add to the
homegrown engineering population. But the best solution
is the promotion of NYC as a great city for engineers as NYC
remains one of the most attractive places in the world to live
for well educated millennials."
Lou Kerner
Partner at Flight VC
44
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
New York
Metrics
Startup Output
Ecosystem Demographics
Ecosystem Performance
Growth Index
Funding
Metropolitan Population
Metropolitan GDP
Early-stage Funding

per Startup
Ecosystem Value
Experienced VC Firm Index
Global
Connections

Software
Engineer Salary

Resource
Attraction
Entrepreneurs
Startups

Global Avg: $267 bn
Global Avg: $252 k
Global Avg: 1,762
Global Avg: 7
Global Avg: 5
Global Avg: 300
Global
Avg: 5
Global Avg: 83
Global Avg: 49 k
Global Avg: 6.1
Foreign Customers
Market Reach
Experienced Software Engineers
Experienced Growth Employees
Talent
Visa Success Rate
Founders
Demographics
Women Founders
Immigrant Founders
Startup Experience Index
Global Avg: 23%
Global Avg: 72%
Global Avg: 60%
Global Avg: 41%
Global Avg: 16%
Global Avg: 19%
Global Median: $4.1 bn
24 m
$1,559 bn
$71 bn
$568 k
6.3 - 7.8 k 4.5
19%
984
654
25%
22%
10.3
6.7
78%
64%
57%
6.9
Early-stage Funding Growth Index
4.6
$97 k
New York City is the 3rd most valuable startup ecosystem
in the world and also produced the 3rd highest Number
of Unicorns, trailing only Silicon Valley and Beijing.
"At the end of the day, it all comes down to customers. If you
have customers, you can raise capital or you may not
need any and New York has the single largest concentrati-
on of customers anywhere in the world."
Avi Savar
Managing Partner and CEO at Dreamit
New York City is the 2nd largest ecosystem in the world
by number of startups with about 6,300-7,800 startups.
It also has one of the highest net Global Resource Attrac-
tion rates at 10%.
"New York is a phenomenal place to build a business. It's
an entrepreneurial hive mind of people from diverse backg-
rounds and industries, a melting pot of talent and ideas and
opportunities. To quote the prolific American author John
Updike, 'The true New Yorker secretly believes that people
living anywhere else have to be, in some sense, kidding.'"
Matthew Brimer
Co-Founder at General Assembly
45
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
London
London is undoubtedly Europe's capital when it comes to tech
ecosystems. The city boasts of around 4,300-5,900 active start-
ups, the fourth highest Startup Output in the world, with most of
them located in the East London cluster between Old Street and
Shoreditch areas.
The city's muscular financial arm provides ample support for
investors and startups alike. In terms of total venture capital in-
vestments, and most other Funding metrics, London is leading
in the European comparison. This directly translates into growth.
Tech Nation 2016 found that London's digital tech industries are
growing 32% faster1 than the wider economy, reaching over $200
billion. At the same time, the high concentration of influential orga-
nizations provide ample exit opportunities. On a ten-year timeline,
only two ecosystems have exited more tech startups at above $50
million than London: New York and Silicon Valley. Due to proximity
to the some of the world's biggest banks, sophisticated VC funds,
and tech companies like Apple, Google, and Facebook, London
startups have access to potential investors and acquirers alike.

1
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/businessclub/technology/12150691/UKs-digi-
tal-industries-growing-32pc-faster-than-wider-economy.html
Several startups even made their way to become unicorns, serving
the global market such as FinTech startup Powa or media company
Shazam. In 2016, we witnessed history when ARM Holdings, one of
the world's most influential technology companies powering 95%
of the world's smartphones, was acquired by Softbank for $32
billionmarking the U.K.'s largest ever tech deal and a landmark
in the growth of the ecosystem.
London displays strong performance and improves by three
places from the 2015 ranking, mainly due to strong improvements
in Funding (#4 versus #10 in 2015) and Startup Experience (#10
versus #13 in 2015). Performance, Market Reach, and Talent
factors all remained high, leading to impressive overall results.
Despite uncertainty about Brexit and its potential ramifications,
many startups and corporates have pledged their support, sug-
gesting that London has the ability to hold firm through unsettled
times.2
Tech City UK aims to make the U.K. the best place to start and
grow a digital business. It does this through free business lifecycle
programs, policy thought leadership, and digital skills support.
2
http://www.cityam.com/254914/tech-startups-and-investors-really-feel-brexit
#3
United Kingdom
Voices and Findings
"Entrepreneurs start tech companies here in Britain because
there is great access to investors; a strong ecosystem to tap
into; and deep tech talent and expertise. There are challenges
ahead but we are confident that London will remain Euro-
pe's startup capital with innovative new businesses that will
future-proof our economy being launched daily."
Gerard Grech
CEO at Tech City UK
As the leading startup ecosystem in Europe, London is
outperforming its top contenders Berlin and Tel Aviv in
all factors except for Talent, where Berlin is currently five
ranks ahead.
"London has emerged as a leading international tech hub
due to the city's diversity of talent, creativity and innovation.
London has always attracted the brightest and most am-
bitious people from across all fields; finance, retail, and the
creative industries, as well as the sciences, health and now
tech. This report shows that overseas talent helps London to
punch above its weight, providing a distinct advantage."
Russ Shaw
Founder at Tech London Advocates
46
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
London
Metrics
Startup Output
Ecosystem Demographics
Ecosystem Performance
Growth Index
Funding
Metropolitan Population
Metropolitan GDP
Early-stage Funding

per Startup
Ecosystem Value
Experienced VC Firm Index
Global
Connections

Software
Engineer Salary

Resource
Attraction
Entrepreneurs
Startups

Global Avg: $267 bn
Global Avg: $252 k
Global Avg: 1,762
Global Avg: 7
Global Avg: 5
Global Avg: 300
Global
Avg: 5
Global Avg: 83
Global Avg: 49 k
Global Avg: 6.1
Foreign Customers
Market Reach
Experienced Software Engineers
Experienced Growth Employees
Talent
Visa Success Rate
Founders
Demographics
Women Founders
Immigrant Founders
Startup Experience Index
Global Avg: 23%
Global Avg: 72%
Global Avg: 60%
Global Avg: 41%
Global Avg: 16%
Global Avg: 19%
Global Median: $4.1 bn
14 m
$542 bn
$44 bn
$451 k
4.3 - 5.9 k 4.8
15%
1,079
257
42%
33%
10.1
10.8
79%
59%
44%
6.7
Early-stage Funding Growth Index
4.6
$52 k
London is the 4th largest ecosystem in the world by
number of startups. The ecosystem comprises of about
twice as many startups as the next biggest European
ecosystem, Tel Aviv. London is also the 4th largest eco-
system in the world by Ecosystem Value and by far the
largest in Europe.
"London has established itself as a leading hub for technolo-
gy investment globally, attracting significantly more money
than any other major European city."
Patrick Imbach
Co-Head of KPMG Tech Growth
Despite confidence that the startup ecosystem will not
suffer from Brexit, London ranks behind European peers
such as Berlin and Amsterdam with regards to its net
Global Resource Attraction rate.
"As a Dublin startup relocating to London, SwiftComply
found the depth of talent and density of funding a breath of
fresh air. We have noticed some nervousness in the market
post-Brexit, from both a recruitment and fundraising per-
spective. That being said, the London ecosystem appears to
be thriving with several accelerators, co-working spaces, and
meet-ups providing valuable support to entrepreneurs."
Michael O'Dwyer
CEO at SwiftComply
47
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Beijing
Beijing counts an enormous population of around 25 million
people in the metropolitan area and is home to 4,800-7,200
startups, the third largest Startup Output in the world. The startup
scene of China's capital city has been an unknown to many in the
Western world, at least until now.
The city boasts of 70 colleges and universities, most notably Tsin-
ghua and Peking University, and more than 280 scientific research
institutes. There is an abundance of aspiring founders and talent
with a reputation for being ahead of the curve when it comes to
tech trends. The number of coworking spaces pushes 300, where
Beijingers turn ideas into profits.
Funding is readily available as well, with not only foreign investors
injecting money into the ecosystemin 2015 the Chinese govern-
ment invested a staggering $231 billion into its startups. Pairing
strong talent and funding with a domestic market of around 1.3
billion consumers, these are the ingredients that really move the
needle. Beijing claims more than 40 startups valued at above $1
billion, the second highest concentration of unicorns in the world.
In 2016, the ecosystem made further headlines when Apple in-
vested $1 billion into Didi Chuxing, China's version of Uber. Now
Apple is building a $45 million research facilitya significant af-
firmation of the capital city's tech future.
Beijing debuts in the global top 20 coming in at #4 overall, with
Startup Performance only narrowly behind the one found in
Silicon Valley. Funding, Talent, and Startup Experience are the
other Factors with a performance that can easily keep up with the
top ecosystems in the U.S. and Europe. Apart from international
investment activity, Beijing is somewhat of an insular ecosystem,
ranking #19 out of #20 in Market Reach due to a low Percentage
of Foreign Customers and a lack of Relationships with Founders in
other Startup Ecosystems. Given the ecosystem's size and scale,
Asia's tech mega center is bound to continue its trajectory as an
ecosystem superstar.
Ecosystem Partners: Startup Grind, Cyzone
#4
China
Voices and Findings
"Talking about thriving startups, people tend to always look
at Silicon Valley first. But the truth is, there is a hidden gem
in the heart of China's capitalcalled Zhongguancunwhe-
re possibilities are nearly limitless for creative minds. Here,
the high dynamics and breathtaking speed of Beijing's entre-
preneurial landscape are bringing forth Silicon Valley's only
true competitor."
Jelte Ansgar Wingender
Beijing Chapter Director at Startup Grind
Beijing is home to 4,800-7,200 startups, making it the 3rd
largest ecosystem in the world by number of startups
and by far the largest in Asia. Beijing produced 24 Uni-
corns until now the second highest Unicorn Output in
the global landscape.
"Beijing is a great place to launch a company. It has a
unique demographics, rich history, and money looking to
be put to work. It can be the perfect place to find your niche
market or a testbed before launching to the rest of the
country."
John Artman
Editor-in-Chief at TechNode
Beijing ranked 2nd for highest Number of Early-Stage
Funding per Startup in the world, trailing only Shanghai.
Beijing captures 11% of the global Early-Stage Investment
and 10% of global exits.
48
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Beijing
Metrics
Startup Output*
Ecosystem Demographics
Ecosystem Performance
Growth Index
Funding
Metropolitan Population
Metropolitan GDP
Early-stage Funding

per Startup*
Ecosystem Value
Experienced VC Firm Index
Global
Connections

Software
Engineer Salary

Resource
Attraction
Entrepreneurs
Startups

Global Avg: $267 bn
Global Avg: $252 k
Global Avg: 1,762
Global Avg: 7
Global Avg: 5
Global Avg: 300
Global
Avg: 5
Global Avg: 83
Global Avg: 49 k
Global Avg: 6.1
Foreign Customers
Market Reach
Experienced Software Engineers
Experienced Growth Employees
Talent
Visa Success Rate
Founders
Demographics
Women Founders
Immigrant Founders
Startup Experience Index
Global Avg: 23%
Global Avg: 72%
Global Avg: 60%
Global Avg: 41%
Global Avg: 16%
Global Avg: 19%
Global Median: $4.1 bn
* Approximation based
on different methodology.
25 m
$506 bn
$131 bn
$682 k
4.8 - 7.2 k 4.4
28%
N/A
N/A
23%
7.1%
9.0
1.7
75%
67%
39%
7.0
Early-stage Funding Growth Index
4.8
$25 k
"Working closely with the startup ecosystem in Beijing for
the past decade made me experience first-hand how rapidly
innovation and entrepreneurship has taken over the city. The
government has been promoting mass entrepreneurship by
putting innovation at core of the five year plan."
Bibu Biman
Co-Founder at Tamon Tech
Beijing founders are the 5th youngest in the world with
an average age of 32. They also have the highest number
of Advisors with Equity, with an average of 4 per startup.
The next closest is Shanghai with 2.79.
"Despite its dynamism, Beijing remains a mostly hostile en-
vironment for foreign founders. Access to capital is limited,
building partnerships is challenging, and most importantly,
hiring is a struggle. These problems are due to the belief that
foreigners can't really understand the Chinese market and
succeed in it. And this belief is, to a large extent, justified."
Thomas Graziani
Co-Founder of WalktheChat
49
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Boston
Boston is home to an estimated 2,900-3,900 tech startups and
continues to hold its own as a globally leading startup ecosystem.
As the third highest performing startup ecosystem in the U.S.,
Boston draws on the ideas and people of over 50 colleges and uni-
versities, most notably Harvard University and MIT. Talking about
mature startup ecosystems capable of producing competitive tech
startups and disruptive innovation, Boston should come to mind.
Boston boasts of dozens of sophisticated support organizations
like the celebrated accelerator MassChallenge, which has nurtured
over 850 startups in multiple sectors to date. The internationally
celebrated program has set up shop in four more countries. Brand
new this year is MIT's accelerator, The Engine, which recently
raised an initial $150 million fund to support tech firms building
solutions for big societal problems.
In recognition of the high density of talent in science, engineering,
and technology in the Boston region, General Electric announced
that it was moving its headquarters from Connecticut to Boston
in 2016.
While the startup ecosystem is mostly famous for science driven,
B2B-focused innovation, recent marquee companies include both
business and customer-facing startups. Two prime examples are
TripAdvisor and HubSpot, both companies with a global footprint
and a market cap at an impressive $6.3 billion and $2.3 billion,
respectively. Other success stories that call Boston home include
EMC, PTC, Akamai, Nuance, Netezza, Endeca and Wayfair.
Boston went down by one in this year's global ecosystem Index
due to Beijing coming in at #4. The ecosystem now ranks #5 and
confirms a very balanced scorecard across all factors. However,
Boston scores low on Global Connections, as entrepreneurs
aren't focused on building relationships with other ecosystems.
Among U.S. ecosystems, Boston also has the lowest Percentage
of International Founders coming in. Boston lies at 12% while the
U.S. average amounts to 17%. These factors suggest that Boston
could further improve its inflow of human and financial capital
compared to U.S. counterparts.
This, perhaps, is something GE can help improve. In its new home,
GE will find that it may be the biggest fish in the pond, but it won't
necessarily be the most innovative. Boston tech startups rule, and
they will continue to do so going forward.
#5
USA
Voices and Findings
"Boston is a city of revolutionary innovation, and we pride
ourselves on having a deep-rooted history of driving social
change. One of our greatest assets as a city is our people,
which is why we celebrate the diversity of our workforce and
strive to advance opportunities for all to succeed in Boston's
innovation economy."
Martin J. Walsh
Mayor at City of Boston
Boston is the 7th most valuable startup ecosystem with
the 6th highest Startup Output in the world. It is tied for
the 7th highest Number of Unicorns at 6, compared to
New York City at 16 and Silicon Valley at 57, respectively.
"Boston continues to build one of the most compelling inno-
vation ecosystems in the world. Its strengths come from the
community's commitment to entrepreneurship and the diver-
sity of stakeholders. Boston has policy makers, academics,
corporations, investors, and technologists working collabo-
ratively to help startups launch and create impact."
Kiki Mills Johnston
Managing Director, Boston at MassChallenge
Boston is now ranked 7th globally in Total Amount of
Early-Stage Funding as well as 7th in Early-Stage Funding
per Startup.
50
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Boston
Metrics
Startup Output
Ecosystem Demographics
Ecosystem Performance
Growth Index
Funding
Metropolitan Population
Metropolitan GDP
Early-stage Funding

per Startup
Ecosystem Value
Experienced VC Firm Index
Global
Connections

Talent
Software
Engineer Salary

Resource
Attraction
Entrepreneurs
Startups

Global Avg: $267 bn
Global Avg: $252 k
Global Avg: 1,762
Global Avg: 7
Global Avg: 5
Global Avg: 300
Global
Avg: 5
Global Avg: 83
Global Avg: 49 k
Global Avg: 6.1
Foreign Customers
Market Reach
Experienced Software Engineers
Experienced Growth Employees
Visa Success Rate
Founders
Demographics
Women Founders
Immigrant Founders
Startup Experience Index
Global Avg: 23%
Global Avg: 72%
Global Avg: 60%
Global Avg: 41%
Global Avg: 16%
Global Avg: 19%
Global Median: $4.1 bn
4.7 m
$382 bn
$30 bn
$495 k
2.9 - 3.9 k 4.0
16%
416
174
30%
20%
9.8
5.3
80%
72%
40%
7.0
Early-stage Funding Growth Index
4.5
$95 k
"As a world leading startup ecosystem, Boston continues to
build upon a strong foundation of talent. This grows out of
the greater Boston areas dense university landscapes, but
also upon the city's support of making immigrants welco-
med. With Boston's dense and diverse talent pool comes
different views of solving 21st century problems."
Simon Towers
Co-Founder at PitchFull
Boston is tied for the 10th highest Percentage of Immi-
grant Founders at 30% and 2nd highest in the United
States.
"Boston has a unique ability to attract a diverse pool of
highly gifted talent from all over the world through its welco-
ming academic institutions. We see a direct correlation bet-
ween its dense concentration of skilled immigrants, and the
creation of a strong ecosystem able to tackle the harder tech
problems better than any other city."
Eveline Butchatskiy
Director at Techstars
Boston indicates the 6th highest Percentage of startups
that offer all of their employees stock options, at 48%
in comparison to Silicon Valley at 50% and the global
average at only 26%.
51
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Tel Aviv
The capital of Israel is Jerusalem, but the capital of the Start-Up
Nation is undoubtedly Tel Aviv. With some 2,200-2,700 tech start-
ups churning out products for global markets, Tel Aviv has one of
the highest Startup Densities in the world. Although there were
fewer deals in 2016, venture capital funding hit an all-time high.
Over the past 40 years, 250 Israeli companies have gone public
on the Nasdaq, most of them based in Tel Aviv. Today, only China
and the United States have more firms on the Nasdaq.
Tiny Tel Aviv has all the characteristics of a global tech ecosys-
tem giant: education, entrepreneurial spirit, technology, a global
mindset, government support, and a staggering 300 multinational
R&D centers operating in Israel.1 But setting Tel Aviv apart from
other ecosystems is a factor that accounts for its strength across
multiple industries, especially in cybersecurityits military. Exper-
tise gleaned from the country's elite military intelligence forces,
combined with support from the government has helped raise
$581 million in funding for cybersecurity in 2016.2
1
http://innovationisrael-en.mag.calltext.co.il/article/41/433
2
Start-Up Nation Central: FINDER INSIGHTS SERIES. ISRAEL'S CYBERSECURITY IN-
DUSTRY IN 2016.
Beyond frontier technologies like cyber tech, recent B2C success
stories like the video streaming startup Houseparty bolster the
ecosystem's reputation as the breeding ground for some of the
world's most successful companies. The live video chat app was
released in early 2016 and has run to the top of the mobile app
charts, raising $52 million along the way.
In this year's ranking Tel Aviv held strong as one of the top startup
ecosystems in the world, falling only one spot behind from #5 to
#6 to make way for Beijing. Despite the rise of startup ecosys-
tems in larger economies all around the world, Tel Aviv is still in
the top 10 in the Performance Index. Tel Aviv has strong Funding
numbers and is great in reaching markets, connecting with other
ecosystems, and reeling in plenty of foreign customers. However
there are signs Tel Aviv's ecosystem success may be plateauing.
High engineering costs and long times to hire are the cause of
Tel Aviv's weakest Index factor.
Start-Up Nation Central connects companies and countries to the
people and technologies in Israel that can solve their most pressing
challenges.
Tel Aviv Global is city-owned company that works to position Tel
Aviv as a global business center of innovation and entrepreneurs-
hip, a destination for urban tourism, and a leading city brand
worldwide.
#6
Israel
Voices and Findings
"Tel Aviv has the highest rate of early-stage startups and the
highest rate of accelerators per capita in the world. Tel Avi-
vians are great in creating technology and accelerating its
maturation. We in city hall create key conditions for the eco-
system's growth, from our open-data policy and city-funded
co-working spaces, to free public wi-fi and strong relations-
hips with global partners."
Eytan Schwartz
CEO at Tel Aviv Global and Tourism
Tel Aviv is tied with Los Angeles for the highest percent-
age of startups who reported that the product they are
developing is the first of its kind or in a completely new
category, at 51%. The global average is 35%.
"Due to the fairly small size of our market, Israeli startups
aim globally from day 1. With a strong heritage of entrepre-
neurship, Israeli startups attract funding from all over the
world, and the activity of multinational corporations like
Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple and Microsoft and many
others help connect us with global trends."
Omri Bauer
Senior Technology Advisor to the
CEO at Start-Up Nation Central
Tel Aviv startups have the highest percentage of Foreign
Customers outside their continent at 37%, indicating a
strong ability to go global. 69% of startups in Tel Aviv im-
mediately target the U.S. or U.K. markets, the 2nd highest
rate in the world behind only Estonia.
52
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Tel Aviv
Metrics
Startup Output
Ecosystem Demographics
Ecosystem Performance
Growth Index
Funding
Metropolitan Population
Metropolitan GDP
Early-stage Funding

per Startup
Ecosystem Value
Experienced VC Firm Index
Global
Connections

Talent
Software
Engineer Salary

Founders
Resource
Attraction
Entrepreneurs
Startups

Global Avg: $267 bn
Global Avg: $252 k
Global Avg: 1,762
Global Avg: 7
Global Avg: 5
Global Avg: 300
Global
Avg: 5
Global Avg: 83
Global Avg: 49 k
Global Avg: 6.1
Foreign Customers
Market Reach
Experienced Software Engineers
Experienced Growth Employees
Visa Success Rate
Demographics
Women Founders
Immigrant Founders
Startup Experience Index
Global Avg: 23%
Global Avg: 72%
Global Avg: 60%
Global Avg: 41%
Global Avg: 16%
Global Avg: 19%
Global Median: $4.1 bn
3.7 m
$153 bn
$22 bn
$509 k
2.2 - 2.7 k 4.5
8%
351
15
16%
45%
9.0
12.9
74%
80%
27%
6.1
Early-stage Funding Growth Index
4.7
$63 k
"Israel is an extremely small market, of an aggregate number
of 8 million people, with very unique characteristics. In addi-
tion, the neighbor markets around Israel are not enthusiastic
to adopting Israeli technologies, given the geopolitical situati-
on. However, what could be considered as a clear disadvan-
tage has actually turned into one of the main advantages
and differentiators of Israeli startups, as they target global
market overseas from day one."
Inbal Arieli
co-CEO at Synthesis and Senior Advisor to Start-Up Nation Central
Only 1% of Tel Aviv's startups originated from outside the
countryother top ecosystems indicate figures five to 15
times higher. Tel Aviv also has one of the lowest Percent-
ages of Women Founders in the world at 8%, only half of
the global average and 7% less than Jerusalem.
"Although it is the easiest time in history to start a startup, it
is the hardest time to be successful. There are many factors
that contribute to a startup's success: CEO support, finding
the right mentors, sales strategy, and access to the right net-
work of customers and partners."
Zack Weisfeld
Founder at Microsoft Accelerator and General
Manager at Microsoft Global Accelerators
53
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Berlin
Berlin continues to move up the ecosystem rankings, from #9 in
2015 to #7 this year. Between its affordable downtown flats, hip
culture and lax visa laws, Berlin continues to beckon international
founders and talent. The industry is humming, currently counting
an estimated 1,800-2,400 active tech startups. Some categories
that experience significant growth rates in Berlin are FinTech,
digital health, artificial intelligence, mobility, food technology, and
cyber-security.
Today, virtually every corporation with a large footprint in Germany
is operating an innovation hub in the city. Rocket Internet con-
tinues to be a driving force of Berlin's ecosystem growth, raising
$1 billion in funds in 2016despite recent controversy around
top shareholder Kinnevik selling half of its stake and pulling rep-
resentatives from the Supervisory board.
A growing number of startups have already reaped the rewards
of Berlin's healthy, if not yet deep, entrepreneurial roots. Some
of them netted big money from investors, mostly in the race for
take-out and food delivery market shares. In a series of invest-
ments and acquisitions driving European consolidation, HelloF-
resh brought in $88 million in Series G, while takeout service
DeliveryHero (valued at $3 billion) acquired Rocket Internet-bred
competitor Foodpanda.
In early 2017, Billpay, nicknamed the "European Paypal," sold for
$75 million, while the latest FinTech posterchild N26 was awarded
a full German banking license. The startup aiming to revolutionize
the traditional banking industry is about to become the next big
thing coming out of Berlin.
Berlin ranks #7 globally in the Performance factor. However, two
IPOs in 2014 from Zalando and Rocket Internet, worth close to
$14 billion, have had an outsized effect. Next year those marquee
companies will fall outside the two year moving average, so Berlin
will need to confirm its upward trend with fresh victories. Out of all
European ecosystems, attracting the largest percentage of start-
ups from outside the country should help, with 11% versus the
rest of Europe averaging 2 percent. This attraction also extends
to an influx of Talent, Berlin's strongest ranking Factor, where it
is buoyed by its friendly environment for immigrants and experi-
enced growth teams.
Berlin ranks behind London as the second-best performing Eu-
ropean startup ecosystem in this year's ranking. The city has not
yet reached its full potential, but despite its challenges, it can
safely be said that the capital of cool is racing toward a bright and
ambitious future.
#7
Germany
Voices and Findings
"I am not a huge fan of thinking about startup ecosystems
as a national achievement. One of Berlin's core strengths is
its diversity and internationality, and that's what we should
be proud of and continue to work on: A hub in the heart of a
connected Europe and not an isolated fortress."
Uwe Horstmann
Founding Partner at Project A Ventures
Berlin has the 2nd highest Percentage of Immigrant
Founders at 43%, trailing only Silicon Valley. Berlin start-
ups have the 3rd highest Visa Acceptance Rates for
Foreign Candidates at 77% and have one of the fastest
acceptance times, too.
"Berlin has one of the most inclusive and diverse startup
ecosystems in the world. You don't need a German passport
or an Ivy League diploma to succeed here; the Berlin startup
scene is open for business and welcomes founders and ta-
lents from everywhere."
Udo Schloemer
Founder and CEO at Factory Berlin
Berlin startups report the 6th highest Percentage of
Foreign Customers outside of their continent at 28%,
indicating a strong drive and/or ability to Go Global, com-
pared to 19% for London.
54
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Berlin
Metrics
Startup Output
Ecosystem Demographics
Ecosystem Performance
Growth Index
Funding
Metropolitan Population
Metropolitan GDP
Early-stage Funding

per Startup
Ecosystem Value
Experienced VC Firm Index
Global
Connections

Talent
Software
Engineer Salary

Founders
Resource
Attraction
Entrepreneurs
Startups

Global Avg: $267 bn
Global Avg: $252 k
Global Avg: 1,762
Global Avg: 7
Global Avg: 5
Global Avg: 300
Global
Avg: 5
Global Avg: 83
Global Avg: 49 k
Global Avg: 6.1
Foreign Customers
Market Reach
Experienced Software Engineers
Experienced Growth Employees
Visa Success Rate
Demographics
Women Founders
Immigrant Founders
Startup Experience Index
Global Avg: 23%
Global Avg: 72%
Global Avg: 60%
Global Avg: 41%
Global Avg: 16%
Global Avg: 19%
Global Median: $4.1 bn
6.0 m
$158 bn
$31 bn
$483 k
1-8 - 2.4 k 4.6
13%
378
231
43%
42%
6.5
9.9
72%
69%
77%
5.8
Early-stage Funding Growth Index
4.5
$55 k
"As a founder Berlin is the place to beglobal VC funds, ext-
raordinary talents from around the world, high quality of life
and the European market at your disposal. This is the en-
vironment it takes to disrupt industries and make the impos-
sible happen."
Valentin Stalf
Founder and CEO at N26
Berlin has the second highest net Global Resource At-
traction rate in the world at 18%, with only Silicon Valley
startups reporting a 3% higher value. A key ingredient to
move through the Startup Ecosystem Lifecycle.
"Berlin is the place to build a startup in Germany. That said,
U.S. ecosystems are still way ahead of us. The really large
financing rounds can't be closed with Berlin-based investors
yet. Essentially, it's a matter of time for us to build up the re-
sources, experience, and guts to compete at the global level."
Alexander Kudlich
Member of the Management Board at Rocket Internet SE
21% of startups report at least one negative experience
with corporates. The global average lies at 9%, suggest-
ing that the ecosystem could improve relationship-
building between startups and incumbent firms.
55
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Shanghai
Life in Shanghai is fast-paced, colorful, and even glamorous for
some. At 24.1 million people, it is one of the most populated cities
in the world. Rich cultural relics comprise the Old Town neighbor-
hood, while shoppers delight in long stretches of shops peddling
designer brands and vintage goods. It's no surprise that the city
is also a startup ecosystem mega-star.
Between Shanghai's government push to boost the currently at
least 1,800-2,700 active tech startups and the recent, rapid growth
in its coworking scene, the city makes for an enticing place to build
the next unicorn. In 2016, China's Mass Entrepreneurship and In-
novation Policy unveiled a new round of reforms designed to push
the world's second-largest economy to a higher level.1 In Shanghai,
first and foremost, this means funding. A startup is eligible to apply
for a low interest rate loan of up to $30,000 without collateral or
guarantee as long as a founder holds Shanghai citizenship.
Shanghai offers ample incentives for would-be innovators to take
calculated risks. The city is affordable by most major city's stan-
dards, and some districts provide rent allowance or free rent if
startups choose to register there. Local venture capitalists are
1
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/regional/2016-10/28/content_27207825.htm
supported as well. Venture capitalists can apply for reimburse-
ment of up to $900,000 if their investment in a local early-stage
startups fails.
Shanghai's co-working spacesa combination of govern-
ment-sponsored, locally-owned, and foreign-owned ones such
as WeWorkdoubled to 500 in 2016. Beyond coworking spaces,
Shanghai startups that target the on-demand economy have done
well. One particular innovatorMobikea startup which provides
bikes in an Uber-like interface raised $215 million in Series D
funding. The app enables users to locate, unlock, and rent bikes
for 20 cents per hour. It has proven popular enough that they now
have an active fleet of 100,000 bikes across five Chinese cities.
The newly measured Shanghai ecosystem, has bounded into the
rankings at #8, thanks to some of the most prolific Funding results
globally, solid global Market Reach, and very high collective valu-
ation of the ecosystem's startupsthough its exit numbers lag
behind. Overall, Shanghai shows no major weaknesses, with solid
numbers in all of the Index factors and subfactors. It is safe to
say Shanghai will continue to play an important role in the global
startup ecosystem landscape for years to come.
Co-authored by Mia Sun
Co-Director of Shanghai Chapter at Startup Grind
Ecosystem Partners: Startup Grind, CaoHeJing, Innospace
#8
China
Voices and Findings
"Shanghai's startup environment is exceptional in the sense
that you have huge government support, a very large pool
of talent, and the best customer base to start off your service
and experiment with innovative solutions."
Davis Wang
CEO at Mobike
Shanghai startups have on average 32% of their cus-
tomer base outside of China, the highest ratio among all
Asian ecosystems in scope and significantly higher than
Beijing, at 7%.
Shanghai startups have on average 2.79 Advisors with
Equity, 2nd in the world only to Beijing (4) and well above
Silicon Valley at 1.78 Advisors.
"It's a really exciting time to be in the co-working business
in China. The market is not as developed as in the West, so
major players have a chance to shape the market and esta-
blish the standard. The key is to capture the essence of the
shared economy and focus on the community aspect of the
business to ensure success. We believe coworking is not just a
great platform for startups and freelancers, it's the future of
work, and SMEs and MNCs will make the shift as well."
Paul Hu
Managing Director at naked Hub
56
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Shanghai
Metrics
Startup Output*
Ecosystem Demographics
Ecosystem Performance
Growth Index
Funding
Metropolitan Population
Metropolitan GDP
Early-stage Funding

per Startup*
Ecosystem Value
Experienced VC Firm Index
Global
Connections

Software
Engineer Salary

Resource
Attraction
Entrepreneurs
Startups

Global Avg: $267 bn
Global Avg: $252 k
Global Avg: 1,762
Global Avg: 7
Global Avg: 5
Global Avg: 300
Global
Avg: 5
Global Avg: 83
Global Avg: 49 k
Global Avg: 6.1
Foreign Customers
Market Reach
Experienced Software Engineers
Experienced Growth Employees
Talent
Visa Success Rate
Founders
Demographics
Women Founders
Immigrant Founders
Startup Experience Index
Global Avg: 23%
Global Avg: 72%
Global Avg: 60%
Global Avg: 41%
Global Avg: 16%
Global Avg: 19%
Global Median: $4.1 bn
* Approximation based
on different methodology.
34 m
$384 bn
$42 bn
$255 k
1.8 - 2.7 k 5.5
26%
N/A
178
36%
32%
9.2
4.4
73%
69%
32%
5.7
Early-stage Funding Growth Index
6.7
$22 k
49% of Shanghai's founders answering the survey re-
ported having two or more years of prior experience in a
startup as an employee, one of the highest rates globally.
"China's consumer market has huge potential, which extends
beyond general needs into the lifestyle markets such as soci-
al, new media, content IP, and online video."
Richard Wang
Partner at DFJ Dragon Fund
Shanghai has the 4th highest Number of Unicorns and is
the 5th most valuable Ecosystem in the world.
57
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Los Angeles
For nearly a century, Los Angeles has been synonymous with
creativity, especially in film, media, and art. Today, the metro's
creative bent has found a new outlet in tech startups. As more
and more aspiring founders find out, the second most populous
city in the U.S. offers many attractive assets to its 3,700-4,600
startups, aside from its enviable weather. L.A. was again named
the Top Digital City in America,1 and it even convinced the famed
Elon Musk to work on Tesla, SpaceX and Hyperloop One out of
Southern California.
Los Angeles graduates high-quality software engineers (giving it a
#7 place in Talent Quality), and its residents are eager adopters
of technology. They readily use apps that let them report graffiti,
get around town, and pay their water bills. The city government is
helpful, too: it exempts new businesses from paying taxes for the
first two years. Early in 2017, one particular startup made global
headlines with the biggest tech IPO since Facebook: Snap. Since
then, the share price of the company behind Snapchat rose by
40% in comparison to its offering price, confirming a staggering
valuation in excess of $30 billion. The Snap IPO follows the $1
billion acquisition of Dollar Shave Club by Unilever and the $2
billion acquisition of Oculus VR by Facebook. Clearly, Los Angeles
1
http://www.govtech.com/dc/digital-cities/Digital-Cities-Survey-2016-Winners-An-
nounced.html
is working on its portfolio of impressive tech exits which are fueling
the next wave of startup success stories. Los Angeles ranks as
the 9th best startup ecosystem overall which, while respectable,
represents a drop of six ranks from 2015. It ranks highly in Per-
formance and Funding at #5 and #7, but is dragged down by
the three other factors: Market Reach, Talent, and Startup Expe-
rience. Los Angeles is not a very globally connected ecosystem,
with entrepreneurs reporting many relationships with founders in
Silicon Valley and N.Y.C., but not overseas. This makes it harder for
startups to go global, as confirmed by a low average percentage
of Foreign Customers. Finally, despite the Startup Experience long
accumulated by the ecosystem, its early-stage startups count less
Hypergrowth Experience and find it relatively difficult to attract
experienced engineers, growth talent, and advisors.
Bixel Exchange runs Startup Launch and Tech Ed Partnerships to
combine forces that ignite creativity, empower entrepreneurs, and
cultivate talent for a more prosperous Los Angeles.
Cross Campus' membership ranges from aspiring entrepreneur
to seasoned executive. Cutting edge events, membership resources,
and craft beers on tap ensure a highly engaged coworking commu-
nity.
AnnenbergTech is an initiative of the Annenberg Foundation that
supports the growth of philanthropy among the burgeoning Los
Angeles tech community.
#9
USA
Voices and Findings
"In the 20th century, LA's economy was driven by entertain-
ment, engineering and trade. This base of creativity, innova-
tion, and influx of new people and new ideas are fueling our
rise as a nascent global capital of entrepreneurism and tech-
nology in the 21st. Our greatest challenges are going to be
growing our talent pipeline to keep pace with the growth of
the tech sector, and ensuring that our startups are connec-
ted to seasoned tech veterans."
Sean Arian
Founder of Bixel Exchange and VP of Innovation
at LA Area Chamber of Commerce
Los Angeles is ranked #5 in the world in Early-Stage
Funding, behind only Silicon Valley, New York City, Beijing
and and Shanghai. It also has the 5th highest Startup
Output in the world and the 5th highest number of Uni-
corns.
"We're excited that Los Angeles remains a top destination
for disruptive, rapid-growth startups. There's no better ex-
ample than SNAP. Its recent IPO minted hundreds of inves-
tors-in-waiting who are now in a position to provide the
funding and resources to seed the next round of world-chan-
ging, LA-based startups."
Dan Dato
Co-Founder and COO at Cross Campus
Los Angeles - Orange County
58
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Los Angeles
Metrics
Startup Output
Ecosystem Demographics
Ecosystem Performance
Growth Index
Funding
Metropolitan Population
Metropolitan GDP
Early-stage Funding

per Startup
Ecosystem Value
Experienced VC Firm Index
Global
Connections

Software
Engineer Salary

Resource
Attraction
Entrepreneurs
Startups

Global Avg: $267 bn
Global Avg: $252 k
Global Avg: 1,762
Global Avg: 7
Global Avg: 5
Global Avg: 300
Global
Avg: 5
Global Avg: 83
Global Avg: 49 k
Global Avg: 6.1
Foreign Customers
Market Reach
Experienced Software Engineers
Experienced Growth Employees
Talent
Visa Success Rate
Founders
Demographics
Women Founders
Immigrant Founders
Startup Experience Index
Global Avg: 23%
Global Avg: 72%
Global Avg: 60%
Global Avg: 41%
Global Avg: 16%
Global Avg: 19%
Global Median: $4.1 bn
14 m
$867 bn
$30 bn
$450 k
3.7 - 4.6 k 4.2
16%
655
133
16%
12%
8.1
1.7
74%
60%
31%
5.8
Early-stage Funding Growth Index
4.6
$84 k
Los Angeles is tied with Tel Aviv for the highest number
of startups who reported that the product they are de-
veloping is the first of its kind or in a completely new
category, at 51%, the global average being 34%.
Despite its size and track record, Los Angeles attracts
only few foreign startups, with 3% compared to 6% for
Austin. Its startups also report only 12% of foreign cus-
tomers, one of the lowest numbers of all top 20 ecosys-
tems, and well below the global average of 23%.
"Los Angeles has a startup ecosystem that is creating first of
its kind technology to solve the problems of the world, not
the 1%, and that is what excites me about having my com-
pany based here."
Sky Kelley
Founder and CEO at AVISARE
Los Angeles is home to top-quality Engineering Talent,
but its overall Talent score is dragged down by high
Costs and difficulties in Access, which shows average
Hiring Speed and Experience.
59
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Seattle
While Seattle may be most famous for its tech giants Amazon and
Microsoft, the city encompasses 2,000-2,600 active tech startups
who are busy disrupting industries and raising billions of dollars.
The Pacific Northwest is largely centered around software prod-
ucts, but also encompasses significant clusters in gadgets, biotech,
and of course cloud technology. In 2015, Seattle startups raised
as much as $1.95 billion in venture capital.
Seattle's strong Access to Tech Talent has drawn dozens of Silicon
Valley tech giants including Google, Facebook, Oracle, Salesforce,
Adobe, HP, and Twitter. Average salaries are highsecond only
to the Bay Area, thanks in part to Amazon and Microsoft's ability
to offer upwards of $200,000 to promising software engineers.
Many of the city's 90,000 developers come from the University
of Washington,1 which ranked 6th in the country for its computer
science programs according to U.S. News & World Report.
1
http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/blog/techflash/2015/12/seattle-area-has-more-
software-engineers-than-san.html
With prime Talent and Funding at hand, Seattle's smaller home-
grown startups are now commanding the attention of industry
giants. Machine learning and artificial intelligence startup Turi sold
to Apple for around $200 million, while e-commerce company
Zulily sold to QVC for a breathtaking $2.4 billion. Other leading
companies like Expedia, F5 Networks, RealNetworks, and aQuan-
tive are helping drive growth and startup experience for the city.
Seattle was ranked #8 in 2015 and is now #10, falling two spots
due to the introduction of Beijing and Shanghai to the study.
Seattle is ranked #1 in the Talent Index, up from #4 in 2015, which
should be highlighted as a major success. The ecosystem scored
high marks on Access and Quality, two Talent sub factors, which
are strong enough to compensate for the high cost. Most metrics
on the Performance, Funding, and Startup Experience Index hover
around the top 10, showcasing Seattle as a very balanced, high
quality startup ecosystem.
#10
USA
Voices and Findings
"Seattle's success is due to: 1) Founding international
headquarters for major tech companies decades ago. 2)
Their employees leaving to start new tech companies. 3) UW
attracting high level tech professors and graduates. 4) Was-
hington having over 25,000 unfilled tech jobs as every major
U.S. tech company has an office in Seattle. 5) An exodus of
Silicon Valley talent continuing to move to Seattle. 6) A very
collaborative community supporting each other in growing
our ecosystem."
Brett Greene
CEO at New Tech Northwest
"We actively maintain our strong ties to Silicon Valley with
our mentors and investors but are fortunate to be working
in the shadow of other leading tech companies. Seattle is
the perfect market for us to be growing our company as we
continue to see the influx of tech companies building their
presence here."
Avni Patel Thompson
Founder and CEO at Poppy
Seattle's founders are some of the most technically expe-
rienced in the world; their rank tied for 9th with 90% of
them having a technical background. 81% of engineers
working in Seattle's startups have at least two years of
startup experience, the 6th highest percentage in the
world.
60
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Seattle
Metrics
Startup Output
Ecosystem Demographics
Ecosystem Performance
Growth Index
Funding
Metropolitan Population
Metropolitan GDP
Early-stage Funding

per Startup
Ecosystem Value
Experienced VC Firm Index
Global
Connections

Software
Engineer Salary

Resource
Attraction
Entrepreneurs
Startups

Global Avg: $267 bn
Global Avg: $252 k
Global Avg: 1,762
Global Avg: 7
Global Avg: 5
Global Avg: 300
Global
Avg: 5
Global Avg: 83
Global Avg: 49 k
Global Avg: 6.1
Foreign Customers
Market Reach
Experienced Software Engineers
Experienced Growth Employees
Talent
Visa Success Rate
Founders
Demographics
Women Founders
Immigrant Founders
Startup Experience Index
Global Avg: 23%
Global Avg: 72%
Global Avg: 60%
Global Avg: 41%
Global Avg: 16%
Global Avg: 19%
Global Median: $4.1 bn
3.7 m
$301 bn
$13 bn
$332 k
2 - 2.6 k
4.5
13%
486
93
23%
17%
8.4
2.7
81%
66%
61%
6.2
Early-stage Funding Growth Index
4.4
$100 k
"With high tech companies like Microsoft, Amazon, and
many others, along with a robust life sciences community in
the Seattle area, I often see startups led by highly experien-
ced technologists as well as PhD's out of our academic insti-
tutions. It makes for a rich, inventive environment."
Susan Preston
Managing Member at Seattle Angel Fund
Seattle has the highest Percentage of Startups that give
Stock Option Plans to all of their employees at 58%, com-
pared to the average value of 42% across all U.S. ecosys-
tems. This is a key indicator of Startup Experience within
the founding team.
"It's incredible, but not surprising, that Seattle has the highest
percentage of startups that give stock option plans to all of
their employees. It speaks to the community oriented culture
of Seattle as a city where people highly value working with
others toward a shared goal."
Yohei Nakajima
Director of Pipeline at Techstars
Seattle has the lowest Early-Stage Investment Growth
rate among the top 20 at only 6% but the 4th highest Exit
Growth rate at 150%.
61
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Paris
Paris holds on to its rank as a major contender in the global
startup scene. New government initiatives such as a decisive move
forward to increase the influx of entrepreneurs, engineers and
investors,1 a tuition-free coding school, and many others factors
confirm an overall positive trend. Based on latest estimations,
Paris is comprised of 2,000-2,600 active tech startups.
Ride-sharing service BlaBlaCar has established Paris as a center
for the "sharing economy,"2 and the city's increase in favorable tax
benefits, subsidies, and loans to the tech community all aim to
propel Paris as one of the leading startup ecosystems in Europe.
Paris has seen its share of trending finance rounds with compa-
nies such as Deezer, the music streaming app with over 6 million
subscribers, that has raised over $217 million in venture capital
as of 2017.
The world's largest incubator is slated to open in Paris, started by
billionaire Xavier Niel. Station F will open in 2017 and be equipped
with an auditorium, computer labs, workshops, 3,000 desks for
rent, and numerous hangout areas. The incubatorconstructed
1
https://techcrunch.com/2017/01/17/france-creates-a-special-visa-for-entrepre-
neurs-engineers-and-investors/
2
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-38597504
in a former rail yardis expected to create 4,000 jobs. Facebook
and prominent venture capital firms have already confirmed that
they will base staff at the facility, a move that will garner support
and help to fill seats with more technology entrepreneurs, inves-
tors, and inventors.
Many come to Paris to be thrilled by the lights, but equally as
dazzling are events like the new VivaTech, which brings more than
45,000 members of the global community to Paris each year. The
ecosystem is clearly becoming better at utilizing its resources
through collaboration, which arguably builds up overall startup
experience.
However, Paris' Early-Stage Funding growth has been below
average, and its Talent Index and its subfactors are relatively
lackluster. In addition, the ecosystem hasn't had many big exits in
the last few years. In the long run, this may cause low attraction
rates or, in the worst case, leakages to the advantage of other
top ecosystems.
#11
France
Voices and Findings
"Startup ecosystems in Europe have been growing impressi-
vely in the last few years, helping Europe catch up globally as
a great place for Tech. Europe's peculiarity is that it is mul-
ti-centric, based on several highly interconnected world-class
startup hotspots, showing a wide but differentiated range of
assets. Paris is among them, with its DeepTech startups and
talents (AI, IoT, HealthTech), a great density of VC funding,
and a proven capacity to build innovative business models."
David Monteau
Director at La French Tech
Paris ranks 10th in Market Reach, due to a high Foreign
Customer ratio of 36% and a high level of Global Con-
nectedness. It indicates a strong Global Connectedness
Index of 10.8, slightly behind only Tel Aviv and Silicon
Valley at 12.9 and 11.0, respectively.
"Paris has become one of the world's most dynamic startup
scene, and is surely seen as a gateway into the European
market for most non-EU companies. Unsurprisingly, in 2016
France was the 2nd European country for startup funding
rounds. Our main focus should now be to help seeded star-
tups scale internationally."
Tristan Lebeau
Startup Program Manager at NUMA
62
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Paris
Metrics
Startup Output
Ecosystem Demographics
Ecosystem Performance
Growth Index
Funding
Metropolitan Population
Metropolitan GDP
Early-stage Funding

per Startup
Ecosystem Value
Experienced VC Firm Index
Global
Connections

Software
Engineer Salary

Resource
Attraction
Entrepreneurs
Startups

Global Avg: $267 bn
Global Avg: $252 k
Global Avg: 1,762
Global Avg: 7
Global Avg: 5
Global Avg: 300
Global
Avg: 5
Global Avg: 83
Global Avg: 49 k
Global Avg: 6.1
Foreign Customers
Market Reach
Experienced Software Engineers
Experienced Growth Employees
Talent
Visa Success Rate
Founders
Demographics
Women Founders
Immigrant Founders
Startup Experience Index
Global Avg: 23%
Global Avg: 72%
Global Avg: 60%
Global Avg: 41%
Global Avg: 16%
Global Avg: 19%
Global Median: $4.1 bn
12 m
$688 bn
$12 bn
$270 k
2 - 2.6 k
4.2
10%
346
46
11%
36%
9.3
10.8
69%
62%
37%
6.1
Early-stage Funding Growth Index
4.5
$46 k
Paris is building up startup experience, with especially
local Venture Capitalist experience ranking 5th in the
global comparison, resulting in a good performance with
regards to Paris's Funding Quality.
"There are two reasons why Paris has Founders with higher
degrees. First, entrepreneurship and science are often confu-
sed: most people without a science degree think they're not
qualified to found a startup. Also, it's hard to make a good
living as an entrepreneur, at least until series B. Well-connec-
ted people from wealthier families can afford it."
Nicolas Colin
Co-Founder and Partner at TheFamily
Paris' engineering teams have a comparably high rate
of formal engineering education. 15% of Founders have
pursued only an Undergrad Degree, while 81% of Found-
ers have pursued a Masters or PhD degree, the third
highest percentage in the world.
"At Kima Ventures, we're funding more and more female
entrepreneurs and it doesn't only come from our strong will
to do so but also from a maturing ecosystem naturally brea-
king the gender barriers in entrepreneurship"
Jean de La Rochebrochard
Partner at Kima Ventures
The Paris ecosystem displays one of the lower Percent-
ages of Women Founders in the global comparison at
10%, despite efforts to move the needle closer to the
global average of 16%.
63
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Singapore
Tropical climates, ample parks, and city gardens are as much a
part of Singapore as its electric skyline at night. Economically, Sin-
gapore is one of Asia's most vibrant hubs and among the world's
leaders in global commerce, finance, and transportation. By all
means, the city-state is poised for a continued startup revolution.
Along with a geographical location that renders it an easy access
point to up-and-coming tech markets in Southeast Asia, Singa-
pore's 1,600-2,400 tech startups enjoy significant government
subsidies. The government launched 13.2 billion R&D Initiative,1
and merged two tech-oriented agencies into the unified GovTech,
which oversees key regulatory frameworks and the delivery of
digital services. To further accelerate the development of a mature
venture capital landscape, the government also launched schemes
that match early-stage VC funds on a one-to-one basis.2
At a more hands-on level, Singapore's government also launched
SGInnovate, a well-resourced agency aimed at bringing key people
and resources together to foster deep innovation and move the
needle for startups that are trying to scale globally.
1
https://www.mci.gov.sg/cos2016
2
https://www.spring.gov.sg/Nurturing-Startups/Pages/ACE-startups-grant.as-
px&sa=D&ust=1489142850303000&usg=AFQjCNGWFC8MUJ6r54oMxmwkVZHuB-
glkrg
In the last few years Singapore's Grab, Uber's largest rival, raised
$750 million in fresh capital from existing investor SoftBank.
Work-messaging platform, Pie, was acquired by Google, who
also announced plans for building an engineering team based in
Singapore. Events like this suggest that the country's strategies
are working to establish local tech startups as globally-relevant
companies.
Singapore held steady as a top ecosystem in 2017, falling only two
places from #10 to #12 due to the new Chinese entrants. Singa-
pore's Performance numbers are solid and will probably continue
to rise as their Startup Output and valuation rankings significantly
exceed their exit rankingwhich is a lagging indicator. There is
some concern in the Funding Index where Singapore's Early-Stage
Funding growth is falling behind its peers, however, with some of
the strongest Tech Talent in the world every problem should be
seen as a challenge.
SPRING: As the national enterprise development agency under the
Ministry of Trade and Industry, SPRING Singapore helps Singapore
enterprises grow and builds trust in Singapore products and ser-
vices.
#12
Voices and Findings
"Singapore is evolving at a pace like no other ecosystem. Wit-
hin three years, we're a sustainable ecosystem of accelerators
and corporate co-innovation, resulting in a six-fold increase
of startups raising series A; in a year, VC money doubled to
$1.7 billion. As we continue to grow Singapore startups, it
reduces early-stage exits (by acquisitions) and increases the
number of sizable startups in the ecosystem."
Alex Lin
Head of Infocomm Investments
Singapore ranks #1 globally in the Talent factor even
before Silicon Valley due to strong performance in Access
and Cost sub-factors. The experience levels of Singapor-
ean Talent is comparably strong, given that 80% of the
Engineering and 74% of the Growth teams have gained
at least two years of prior startup experience already.
"I am confident the ASEAN tech ecosystem now is one of the
most exciting in terms of risk reward. Investors who invest
now are getting in near ground zero. My cofounder and I are
putting our money where our mouth is and investing heavily
in both ASEAN startups and VCs. And Singapore is where
we find all our deals as most startups value the talent pool,
capital pool, clear corporate governance and intellectual
property regime here."
Lim Der Shing
Tech Investor and Co-Founder at JobsCentral Group
64
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Singapore
Metrics
Startup Output
Ecosystem Demographics
Ecosystem Performance
Growth Index
Funding
Metropolitan Population
Metropolitan GDP
Early-stage Funding

per Startup
Ecosystem Value
Experienced VC Firm Index
Global
Connections

Software
Engineer Salary

Resource
Attraction
Entrepreneurs
Startups

Global Avg: $267 bn
Global Avg: $252 k
Global Avg: 1,762
Global Avg: 7
Global Avg: 5
Global Avg: 300
Global
Avg: 5
Global Avg: 83
Global Avg: 49 k
Global Avg: 6.1
Foreign Customers
Market Reach
Experienced Software Engineers
Experienced Growth Employees
Talent
Visa Success Rate
Founders
Demographics
Women Founders
Immigrant Founders
Startup Experience Index
Global Avg: 23%
Global Avg: 72%
Global Avg: 60%
Global Avg: 41%
Global Avg: 16%
Global Avg: 19%
Global Median: $4.1 bn
5.5 m
$264 bn
$11 bn
$276 k
1.6 - 2.4 k 4.6
12%
463
40
35%
25%
8.2
11.4
80%
74%
25%
4.8
Early-stage Funding Growth Index
4.6
$35 k
Singapore has the 6th highest Percentage of Immigrant
Founders in the world at 35%. It also has the 3rd highest
level of Global Connectedness of all top 20 ecosystems
outperforming even Silicon Valley.
"Singapore is an open society and welcomes entrepreneurs
around the world to create the next big thing here."
James Tan
Managing Partner at Quest Ventures
Founders based in Singapore are the youngest in the
world, with a median of 28 years. Only 27% of Singapore
teams have 2-3 founders, the lowest rate in the world,
and 20% lower than the next closest ecosystem. Our
past research showed that startups with 2-3 founders
significantly outperform other founder number combina-
tions.
"The Singapore startup ecosystem is a fast growing, albeit
young one. While progress is encouraging it is not without
challenges. For one, exit options remain limited, thus restric-
ting capital/talent liquidity circulating back into the ecosys-
tem. I remain confident that this will be solved in time."
Tiang Lim Foo
Operating Partner at SeedPlus
65
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Austin
With music extravaganzas that draw tens of thousands to the city,
Austin has earned its reputation as the "live music capital of the
world." A relatively low cost of living and high quality of life makes
the state capital of Texas one of the fastest growing cities in the
United States. But crowds don't come only for the music; startup
festivals such as SXSW Interactive are drawing crowds well into
the 30,000s as well. Capital Factory, in particular, is at the core of
the ecosystem by accelerating startups while bringing together
all local innovators under one roof.
The city now boasts between 1,700-2,200 ambitious tech startups,
which pride themselves in a sense of community that you won't
find anywhere else. Established players will tell you the same, for
example Techstars or Texas Venture Labs, where 40 percent of
the companies they work with get funded within a year. Austin's
startup community also benefits from proximity to the talent and
expertise of the numerous Fortune 500 companies with opera-
tions there, including Amazon, Apple, Cisco, eBay, and Google.
During the last few years, the Kauffman Growth Index1 has repeat-
edly ranked Austin among the fastest growing ecosystems in the
U.S.. Nearly $600 million of venture capital was invested into 75
Austin-based startups in 2016, while for the past six years, the
1
http://www.kauffman.org/kauffman-Index
ecosystem has collectively raised almost $700 million on average
each year.
The most famous tech company to come out of Austin is still Dell,
but many current and future tech success stories are working hard
to change that. In 2015, HomeAway, a vacation rental marketplace,
was acquired by Expedia for $3.9 billion, while UnboundID, an
identity management software company, went for $600 million.
Each year, the region celebrates the fastest growing startups with
the "Fast 50" list.
Compared to last year, Austin moved up by one in the overall
Index and now ranks #13. The startup ecosystem has a role-model
aspect to many others, and the "pay it forward" culture is conta-
gious, as confirmed by the third highest Global Resource Attrac-
tion rate measured. Austin's strongest factor is its Talent, ranked
#8. The city's weakest factor is its Market Reach, highlighted by
its distinct lack of relationships with international founders and
customers.
Overall, the Austin ecosystem is faced with challenges other
startup ecosystems would be happy about.
Capital Factory is the center of gravity for entrepreneurs in Austin.
Last year more than 90,000 entrepreneurs, programmers, and desi-
gners gathered day and night for meetups, classes, and coworking.
#13
USA
Voices and Findings
"Austin's overall ecosystem is strong and getting stronger.
Thanks to several strong software and tech-companies as
well as UT we have a great developer pool, as is evidenced
by some of the world's greatest brands (Apple, Google, Face-
book) opening offices here. Likewise, we have a very strong
support system for startups and entrepreneurs and a strong
Angel and Seed ecosystem to support it. Finally, the commu-
nity in general is like no other I've been a part of. It's extre-
mely collaborative where we all really and sincerely want to
help this community win."
Amos Schwartzfarb
Managing Director at Techstars Austin
Austin indicates the 3rd highest net Global Resource
Attraction rate in the world at 17%. The city also indicates
the 2nd highest density of startups in the world, trailing
only Silicon Valley.
"It's got the music, the university scene, the hippies, and the
rule-breakers. It's very easy to hire people who want to push
the limits. It's an incredibly innovative city."
William Hurley
Co-Founder at Honest Dollar
50% of Austin startup founders have gained at least
two years of prior experience in a startup, ranking them
among top ecosystems like New York City, Boston and
even Silicon Valley.
66
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Austin
Metrics
Startup Output
Ecosystem Demographics
Ecosystem Performance
Growth Index
Funding
Metropolitan Population
Metropolitan GDP
Early-stage Funding

per Startup
Ecosystem Value
Experienced VC Firm Index
Global
Connections

Software
Engineer Salary

Resource
Attraction
Entrepreneurs
Startups

Global Avg: $267 bn
Global Avg: $252 k
Global Avg: 1,762
Global Avg: 7
Global Avg: 5
Global Avg: 300
Global
Avg: 5
Global Avg: 83
Global Avg: 49 k
Global Avg: 6.1
Foreign Customers
Market Reach
Experienced Software Engineers
Experienced Growth Employees
Talent
Visa Success Rate
Founders
Demographics
Women Founders
Immigrant Founders
Startup Experience Index
Global Avg: 23%
Global Avg: 72%
Global Avg: 60%
Global Avg: 41%
Global Avg: 16%
Global Avg: 19%
Global Median: $4.1 bn
2 m
$115 bn
$13 bn
$410 k
1.7 - 2.2 k 4.3
12%
462
112
9%
12%
7.2
5.3
81%
78%
44%
5.9
Early-stage Funding Growth Index
4.6
$82 k
"If you're in the home-remodeling or home-building business,
a growing, thriving city is obviously really, really appealing.
As a community, Austin is just very supportive of new and
interesting things."
Jason Ballard
Founder at TreeHouse
Austin startups have the 2nd highest Percentage of Em-
ployees on their Growth Team that previously gained at
least wo years of startup experience, trailing only Tel Aviv
at 78%.
"Austin has one of the best seed funding ecosystems in the
United States, with resources such as the Central Texas Angel
Network, Techstars, Capital Factory, and SKU"
Dr. Deepak Sekar
Founder and CEO at Casabots
Austin startups have a comparably hard Time to Hire En-
gineers, with a median time of 60 days compared to the
global median of 41 days.
67
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Stockholm
Outsiders often associate Stockholm with cold weather, but rest
assured the city's startup scene is on fire. The capital of Sweden
debuts in the global top 20, coming in at rank 14 overall, with
sub-factors such as Global Connectedness, Funding Quality, and
Exit Values even qualifying the Nordic leader for the global top 10.
The strong Performance of Stockholm's 600-900 active tech
startups is rooted in world-class education, hitting a sweet spot
between top-tier engineering programs at KTH Royal Institute of
Technology and strong growth talent graduating from the Stock-
holm School of Economics. Both institutions encourage entrepre-
neurship through established incubation programs, in addition
to the Stockholm School of Entrepreneurship which provides
everything else founders need to know.
Regardless of whether you're already busy running a company
or not, startup enthusiasts come together and generate energy
at the STHLM Tech Meetup, the largest monthly tech event in
Europe. SUP46 and Epicenter are only two main hubs where the
rubber hits the road and ideas are turned into startup success
stories made in Sweden.
Going Global from the get go is often considered common sense
as the domestic market comprises of less than 10 million, and
Stockholm founders want to win big. It seems that thanks to this
focused ambition many of them actually do, as confirmed by wild
success stories like mobile gaming app maker King. The company
behind Candy Crush went public in 2014 and was acquired for
$5.9 billion in 2016.
Stockholm ranks second in Europe when it comes to producing
unicorns,1 outpaced only by London. The city is home to Spotify,
the most highly valued unicorn in Europe at $8.6 billion, as well
as the successful FinTech startup, Klarna, valued at $2.2 billion.
We can expect this track record to maintain Stockholm as highly
fertile ground for tech startups.
Stockholm Chamber of Commerce is the leading business orga-
nization for companies in Stockholm, focused on developing policy
and influencing decision-makers on major issues affecting busines-
ses and the capital region's global competitiveness.
1
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jun/20/britain-leads-europe-tech-
nology-unicorns
#14
Sweden
Voices and Findings
"There has been an overwhelming influx of capital the last
few years in the Nordics in general but in Stockholm specifi-
cally. Not only in money, but also in the number of deals. We
have also seen some big M&A deals and together this has in-
creased the number of early investments (pre/seed/A-round)
dramatically. This has created a big new wave of early-stage
startups and a huge opportunity for B- and C-rounds co-
ming up."
Jonas Almeling
Head of Innovation & Ecosystem at Business Sweden
Stockholm startups have the 4th highest percentage of
Foreign Customers outside their country at 46%, indicat-
ing a strong ability to Go Global. Stockholm also has the
4th highest Visa Success Rate in the world at 69%.
"Stockholm startups share the born global mentality, reali-
sing that Swedenwith its early adopter consumer/business
mentalityis a great test market, but t in order to build a
global success, one needs to grow fast internationally. Global
ties are therefore a key component of our ecosystem."
Marta Sjgren
Principal at Northzone Ventures
The ecosystem has an irregular Performance composi-
tion, with very high exits and overall valuation rankings,
but low overall Startup Output indicating top quality
on a per startup basis, but also potential regression to
outsized success from a few outliers.
68
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Stockholm
Metrics
Startup Output
Ecosystem Demographics
Ecosystem Performance
Growth Index
Funding
Metropolitan Population
Metropolitan GDP
Early-stage Funding

per Startup
Ecosystem Value
Experienced VC Firm Index
Global
Connections

Software
Engineer Salary

Resource
Attraction
Entrepreneurs
Startups

Global Avg: $267 bn
Global Avg: $252 k
Global Avg: 1,762
Global Avg: 7
Global Avg: 5
Global Avg: 300
Global
Avg: 5
Global Avg: 83
Global Avg: 49 k
Global Avg: 6.1
Foreign Customers
Market Reach
Experienced Software Engineers
Experienced Growth Employees
Talent
Visa Success Rate
Founders
Demographics
Women Founders
Immigrant Founders
Startup Experience Index
Global Avg: 23%
Global Avg: 72%
Global Avg: 60%
Global Avg: 41%
Global Avg: 16%
Global Avg: 19%
Global Median: $4.1 bn
2.2 m
$143 bn
$15 bn
$325 k
600 - 900 5.3
12%
186
15
15%
46%
8.4
11.5
64%
52%
69%
5.7
Early-stage Funding Growth Index
5.0
$55 k
"Stockholm startup people are very loyal, both founders and
talent. Seasoned entrepreneurs are still part of the communi-
ty after 15 years. They provide money, give important advice,
and start new companies themselves. This culture of giving
back helps create the second and third generation of success
stories."
Jane Walerud
Partner at Walerud Ventures
Stockholm founders tend to seek advice from experts
who have mastered some of their challenges already.
With an average of 1.8 Advisory with Equity per startup,
Stockholm outperforms Berlin, Tel Aviv and London.
"Swedish education is world-class. The interesting thing with
engineering and talent in Sweden is that from the beginning
people (and talent) are independent and extremely respon-
sible. They share the goal to develop something and thinking
on their ownoutside of the box."
Pr Hedberg
Founder and CEO at Stockholm Innovation & Growth
Stockholm startups have a very good relationship with
local corporates, they have four times less negative in-
teractions and 20% more positive interactions than the
European average.
69
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Vancouver
Vancouver is consistently named as one of the top worldwide
cities for livability and quality of life, while simultaneously climbing
the ranks as a global startup hub. With more startups per capita
than any other city in Canada, Vancouver is leveraging its unique
combination of assets: Hollywood North, a strong industrial
foundation, enterprise data and cloud underpinnings, and a re-
markably diverse talent pool, with over half of its residents having
a first tongue other than English. The city's growing reputation is
underpinned by the highest concentration of visual effects and
animation studios, two of the top six video game franchises, and
its ranking as one of the world's top 20 Global Financial Centers.
The Vancouver startup ecosystem is currently comprised of 800-
1,100 startups and shining success stories. In the early days Slack's
founder estimated the market for the software to be $100 million,
which they exceeded in just three yearsand have now become
the fastest growing business software of all time. Broadband.tv is
now the third largest video streaming site in the world after Face-
book and Google, while dating app Plenty of Fish sold to Match.
com for $575 million. Bitstew exited in 2016 for $157 million
accounting for the largest exit in Canada last year, while TIO Logic
exited for $233 million within the first few months of 2017.
A large portion of this growing success comes from ambitious
incubator and accelerator collaborations between Wavefront, BC
Innovation Council, Launch Academy, BC Tech Association and
othersorganizations that are all committed to growing the next
generation of tech successes and marshalling a 100,000+ strong
army of entrepreneurs over the next decade.
Vancouver is ranked #15 overall this year, moving up the ranks
by three. The city may have the fewest number of startups in top
20, but their valuations are highly competitive. Its Funding metrics
point to the Vancouver ecosystem holding steady, not rising or
sinking greatly. Market Reach is Vancouver's strongest factor, due
to strong Global Connectedness and the world's highest ranking
in reaching foreign customers.
The Vancouver Economic Commission is the economic develop-
ment agency for Vancouver. The VEC works to position Vancouver
as a globally recognized city for innovative, creative, and sustainab-
le business.
BC Tech Association's mission is to make British Columbia the
best place to grow a tech company. BC Tech is committed to buil-
ding a strong tech ecosystem and community, helping companies
grow and advocating to keep the sector thriving.
#15
Canada
Voices and Findings
"We are proud that Vancouver has once again been recogni-
zed as a top global startup ecosystem. We owe our success
to the diverse and entrepreneurial talent drawn to our city;
our location as a gateway to Asia and the West Coast; and
an ecosystem that encourages interconnectivity and collabo-
ration. As our city continues to attract talent and capital, we
feel incredibly optimistic for our future."
Ian McKay
CEO at Vancouver Economic Commission
55% of Vancouver startups give all of their employees
stock options, the highest in Canada and well above the
rest of Canada, which averages 30%.
"Vancouver's tech scene is teeming with startups that are
drafting off the chutzpah of companies like Global Relay,
Hootsuite, BuildDirect, Avigilon, Slack, and BroadbandTV
all of whom are building the next generation of tech succes-
ses in Canada."
Bill Tam
President and CEO at BC Tech Association
Vancouver startups have the highest rate of startups
in Canada that immediately target the large innovation
markets of the U.S. or U.K. 64% of startups in Vancouver
do this compared to the Canadian average of 48%. Van-
couver is ranked #5 in the world on this metric.
70
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Vancouver
Metrics
Startup Output
Ecosystem Demographics
Ecosystem Performance
Growth Index
Funding
Metropolitan Population
Metropolitan GDP
Early-stage Funding

per Startup
Ecosystem Value
Experienced VC Firm Index
Global
Connections

Software
Engineer Salary

Resource
Attraction
Entrepreneurs
Startups

Global Avg: $267 bn
Global Avg: $252 k
Global Avg: 1,762
Global Avg: 7
Global Avg: 5
Global Avg: 300
Global
Avg: 5
Global Avg: 83
Global Avg: 49 k
Global Avg: 6.1
Foreign Customers
Market Reach
Experienced Software Engineers
Experienced Growth Employees
Talent
Visa Success Rate
Founders
Demographics
Women Founders
Immigrant Founders
Startup Experience Index
Global Avg: 23%
Global Avg: 72%
Global Avg: 60%
Global Avg: 41%
Global Avg: 16%
Global Avg: 19%
Global Median: $4.1 bn
2.5 m
$110 bn
$9 bn
$334 k
800 - 1.1k 4.3
12%
165
14
30%
57%
7.6
7.9
70%
59%
66%
5.6
Early-stage Funding Growth Index
4.9
$55 k
Vancouver startups report the 2nd highest percentage of
Foreign Customers outside of their country at 57%.
"The closer ties and synergies Vancouver has with the West
Coast of North America as opposed to other Canadian
Provinces such as Ontario or Quebec, typically results in
Vancouver startups looking to market and partner direct-
ly across the border where it is more lucrative to scale and
grow faster after gaining traction."
Ray Walia
Co-Founder and CEO at Launch Academy and Victory Square
The Vancouver startup ecosystems skews much more
towards B2B versus B2C, although the mix is close to the
global average. It has 20% more B2B startups than the
global average and 50% fewer B2C startups, on a relative
basis.
"When we started out, everyone told me you can't build a
major tech company in Vancouver. There aren't enough
investors or engineers or top-level managers. Each day, I'm
driven to prove them wrong. We've been able to scale to ne-
arly 1,000 employees, more than 15-million users and have
established ourselves as the leading social media manage-
ment platform globally."
Ryan Holmes
CEO at Hootsuite
71
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Toronto-Waterloo
The Toronto-Waterloo Corridor stretches from Toronto, Canada's
largest city and financial center to the Waterloo Region, which
boasts the second highest density of startups in the world and
the headquarters of some of Canada's largest tech companies.
These two startup ecosystems have been considered separately
in past rankings. However, over the past year, there have been
strong signals that the region is increasingly behaving as one eco-
system. Overall, an estimated 2,100-2,700 startups thrive thanks
in part to world-class engineering talent, strong entrepreneurial
culture, an affordable rental market, and a global base of cus-
tomers.
The Toronto-Waterloo Corridor benefits from multicultural talent
drawn from sixteen academic institutions, most notably the Uni-
versity of Toronto and University of Waterloo, alongside generous
tax credits, government grants and favorable currency exchange.
As a result the Corridor has been attracting both larger series A
rounds, such as League ($25M), as well as growth rounds from
companies such as Thalmic Labs ($120M), Wealthsimple ($50M)
and Vidyard ($35M). There have also been significant exits, includ-
ing COM DEV ($345M - Honeywell), BlueCat ($400M - Madison
Dearborn) and Bitstrips ($100M Snapchat).
The proximity to Bay Street, Canada's Wall Street, has contributed
to a growing amount of FinTech firms alongside other significant
clusters and world-class research in artificial intelligence and
quantum computing. Such favorable conditions have also drawn
major U.S. companies like Google, Amazon, IBM and Airbnb,
Oracle, and Netsuite to establish offices.
The integrated Toronto-Waterloo innovation corridor ranks #16
overall. Its Performance Index components all keep them right
around the edge of the top 20 bubble. Further integration and
increased connections between startups, universities, and inno-
vation hubs will help the Toronto-Waterloo Corridor develop even
further as one globally leading startup ecosystem.
MaRS: With 1.5 million square feet of space in downtown Toronto,
MaRS is the world's largest urban innovation hub. It supports sca-
ling ventures that are tackling key challenges and helps open global
markets to drive adoption of new solutions.
Communitech, founded by entrepreneurs in 1997, now supports
an ecosystem of more than 1,000 tech companiesfrom startups
to rapidly growing mid-size companies and large global players.
#16
Canada
Voices and Findings
"An increase in high-growth companies has driven the con-
tinued expansion of the Waterloo Region startup ecosystem
over the past year, attracting record levels of capital, along
with new talent and companies to the region. Increased col-
laboration along the Toronto-Waterloo corridor means that
these companies are able to access the resources they need
to keep growing, and will provide even greater opportunities
for the next generation of startups being built."
Iain Klugman
CEO at Communitech
Toronto-Waterloo has the highest Startup Output in
Canada. One of the Corridor's biggest strengths is its
Global Connectedness with other top startup ecosys-
tems and the Percentage of Foreign Customers result-
ing in #5 overall in Market Reach.
"Toronto's tech sector has matured radically, especially in
fintech, which has skyrocketed in the region, largely because
we're home to Canada's financial center and have a strong
talent pool. I predict increased growth across all sectors as
we continue to activate the Toronto-Waterloo Corridor by
supporting the ventures that span it and leveraging its cor-
porate & capital networks."
Salim Teja
EVP at MaRS Ventures
72
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Toronto-Waterloo
Metrics
Startup Output
Ecosystem Demographics
Ecosystem Performance
Growth Index
Funding
Metropolitan Population
Metropolitan GDP
Early-stage Funding

per Startup
Ecosystem Value
Experienced VC Firm Index
Global
Connections

Software
Engineer Salary

Resource
Attraction
Entrepreneurs
Startups

Global Avg: $267 bn
Global Avg: $252 k
Global Avg: 1,762
Global Avg: 7
Global Avg: 5
Global Avg: 300
Global
Avg: 5
Global Avg: 83
Global Avg: 49 k
Global Avg: 6.1
Foreign Customers
Market Reach
Experienced Software Engineers
Experienced Growth Employees
Talent
Visa Success Rate
Founders
Demographics
Women Founders
Immigrant Founders
Startup Experience Index
Global Avg: 23%
Global Avg: 72%
Global Avg: 60%
Global Avg: 41%
Global Avg: 16%
Global Avg: 19%
Global Median: $4.1 bn
6.1 m
$323 bn
$7.2 bn
$443 k
2.1 - 2.7 k 4.7
19%
350
17
23%
42%
8.1
10
68%
54%
30%
4.9
Early-stage Funding Growth Index
4.5
$56 k
The Corridor produces some of the highest quality talent
in the world, with University of Waterloo's graduates
being especially prized by the largest Silicon Valley tech
companies. However, the combination of early-stage
startups reporting a low level of access to experienced
technical and growth talent with a low level of interna-
tional talent attraction and scaling experience pushed
the Corridor to the 20th rank on Talent.
"The Toronto-Waterloo innovation corridor is driving Onta-
rio's position as a thriving startup hotbed. Startup Genome's
report reinforces how important it is for our province to
continue to foster a culture of innovation by investing in an
educated, talented workforce."
Hon. Reza Moridi
Ontario's Minister of Research, Innovation and Science
The Percentage of Startups with at least one Female
Founder lies at 18% in the Corridor, only slightly above
the global average of 16%. This indicates an important
opportunity for growth.
"Just imagine the economic growth and richness that gender
equity would bring to our business ecosystems. Women have
enormous potential to lead the growth of new technologies
across Canada and around the world. We need to encoura-
ge and inspire more diversity in leadership positions."
Annette Verschuren
Chair and CEO at NRstor Inc.
73
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Sydney
Sydney boasts of an estimated 1,300-2,100 active tech startups, which
recently benefited from determined government incentives, gangbuster
exits, and as a consequence, a new wave of growth. Meanwhile, the
not-for-profit group TechSydney has been established to turn Sydney
into a world-class hub through improved local and global connected-
ness. Collaboration between startups and tech giants like Airbnb and
Amazon will be fostered, while a fireside chat with investor legend Brad
Feld has inspired tech startups.
Things in Australia's largest metropolis are heating up. Between $75
million in federal tax incentives established to boost angel funding,
government allocated multi-million dollar funding for incubators and
accelerators, and new VC arrangements to boost growth, the capital
city is on the path of establishing a globally competitive framework.
The proof is in the exitslike record-breaking Atlassian, the collabora-
tion software maker that was not only the most successful IPO last year,
but also set a record $4.4 billion valuation for an Australian technology
firm. FinTech startup, Afterpay, the "buy now, pay later" online payment
method, went IPO and is potentially now worth more than $100 million.
And in a case of one online delivery market acquiring another, Just Eat
purchased Menulog for staggering $687 million.
Sydney's funding rounds are impressive as well. In the last year the
online graphic design platform, Canva, experienced rapid growth with
a valuation of $345 million, more than double the company's $165
million valuation a year ago, while the cloud-based platform Tyro plans
to use its $100 million in new funds to accelerate its growth initiatives
and new product development.
Sydney held steady in this year's Index, falling one spot in the overall
rankings, from 16th to 17th. Sydney has a top 10 Exit Factor ranking,
but performs below its overall ranking in Startup Output and valuation,
indicating it may be benefiting from a few outliers. Sydney is one of the
most globally connected startup ecosystems, but its Market Reach is
held down by its relative lack of foreign customers.
TechSydney is an entrepreneur-led, member-funded industry
group that connects, supports and promotes the tech industry in
Sydney.
StartupAUS is Australia's national startup advocacy organization,
with a mission to transform Australia through technology entrepre-
neurship.
The University of Technology Sydney has a distinct model of le-
arning, strong research performance, and a leading reputation for
engagement with industry and the professions.
The Committee for Sydney is an independent think tank and
champion for Sydney working for the enhancement of its economic,
social, cultural and environmental conditions.
#17
Australia
Voices and Findings
"Sydney's tech ecosystem is comfortably among the best, but
in terms of being the most desirable place to start and grow
a tech company, we are world-leaders."
Dean McEvoy
Co-Founder and CEO at TechSydney
The Sydney ecosystem ranks in the global top 5 in Global
Connectedness, indicating a deep understanding of
global business models and international markets.
"With the Asia-Pacific on our doorstep, access to world-class
local talent, government support and the lifestyle options
it affords us, Sydney has been a great place to co-found a
high-impact startup from scratch."
Adam Schuck
Co-Founder at Lexy
44% of Sydney-based startups report that they are offer-
ing a product that is the first of its kind. In relation to the
global average of 34%, this outlines the bold ambition to
create a business of global significance.
74
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Sydney
Metrics
Startup Output
Ecosystem Demographics
Ecosystem Performance
Growth Index
Funding
Metropolitan Population
Metropolitan GDP
Early-stage Funding

per Startup
Ecosystem Value
Experienced VC Firm Index
Global
Connections

Software
Engineer Salary

Resource
Attraction
Entrepreneurs
Startups

Global Avg: $267 bn
Global Avg: $252 k
Global Avg: 1,762
Global Avg: 7
Global Avg: 5
Global Avg: 300
Global
Avg: 5
Global Avg: 83
Global Avg: 49 k
Global Avg: 6.1
Foreign Customers
Market Reach
Experienced Software Engineers
Experienced Growth Employees
Talent
Visa Success Rate
Founders
Demographics
Women Founders
Immigrant Founders
Startup Experience Index
Global Avg: 23%
Global Avg: 72%
Global Avg: 60%
Global Avg: 41%
Global Avg: 16%
Global Avg: 19%
Global Median: $4.1 bn
5 m
$320 bn
$6.6 bn
$254 k
1.3 - 2.1 k 6.3
22%
314
67
31%
20%
7.7
10.4
79%
53%
60%
5.4
Early-stage Funding Growth Index
6.7
$64 k
"In helping to grow Sydney's startup ecosystem, we remain
passionately committed to creating a physical tech hub whe-
re people can live, work and playan epicentre where everyo-
ne and everything is connected."
Mike Cannon-Brookes
Co-Founder and Co-CEO at Atlassian
Sydney has one of the highest rates of Early-Stage
Funding Growth, particularly impressive for its already
large size.
"Australia's ecosystem has developed rapidly in the last
few years. A funding boom, a fast-growing pool of talented
entrepreneurs, and strong government support have helped
make this one of the best places in the world to build a tech
startup."
Alex McCauley
CEO at StartupAUS
Sydney ranks outside the top 20 and only slightly above
the global average in terms of its Early-Stage Funding per
startup, indicating an opportunity for growth.
75
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Chicago
As the metropolis of the Midwest and the third largest city in the
United States, Chicago's neighborhoods are home to cultural
delights, but also a strong tech ecosystem. The city continues to
wrestle with top hubs to retain talent after they graduate from
local top universities, yet those who stick around become part of
a solid tech community.
Chicago boasts 2,300-2,900 startups, and is especially well known
for its Unicorn club. Chicago doesn't just have Unicorns, it has
some of the fastest growing Unicorns in the country. The windy city
landed three of the top seven startups for the fastest time (three
years or less) to see a $2 billion valuation.1 In a recent analysis by
PitchBook,2 Chicago companies offer the highest venture capital
returns of any startup hub in the United States. Avant, Uptake,
Mu Sigma, and SMS Assist are some of the top contenders, ren-
dering Chicago's booming tech scene as exciting as its world-class
museums and music venues.
Chicago's aptitude for cranking out Unicorns is partially due to the
top-ranked accelerator New Venture Challenge, which is where
companies like Braintree and GrubHub (with a market cap of $3
1
http://pitchbook.com/news/articles/the-11-fastest-us-startups-to-a-2b-valuation
2
http://chicagoinno.streetwise.co/2016/06/09/chicago-has-higher-vc-returns-
though-fewer-deals/
billion as of March 2017) got their start. Impressive exits during the
last two years include Cleversafe ($1.3 billion) and Coyote Logistics
($1.8 billion), although the city is striving to create mega compa-
nies that go public and reach 10 times that size and beyond. One
approach is to draw top level venture partners to join Chicago
startup boards to leverage their networking and talent scouting
skills in order to catapult global scaling.
However, when looking at leading success factors, Chicago shows
some real challenges. It ranked at the bottom of the top 20 in
Global Connectedness and second to last in Global Reach. The
ecosystem lacks Global Connections to help its founders "Go
Global" and therefore they find it difficult to reach global cus-
tomers, at least at an early-stage. Team Experience also ranks
#20, with the lack of Founder with Hypergrowth Experience and
low number of Advisors with Equity being particularly low. These
factors, in combination with Chicago's Performance rank falling
from #8 in 2015 to #13 this year, contributed to Chicago placing
#18 overall.
1871 is located in a single 130,000 square-foot space including
technical schools, universities, mentors, investors, technology
suppliers, consulting firms, and corporate partners and 500+
technology startups.
#18
USA
Voices and Findings
"Chicago has a vibrant tech ecosystem that continues to
attract loyal and diverse talent. We are extremely proud of
Chicago's status as a leader in fostering a welcoming and
supportive atmosphere for women in entrepreneurship, and
with 1871 as the backbone for innovation in the city, we are
excited to be recognized for this."
Howard Tullman
CEO at 1871
Chicago has the highest percentage of Female Found-
ers in the world, with 34% of founders in the ecosystem
being women, compared to an average 18% in U.S. eco-
systems and 16% in Silicon Valley, respectively.
"Vibrant, well-connected communities are essential to new
entrepreneurs. The growing number of female founders in
Chicago has created a strong network of role models, inspi-
ring and supporting the next generation of female entrepre-
neurs."
Starr Marcello
Director at the Polsky Center at UChicago
With a median of 30 days, Chicago indicates a relatively
fast Time to Hire Engineers. A key benefit to the eco-
system and its tech startups, compared to the global
median of 41 days.
76
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Chicago
Metrics
Startup Output
Ecosystem Demographics
Ecosystem Performance
Growth Index
Funding
Metropolitan Population
Metropolitan GDP
Early-stage Funding

per Startup
Ecosystem Value
Experienced VC Firm Index
Global
Connections

Software
Engineer Salary

Resource
Attraction
Entrepreneurs
Startups

Global Avg: $267 bn
Global Avg: $252 k
Global Avg: 1,762
Global Avg: 7
Global Avg: 5
Global Avg: 300
Global
Avg: 5
Global Avg: 83
Global Avg: 49 k
Global Avg: 6.1
Foreign Customers
Market Reach
Experienced Software Engineers
Experienced Growth Employees
Talent
Visa Success Rate
Founders
Demographics
Women Founders
Immigrant Founders
Startup Experience Index
Global Avg: 23%
Global Avg: 72%
Global Avg: 60%
Global Avg: 41%
Global Avg: 16%
Global Avg: 19%
Global Median: $4.1 bn
9.6 m
$612 bn
$13 bn
$271 k
2.3 - 2.9 k 3.9
34%
443
76
14%
8%
8.1
1.3
79%
46%
23%
5.7
Early-stage Funding Growth Index
4.5
$76 k
"I believe the largest driver of startup growth in Chicago is
the individual efforts of entrepreneurs and homegrown sup-
port systems that provide education, networking, and growth
opportunities to founders and the startup community."
Nicole Vasquez
Founder and President at The Shift Chicago
Chicago's entrepreneurs have the weakest Global Con-
nectedness Factor of all top 20 ecosystems. Also, despite
its track record, it attracts very few foreign startups, with
2.9% compared to 5.7% for Austin. As a result only 8% of
Startup Customers come from outside of the country in-
dicating a strong challenge in reaching the global market.
The average value for U.S. ecosystem lies at 15%.
"At WorldChicago we host many entrepreneurs and entrepre-
neurship support organizations from around the world each
year. While Chicago is not thought of as a startup hub, once
our international delegates arrive, they are incredibly ins-
pired and amazed by the energy and support for entrepre-
neurship here. We have seen long-term partnerships develop
and expect to see that trend continue at a fast pace."
Peggy Parfenoff
President at WorldChicago
77
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Amsterdam-
StartupDelta
With a population of nearly 17 million, the Netherlands are known
as a beautiful country with an excellent education system that
scores among the highest worldwide in math and science. The
startup ecosystem of Amsterdam-StartupDelta, encompassing
surrounding communities according to our 60-square-mile radius,
is built on the high numerical aptitude and currently boasts of
around 2,300-3,500 tech startups.
Nearly 90 percent of the Dutch population speaks English, making
it an attractive location for tech talent, international founders, and
investors alike. Its capital city Amsterdam has prompted major
global companies such as Uber, Netflix, and Tesla to establish
European headquarters there, with more expected to follow.
To further entice foreign entrepreneurs, Dutch parliament con-
tinues to boost the startup ecosystem through a growing number
of initiatives and policies, including favorable tax code and the
introduction of the startup visa.1 This is confirmed by Amster-
dam-StartupDelta making it into the top 10 in terms of its net
Global Resource Attraction of 10%.
1
https://www.government.nl/topics/enterprise-and-innovation/contents/support-
for-small-and-medium-sized-enterprises-smes
Dutch startups have a knack for exceeding their own expectations.
Takeaway.com, a leader in the on demand food delivery business,
went public in September 2016, and is now valued north of $1.1
billion. It raised nearly twice what it predicted it would raise when it
announced its intention to go public. The local posterchild Adyen,
an online and mobile payment company, helps web companies
such as Facebook, Uber and Airbnb. It increased its transaction
volume to more than $90 billion, and expanded to over 2,700 live
stores in U.S. and Europe.
Amsterdam-StartupDelta holds on to its 19th rank in this year's
overall Index, an impressive feat considering three new entrants
in the global top 20. The Dutch ecosystem indicates outstanding
Performance metrics given its small size, for example a top ten
ranking in Exit Value. However, local startups could generally use
improved access to Talent and Funding. The ecosystem can be
bullish about its future, considering that its key issues are possible
to solve.
StartupDelta aims to merge all layers of the Dutch startup eco-
system into one single connected hub to improve access to talent,
capital, networks, knowledge, and markets for startups.
#19
The Netherlands
Voices and Findings
"The Netherlands is one big connected tech ecosystem buz-
zing with creativity; where design and innovation are com-
bined with excellent infrastructure and engineering skills. The
Netherlands is an ideal testbed and launchpad into Europe.
Here entrepreneurs, government, and business are focused
to drive the most innovative economy of Europe."
His Royal Highness Prince Constantijn van Oranje
Special Envoy StartupDelta
The Amsterdam-StartupDelta ecosystem is the 5th most
valuable ecosystem in Europe. At the global level, it ranks
7th in the world in both Startup Output and Exit Value,
indicating impressive performance.
"We conducted a survey amongst our alumni from our
Amsterdam-based accelerator program, and the number
1 reason why they found Amsterdam appealing is that it is
a very small city with a lot of stakeholders located close by
and easy to reach. The quality of living and the international
community was therefore by far the most important factor"
Marc Wesselink
Managing Partner at Startupbootcamp
59% of startups confirmed positive Involvement with
Corporates, higher than founders in London, Tel Aviv and
Berlin reported on.
78
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Amsterdam- StartupDelta
Metrics
Startup Output
Ecosystem Demographics
Ecosystem Performance
Growth Index
Funding
Metropolitan Population
Metropolitan GDP
Early-stage Funding

per Startup
Ecosystem Value
Experienced VC Firm Index
Global
Connections

Software
Engineer Salary

Resource
Attraction
Entrepreneurs
Startups

Global Avg: $267 bn
Global Avg: $252 k
Global Avg: 1,762
Global Avg: 7
Global Avg: 5
Global Avg: 300
Global
Avg: 5
Global Avg: 83
Global Avg: 49 k
Global Avg: 6.1
Foreign Customers
Market Reach
Experienced Software Engineers
Experienced Growth Employees
Talent
Visa Success Rate
Founders
Demographics
Women Founders
Immigrant Founders
Startup Experience Index
Global Avg: 23%
Global Avg: 72%
Global Avg: 60%
Global Avg: 41%
Global Avg: 16%
Global Avg: 19%
Global Median: $4.1 bn
7 m
$321 bn
$14 bn
$144 k
2.3 - 3.5 k 4.8
14%
580
58
13%
28%
8.1
8.6
62%
53%
47%
5.5
Early-stage Funding Growth Index
4.8
$45 k
"Working in a fast growing tech company is extremely de-
manding for all involved. It's not surprising employees and
especially founders take personal preferences into considera-
tion, besides just looking at numbers."
Chris Hall
Founder and CEO at Bynder
The main reason startup founders report moving to Am-
sterdam is for personal reasons rather than any partic-
ular business reason. Amsterdam is considered a Euro-
pean hotspot in the global startup scene, as displayed in
the high net Global Resource Attraction rate of 10%.
"Since we're closing the ranks of this Global Top 20, Amster-
dam has to step up and say: 'We can, We will' to climb the
Top 5 in 2020 -now let's get even more entrepreneurs more
engineers, more creatives -and more risk money to our gre-
at little startup city, repeating the mantra: 'We can. We will.'
-and then we shall."
Oscar Kneppers
Founder at Rockstart
42% of startups reported that they are offering a product
that is the first of its kind globally. In relation to the world
average of 34%, this underlines the ambition of Amster-
dam founders to start and scale a startup with global
footprint.
79
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Bangalore
India's technology epicenter Bangalore confirms its position as
the country's leading startup hub, yet it drops in the global Index
from rank 15 to 20. The statistics are still impressive for the most
part, with regards to the latest estimation of 1,800-2,300 active
tech startups.
The city is a magnet for Indian talent, with millions migrating to
the city for work, many of them highly-skilled tech workers. In fact,
Bangalore has, on average, the youngest tech workers among all
startup ecosystems. This influx of youthful talent has helped drive
the startup surge.
Bangalore is abound with success stories. Flipkart, the startup
posterchild offering an online shopping experience similar to
Amazon, was valued at $5.37 billion as of March 2017. In the
largest investment in an Indian healthcare AI startup, SigTuple,
which uses computer vision and artificial intelligence for malaria
diagnosis, announced series A funding of $5.8 million, along with
hopes to go global with the technology. And online supermarket
Big Basket raised $150 millionan impressive feat considering
that more and more high-profile investors are exercising caution.1
1
https://www.bloombergquint.com/business/2016/08/23/investments-into-star-
tups-fall-as-venture-capital-investors-take-a-caution-first-approach
Because of these global startups, Bangalore is again attracting the
attention of foreign multinationals. Today, however, they come in
hopes of tapping the pipeline of startups and their innovations.
Amazon and Uber have established offices in Bangalore. Microsoft
Accelerator, Qualcomm, and Cisco are all involved in setting up
startup accelerators. Large Indian companies have also connected
with the Bangalore startup scene, including Yes Bank, Tata Group,
and Mahindra. Closer ties between startups and big companies
has brought a further influx of talent and investment, helping to
spur further growth in Bangalore's ecosystem.
Bangalore is the last one in the top 20 overall. It is ranked ##11
in Performance, where it is ranked #7 overall based on valua-
tions, but has a very low Exit sub-factor. This indicates either that
Bangalore has a very bright future as these startups mature, or
there is trouble at the top of the market with acquisitions. Banga-
lore's early-stage Funding growth is on par with its current overall
ranking. In the Market Reach Index, Bangalore has created strong
ties with other startup ecosystems, but the startups have strug-
gled to nab many foreign customers. In the Talent Index, Banga-
lore has challenges with Access and Qualityengineers haven't
been hired very quickly, experience is average and visa success is
lowbut the bang for the buck is still hard to beat, as Bangalore's
engineers are the most cost-efficient among the global top 20.
#20
Voices and Findings
"The accelerated evolution of Bangalore's startup ecosystem
in the last decade is predominantly due to its strong tech-
nology population. This, combined with the phenomenon of
seasoned entrepreneurs exiting and entering the ecosystem
as investors and mentors to the startups, sets the stage to
building world-class deep technology startups from this city.
It is a historic juncture for Indian tech startups as they are
poised to take on larger problems and enter the global sta-
ge."
Ravi Narayan
Global Director at Microsoft Accelerator
Almost 45% of Bangalore's startup founders have gained
at least 2 years of prior work experience in a startup,
placing the ecosystem in the upper third globally, close
to Silicon Valley at 49% and Tel Aviv at 55%. 94% of Ban-
galore founders have a technical background, the highest
rate in the world.
"With deep tech becoming a strong area of focus and the
startup ecosystem in the country maturing, world class glo-
bally competitive startups from Bengaluru will disrupt mar-
kets and the way we live."
Anuradha Subramanian
Partnerships and Alliances at Nasscom 10,000 Startups
India
80
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Bangalore
Metrics
Startup Output
Ecosystem Demographics
Ecosystem Performance
Growth Index
Funding
Metropolitan Population
Metropolitan GDP
Early-stage Funding

per Startup
Ecosystem Value
Experienced VC Firm Index
Global
Connections

Software
Engineer Salary

Resource
Attraction
Entrepreneurs
Startups

Global Avg: $267 bn
Global Avg: $252 k
Global Avg: 1,762
Global Avg: 7
Global Avg: 5
Global Avg: 300
Global
Avg: 5
Global Avg: 83
Global Avg: 49 k
Global Avg: 6.1
Foreign Customers
Market Reach
Experienced Software Engineers
Experienced Growth Employees
Talent
Visa Success Rate
Founders
Demographics
Women Founders
Immigrant Founders
Startup Experience Index
Global Avg: 23%
Global Avg: 72%
Global Avg: 60%
Global Avg: 41%
Global Avg: 16%
Global Avg: 19%
Global Median: $4.1 bn
8.7 m
$45 bn
$19 bn
$229 k
1.8 - 2.3 k 4.7
10%
359
22
16%
24%
7.3
8.3
68%
60%
21%
4.9
Early-stage Funding Growth Index
4.7
$8.6 k
"Though we're a U.S.-based startup our development team
sits in Bangalore as it's relatively less expensive. It is definitely
the capital of India in terms of concentration of tech talent
and startups. This also means there's lot of churn among
employees who move around a lot to seek better opportuni-
ties. The quality and professionalism of resources is also
questionable in many cases."
Abhimanyu Godara
Founder and CEO at Bottr.me
Bangalore has the cheapest annual salary of for an engi-
neer in the top 20, about $8,600 a year. This is nearly 13
times cheaper than in Silicon Valley and 4 times cheaper
than the average value for Asia-Pacific. The primary
reason startups move to Bangalore is because it is easier
to find good technical employees, however, there are
difficulties around Access and Quality.
"Exits are tough in the Indian ecosystem only when they
are incorrectly evaluated. A lot of times I have seen Indian
companies making projections similar to their Silicon Valley
peers without actually having the penchant to create global
brands like the Silicon Valley companies do."
Kanwaljit Singh
Founder and CEO at Gaussian Networks
81
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Regional Clusters
Americas
Atlanta
Houston
Mexico City
Montreal
Ottawa
Quebec City
Santiago
Sao Paulo
St. Louis
82
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Atlanta
With an abundance of resources including skilled talent, top-
ranked institutions, and an engaged corporate community, Atlanta
is distinguishing itself as a top destination for starting and scaling
tech companies. Over 163,000 people are employed in high-tech
occupations, and the area's higher education institutions gradu-
ate over 4,000 engineers annually, creating a rich talent pool for
growing companies.
Atlanta's 1,000-1,400 currently active tech startups benefit from
the low cost of doing business and access to customers afforded
by the presence of 25 FORTUNE 1000 company headquarters. The
Bridge, Engage, and the Techstars/Cox Enterprises partnership are
evidence that the corporate community is serious about support-
ing entrepreneurs. Atlanta's tech scene has grown tremendously
in the past few years as tech hubs, co-working spaces, accelerators
and incubators have bubbled up.
Atlanta's top tech sector is FinTech, with Kabbage leading the pack
with a post-money valuation of $1 billion. Digital media is another
Atlanta industry to watch, especially as MailChimp, the premier
email marketing platform, saw a 42% jump in revenue growth
from 2015 to 2016.
The last three years have been good for Atlanta, with newsworthy
exits from the likes of SecureWorks, a cybersecurity software with
an IPO valuation of $1.87 billion, and CloudSherpas, an enter-
prise cloud services provider that was acquired for $400 million.
AirWatch, which provides enterprise mobility management, was
bought by VMware for $1.55 billion a year after it commanded one
of the largest Series A funding rounds in history at $200 million.
Atlanta's brightest minds look forward to events such as Venture
Atlantathe 15-year-old investor showcase that has helped en-
trepreneurs raise over $1.6 billion, leading to $13 billion in exits
to date. Other high-visibility events include Atlanta Startup Week,
a five-day celebration around entrepreneurship, and the lively
Atlanta Startup Battle, which pits startups against each other for
$100,000 in funding.
The Metro Atlanta Chamber (MAC) serves as a catalyst for a
prosperous Atlanta region by focusing on starting, growing and rec-
ruiting companies to metro Atlanta while strengthening connections
that drive Atlanta's innovation and entrepreneurial culture.
USA
Voices and Findings
"The momentum Atlanta has towards becoming a global-
ly competitive destination for entrepreneurs is undeniable.
Successes like Internet Security Systems and AirWatch have
contributed to a fertile environment for companies like
MailChimp, Kabbage and Pindrop Security. With unprece-
dented support from the corporate community, a rich talent
pool, and unique cost structure, it's absolutely the right time
to be building a company in Atlanta."
Jennifer Sherer, Ph.D.
Vice President, Innovation & Entrepreneurship at Metro Atlanta
Chamber
Atlanta indicates comparably strong performance with
regards to Startup Output, Funding, and Startup
Experience, qualifying the ecosystem as a runner-up
to the top 20.
"Atlanta's tech startup ecosystem continues to grow fast.
Every month multiple startups raise another institutional
round of capital. Every year for the last four years a new
physical building dedicated to startups has opened up. Look
for the next wave of strong exits due to so many high quality
startups."
David Cummings
CEO at Atlanta Tech Village
83
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Atlanta
Metrics
Startup Output
Ecosystem Demographics
Ecosystem Performance
Growth Index
Funding
Metropolitan Population
Metropolitan GDP
Early-stage Funding

per Startup
Ecosystem Value
Experienced VC Firm Index
Global
Connections

Software
Engineer Salary

Resource
Attraction
Entrepreneurs
Startups

Global Avg: $267 bn
Global Avg: $252 k
Global Avg: 1,762
Global Avg: 7
Global Avg: 5
Global Avg: 300
Global
Avg: 5
Global Avg: 83
Global Avg: 49 k
Global Avg: 6.1
Foreign Customers
Market Reach
Experienced Software Engineers
Experienced Growth Employees
Talent
Visa Success Rate
Founders
Demographics
Women Founders
Immigrant Founders
Startup Experience Index
Global Avg: 23%
Global Avg: 72%
Global Avg: 60%
Global Avg: 41%
Global Avg: 16%
Global Avg: 19%
Global Median: $4.1 bn
5.6 m
$325 bn
$8.5 bn
$367 k
1 - 1.4 k
4.4
17%
164
0
16%
11%
7.9
1.1
74%
65%
29%
5.8
Early-stage Funding Growth Index
4.4
$73 k
45% of startups reported that they are offering a product
that is the first of its kind globally. In relation to the world
average of 34%, this underlines the approach of Atlanta
startups to go global.
"Atlanta has been a tremendous place for BIP Capital to
invest over the last decade, particularly in B2B startups. The
combination of sophisticated technical talent, access to large
enterprises, the ample pool of operating talent, and the low
cost of living is a recipe for repeatable success."
Mark Buffington
Managing Director at BIP Capital
57% of Atlanta-based startups report to have had at least
one positive experience with corporates, the second
highest rate in the United States only after Denver/
Boulder.
"Only in Atlanta could I have built two separate companies
with billion dollar valuations thanks to the ecosystem rich in
talent, high in value, and with all the ingredients for success.
Manhattan Associates (NASDAQ: MANH) from 30 to 800 em-
ployees and public in three years and AirWatch from 100 to
2,000 employees in three years. This ability to grow is why
Atlanta is where I choose to invest my time and capital."
Alan Dabbiere
Founder of Manhattan Associates and AirWatch
(now part of VMware)
84
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Houston
Houston's reputation for innovation in aviation re-upped itself
with the announcement of a soon-to-be-opened SpacePort. Citing
long-term hopes as the pioneers of a new standard of travel (with
sights on offering a commercial flight from Houston to Tokyo
in three hours), this project offers Houston an opportunity to
strengthen its reputation as a leader and to create high-tech,
next-generation type jobs.
The last few years have witnessed focused efforts from the startup
community, corporations, governmental agendas like the Mayor's
Task Force on Innovation, universities, and philanthropistsall
pushing to enable Houston's entrepreneurs to thrive amidst the
challenges of commercialization. These efforts have paid off,
considering that the Houston ecosystem comprises of around
900-1,400 tech startups already today.
Houston's ecosystem players understand the value of cooperation
and consensus at a local level. In an ambitious new effort, the
Greater Houston Partnership's Innovation roundtable has brought
together 26 individuals from 20 different organizations including
startups, corporations, government, academia and investors.
The members aim to assess the needs of Houston's innovation
economy and to create more collisions.
Within its first year, a new incubator, Station Houston, boosted
the city's young technology companies with an incredible 170 new
members. University of Houston and Rice University, Houston's
top ranked schools for entrepreneurship, both run established
accelerators that require no equity and even provide a living
stipend to its participants. Houston also nurtures its women in
tech, hosting The Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Com-
puting, the world's largest gathering of women technologists.
Overall Houston is an emerging startup ecosystem with decent
output numbers that haven't translated into globally competitive
valuations or exits just yet. As startup experience matures perfor-
mance matures as well, and with Houston making it almost into
the top in experience, for all signs point to Houston as a strong
contender for even more high growth ventures to come.
The Greater Houston Partnership promotes economic develop-
ment, foreign trade, and investment. It develops the local innovati-
on economy by convening with key stakeholders to solve the regi-
on's most pressing issues.
USA
Voices and Findings
"Houston is a city that has been known for innovation across
its principle industry sectors. We are excited about the col-
laborative efforts underway to further develop the region's
innovation economy and to set the strategy to accelerate the
growth of Houston's high-impact startup ecosystem. Moving
forward, the Houston region will continue to further diversify
its economy and raise its profile as an attractive destination
for entrepreneurs, startups and associated risk capital."
Bob Harvey
President and CEO at Greater Houston Partnership
The Houston startup ecosystem consists of around 900-
1,400 tech startups, making it one of the biggest 30 eco-
systems in the world.
"Leadership is core and critical, period. The Houston startup
community will evolve to be world-class by choice...not by
chance. We see the opportunity centered on activation, as
well as development. We believe that unlocking what can be
our most unfair advantage hinges on activating and lever-
aging our corporate community. Quite simply, the scale of
Houston-based corporates is massive...perhaps the most
robust in the world."
John Reale
Managing Director at Station Houston
85
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Houston
Metrics
Startup Output
Ecosystem Demographics
Ecosystem Performance
Growth Index
Funding
Metropolitan Population
Metropolitan GDP
Early-stage Funding

per Startup
Ecosystem Value
Experienced VC Firm Index
Global Avg: $267 bn
Global Avg: $252 k
Global Avg: 1,762
Global Avg: 7
Global Avg: 5
Global
Connections

Software
Engineer Salary

Resource
Attraction
Entrepreneurs
Startups

Global Avg: 300
Global
Avg: 5
Global Avg: 83
Global Avg: 49 k
Global Avg: 6.1
Foreign Customers
Market Reach
Experienced Software Engineers
Experienced Growth Employees
Talent
Visa Success Rate
Founders
Demographics
Women Founders
Immigrant Founders
Startup Experience Index
Global Avg: 23%
Global Avg: 72%
Global Avg: 60%
Global Avg: 41%
Global Avg: 16%
Global Avg: 19%
Global Median: $4.1 bn
6.5 m
$525 bn
$635 m
$110 k
900 - 1.4k 4.7
21%
151
18
26%
13%
7.5
2.9
72%
60%
49%
5.1
Early-stage Funding Growth Index
5.5
$76 k
Houston made it into the runners-up for strong Startup
Experience, almost entering the top 20 in this realm.
Around 40% of founders gained prior experience at a hy-
pergrowth startup for at least two years before venturing
out on their own.
"The startups and investors in Houston know that a lack of
seed capital in our ecosystem is a problem. The good news
is that several community organizations have been working
together for months to come up with a variety of ways to
address this issue. So over the next year or two, I think we'll
see a lot more seed-stage investment activity."
Jeff Reichman
Principal at January Advisor
Houston startups work with an average of 1.5 Advisors
with Equity, one of the higher values in the world and an
indicator that founders value advice from experienced
people.
"Houston has some great strengths as an innovation eco-
nomy. There is tremendous focus on leveraging those
strengths while proactively and deliberately addressing the
gaps. This is important for Houston and the momentum is
encouraging."
Gina Luna
CEO at Luna Strategies, LLC
86
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Mexico City
Mexico City's legacy industries like tourism and financial services
are now making room for a roster of dynamic new tech companies
that have already gone to market. During the last couple of years
the city has developed an ambitious startup ecosystem comprised
of around 350-650 active tech startups. A web of strong startup
communities such as Techstars Startup Weekend, Hackers and
Founders, and Startup Grind have helped the local ecosystem
grow organically.
With public authorities promoting entrepreneurship as well,
Mexico City now offers the right cocktail of regulatory support,
such as new initiative enabling founders to open a business in
just one day. The National Institute of Entrepreneurship alone
distributed more than $650 million to entrepreneurs across the
countryleading to an estimated 6,000 new companies and
73,000 new jobs.1
The metropolis has another key assetits proximity to the U.S.
provides it with ample market potential and prominent sources of
capital that other countries simply don't have. In just a few years

1
http://www.ibtimes.com/mexico-city-next-silicon-valley-how-mexicans-became-ob-
sessed-unicorns-2317659
we've seen the entrance of international headquarters for giants
such as Amazon, Google, Twitter, Facebook and other tech com-
panies, as well as the entrance of WeWork in Latin America with
an aggressive growth plan in Mexico City. NUMA, Village Capital,
MassChallenge and Startupbootcamp are only a few international
accelerator programs that recently set up shop as well.
In 2015, the ecosystem recently reveled in the exit of Aventones,
a ride sharing platform led by Christina Palacios that was bought
by French Blablacar. There is also strong movement in the local
FinTech scene as payment app Conekta raised $6.6 million in
2016, while Alta Ventures and American Express invested $8
million in CLIP in 2015. Putting all of these pieces together, more
success stories are expected to come out of Mexico City in the
near future.
INADEM works for national policy that supports entrepreneurs to
boost their innovation, competitiveness, and projection, thereby
increasing their contribution to economic development and social
welfare.
Mexico
Voices and Findings
"Mexico Capital City has become a place that gathers human
talent, ideas, creators, investors, scientists and the challenges
that offer the opportunity to inspire any entrepreneur and
yetit is just the gateway of the whole Mexican entrepreneu-
rial ecosystem."
Itzel Villa
General Manager of Entrepreneurs and
Financing Programs at INADEM
In the global comparison, Mexico City's bright spots are
its Global Connectedness and its cost-efficient and easy
Access to Software Engineering Talent.
"When we launch a new FinTech program, we look for a
mix of things: strong financial industry presence, an active
entrepreneurial ecosystem, angel investors who understand
the importance of investing in early-stage tech and an
educated regulator. Mexico City uniquely combines all these
factors. We have a broad range of both local, regional and
international industry players, a highly active and fast gro-
wing startup community, a nascent FinTech ecosystem with
angel investors and VCs. And late last year the government
announced the launch of a FinTech policy."
Nektarios Liolios
Co-Founder and CEO at Startupbootcamp FinTech & InsurTech
87
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Mexico City
Metrics
Startup Output
Ecosystem Demographics
Ecosystem Performance
Growth Index
Funding
Metropolitan Population
Metropolitan GDP
Early-stage Funding

per Startup
Ecosystem Value
Experienced VC Firm Index
Global Avg: $267 bn
Global Avg: $252 k
Global Avg: 1,762
Global Avg: 7
Global Avg: 5
Global
Connections

Software
Engineer Salary

Resource
Attraction
Entrepreneurs
Startups

Global Avg: 300
Global
Avg: 5
Global Avg: 83
Global Avg: 49 k
Global Avg: 6.1
Foreign Customers
Market Reach
Experienced Software Engineers
Experienced Growth Employees
Talent
Visa Success Rate
Founders
Demographics
Women Founders
Immigrant Founders
Startup Experience Index
Global Avg: 23%
Global Avg: 72%
Global Avg: 60%
Global Avg: 41%
Global Avg: 16%
Global Avg: 19%
Global Median: $4.1 bn
21 m
$404 bn
$118 k
350 - 650 5.2
16%
38
9
22%
13%
4.9
10.2
68%
62%
62%
4.5
Early-stage Funding Growth Index
4.5
$25.5 k
$184 m
Mexico City startups work with an average of 1.7 Advisors
with Equity, one of the 10 highest values in the world and
an indicator that founders value advice from experienced
people.
"Mexico's investment ecosystem has grown tremendously
in the past decade. In 2008 there were only 3 active funds
investing in startups, by 2012 the number had grown to 14
funds and today we have over 60 Seed and Venture Capital
funds that are active. This is mainly because of the govern-
ment's efforts in creating funds of funds to increase the num-
ber of investors in the country."
Marcus Dantus
CEO at Startup Mexico
Only 11% of Mexico City startups immediately target the
U.S. or U.K. market, which is surprising given the proximity
to the United States.
"Mexican startups don't have to necessarily target the U.S. or
U.K. market. There's a huge opportunity of serving the Spa-
nish speaking Latin American market of 18 countries and
380M inhabitants."
Aldo Aguirre
Startup Programs Director for Latam, U.S. & Canada at Techstars
88
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Montreal
Montral reconfirms its strength as an ecosystem in this year's
ranking but sits outside of the top 20. The city doesn't have the size
and hype of some of its peers, and many founders have found this
to be an advantageutilizing the slower place to develop deep
customer understanding, taking the time to nail product market
fit, and streamlining operations before prematuring scaling, as
startups in other locales are often pressured to do.
At the moment, the Montral startup ecosystem consists of an
estimated 800-1,400 startups with several clusters seeing sig-
nificant traction. Companies around the world race to develop
self-driving cars and toys that babysit, yet Montral, in particular,
has developed a concentration of expertise in the area of artificial
intelligence, largely thanks to the efforts of Universit de Mon-
tral professor Yoshua Bengio. The federal government joined in,
stoking Montral's AI movement with an additional $213 million
grant alongside Microsoft and Google's generous contributions.1
Perhaps this aptitude for excellence stems from the healthy level
of competition between its resident techies. The city hosts TV-wor-
thy events like Mega Demo Days, which pits 12 tech startups
against each other as they pitch their products for a shot at up
1
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/microsoft-investment-in-ele-
ment-ai-bolsters-Montrals-status-as-ai-hub/article33294325/
to $1 million in seed funding. Indeed, the global startup commu-
nity is excited to see more from Montral after office rental app
Breather raised $40 million in December 2016 and airfare finder
app Hopper got a $82 million deal the same yearjust a few of
the wins for the energetic tech community.
Montral is home to high quality VC firms and as an attractive
city with a young population, their global connectedness is pretty
good. On the downside, local startups still have a hard time ac-
cessing top talent. The Startup Performance looks promising
overall due to the recent exit performance, which suggests that
the ecosystem will be able to move through the ecosystem life-
cycle going forward if required steps are taken at the right time.
Real Ventures is the leading source of seed stage capital in Cana-
da. Established in 2007, they have invested in over 150 companies
across three funds.
Centech powered by ETS supports companies to grow on an in-
ternational scale through mentorship, coaching, financial support,
facilities, and access to high-level equipment and software.
Other Ecosystem Member: Ville de Montral
Canada
Voices and Findings
"The Montral ecosystem is still growing. The main actors
work together to optimize our actions. The city is taking
more and more space on advanced fields such as AI, IoT and
healthcare. As the second student city in North America, you
can easily find talent for a good price because of the low cost
of living. Also, there are a lot of programs to support startup
companies."
Richard Chnier
General Director at Centech
33% of Montral-based founders are immigrants, the
second 2nd highest rate in North America after Silicon
Valley.
"Montral has always been a very diverse and welcoming
city, however, it's startup ecosystem is even more so. A lot
of our VC firms and startups are founded or run by im-
migrants, in fact, 33 percent of our Founders are newcomers
to Montral."
Emma Williams
Director at Maison Notman House
The main reason startups move to Montral is for better
partnership opportunities.
89
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Montreal
Metrics
Startup Output
Ecosystem Demographics
Ecosystem Performance
Growth Index
Funding
Metropolitan Population
Metropolitan GDP
Early-stage Funding

per Startup
Ecosystem Value
Experienced VC Firm Index
Foreign Customers
Market Reach
Global
Connections

Experienced Software Engineers
Experienced Growth Employees
Talent
Software
Engineer Salary

Visa Success Rate
Founders
Demographics
Women Founders
Immigrant Founders
Resource
Attraction
Entrepreneurs
Startups
Startup Experience Index

Global Avg: $267 bn
Global Avg: $252 k
Global Avg: 1,762
Global Avg: 7
Global Avg: 5
Global Avg: 23%
Global Avg: 72%
Global Avg: 60%
Global Avg: 41%
Global Avg: 16%
Global Avg: 300
Global
Avg: 5
Global Avg: 83
Global Avg: 19%
Global Avg: 49 k
Global Avg: 6.1
Global Median: $4.1 bn
4.1 m
$156 bn
$4.1 bn
$123 k
800 - 1.4k 5.8
12%
170
11
33%
24%
8.0
5.8
59%
49%
58%
4.7
Early-stage Funding Growth Index
4.4
$50 k
"When I first started to get involved in the startup ecosystem
over seven years ago, I was drawn by the energy and sense
of community that was beginning to take form. Our diver-
sity, our creativity, ingenuity, and desire to collaborate truly
set us apart from most of the ecosystems around the world.
We help entrepreneurs without asking too much in return,
because we believe in our city, and the desire we share to
reinvigorate our city by working together."
Noah Redler
Founder of Arche Innovation
While there is a strong sense of community and connect-
edness, local employees are relatively inexperienced. On
average, only 49% of their growth teams have at least 2
years of startup experience. Engineers are more expe-
rienced, with 59% reporting at least two years of prior
work experience at a startup.
"Montral is such a generous and cohesive community. The-
re are so many rich and diverse cultures represented, each of
which have incredible entrepreneurs willing to support and
give advice with no expectation of something in return. Star-
tup culture in Montral is like a team sportinnovators in
this city band together to elevate the whole community."
Philippe Telio
Founder of StartupFest
90
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Ottawa
Winters in Ottawa may be long and cold, but few other cities take
it in stride and use the frozen canal to skate to work. The capital
city's one million residents are also uniquely bilingualwhile most
speak English, a significant number speak French as their primary
language.
Ottawa's software sector is back on the map with 450-850 ambi-
tious tech startups. An important feature of Ottawa's emerging
startup ecosystem is its high concentration in tech, which accounts
for 90% of its total VC investments. SaaS companies in the region
are thriving, supported by specialized accelerator programs like
LSpark but also events such as SaaS Northa two day conference
for enthusiastic SaaS founders, investors, and executives to come
together in order to learn, hobnob, and grow.
The ecosystem owes a lot of its success to success stories like
Shopify. The company made headlines with its IPO in 2015 as it
started trading at 60% above its offering price of $17, resulting
in a stock market debut of almost $2 billion and one of the most
successful North American IPOs of the year. Other startup success
stories include PageCloud, which sold more than $1.5 million in
advance orders before officially hitting the market, and You.I TV,
the multimedia and design software that raised $12 million and
$15 million in the last two rounds, sending sales skyrocketing.
Current success stories are one thing, but there is also much to
look forward to as more venture capital funds moving into the
city for the first time. The recent announcement by BlackBerry
promises to make Canada's capital into a true city of the future
with self-driving carsa goal they aspire to make possible via a
$100 million investment and 650 new jobs in Ottawa.
While Ottawa's startup ecosystem may not yet score high in its
Performance Index metrics its bright spots are in its Global Con-
nectedness and ample Access to Talent.
Invest Ottawa is a non-profit that facilitates all life cycles of a tech-
nology companyfrom startup to international expansion.
Canada
Voices and Findings
"Ottawa has been a driver of the innovation economy for
decades, accounting for nearly 20% of the city's GDP. Our
startup ecosystem has expertise in deep technologies, fo-
cusing on solving big problems primarily in the B2B space.
Looking forward, Ottawa is poised to be a global leader in
SaaS, IoT, AI, AV, NGN, 5G, cyber security, biotechnology, and
many other key disruptive technologies. Canada's capital is
blessed with a high quality of life, an abundance of green
space and the highest level of education in the country."
Jon Milne
Managing Director at Innovation at Invest Ottawa
Ottawa startups have a Foreign Customer rate of 41%, well
above the global average of 23%. 36% of Ottawa-based
startups indicate that they are working on a globally unique
product, suggesting an ambition to Go Global above the
global average.
"The vibrancy of Ottawa's startup ecosystem is underpinned
by the very high percentage of local engineering talent with
direct and valuable startup experience."
Luc Lalande
Executive Director, Entrepreneurship Hub at University of Ottawa
73% of engineers working for an Ottawa-based startup
have gained at least two years of prior startup experience,
1% above the global average. They are also the most for-
mally educated in Canada, with 79% of their developers
having an engineering degree.
91
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Ottawa
Metrics
Startup Output
Ecosystem Demographics
Ecosystem Performance
Growth Index
Funding
Metropolitan Population
Metropolitan GDP
Early-stage Funding

per Startup
Ecosystem Value
Experienced VC Firm Index
Global
Connections

Software
Engineer Salary

Resource
Attraction
Entrepreneurs
Startups

Global Avg: $267 bn
Global Avg: $252 k
Global Avg: 1,762
Global Avg: 7
Global Avg: 5
Global Avg: 300
Global
Avg: 5
Global Avg: 83
Global Avg: 49 k
Global Avg: 6.1
Foreign Customers
Market Reach
Experienced Software Engineers
Experienced Growth Employees
Talent
Visa Success Rate
Founders
Demographics
Women Founders
Immigrant Founders
Startup Experience Index
Global Avg: 23%
Global Avg: 72%
Global Avg: 60%
Global Avg: 41%
Global Avg: 16%
Global Avg: 19%
Global Median: $4.1 bn
1.3 m
$58 bn
$1.3 bn
$141 k
450 - 850 4.4
13%
83
30
20%
42%
6.0
7.2
73%
64%
35%
4.8
Early-stage Funding Growth Index
4.6
$56 k
"Ottawa's startup ecosystem owes its strength, in part, to the
decades-long history of tech and thought leadership coming
out of the established giants and world class universities.
As this ecosystem grows from and continues to develop one
of the best cities in the world to work and live, the future
is bright for Ottawa's ability to attract and retain the best
talent. However, the most important reason Ottawa's startup
community keeps growing and succeeding is because we are
grounded by an authentic desire to help and support one
another."
Allan Wille
President and CEO at Klipfolio
Ottawa is tied for the 3rd highest percentage of startups
being B2B-focused at 55%.
"As a newcomer to this ecosystem, it has exceeded my ex-
pectations. I have co-founded startups in Paris and San
Francisco but have never experienced the level of support by
both the institutions and individuals as I have experienced in
Ottawa. It has a remarkable quality of life, incredible people,
nearly limitless tech talent, amazing outdoors."
Solon Angel
Founder and CGO at MindBridge.ai
92
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Quebec City
Walking the cobblestone streets of Qubec City is like stepping
back in time to old Europe.
World class museums, bistros, and festivals beckon travelers and
locals alike, and the city's Old Town neighborhood is a Unesco
World Heritage site.
Although Montral may get more attention as far as Canadian
startups go, Qubec City and its estimated 150-300 tech start-
ups is widely known as one of the most aspiring startup cities. A
quarterly increase in workshops, hackathons, cocktail hours, and
conferences strengthen the community bonds any night of the
week, while the Canadian Mentorship Challenge, the Startup Com-
munities franchise, and the Startup Canada Awards are among
the biggest tech events in the country.
The economic development agency Qubec International is com-
mitted to supporting tech entrepreneurship while accelerator Le
Camp works with them hands-on throughout their lifecycle. The
city is home to many competitions and events such as Catapulte
aimed at the gaming industry, as well as Startup Weekend, Hacking
Health, and many more.
Qubec City is a small and emerging ecosystem, but essentially
not new to tech. Over the years it has produced a couple of large
success stories like Taleo which was acquired by Oracle in 2005 for
$1.9 billion. Recent success stories include Caven, which raised a
$39 million Series D Round 18 months before, and Coveo, which
raised a total $70 million to develop highly advanced enterprise
search technology. As the ecosystem continues to grow, new stars
like Poka emerge. The platform that allows companies to use video
to share knowledge and collaborate in real time already raised $5
million in venture funding to date.
Overall, in this year's ranking Qubec City naturally struggles to
keep up with the big shots. However, its below average cost of
engineers and the startups' ability to reach foreign customers are
bright spots of the ecosystem.
Le CAMP is a incubator-accelerator that offers businesses a diversi-
ty of services dedicated to supporting growth and mentorship from
pre-startup to internationalization.
Canada
Voices and Findings
"In Qubec City, the vibrancy of our entrepreneurial commu-
nity is a source of collective pride. Here we spare no effort to
find ways of turning these ideas and projects into commer-
cial successes. Thanks to our tightly knit ecosystem, Qubec
City is in a position to rival the major cities in the world."
Sbastien Tanguay
Director of Technology Entrepreneurship at Le Camp Qubec
45% of startups state that their product is the first of its
kind in the world or in a new category. The highest rate in
Canada.
"Qubec City is a very French city isolated a bit commercially
from the rest of North America so entrepreneurs might com-
pare their product only with other local businesses or only
within the French Speaking World. My guess is that lots of
these products have a comparable product in the U.S."
Khalil Zahar
Founder and CEO at Hykso
"Quebec is known for its innovation and creativity, hence
the strong "being first" mentality. The startup ecosystem is
also quite new, hence the low percentage of people working
in such environments, but I believe it is growing extremely
quickly and this should go up very promptly."
Jean-Michel Lebeau
CEO and President at Cortex
93
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Quebec City
Metrics
Startup Output
Ecosystem Demographics
Ecosystem Performance
Growth Index
Funding
Metropolitan Population
Metropolitan GDP
Early-stage Funding

per Startup
Ecosystem Value
Experienced VC Firm Index
Global Avg: $267 bn
Global Avg: $252 k
Global Avg: 1,762
Global Avg: 7
Global Avg: 5
Global
Connections

Software
Engineer Salary

Resource
Attraction
Entrepreneurs
Startups

Global Avg: 300
Global
Avg: 5
Global Avg: 83
Global Avg: 49 k
Global Avg: 6.1
Foreign Customers
Market Reach
Experienced Software Engineers
Experienced Growth Employees
Talent
Visa Success Rate
Founders
Demographics
Women Founders
Immigrant Founders
Startup Experience Index
Global Avg: 23%
Global Avg: 72%
Global Avg: 60%
Global Avg: 41%
Global Avg: 16%
Global Avg: 19%
Global Median: $4.1 bn
800 k
$33 bn
$15 k
150 - 300 4.3
10%
22
0
11%
36%
6.3
5.3
42%
64%
17%
4.0
Early-stage Funding Growth Index
4.4
$39.6 k
$764 m
At 42%, almost half of Qubec City engineers have
already worked at a startup for at least two years.
"Qubec City is proud to support its entrepreneurial ecosys-
tem on three areas: by stimulating entrepreneurship initi-
atives, by facilitating the journey of entrepreneurs, and by
financing entrepreneurial projects."
Jacques Vidal
Director of Entrepreneurship and Regional
Development at Ville de Qubec
Qubec City indicates a comparably long Time to Hire an
Engineer with a median of 90 days, compared to a global
median of 41 days.
94
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Santiago
Chile is often regarded as the economic role model for Latin
America, and Santiago is at the forefront as one of the leaders
in technology entrepreneurship. The urban capital of Santiago
accounts for one-third of the country's population and approxi-
mately 90% of the country's startup activity. As of today, Santiago
is home to around 500-700 active tech startups.
The government's open-arms approach to foreign entrepreneurs
as well as different government-backed entrepreneurship pro-
grams have led to a robust and growing local startup scene. Chile's
government-backed entrepreneurship programs have supported
close to 200,000 of its own entrepreneurs,1 along with foreign
entrepreneurs from around the world. Many of these techies will
work with famed Startup Chile, which brings in 250-300 companies
a year, and offers foreign entrepreneurs funding without equity
loss in addition to a year's visa to develop and refine their ideas
in Santiago. This is a welcomed change in times of increasingly
inward oriented policy.
A series of long standing international events ensures the steady
influx of international experts and talent to mingle with the eco-
1
https://techcrunch.com/2016/10/16/a-look-into-chiles-innovative-startup-govern-
ment/
system. Big international conferences like Seedstars World, Meet-
LatAm, and Digital Bank Latam ensure that Santiago gets the di-
versity, global connectedness, diversity, and knowledge exchange
required for any startup to thrive.
The acquisition of ClanDescuento by Groupon marked the coun-
try's first major exit to kickstart the city's entrepreneurial journey.
Subsequent success stories include Corfu, the online food market
that ships to four continents, and Circuito Antrtico, the tourism
company that offers cruises to the Antarctic. All signs indicate
that Santiago's global-first strategy is working. If so, the Chilean
society will become a more connected and more entrepreneurial
one over time.
Corfo is a public agency working with the Ministry of Economy to
promote Chile's growth by focusing on local innovation and entre-
preneurship, while also inviting worldwide talent to develop startups
in Chile.
Chile
Voices and Findings
"Santiago's ecosystem has grown at high speed for the last
10 years, becoming one of the strongest and most diverse
ones in Latin America and the world. With more than 1,000
startups supported by the government per year, it is also
one of the most dynamic in seed stage. The main challenges
are clear: The R&D is still low (but growing) and there is still
an issue with the establishment of a market to buy and sell
equity from startups. Now they are living on a tipping point
where the 'door to Latin America' is achieving maturity."
Tadashi Takaoka Caqueo
Head of Entrepreneurship at Corfo
Santiago is outside the global top 20, but shines with
regards to its net Global Resource Attraction, thanks to
innovative startup policies, its low engineering salary, and
high level of access to engineers with prior experience in
a startup.
"In LATAM, investors are used to funding local and traditio-
nal projects, instead of global tech businesses with high risk.
The challenge is building trust, speaking the same language,
and changing their mindset. It's a work in progress and we
are on the right path. We'll see the real change in the next
2-3 years."
Rocio Fonseca
Executive Director at Startup Chile
95
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Santiago
Metrics
Startup Output
Ecosystem Demographics
Ecosystem Performance
Growth Index
Funding
Metropolitan Population
Metropolitan GDP
Early-stage Funding

per Startup
Ecosystem Value
Experienced VC Firm Index
Global Avg: $267 bn
Global Avg: $252 k
Global Avg: 1,762
Global Avg: 7
Global Avg: 5
Global
Connections

Software
Engineer Salary

Resource
Attraction
Entrepreneurs
Startups

Global Avg: 300
Global
Avg: 5
Global Avg: 83
Global Avg: 49 k
Global Avg: 6.1
Foreign Customers
Market Reach
Experienced Software Engineers
Experienced Growth Employees
Talent
Visa Success Rate
Founders
Demographics
Women Founders
Immigrant Founders
Startup Experience Index
Global Avg: 23%
Global Avg: 72%
Global Avg: 60%
Global Avg: 41%
Global Avg: 16%
Global Avg: 19%
Global Median: $4.1 bn
6.7 m
171 bn
N/A
500 - 700 4.1
12%
122
47
21%
12%
5.3
2.6
76%
62%
35%
4.2
Early-stage Funding Growth Index
4.2
$25.3 k
N/A
86% of developers have received formal education in
software engineering and graduated from a university
the highest ratio found in North and South America.
"Many companies are born in the local ecosystem every year,
but few survive, and even fewer grow. Few entrepreneurs see
the value in bringing on experienced people to fill key roles
and making them part of the company. Even fewer see the
necessity to aim for explosive growth or make themselves
into global companies, which results in the indicators that
we see in this report."
Maria de los Angeles Romo
Managing Director at Endeavor Chile
8% of Santiago-based startups offer a stock option plan
to all employees, whereas the global average lies at 26%.
"Most investors are thinking of Brazil when they are thinking
of South America due to its size. However, Chile is very well
positioned to be the innovation hub of South America as it is
an ideal testing ground for pilots and has an incredible ease
of doing business."
Jamie Riggs
Executive Director of emprendeFCH
96
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So Paulo
Boasting of 1,600-2,900 active tech startups, So Paulo is home to
the largest and most mature startup ecosystem in South America.
The Brazilian tech epicenter is also one of the 15 largest ecosys-
tems in the world. At the same time So Paulo is among the cities
that fell the farthest in this year's global ranking, from 12th in
2015 to now outside the top 20. Economic challenges and politi-
cal turmoil have undoubtedly weakened the ecosystem, but also
strong newcomers from China and Sweden made it impossible
to not lose ground in the global comparison.
The willingness and energy to reverse this trend is undoubtedly
there. The city of So Paulo recently announced a program with
which it aspires to reduce the time required to incorporate most
types of ventures to less than 7 days. Federal and local govern-
ment have also led the establishment of Innovatech, a provider
of online mentorship, and other service providers.
Government leadership remains sparse while private players
continue to drive growth. Organizations like Endeavor Brazil and
Dnamo, a movement to promote policy changes to foster innova-
tion and startups, are just two important examples. Startup Farm,
one of Brazil's most important accelerators, has already invested
$100 million into well over 200 startups. YouTube Gaming, Insta-
gram and other large technology companies have committed to
making So Paulo their Latin American headquarter while Google
announced its first batch of resident startups last year.
As a result, the ecosystem continues to produce startup success
stories like no other Latin American ecosystem. Real estate startup
VivaReal has already raised approximately $75 million, making it
one of the largest Brazilian startups. Rising stars coming out of the
ecosystem include DogHero and Exact Sales, which have raised
$3.1 million and $1.2 million, respectively.
In this year's ranking, So Paulo's strongest factor is Perfor-
mance-driven by its high number of startups that are performing
reasonably well. The Funding environment appears to be a major
hindrance, and while the Engineering Talent is low cost, So Paulo
doesn't rank well on the Access sub-factor. The ecosystem's po-
tential is undeniable, but the assessment also outlines that the
city can do better at materializing the hype.
Endeavor Brazil: With the support of an unrivaled network of
seasoned business leaders, Endeavor works to catalyze long-term
economic growth by selecting, mentoring, and accelerating high-
impact entrepreneurs worldwide.
Brazil
Voices and Findings
"The So Paulo ecosystem benefits from its economic power
and stands out for bringing together the main initiatives to
stimulate the startup ecosystem. Furthermore, So Paulo is
the country's financial hub and holder of the biggest consu-
mer market, making it extremely appealing for high-impact
entrepreneurs."
Juliano Seabra
Managing, Director at Endeavor Brazil
24% of So Paulo startups reported that they are offering
a product that is the first of its kind globally. In relation
to the overall average of 34%, this outlines the modesty
of Sao Paulo startups to start and scale a startup with
global footprint.
"The large size of Brazilian internal market and the small
number of English speakers are at the same time a curse
and a blessing. They create barriers to foreign competition,
as long as slow down the globalization of local solutions"
Felipe Matos
Founder and Head of Ecosystem at Startup Farm
7% of customers for startups in So Paulo come from
outside of the country, indicating a strong challenge to
reach the global market. Only 9% of So Paulo startups
immediately target the U.S. or U.K. market, well below the
global average of 36%.
97
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
So Paulo
Metrics
Startup Output
Ecosystem Demographics
Ecosystem Performance
Growth Index
Funding
Metropolitan Population
Metropolitan GDP
Early-stage Funding

per Startup
Ecosystem Value
Experienced VC Firm Index
Global Avg: $267 bn
Global Avg: $252 k
Global Avg: 1,762
Global Avg: 7
Global Avg: 5
Global
Connections

Software
Engineer Salary

Resource
Attraction
Entrepreneurs
Startups

Global Avg: 300
Global
Avg: 5
Global Avg: 83
Global Avg: 49 k
Global Avg: 6.1
Foreign Customers
Market Reach
Experienced Software Engineers
Experienced Growth Employees
Talent
Visa Success Rate
Founders
Demographics
Women Founders
Immigrant Founders
Startup Experience Index
Global Avg: 23%
Global Avg: 72%
Global Avg: 60%
Global Avg: 41%
Global Avg: 16%
Global Avg: 19%
Global Median: $4.1 bn
21 m
$431 bn
$84.8 k
1.6 - 2.9 k 4.6
14%
378
36
4%
7%
6.5
4.3
71%
62%
30%
4.1
Early-stage Funding Growth Index
4.6
$26.1 k
$3.45 b
"So Paulo has a fast developing startup ecosystem and a
growing local market which has matured over the past few
years. Nevertheless, entrepreneurs still need stronger stimu-
lus to build startups aimed at international markets and the
right mindset to take their businesses global from day one."
Andr Victor Barrence
Head of Campus So Paulo at Google
The main reason for entrepreneurs or startups to move
to So Paulo are better sales and marketing opportuni-
ties.
"Brazil is a huge country so our startups' entrepreneurs tend
to have a very local mindset, not focusing on international
opportunities. Besides, the entrepreneurship culture here is
still very recent, so the employees don't have a very strong
owner mindset as in other countries."
Guilherme Junqueira
Co-Founder of ABStartups and CEO of Gama Academy
98
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St. Louis
St. Louis' Midwestern work ethic, a penchant for forward think-
ing, and an influx of funding is all working together to make St.
Louis an emerging contender within the tech world. St. Louis
is one of the faster growing startup scenes in the U.S. Its tech
scene now houses 200-350 active startups, occupying several
rehabbed buildings to form St. Louis' hip tech cluster. This activity
has inspired a new crop of founders, with new business venture
creation rising steadily every year since 2009. The highly ranked
Washington University of St. Louis has played a critical role in the
turnaround of this old industrial city, supplying an influx of engi-
neering talent and cutting edge science.
St. Louis is poised to make itself the magnet for talented entre-
preneurs from under-represented backgrounds. Recent support
came from the Kauffman Foundation to address racial and gender
equity in the entrepreneurial startup community. The city is also
home to women-only Prosper Capital, a nonprofit that provides
entrepreneurial training and mentorship to women.
The city is dotted with unique ventures like the new and notable
St. Louis Fashion Incubator, which offers six emerging designers
a two-year residency. Adding to the boomtown culture of experi-
mentation is TechShop, a new addition to the scene that supplies
machinery for tinkering alongside corporate team-building events
and classes in electronics, silkscreen printing, and laser cutting.
St. Louis' balanced Index shows a mix of strengths and opportuni-
ties for growth. On one hand the ecosystem has an outperforming
exit sub factor, but on the other hand, a relatively low number of
active startups and valuations. Their Early-Stage Funding growth
outperforms their overall performance, which could support the
prediction of comparably strong ecosystem development through
attraction of new startups to the region. However, their Global
Connectedness scores are comparably low, meaning their growth
likely has to come from increased entrepreneurial interest in the
mid-west.
Arch Grants is a nonprofit that manages a Global Startup Com-
petition which awards $50,000 equity-free grants to entrepreneurs
who are excited to build their brands in St. Louis.
USA
Voices and Findings
"The St. Louis startup ecosystem is at a pivotal moment
regionally and statewide. Venture-backed and bootstrapped
companies are poised for growth. Emerging and established
business leaders must find more ways to collaborate for that
growth to happen."
Ginger Imster
Executive Director at Arch Grants (now VP Innovation and Entrepre-
neurship at the St. Louis Economic Development Partnership)
St. Louis startups have 1.82 Advisors with Equity per
Startup, 4th highest in the world, and above Silicon Valley
at 1.78.
"The strength of St. Louis' ecosystem is that we work to-
getheracross innovation centers and programs, with cor-
porate, government and university partnersto ensure we
provide a fertile place for innovation and entrepreneurship,
with a shared goal to make St. Louis the best place to start
and grow a business. We provide attention, access, and af-
fection. No city in the world does it like St. Louis does."
Patricia Hagen
President and Executive Director at
Technology Entrepreneur Center/T-Rex
99
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
St. Louis
Metrics
Startup Output
Ecosystem Demographics
Ecosystem Performance
Growth Index
Funding
Metropolitan Population
Metropolitan GDP
Early-stage Funding

per Startup
Ecosystem Value
Experienced VC Firm Index
Foreign Customers
Market Reach
Global
Connections

Experienced Software Engineers
Experienced Growth Employees
Talent
Software
Engineer Salary

Visa Success Rate
Founders
Demographics
Women Founders
Immigrant Founders
Resource
Attraction
Entrepreneurs
Startups
Startup Experience Index

Global Avg: $267 bn
Global Avg: $252 k
Global Avg: 1,762
Global Avg: 7
Global Avg: 5
Global Avg: 23%
Global Avg: 72%
Global Avg: 60%
Global Avg: 41%
Global Avg: 16%
Global Avg: 300
Global
Avg: 5
Global Avg: 83
Global Avg: 19%
Global Avg: 49 k
Global Avg: 6.1
Global Median: $4.1 bn
2.9 m
$150 bn
$761 m
$159 k
200 - 350 6.1
19%
43
14
10%
12%
5.4
1.0
65%
51%
66%
4.5
Early-stage Funding Growth Index
4.5
$75 k
"St. Louis is characterized by tremendous growth in venture
funding over the past five years. St. Louis has rapidly grown
from nearly nothing to one of the leading entrepreneurial
ecosystems in the Midwest."
Clifford Holekamp
Co-Founder and General Partner at Cultivation Capital
St. Louis has the 7th highest Percentage of Engineers
who are graduates of local universities, at 93%. This is
well above the U.S. average of 60%.
"The potential of St. Louis's ecosystem is driven by the local,
world-class universities that attract students from all over
the world. Fostering entrepreneurship has become a priority
for the universities. I think this will have a positive impact on
the number of successful startup companies in St. Louis over
the upcoming decade."
Abby Cohen
Co-Founder and Co-CEO at Sparo Labs
16% of St. Louis startups report having moved from
another U.S. city, twice the average for U.S. ecosystems.
100
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Regional Clusters
Europe
Barcelona
Estonia
Frankfurt
Helsinki
Jerusalem
Lisbon
Malta
Moscow
101
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Barcelona
Rich in heritage and history, Barcelona is one of the world's leading
tourist, economic, trade fair, and cultural centers. The city is eco-
nomically the strongest region of Spain, so it's no surprise that
funding in the region is plentiful. In 2015, 56% of all euros invested
in Spain went to Catalonia-based startups. The vast majority of
this venture capital came from international investors, at 85%, but
there is also a vibrant and continuously developing business angel
community. Barcelona alone is currently home to an estimated
900-1,100 tech startups.
Between exits and incubators, Barcelona is also bustling with ex-
citing events to add to its long list of attributes. Pier 01, a brand
new startup community hub opened in 2016, and is the home of
the Barcelona Tech City, a nonprofit with the goal of showcasing
the city as a main hub in the global tech scene. Currently this
singular building houses almost 100 organizations: startups, in-
cubators, accelerators, venture builders, government agencies,
and big corporate innovation labs. The space also hosts industry
conferences, meetups, and workshops, all efforts aimed at making
it the mainstay of the city's digital sector.
Owing to its pool of local and international talent, the last few years
have been good for this Mediterranean city. In 2016 Barcelona's
saw its largest exit in its history with Privalia, an online-fashion
outlet, acquired by French Vente-Privee for around $560 million.
The latest exit is Social Point, the gaming giant that recently sold
to the American Take-Two for $250 million. In the last 12 months
Barcelona's tech ecosystem has mobilized over $1 billion. With
news like these, Barcelona can now officially add "startup hotbed"
to its long list of charms.
Barcelona is one of the ecosystems narrowly on the outside of the
top 20. As mentioned above it has had some big exits recently,
but other performance factors indicate that this level may be hard
to sustain. Barcelona's Funding metrics are on par with its overall
ranking. It ranked strong strong for connectedness with other
startup ecosystems, but its Market Reach is one of the things that
will have to be tackled going forward.
Catalonia Trade & Investment is the Catalan Government agency
for foreign investment and business competitiveness. It promotes
startup innovation in over 110 markets with 39 offices around the
world.
Spain
Voices and Findings
"Barcelona is one of Europe's most dynamic startup ecosys-
tems, concentrating a balanced combination of industrial
tradition and emerging ICT activities. A competitive business
environment together with a creative mindset give birth to
plenty of ambitious startups. International investors and ta-
lent are also attracted by these features. Catalonia is just the
perfect place to start and grow a global business."
Nria Betriu
DGI and CEO of Catalonia Trade & Investment,
Government of Catalonia
Barcelona had the third fastest exit growth rate of all
ecosystems, behind only Montreal and St. Louis. This sta-
tistic favors smaller ecosystem, but it is a strong positive
signal nonetheless.
"Barcelona has been an entrepreneurial city along the his-
tory and, with the digital revolution, has become one of the
most active ecosystems in Europe with serial entrepreneurs,
important exits, business angels professional investors and
international talent."
Jess Monleon
Founder and Partner at Seedrocket 4Founders Capital
Barcelona has the 2nd highest percentage of their soft-
ware development team having a software engineering
degree at 87%. Silicon Valley is at 81%.
102
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Barcelona
Metrics
Startup Output
Ecosystem Demographics
Ecosystem Performance
Growth Index
Funding
Metropolitan Population
Metropolitan GDP
Early-stage Funding

per Startup
Ecosystem Value
Experienced VC Firm Index
Global
Connections

Software
Engineer Salary

Resource
Attraction
Entrepreneurs
Startups

Global Avg: $267 bn
Global Avg: $252 k
Global Avg: 1,762
Global Avg: 7
Global Avg: 5
Global Avg: 300
Global
Avg: 5
Global Avg: 83
Global Avg: 49 k
Global Avg: 6.1
Foreign Customers
Market Reach
Experienced Software Engineers
Experienced Growth Employees
Talent
Visa Success Rate
Founders
Demographics
Women Founders
Immigrant Founders
Startup Experience Index
Global Avg: 23%
Global Avg: 72%
Global Avg: 60%
Global Avg: 41%
Global Avg: 16%
Global Avg: 19%
Global Median: $4.1 bn
5.4 m
$171 bn
$6.4 bn
$223 k
900 - 1.1k 5.5
14%
160
10
10%
24%
6.2
6.4
62%
57%
41%
4.9
Early-stage Funding Growth Index
4.7
$37 k
"Barcelona is not only at the forefront of the Smart City mo-
vement, the Catalan capital also attracts a huge amount of
engineering and tech talent."
Ignasi Vilajosana
CEO at Worldsensing
"Barcelona has a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem. Money
goes where talent and good businesses are, and this is today
the case of Barcelona."
Daniel Sanchez
General Partner at Nauta Capital
Barcelona founders have the 5th highest percentage of
founders over 30, at 89%.
Only 9.9% of customers for startups in Barcelona come
from outside of the continentone of the lowest rates in
the worldwhich correlates with a lesser ability to reach
global markets.
103
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Estonia
Estonia might just be one of the smallest, leanest, and most
exciting ecosystems one could hope to encounter. Their enthusi-
asm and forward-thinking earned them the nickname "Estonian
Mafia". They run things, and they run them well especially their
300-900 tech startups, thanks to a remarkably tech-savvy gov-
ernment, a global-first mindset, and the ability to incorporate a
company online in less time than it takes to drink a cup of coffee.
Its unique e-residency program allows international founders
to set up online businesses under Estonia's lawswelcoming in
digital nomads who want a slice of Europe's wide market, without
ever needing to set foot in the country. For non-EU nationals who
do want to live in the country, Estonia recently rolled out their
Startup Visa programone of about ten in the world created to
attract the best international talent available. Further supporting
its startups, last year Estonia launched the EstFund,1 with an al-
lotted $64.5 million ready to disburse.
Raising the biggest seed round of any Estonian startup thus far
is Starship Technologies, purveyors of robots that deliver goods
to your door. The deal secured for $17.2 million and coincided
1
https://www.innovationtrends.eu/news/investment-plan-euro-
pe-new-%E2%82%AC60m-fund-estonian-smes
with a partnership with Mercedes-Benz to develop and test the
"Robovan," the world's first autonomous delivery vans. We also saw
Grabcad bought up by the world's largest 3D printing company,
Stratasys, and farm management software provider VitalFields
acquired by The Climate Corporation, a subsidiary of Monsanto.
Estonia's mix of smart infrastructure, boundary-busting visa pro-
grams, startup solidarity (and even their mafia-related humor)
assures the world that they'll bring us more game-changing tech-
nology like they did with Skype and are now currently doing with
Transferwise, who offers an inexpensive way to transfer money
abroad.
Estonia does not rank close to the top of the Index in terms of
Startup Experience and Performance, but Early-Stage Funding
inflows, strong Global Connectedness and low cost, high quality
engineering Talent indicate the ecosystem is on the rise.
Startup Estonia is a governmental initiative that unites the best of
startups, incubators, accelerators, and the private and public sec-
tor in order to make Estonia the birthplace of many more startup
success stories.
Voices and Findings
"Signs that the Estonian startup ecosystem is growing in both
quality and quantity are becoming clearer by the year, with
more Estonian startups raising ever larger funds, expanding
internationally and creating jobs at a fast pace--all of which
emphasises the significant economic impact that the startup
ecosystem has on this small country."
Mari Vavulski
Head of Startup Estonia
Estonian products are on average offered in 2.3 languag-
es, the second highest value in the world, second only to
Shanghai at 3. Estonian startups immediately Go Global
at a higher rate than any other ecosystem outside of the
U.S. or U.K. 70% of Estonian startups enter the U.S. or
U.K. market from the get go.
"If you come from such a tiny nation of 1.3 million, it is only
natural that you can't build a company for the miniature
internal market but have to go global from the start. If just a
million people speak your mother tongue, Estonian, then of
course you will translate your products into as many other
languages as you can. Skype was available in 27 languages
in its first year."
Sten Tamkivi
Co-Founder & CEO at Teleport
104
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Estonia
Metrics
Startup Output
Ecosystem Demographics
Ecosystem Performance
Growth Index
Funding
Country Population
Country GDP
Early-stage Funding

per Startup
Ecosystem Value
Experienced VC Firm Index
Global Avg: $267 bn
Global Avg: $252 k
Global Avg: 1,762
Global Avg: 7
Global Avg: 5
Global
Connections

Software
Engineer Salary

Resource
Attraction
Entrepreneurs
Startups

Global Avg: 300
Global
Avg: 5
Global Avg: 83
Global Avg: 49 k
Global Avg: 6.1
Foreign Customers
Market Reach
Experienced Software Engineers
Experienced Growth Employees
Talent
Visa Success Rate
Founders
Demographics
Women Founders
Immigrant Founders
Startup Experience Index
Global Avg: 23%
Global Avg: 72%
Global Avg: 60%
Global Avg: 41%
Global Avg: 16%
Global Avg: 19%
Global Median: $4.1 bn
1.3 m
$23 bn
$272 k
300 - 900 5.6
16%
60
12
18%
47%
3.1
8.6
63%
40%
85%
3.9
Early-stage Funding Growth Index
4.5
$19 k
$1.5 bn
Estonian startups have the world's highest success rate
of obtaining Visa for foreign candidates at 84.5%, more
than double the success rate than the global
average (41%).
"Access to talent is crucial when aiming to build a strong
technology scene. Luckily the policymakers in Estonia
have understood that and are encouraging to bring more
knowledge to the market. The short-term work registration
is approved in 7-10 days, which means that a foreign talent
whom you are interviewing today could potentially sit in
your Estonian office in two weeks."
Karoli Hindriks
Founder at Jobbatical.com
The Estonian ecosystem ranks in the lower tier for Startup Experience
of their Growth Teams, with only 40% of Growth Employees having
previously gained at least 2 years of work experience in a startup.
"There is a saying by Ernest Hemingway that in every harbor
there is an Estonian and it must be true. The startup foun-
ders of the region are supportive and the connections have a
massive impact when it comes to global expansion."
Martin Gorosko
Startup Incubator Manager at Tallinn Science Park Tehnopol
105
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Frankfurt
For years Frankfurt has held the title as the major financial center
of the European continent, laying claim to mighty financial insti-
tutions such as Deutsche Bank and the European Central Bank.
It's only fitting then that the city would look to FinTech to boost its
economy from the world of banking as usual into the digital world
of startups and tech companies. Among its estimated 200-300
currently active tech startups, Frankfurt is home to more than 80
FinTech companies.1
Frankfurt's reputation for FinTech is expanding to include other
high tech industries. Clark, a company that uses algorithms to
optimize insurance, closed $13.8 million in Series A funding in
2016, while Ginmon, a public investment company managed by
state-of-the art software technology, closed a financing round in
the 7-digit Euro range. Another promising startup from a com-
pletely different category is smartphone-based app Cobi, which
integrates six bike accessories into one, and has succeeded in
raising about $11.6 million.
Seeing the high-growth potential, the German government is hard
at work on legislation that will make conditions more friendly for
1
http://deutsche-boerse.com/dbg-en/media-relations/deutsche-boerse-spotlights/
spotlight/Deutsche-Boerse-FinTech-hub---the-start-up-location-in-financial-centre-
Frankfurt/2606394
investors, namely through tax incentives.2 Universities are chiming
in with their own support programs, and incubators run by es-
tablishments like Deutsche Brse or Commerzbank aim to bring
about better access to the stock market and more investors for
startups.
Frankfurt is an emerging startup ecosystem with promising assets
and performance, especially with regards to Talent, Startup Ex-
perience, and Corporate Involvement. Fueled with an educated
workforce that is increasingly turning to the startup scene as a
career choice, Frankfurt's ecosystem could become much more
than just a reputable FinTech hub. Launched in late 2016, Frank-
furt has finally also found its key organization in Tech Quartier,
a centrally located startup hub dedicated to bringing all of this
potential together.
TechQuartier is the central startup hub in Frankfurt, providing a
unique network to its startups, several floors of modern workspace,
and new programs and platforms to accelerate innovation, growth
and co-creation.
2
https://www.thelocal.de/20170102/could-frankfurt-become-the-new-berlin-for-
startups
Germany
Voices and Findings
"The Frankfurt region has been underestimated so far but
the huge potential is just about to unfold. The triangle of
corporates, academia, and politics are now working closely
together to support startups. Nurturing this potential in a
systematic way will lead to a vibrant and dynamic startup
ecosystem right at the heart of Europe."
Dr. Thomas Funke and Dr. Sebastian Schfer
Co-Directors at TechQuartier
The Frankfurt ecosystem benefits from business and
tech talent drawn from top class universities. As one
result, Frankfurt has the highest percentage of their soft-
ware development team with a software engineering
degree at 88% (Silicon Valley at 81%).
"The Frankfurt region offers an excellent environment for
startups and innovation. It provides not just the right kind of
talent and knowledge, but also perfect transport and digital
infrastructure. With TechQuartier we now also have a mel-
ting pot for startups that was officially selected as one of the
central German hubs for FinTech (de.hub)"
Tarek Al-Wazir
Hessian Minister of Economics, Energy, Transport
and Regional Development
106
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Frankfurt
Metrics
Startup Output
Ecosystem Demographics
Ecosystem Performance
Growth Index
Funding
Metropolitan Population
Metropolitan GDP
Early-stage Funding

per Startup
Ecosystem Value
Experienced VC Firm Index
Foreign Customers
Market Reach
Global
Connections

Experienced Software Engineers
Experienced Growth Employees
Talent
Software
Engineer Salary

Visa Success Rate
Founders
Demographics
Women Founders
Immigrant Founders
Resource
Attraction
Entrepreneurs
Startups
Startup Experience Index

Global Avg: $267 bn
Global Avg: $252 k
Global Avg: 1,762
Global Avg: 7
Global Avg: 5
Global Avg: 23%
Global Avg: 72%
Global Avg: 60%
Global Avg: 41%
Global Avg: 16%
Global Avg: 300
Global
Avg: 5
Global Avg: 83
Global Avg: 19%
Global Avg: 49 k
Global Avg: 6.1
Global Median: $4.1 bn
5.8 m
$230 bn
$1.8 bn
$276 k
200 - 300 6.8
10%
54
0
9%
29%
7.4
5.8
67%
60%
56%
4.1
Early-stage Funding Growth Index
8.2
$56 k
"Frankfurt has been developing tremendously since we foun-
ded 360T in 2000. Not only is it more cosmopolitan than
ever, it also developed a culture and landscape for entre-
preneurial activities. While the spotlight was on Berlin and
London, Frankfurt's entire ecosystem started to surface and
emerge within the last couple of years, and more to come."
Carlo Klzer
Founding Partner and CEO at 360T
Yet only 11% of Frankfurt startups offer a stock option
plan to all of their employees, far below the global
average of 26%.
"The Frankfurt region offers an ideal talent pool with its
highly educated workforce and over 100,000 students from
all fields of academia. Startups can tap into this pool of
international talent. But they need to start offering more
high-powered incentives to new hires in order to succeed in
this large but competitive labor market."
Prof. Andreas Hackethal
Entrepreneur and Professor of Finance at Goethe University Frankfurt
62% of Frankfurt-based startups have had at least one
positive interaction with corporates, which is 14% higher
than in Berlin.
"Many places speak of the need for corporates to support
startups. But that's mostly lip service. Only few German cities
have a stronger corporate density than Frankfurt, and their
current engagement in the ecosystem is somewhat unique.
Corporates are taking a very hands-on approach and that's
fantastic to see."
Christopher Schmitz
Partner at EY
107
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Helsinki
Helsinki may be a small city of 1.1 million, but it is the largest one in
Finland and most definitely the epicenter of the country's startup
scene. The northern European city is known for punching above
its weight class when it comes to tech: Linux and Nokia are only
two of many technology companies with a global footprint that
started out in Finland.
Helsinki currently boasts around 500-700 tech startups and is a
prime example of how smaller ecosystems are often driven by a
strong sense of community and authentic leadership. Take Slush,
organizer of one of the hottest startup conferences in the world,
which is also running a program each year to teach key skills to
students around how to design their own future.
Necessitated by its small size, Helsinki has a penchant for going
global and for international deals. In June 2016, Tencent acquired
Supercell, the Finnish maker of Clash of Clans, for staggering $8.6
billion in a decisive move to become the global leader in smart-
phone and tablet games. Few months later, the Finnish startup
Thundersoft was acquired by Rightware for $68 million.
Thanks to Helsinki's strong ecosystem of support organizations
and accelerators including Startup Sauna, Nestholma and NewCo
Helsinki, the chances for more local success stories seem high.
M-Files ($34 million), AlphaSense ($25.5 million) and Swap.com
($20.2 million) are only three Finnish startups that have received
significant funding rounds in 2016. Interestingly, all of these com-
panies are headquartered in the U.S. today.
Helsinki is a very cohesive ecosystem and a runner-up to this year's
top 20 ranking. For obvious reasons, Helsinki ranks particularly
well in the Talent and Market Reach Index. Because of its small
community, Helsinki has the ability, as well as the momentum, to
develop a position of influence and to produce the connective
tissue that is needed to build and grow a robust startup commu-
nity.
Helsinki Business Hub enables foreign companies to establish
their businesses and innovation driven companies to grow in the
Helsinki region by providing the right information and contacts and
by designing growth opportunities for our customers.
Finland
Voices and Findings
"Nobody in their right mind would come to Helsinki in No-
vember. Except you, you badass. Welcome", says the banner
at SLUSH, Europe's leading startup event, held and born in
Helsinki. Helsinki startup ecosystem has all the ingredients of
success: Europe's highest level of venture investment in rela-
tion to GDP, an extensive talent pool, a good ecosystem of
private and public support players and the attitude."
Marja-Liisa Niinikoski
CEO at Helsinki Business Hub
Helsinki startups have the second highest Rate of Visa
approvals at around 80%. With almost 20 days less pro-
cessing time than the global average, Visas are also rela-
tively fast to obtain. However, any unnecessary delay can
cause significant problems for the business.
"The painfully bureaucratic and long approval process is a
huge problem for many startups. However, I very rarely hear
anyone not getting their visa accepted. As long as the star-
tups and their employees follow the guidance, the visas are
likely to get through."
Marianne Vikkula
CEO at Slush
Helsinki startups immediately Go Global targeting large
innovation markets at a higher rate than nearly any other
ecosystem. 66% of Helsinki startups begin by targeting
the U.S. or U.K. market trailing only Estonia and Tel
Aviv. Helsinki startups also report a high Foreign Custom-
er rate at 43% (global average 23%).
108
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Helsinki
Metrics
Startup Output
Ecosystem Demographics
Ecosystem Performance
Growth Index
Funding
Metropolitan Population
Metropolitan GDP
Early-stage Funding

per Startup
Ecosystem Value
Experienced VC Firm Index
Global
Connections

Software
Engineer Salary

Resource
Attraction
Entrepreneurs
Startups

Global Avg: $267 bn
Global Avg: $252 k
Global Avg: 1,762
Global Avg: 7
Global Avg: 5
Global Avg: 300
Global
Avg: 5
Global Avg: 83
Global Avg: 49 k
Global Avg: 6.1
Foreign Customers
Market Reach
Experienced Software Engineers
Experienced Growth Employees
Talent
Visa Success Rate
Founders
Demographics
Women Founders
Immigrant Founders
Startup Experience Index
Global Avg: 23%
Global Avg: 72%
Global Avg: 60%
Global Avg: 41%
Global Avg: 16%
Global Avg: 19%
Global Median: $4.1 bn
1.4 m
$77 bn
$1.5 bn
$358 k
500 - 700 4.1
8%
122
22
16%
43%
7.9
9.6
72%
64%
80%
5.0
Early-stage Funding Growth Index
4.5
$41 k
In Helsinki the 2nd highest Percentage of Startups found
positive Corporate Interest and Involvement with them,
at 68%. At the global level, an average of 51% of Startups
experience positive Involvement with Corporates.
"Helsinki has developed a very strong ecosystem of startups,
investors, and public funding supported by great startup
events, such as Slush. The latest game changer for the eco-
system has been the way corporations have started to build
true partnerships with startups. This has enabled many of
the startups to accelerate their growth and become better
prepared to enter the global markets."
Topi Jrvinen
Managing partner and Co-founder at
Nestholma Venture Accelerator
On average, Helsinki startups have 2 Advisors with
Equity per Startup, the 3rd highest value in the world,
and above Silicon Valley at 1.78. 46% of Helsinki startups
offer an Employee Stock Option Plan to all employees,
the 6th highest rate in the world.
"When it comes to entrepreneurship, there is a culture of
giving back in Finland where successful entrepreneurs with
exits and/or a wealth of experience give back to the commu-
nity and transfer their knowledge to the next generation of
entrepreneurs and startups."
Mikael Lauharanta
COO and Co-Founder at Smarp
109
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Jerusalem
In what is known across the world as the "Start-Up Nation," most
attention has been directed at Tel Aviv, and not without good
reason. But last year, the Boston-based accelerator MassChal-
lenge expanded to Jerusalem, the larger capital city. This solidified
what has been developing for several years: Jerusalem is a rising
star on the global startup scene, with approximately 500-700
active tech startups at the core of its community.
With a population of almost one millionone-third of which is
MuslimJerusalem's startup ecosystem thrives on diversity and
the actions of a helpful city government. The city boasts a number
of recent startup successes in cutting-edge realms like computer
vision (image processing, virtual reality), machine learning, and
artificial intelligence. Glide, makers of back and forth video chat
that recently integrated with Apple Watch, aims to revolutionize
video communication as we know it, while OrCam pioneered a
compact device that allows the visually impaired to understand
text and identify objects.
Tel Aviv has made news with several recent big budget acquisi-
tions. Mobileye, a company that creates software for driverless
cars, raised $890 million in its initial public offering in the United
States, making it the largest Israeli IPO in the United States. In
March 2017, Intel made a bold move by purchasing the Jerusa-
lem-bred company for $15 billion in a decisive attempt to claim
leadership in the self-driving car market.
Jerusalem is a top contender that narrowly fell outside of this
year's top 20 ecosystem Index overall. The city's weakest factor is
performance, where interestingly its exit value is very strong but
the total value of the pre-exit startups is weakindicating strong
outlier performance with weaker fundamentals. With all the mo-
mentum gathering, we expect more record-breaking numbers
and technological innovation from Jerusalem in the near future.
Jnext supports technology innovation development and works to
transform Jerusalem into a magnet for hi-tech ventures and ear-
ly-stage companies.
Israel
Voices and Findings
"Jerusalem has been a religious and cultural capital for
thousands of years, however in the last five years the city has
also emerged as a leading technology hub. Jerusalem hosts
world leading institutions in the sciences and design disci-
plines, and together with government support and a gras-
sroots movement the city has become an entrepreneurship
enclave."
Helen Wexler
Director of Jnext at the Jerusalem Development Authority
Jerusalem startups immediately Go Global, targeting
large innovation markets at a higher rate than nearly
any other ecosystem outside of the U.S. or U.K. 65% of
Jerusalem startups begin by targeting the U.S. or U.K.
markettypical behaviour for startups made in Israel.
"Jerusalem has three unique characteristics: Community,
Creativity, and Diversity. Its population consists out of Arabs
and Jews, Secular and Ultra-orthodox, and a large amount
of immigrants."
Jonathan Medved
CEO at OurCrowd
Jerusalem startups have the 7th highest rate of Immi-
grant Founders in the world at 34%, interestingly, more
than double the percentage of Tel Aviv (16%).
110
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Jerusalem
Metrics
Startup Output
Ecosystem Demographics
Ecosystem Performance
Growth Index
Funding
Metropolitan Population
Metropolitan GDP
Early-stage Funding

per Startup
Ecosystem Value
Experienced VC Firm Index
Global
Connections

Software
Engineer Salary

Resource
Attraction
Entrepreneurs
Startups

Global Avg: $267 bn
Global Avg: $252 k
Global Avg: 1,762
Global Avg: 7
Global Avg: 5
Global Avg: 300
Global
Avg: 5
Global Avg: 83
Global Avg: 49 k
Global Avg: 6.1
Foreign Customers
Market Reach
Experienced Software Engineers
Experienced Growth Employees
Talent
Visa Success Rate
Founders
Demographics
Women Founders
Immigrant Founders
Startup Experience Index
Global Avg: 23%
Global Avg: 72%
Global Avg: 60%
Global Avg: 41%
Global Avg: 16%
Global Avg: 19%
Global Median: $4.1 bn
1.2 m
$26 bn
$6 bn
$254 k
500 - 700 5.5
15%
122
17
34%
42%
7.4
9.0
75%
59%
31%
5.3
Early-stage Funding Growth Index
4.4
$57 k
"The high-tech scene in Jerusalem has been growing dra-
matically in the past few yearsfrom under 200 startups in
2012 to more than 600 now. The foundation of Jerusalem's
tech ecosystem rests on great collaboration between entre-
preneurs, investors, academic institutions, and multinational
corporations."
Uri Adoni
Partner at Jerusalem Venture Partners
"As an immigrant myself, I can personally attest to the vi-
brancy and diversity of Jerusalem's founder population.
Because so many of our founders come from the overseas
markets their startups target, it's no wonder that Jerusalem
startups go global early on in their lifecycles."
Ben Wiener
Managing Partner at Jumpspeed Ventures
Jerusalem startups display a relatively low Percentage
of Founders with a technical background, at 74%, com-
pared with Tel Aviv and Silicon Valley at 93% and 87%,
respectively.
"Despite the lag in the number of founders with technical
skills, the Jerusalem entrepreneurial ecosystem has recently
started to pick with startups, led by students and alumni of
the Hebrew University, focusing on hard sciences. HUstart
the Hebrew University entrepreneurship center that was
founded by the Asper Foundation leads this trend."
Niron Hashai
Vice Dean Innovation and Development, School of Business
Administration at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
111
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Lisbon
During the depths of the Euro crisis, Portugal was seen by many
as having a dim economic future. Today that's no longer the
case. The growing startup culture in Lisbon is helping renew the
entire country's trajectory. Lisbon has ample access to talent,
affordable housing, and adequate public transportation, and the
coastal location adds to its attractiveness as a spot for founders
to establish their firms.
Lisbon currently counts more than 15 incubators, 20 acceleration
programs, and a knockout community of Business Angels and
Venture Capital investors. In short, it is not very surprising that
Lisbon is already home to an estimated 200-300 tech startups.
Lisbon's tech talent is nurtured by its top incubators and acceler-
ators. Startup Lisboa is comprised of three spaces in the city and
a residence for international entrepreneurs. It is also in charge
of the city's new flagship project, the Beato Creative Hub, which
will integrate several national and international incubators, accel-
erators, artistic residencies, and creative industries in a space of
almost 40,000 square meters. Techies are also supported by the
internationally recognized Beta-i accelerator and Second Home,
one of London's coolest incubators and creative spaces that just
opened a new space in Lisbon last year.
Recent startup success stories include CrowdProcessa scientific
R&D tool used by banks to predict bad loans. The company has
been considered the best FinTech startup in Europe after winning
the Money 20/20 pitch competition in 2016. Lisbon's efforts are
also turning heads worldwide as the city won the coveted spot as
host of the 2016 to 2018 Web Summit, Europe's most important
technology conference and marketplace. Between the energy,
new thinking, new technology, financial incentives for startups,
and of course, all the sunshine, Lisbon's emerging ecosystem
appears ready for the global growth it's after.
Lisbon is a lower ranked startup ecosystem, mostly due to its
infancy. It doesn't have many exits or people who have experi-
enced exits before, but its valuation rank does outpace its other
performance indicators, its early-stage investment is growing at
a fast pace, and the ecosystem is integrating well with the rest of
Europe so there are strong indicators of future strength.
The Lisbon City Council develops and supports a diverse range of
projects and initiatives in the fields of entrepreneurship, innovation,
and creativity including Made of Lisboa, the official community of
Lisbon-based innovators.
Portugal
Voices and Findings
"Lisbon wants to be one of the most competitive, creative,
and innovative cities in Europe. Our vision is to become a
Global Hub for Innovation and Entrepreneurship with open
heart to receive everyone that wants to develop their dreams,
ideas or projects. Our startup ecosystem is very young but
appears ready for the global growth and gives us the confi-
dence that we are working in the right direction. This is why
it is so important for us to be present for the first time in the
Startup Genome Report. "
Duarte Cordeiro
Vice-Mayor of Lisbon
Lisbon startups have more than one third Foreign Cus-
tomers, 10% more than startups in Barcelona, and 9%
more than the global average. Together with a strong
performance in Global Connectedness, Lisbon comes
close to the top 20 in terms of access to international
markets.
"One thing we tend to notice is that most of our early star-
tups here at Beta-i have 2-3 founders, a metric that outper-
forms other founder number combinations. In fact, 76% of
Lisbon teams have that many founders, which is among the
highest percentages in the world. We believe that 'cohesion'
and balance is behind most of the good results we have."
Pedro Rocha Vieira
Co-Founder and President at Beta-i
112
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Lisbon
Metrics
Startup Output
Ecosystem Demographics
Ecosystem Performance
Growth Index
Funding
Metropolitan Population
Metropolitan GDP
Early-stage Funding

per Startup
Ecosystem Value
Experienced VC Firm Index
Global Avg: $267 bn
Global Avg: $252 k
Global Avg: 1,762
Global Avg: 7
Global Avg: 5
Global
Connections

Software
Engineer Salary

Resource
Attraction
Entrepreneurs
Startups

Global Avg: 300
Global
Avg: 5
Global Avg: 83
Global Avg: 49 k
Global Avg: 6.1
Foreign Customers
Market Reach
Experienced Software Engineers
Experienced Growth Employees
Talent
Visa Success Rate
Founders
Demographics
Women Founders
Immigrant Founders
Startup Experience Index
Global Avg: 23%
Global Avg: 72%
Global Avg: 60%
Global Avg: 41%
Global Avg: 16%
Global Avg: 19%
Global Median: $4.1 bn
2.8 m
$96 bn
$201 k
200 - 300 6.1
17%
38
11
15%
34%
4.8
10.1
54%
56%
48%
3.5
Early-stage Funding Growth Index
5.3
$29 k
$1.3 bn
Lisbon has the lowest percentage of Founders with
just an Undergraduate Degree at 12%, and at 82% the
highest Percentage with a Masters or PhD. 76% of Lisbon
teams have 2-3 founders, 3rd highest in the world. Early
Startup Genome reports found startups with 2-3 found-
ers significantly outperformed other number combina-
tions.
"Lisbon is now experiencing a social and economic turning,
indelibly marked by a generation of Portuguese and foreign
entrepreneurs that are starting and developing here their in-
novative businesses. Essentially, it's a very qualified entrepre-
neurship, resulting from the bet in the past few years on the
quality of higher education. At a time when we see dange-
rous signs of closure in the world, Portugal is fully committed
to create an friendly environment for all of those that want
to create, innovate and invest in Portugal. It's also with pride
that we emphasize the impact of the continuous growth of
Women founders in our ecosystem."
Miguel Fontes
Executive Director at Startup Lisboa
Lisbon has the highest rate of Women Founders in
Europe, pointing towards inclusive growth, which could
become a competitive advantage over time.
113
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Malta
Malta is one of the world's smallest and most densely populated
countries. Its tech ecosystem especially booms in the gaming
and gambling sector, and each month churns out tech-centric
events and new ventures on the English-speaking Mediterranean
island. The local ecosystem currently boasts of around 50-100
tech startups.
This year brought the inaugural launch of ZEST Malta, organized
by the MCA, a dream assembly of 375 of Malta's most passion-
ate startup community members, investors, policy advisors, and
support stakeholders under one roof to discuss disruption and
tech innovation.
Also new and noteworthy is the lobby group and forum, Silicon
Vallettadesigned to connect the country's emerging startup
scene with the government and investment sectors, as well as
bring together the CEOs of Maltese-based digital businesses.
Malta's up-and-coming startups can find the boost they need from
a new network of supportive programs. The last few years have
seen the launch of the Seed Investment Scheme by MIMCOL, which
offers tax credits to startup investors, while the Takeoff Business
Incubator has already hosted more than 30 startups and awarded
more than $215 thousand in seed funding. Meanwhile, the MITA
Innovation Hub, a zero -equity acceleration program, doled out
seed funding totaling $282 thousand to 15 Malta startups. Other
support comes from Malta Enterprise, such as its Kordin Business
Incubation Centre (KBIC), and the seed funding grant (Business
START), while private incubators, such as Microsoft's Innovation
Center, also play a strong role in the ecosystem. These programs
each aim to provide the necessary breeding ground for Malta's
next generation of high-growth, high-impact startups.
Malta's internationally celebrated startups include Hotjar, Hippo-
Data, and DiscountIF, as well as the up-and-coming Freshy, an eco-
and wallet-friendly service that allows cafeterias and restaurants
to sell excess food instead of throwing it away. Considering all the
concerted efforts that are currently invested into the ecosystem,
more success stories are expected to come out of Malta in the
near future.
The Malta Communications Authority is responsible for maxi-
mizing the benefit derived from developments in ICTs by stimulating
innovation, increased awareness, and opportunities in business and
society.
Voices and Findings
"Malta's resilient infrastructure and forward-looking regula-
tory framework are essential business enablers. However, it is
people that conjure and execute smart ideas that drive in-
novation. We strive to enable and facilitate this drive. In this
regard, the growing community of tech startups and talent
in Malta is critical to the country's future."
Dr. Edward Woods
Chairman at Malta Communications Authority
30% of startups count at least one founder with experi-
ence in a hypergrowth startup or unicorn, a high propor-
tion that is 7% above the global average.
"A startup in Malta is forced to think about which large mar-
ket makes the most sense, as Malta's market is insignificant
in size. This ensures startups look at market attractiveness
and not market convenience."
Simon Azzopardi
President at Silicon Valletta
62% of Malta startups immediately target the large inno-
vation markets of the U.S. and U.K., 6th highest rate in
the world.
114
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Malta
Metrics
Startup Output
Ecosystem Demographics
Ecosystem Performance
Growth Index
Funding
Country Population
Country GDP
Early-stage Funding

per Startup
Ecosystem Value
Experienced VC Firm Index
Global Avg: $267 bn
Global Avg: $252 k
Global Avg: 1,762
Global Avg: 7
Global Avg: 5
Global
Connections

Software
Engineer Salary

Resource
Attraction
Entrepreneurs
Startups

Global Avg: 300
Global
Avg: 5
Global Avg: 83
Global Avg: 49 k
Global Avg: 6.1
Foreign Customers
Market Reach
Experienced Software Engineers
Experienced Growth Employees
Talent
Visa Success Rate
Founders
Demographics
Women Founders
Immigrant Founders
Startup Experience Index
Global Avg: 23%
Global Avg: 72%
Global Avg: 60%
Global Avg: 41%
Global Avg: 16%
Global Avg: 19%
Global Median: $4.1 bn
423 k
$11 bn
$71.3 k
50 - 100
7.9
13%
6
2
39%
71%
1.2
8.2
85%
73%
58%
4.5
Early-stage Funding Growth Index
8.2
$35.8 k
$773 m
"We have a small but vibrant startup ecosystem which has
been built in the last five years or so. The government as-
sists through tax incentives, everyone speaks English, an
advanced internet infrastructure and we're also part of the
EU. Climate is excellent and with Malta being small you can
achieve a productive work-life balance."
David Vella
CEO at Altaro Software
Malta startups have the 6th highest Percentage of Em-
ployees on their Growth Team that have previously
gained at least 2 years of Startup Experience, at 73%. The
primary reason startups move to Malta is due to better
regulation and policies the only startup ecosystem
where that was the primary reason.
"Malta's biggest strength is its ability to adopt a nimble and
proactive policy-making approach. In the past, this has
helped Malta carve its own niches, with particular success
in financial services and iGaming. Malta seeks to repeat this
approach with startups by being the natural place to launch
a disruptive tech idea."
Hon. Minister Manuel Mallia
Malta has the 4th highest Percentage of Immigrant
Founders at 39%, trailing only SV, Berlin and London.
115
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Moscow
Moscow currently boasts approximately 1,500-3,400 startups.
During the last couple of years, the Russian capital's tech eco-
system has developed a strong support system for startups and
investors alike. Its tech landscape is peppered with public and
private acceleration programs and success stories like Avito, the
online ads company that sold a majority stake to Naspers for $1.2
billion, and Prisma, an app that has banked 85 million downloads
in less than six months draw international attention.
Moscow has developed a strong startup educational support
system, both for startups and for investors. The Internet Initiative
Development Fund is a $100 million fund focused on internet and
mobile app projects. They support 100 companies per yeara
high number relative to other cities' venture capital funds. The
IIDF also developed a course on "Internet entrepreneurship,"
now implemented in 127 universities across Russia, and the
crowdfunding platform StartTrack teaches business angels how
to choose and invest.
Other players are driving the sustainable development of the
entire ecosystem. The annual Russia Startup Village is the premier
startup conference that attracts over 20,000 technology entre-
preneurs for networking, education, and inspiration. Skolkovo
technopark, Moscow's most prominent incubator, raised $158
billion in funding between government support, foundations, and
investors. Here, startups and tech firms mingle with students at
Skoltech, the incubator's IT university, where local and internation-
al students can earn a master's degree in biomedical science, IT,
energy, space scienceand even a PhD.
Moscow, ranked #13 last year, fell out of the top 20 into the
runner-up list. Over the last few years, as several European and
Asian ecosystems have achieved an important increase in Perfor-
mance, Moscow has been affected by political issues that led to
a leakage of talent, capital, and investors, leading to a one of the
worst rates of Early-Stage Funding growth among the 56 ecosys-
tems measured. Now, despite its top Talent Quality, high Output
of startups, and large economy, its ecosystem has been unable
to produce many globally successful startups.
Russia
Voices and Findings
"Moscow startups have high-quality IT-professionals, yet bu-
siness and marketing expertise is an area for improvement.
That's why IIDF created a course "Internet Entrepreneurship"
that helps future startup founders to improve their marke-
ting, business-modeling and pitching skills. This year more
than 7,000 participants graduated from this course."
Margarita Zobnina
Head of Ecosystem Projects Department at IIDF
92% of seed rounds came from local investors, indicating
a lack of capital attracted from outside of Moscow and
making it more difficult for startups to access funding.
"There are a lot of talented engineers who live in Moscow
and other big Russian cities. The top three Russian tech uni-
versities are Moscow-based (MSU, MSTU, MEPhI). That's why
you can easily find a lot of early-stage high-tech startups in
Moscow. However, there is a lack of entrepreneurs. So, Mos-
cow is a great opportunity for 'hustlers' who want to find
'hackers' and 'hipsters'."
Mikhail Ernan
Director at HSE Incubator
Moscow engineers are some of the most experienced
in the world, with 83% of engineers having at least two
years of startup experience; this is just a tick behind the
leader, Silicon Valley, at 87%.
116
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Moscow
Metrics
Startup Output
Ecosystem Demographics
Ecosystem Performance
Growth Index
Funding
Metropolitan Population
Metropolitan GDP
Early-stage Funding

per Startup
Ecosystem Value
Experienced VC Firm Index
Global
Connections

Software
Engineer Salary

Resource
Attraction
Entrepreneurs
Startups

Global Avg: $267 bn
Global Avg: $252 k
Global Avg: 1,762
Global Avg: 7
Global Avg: 5
Global Avg: 300
Global
Avg: 5
Global Avg: 83
Global Avg: 49 k
Global Avg: 6.1
Foreign Customers
Market Reach
Experienced Software Engineers
Experienced Growth Employees
Talent
Visa Success Rate
Founders
Demographics
Women Founders
Immigrant Founders
Startup Experience Index
Global Avg: 23%
Global Avg: 72%
Global Avg: 60%
Global Avg: 41%
Global Avg: 16%
Global Avg: 19%
Global Median: $4.1 bn
19 m
$553 bn
$3.4 bn
$61 k
1.5 - 3.4
3.9
11%
502
25
15%
19%
6.1
8.8
83%
75%
13%
4.6
Early-stage Funding Growth Index
4.2
$37 k
Startups in Moscow have the lowest acceptance rate
of visas for foreign candidates of any ecosystem in the
world at 13%. It is hardly surprising that 98% of engi-
neers are local graduates.
"The Government of Moscow is well aware of the issue, thus
starting in May 2017 Moscow Agency of Innovations will
introduce a special talent immigration program. We can
guarantee that visa acceptance rate in the sector will grow
exponentially by the end of the year."
Alexey Parabuchev
Head of Moscow Agency of Innovations
Only 4% of Moscow startups offer a stock option plan
to all of their employees, far below the global average of
26%
"In Russia, startups usually focus on sourcing the talent
locally or from neighbor CIS countries. The main reasons are
language (not too many people outside of CIS know or are
willing to learn Russian) and cost. At the same time, it has
become easier for foreign entrepreneurs to join teams as
more teams now speak English as the second language at
work."
Daniil Kozlov
Partner at Global Venture Alliance (GVA)
117
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Kuala Lumpur
Melbourne
New Zealand
Seoul
Sri Lanka
Regional Clusters
Asia-Pacific
118
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Kuala Lumpur
Kuala Lumpur's ecosystem has been building momentum and
attracting worldwide attention since it hosted the 2013 Global
Entrepreneurship Summit. No longer a best kept secret, the
region is teeming with around 350-650 tech startups, with a high
degree of women-founded ones. Startups located here benefit
from a good level of English, a prime location in Southeast Asia,
as well as lower labor costs compared to nearby Singapore. The
presence of three different nationalities makes Malaysia a great
hub for product testing.
The government has been actively involved in stimulating the Ma-
laysian ecosystem. One such effort called the Cradle Investment
Program has invested over $60 million in Kuala Lumpur since
its inception in 2003. They have funded an accelerator program
called the Coach and Grow program, which has supported over
700 startups to date. Thanks to strong leadership from govern-
ment agencies and the strength of the existing tech community,
the ecosystem's connectedness, experience, and funding rounds
are accelerating rapidly. As a next step, the government is ex-
pected to launch a 10-year tax exemption plan to further attract
foreign tech companies to Kuala Lumpur.
Recent funding rounds prove that Kuala Lumpur's tech scene can
hold its own next to its Southeast Asian neighbors. KFit, which
helps people find gyms and get unlimited access to them for a
fixed fee, closed a $12 million Series A funding round. Meanwhile,
iflix, the online TV streaming service was launched in May 2015
and has already signed up over one million members. Funded by
European media giant Sky for $45 million, iflix already announced
plans to raise a new round to fund its ambitious plan for global
expansion.
Kuala Lumpur is not ranked among the global top 20 startup
ecosystems due to its relative lack of Global Connectedness and
Startup Experience, but low cost, easy to hire engineering talent
could foreshadow a rise in the ranks. The determination found
in Malaysian public authorities point towards a continuously ma-
turing ecosystem with more success stories to come.
MaGIC enables and supports the entrepreneurship ecosystem in
Malaysia as the new economic growth driver through creativity and
innovation. It is the catalyst for sustainable entrepreneurship de-
velopment in Malaysia.
Malaysia
Voices and Findings
"It is exciting to be ranked as a vibrant startup ecosystem
along with our peers in Bangalore and Singapore. The Star-
tup Genome report highlights the growth we have achieved
and reaffirms our belief that an ecosystem's key to success is
seamless collaboration between its players. The report also
points to a trend we are seeing more and moreMalaysians
looking to expand their business overseas. Our latest initia-
tive, the Global Accelerator Program, aims to help entrepre-
neurs do exactly that, encouraging them to take their con-
cepts out to the region, or even further afield."
Ashran Dato' Ghazi
CEO at MaGIC
Kuala Lumpur has the highest percentage of founders
with an undergraduate degree at 65%. Kuala Lumpur
also has one of the highest percentages of women
founders in the world at 23%.
"With Malaysia being in the heart of ASEAN, this gives you ac-
cess to a market of over 600 million people, there's enough
problems to be solved and traction to be gained in this mar-
ket itself hence there's nothing wrong with startups thinking
local. With similarities in ASEAN markets, thinking local is big
too."
Bikesh Lakhmichand
Founder and CEO at 1337Ventures
119
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Kuala Lumpur
Metrics
Startup Output
Ecosystem Demographics
Ecosystem Performance
Growth Index
Funding
Metropolitan Population
Metropolitan GDP
Early-stage Funding

per Startup
Ecosystem Value
Experienced VC Firm Index
Global Avg: $267 bn
Global Avg: $252 k
Global Avg: 1,762
Global Avg: 7
Global Avg: 5
Global
Connections

Software
Engineer Salary

Resource
Attraction
Entrepreneurs
Startups

Global Avg: 300
Global
Avg: 5
Global Avg: 83
Global Avg: 49 k
Global Avg: 6.1
Foreign Customers
Market Reach
Experienced Software Engineers
Experienced Growth Employees
Talent
Visa Success Rate
Founders
Demographics
Women Founders
Immigrant Founders
Startup Experience Index
Global Avg: 23%
Global Avg: 72%
Global Avg: 60%
Global Avg: 41%
Global Avg: 16%
Global Avg: 19%
Global Median: $4.1 bn
7.2 m
$172 bn
$153 k
350 - 650 6.9
23%
98
0
13%
10%
6.0
6.8
72%
53%
43%
4.4
Early-stage Funding Growth Index
6.0
$10.6 k
$1.14 b
Only 10% of customers for startups in Kuala Lumpur
come from outside of the country, more than 13% less
than the global average, indicating a strong local market
but also challenges in reaching the global one.
"I have been involved in the startup scene for the last three
years. In the beginning almost no event that I went to was
attended by any women founders. From then onward I
would see more and more women come out with brilliant
ideas and become founders of great startups such as Happy
Bunch and Local Usher, only to name a few. It started strong
with the MaGIC CEO being a woman. She inspired more wo-
men founders to join the startup community too."
Maznuddin Zainuddin
Innovation Lead, Product Marketing Innovation
Exchange TM at Telekom Malaysia
9% of Kuala Lumpur startups immediately target the U.S.
or U.K. market. 13% intend to eventually go after global
markets.
120
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Melbourne
Melbourne is an entrepreneurial city where people are exception-
ally open to new ideas and innovation. The city earned the moniker
"culture capital" due to its lively street art, music, and theater. Hard
work is de rigueur, and startup founders benefit from a favorable
business infrastructure as well as a high standard of education
that supplies them with exceptional talent to work with.
Melbourne is renowned as the world's most livable city and has a
great standard of living but relatively high costsa circumstance
that makes it challenging for many of the currently 900-1,300 local
startups. This and many other reasons prompted Prime Minister
Malcolm Turnbull to roll out a $1.1 billion innovation package that
offers tax breaks for startup investors, changes crowdfunding
legislation, and introduces initiatives geared to turn Melbourne
into a startup powerhouse.
The startup ecosystem can be proud of its success stories; Kogan,
Envato, and Red Bubble especially shine in the digital marketplace.
Canva grew from 1.8 million to 7 million users, and doubled its
valuation to reach $345 million in 2016. Social media marketing
platform Tribe raised $5.35 million in venture capital during a
Series A roundin less than one year after its launch.
As so many ecosystems can attest, connectedness is key, first on
a local, and then global level. The coworking space, York Butter
factory, offers landing pads for burgeoning startups and Inspire9
runs the Angelcube program, an intensive startup accelerator
program each June. Weekly meetups like Fintech Melbourne, Mel-
bourne Silicon Beach, Innovation Bay, and Startup Victoria offer
the necessary touch point for anyone interested in founding or
working in startups.
Melbourne is itching to crack the top 20 overall, but isn't quite
there and faces stiff competition. The ecosystem almost scored
a top 20 ranking in terms of its Startup Output, but its Valuation
and Exit numbers lag further. However, it has one of the strongest
rates of Early-Stage Funding, strong Global Connectedness scores,
and high quality engineeringall indicators that it could make a
push into the top 20 soon.
LaunchVic works with entrepreneurs, industry, business, the com-
munity and educational institutions to strengthen Victoria's entre-
preneurial and startup ecosystem.
Voices and Findings
"The Melbourne startup ecosystem is thriving -- its strong
grass roots community is producing successful scale-ups,
and it is the choice location for APAC headquarters for global
unicorns. Known for its cultural vibe, high education stan-
dards, and its collaborative and multicultural community,
the world's most liveable city is also proving to be a strong
startup ecosystem."
Kate Cornick
CEO at LaunchVic
Melbourne founders are more technically oriented
compared to their neighboring ecosystem in Sydney.
Founding teams in Melbourne are 25% more technically
skewed and 15% less business skewed.
"There's tremendous energy in Melbourne's startup ecosys-
tem. Zendesk, Stripe, Slack and Square recently opened their
Australian headquarters in Melbourne, while local startups
like CliniCloud, Myagi and Unlockd are attracting substan-
tial customers and investment from overseas. We also have
many international students with great engineering and IT
skills who stay after graduation to launch startups focused
on Asian markets."
Dr. Colin McLeod
Professor at the University of Melbourne
Australia
121
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Melbourne
Metrics
Startup Output
Ecosystem Demographics
Ecosystem Performance
Growth Index
Funding
Metropolitan Population
Metropolitan GDP
Early-stage Funding

per Startup
Ecosystem Value
Experienced VC Firm Index
Global
Connections

Software
Engineer Salary

Resource
Attraction
Entrepreneurs
Startups

Global Avg: $267 bn
Global Avg: $252 k
Global Avg: 1,762
Global Avg: 7
Global Avg: 5
Global Avg: 300
Global
Avg: 5
Global Avg: 83
Global Avg: 49 k
Global Avg: 6.1
Foreign Customers
Market Reach
Experienced Software Engineers
Experienced Growth Employees
Talent
Visa Success Rate
Founders
Demographics
Women Founders
Immigrant Founders
Startup Experience Index
Global Avg: 23%
Global Avg: 72%
Global Avg: 60%
Global Avg: 41%
Global Avg: 16%
Global Avg: 19%
Global Median: $4.1 bn
4.7 m
$253 bn
$1.6 bn
$157 k
900 - 1.3k 6.0
18%
260
5
23%
24%
6.2
8.6
73%
56%
37%
4.2
Early-stage Funding Growth Index
7.1
$64 k
Melbourne startups are highly connected globally with an
average of 8.6 connections to the top global ecosystems.
"Melbourne is a grassroots startup ecosystem which is fast
increasing resources to enable it to compete against its
bigger neighbours. Government initiatives, like LaunchVic,
support platform programs to help startups scale. Plus local
success stories like Redbubble's successful $288 million IPO
showcase the talent and potential of local entrepreneurs."
Sarah Moran
CEO at Girl Geek Academy
Melbourne startups have one of the lowest utilization
rates of Startup Advisors in the world, with only .73 Advi-
sors with Equity per Startup.
"Startup advisors with equity are not yet a common part of
the Australian landscape the way they are in the U.S. This
may be due to the fact that our employee share schemes
until very recently had adverse tax consequences, making the
granting of shares more difficult than it should have been.
We expect to see this shift over time now with advisor roles
becoming more common."
Georgia Beattie
CEO at Startup Victoria
40% of startups reported that they are offering a product
that is the first of its kind globally. In relation to the world
average of 34%, this underlines Melbourne's ambition to
disrupt entire industries.
122
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
New Zealand
New Zealand's spirit of collaboration and inventiveness is paving
the way for a healthy and well-funded tech sector. Over a few
decades the country that holds just 4.5 million people has radically
transformed to become one of the most globalized economies
around.
At the moment the local startup ecosystem is estimated to be
home to 400-600 ambitious tech startups. The country's talent is
attracting attention from worldwide tech giants such as Google,
who is now using New Zealand as a testing bed for the future
forward technology Google Loon, which gives wireless internet
access to the world.
Recent legislation promises to liberalize the capital markets. New
Zealand policy makers and industry players are dedicated to for-
malizing the angel asset class and improve early-stage funding,
and it appears to be working. Research shows that every dollar in-
vested in tech sector productivity brings a $3 ROIan impressive
stat made possible in part by the New Zealand Venture Investment
Fund and the $300 million that has been earmarked to boost the
country's vibrant early-stage investment market. All investments
are made through the NZVIF either through privately managed
venture capital funds, or alongside experienced angel investors
into domestic companies with high-growth potential.
All this work is paying off. Last year New Zealand hit over $60
million in high level investments for the first time. We also saw an
influx of companies who successfully raised capital from overseas
investors including venture capital firms, angel groups, and equity
crowdfunding.
New Zealand's angel-backed startups have proven their ability to
scale globally by raising more than $500 million in growth funds.
Their innovative digital megastars include the accounting app Xero
and RocketLabs, who found a way to launch satellites at a fraction
of the cost of past solutions.
In the overall Index, New Zealand's strongest factor is Talent,
followed by Funding which are both above average in the global
comparison. Performance metrics are below average and pose
an opportunity for improvement. The big picture suggests bright-
er days are ahead, as solid Funding and Talent variables are key
ingredients for improved performance over time.
Angel Association New Zealand aims to increase the quantity,
quality, and success of early-stage investments in New Zealand to
create a greater pool of capital and capability for innovative start-
up companies.
Voices and Findings
"Kiwis have always been resourceful, with an entrepreneuri-
al spirit and pragmatic approach enabling New Zealand to
"punch above its weight". In the last 10+ years the startup
ecosystem has built on this legacy and developed an envia-
ble level of engagement between all stakeholders, so that we
can successfully collaborate and compete in the global in-
novation market. New Zealand is attracting and developing
more capability, capital and connections to achieve its full
potential and it is a great place to live!"
Marcel van den Assum
Chairman at NZ Angel Association
New Zealand startups report a high Percentage of
Foreign Customers outside their continent at 32%, con-
firming the fairly small domestic market and, more im-
portantly, the ability to Go Global.
"Small countries with small domestic markets are quite diffe-
rent startup environments from larger markets. Say you're in
Boston and want to get to four million customers. You drive
for an hour. If you want to get to five million customers, you
drive for an hour and 20 minutes. From NZ to get to a mar-
ket size of 5 million we need to be exports. That requires the
capital, networks, and being away from family to operate
internationally."
Rod Drury
Founder and CEO at Xero
123
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
New Zealand
Metrics
Startup Output
Ecosystem Demographics
Ecosystem Performance
Growth Index
Funding
Country Population
Country GDP
Early-stage Funding

per Startup
Ecosystem Value
Experienced VC Firm Index
Global Avg: $267 bn
Global Avg: $252 k
Global Avg: 1,762
Global Avg: 7
Global Avg: 5
Global
Connections

Software
Engineer Salary

Resource
Attraction
Entrepreneurs
Startups

Global Avg: 300
Global
Avg: 5
Global Avg: 83
Global Avg: 49 k
Global Avg: 6.1
Foreign Customers
Market Reach
Experienced Software Engineers
Experienced Growth Employees
Talent
Visa Success Rate
Founders
Demographics
Women Founders
Immigrant Founders
Startup Experience Index
Global Avg: 23%
Global Avg: 72%
Global Avg: 60%
Global Avg: 41%
Global Avg: 16%
Global Avg: 19%

Global Median: $4.1 bn
4.5 m
$179 bn
$301 k
400 - 600 4.8
21%
110
11
25%
32%
6.6
4.8
65%
48%
68%
4.8
Early-stage Funding Growth Index
5.2
$52 k
$807 m
0.632 mm*
New Zealand ranks 5th in terms of startups that found
positive Corporate Interest and Involvement with them,
at 65%. The global average is at 51% of startups having a
positive Involvement with Corporates.
"Our domestic market is too small to build significant bu-
sinesses without this focus. That said, the biggest challenge
we face is the limited pool of experienced execs that we can
tap when it comes time to scaling these businesses. We have
to look offshore to solve this problem as well and New Zea-
land's wider reputation as a pure, multicultural and welco-
ming nation, in an uncertain and volatile world, is playing in
our favor."
Phil McCaw
Founder and Managing Partner at Movac
New Zealand startups are ranked 5th to last in terms of
the startup experience of their growth teams, with only
48% previously having at least 2 years of startup experi-
ence.
"Kiwis, both in the public and private sectors, go offshore
frequently to learn the better practices being developed and
adopted elsewhere. They are quite adept at adjusting their
ecosystem accordingly."
Bill Payne
U.S.-based Angel Investor
124
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Seoul
Seoul can brag about many thingsthe world's fastest internet
speeds, a savvy consumer and financial services market, and
underground Wi-Fi for subway users as recently implemented in
NYC. It is also home to 1,500-3,400 startups.
Its Gangnam District is not just known for Psy and plastic surgery. It
is the most active startup area in Seoul with 81% of VC residing in
the region and over a hundred thousand in attendance of 3,000+
startup-related events in 2015. Asia's first Google Campus set up
shop in this hotspot, while other international companies such
as Supercell, Apple, and WeWork have all chosen Seoul as well.
Seoul understands the value of digital sophistication. The govern-
ment recently announced a $1.5 billion initiative1 to increase in-
ternet speeds so that you can download a feature-length movie in
approximately one second. The fastest growing sector by funding
is virtual reality, with FinTech and cybersecurity startups not far
behind.
Seoul's recent and formidable wins include Viva Republic, a money
transfer app that is shifting the country's relatively antiquated
payments system and Spoqa, a marketing app for cafes, restau-
rants, and other stores which received its most recent funding
1
http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/22/tech/mobile/south-korea-5g/
of $3.9 million in 2016. Last year saw the best funding yet for
Korea's modern generation of startupsand between favorable
governmental regulations, ample funders, and an eager market,
there are no signs of the Seoul ecosystem slowing down.
Seoul is an ecosystem that's fast on the rise, looking to crack the
top 20 soon. Seoul lacks strength in the Exit category, but it has a
very high Startup Output and a strong Funding environment that
is progressing better than most of its peers. Its biggest weakness
in the Index is its Market Reach, which is hampered by a lack of
Global Connectedness to other startup ecosystems and a rela-
tively low Percentage of Foreign Customers.
Bigbang Angels Inc. is an accelerator focused on a platform busi-
ness model to support the growth of over 50 early-stage startups by
connecting them with 200 of Korea's best investors and advisors.
ROA Invention LAB is specialized in Lean Startup education and
Startup acceleration, focusing on the O2O/On-demand, Media &
Content platform sector.
AcademyX offers a Startups training framework package from
idea development to investment. They provide a learning services
platform that combines content and solutions in an online / offline
convergence environment.
South Korea
Voices and Findings
"Seoul offers a very good environment for hiring good en-
gineers. Therefore, Seoul's potential for becoming a global
tech startup hub is big."
Ji Hoon Jeong
Professor at Kyung Hee Cyber University
Startups can hire an engineer in Seoul faster than any-
where else in the world, with a median Time to Hire of 15
days, compared to a global median of 41 days.
"Seoul is competitive in that startups and entrepreneurs can
easily find young, talented people from top-level engineers
to designers and marketing specialists. Koreans have the
highest level of education amongst OECD countries and a
changing trend is that more qualified people are now willing
to work for high-potential startups in place of traditional big
name corporations."
Jeffrey Lim
Head of Campus Seoul, Google
Seoul startups are tied for the 3rd with Silicon Valley for
the highest Percentage of Employees on their Growth
Team that previously gained at least two years of startup
experienceat 76%, they trail only Tel Aviv and Austin.
125
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Seoul
Metrics
Startup Output
Ecosystem Demographics
Ecosystem Performance
Growth Index
Funding
Metropolitan Population
Metropolitan GDP
Early-stage Funding

per Startup
Ecosystem Value
Experienced VC Firm Index
Foreign Customers
Market Reach
Global
Connections

Experienced Software Engineers
Experienced Growth Employees
Talent
Software
Engineer Salary

Visa Success Rate
Founders
Demographics
Women Founders
Immigrant Founders
Resource
Attraction
Entrepreneurs
Startups
Startup Experience Index

Global Avg: $267 bn
Global Avg: $252 k
Global Avg: 1,762
Global Avg: 7
Global Avg: 5
Global Avg: 23%
Global Avg: 72%
Global Avg: 60%
Global Avg: 41%
Global Avg: 16%
Global Avg: 300
Global
Avg: 5
Global Avg: 83
Global Avg: 19%
Global Avg: 49 k
Global Avg: 6.1
Global Median: $4.1 bn
26 bn
$688 bn
$2.4 bn
$174 k
1.5 - 3.4 k 4.5
16%
731
0
12%
14%
8.4
2.1
68%
76%
25%
4.1
Early-stage Funding Growth Index
5.2
$38 k
"Seoul is the best place for mobile B2C startups to grow
thanks to its population numbering more than ten million,
all equipped with advanced smartphones with access to
high-speed internet. The most popular sectors for these star-
tups are O2O (online to offline), e-commerce, and fintech.
Gangnam, located at the southern part of Seoul, emerged as
a strong startup hub in recent years not only due to its bu-
siness centric districts and cozy co-working spaces, but also
access to many venture capital firms and the large pool of
sw engineers in the area."
Jungwook Lim
Managing Director at Startup Alliance by Never
Seoul has the highest percentage of B2C startups at
50 percent. Only 8% of customers for startups in Seoul
come from outside of the continentone of the lower
rates of this year's assessmentindicating a strong chal-
lenge in reaching the global market.
126
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Sri Lanka
The Government of Sri Lanka is working hard to offer universal
access to broadband infrastructure and mobile connectivity to its
citizens,1 but you'll already find the local tech scene teeming with
the right vibe, prolific ideas, and programmers typing away on
their keyboards. It's no wonder then that its economy has seen
robust annual growth, with a GDP per capita that's ahead of the
other South Asian countries, and making it a promising target for
curious investors.
The island nation population of just above 20 million has had its
share of turmoil as the civil war ended less than 10 years ago. Yet
the strife hasn't failed to produce a close-knit tech community that
shares ideas, advice, and connections to potential investors
alongside a flock of returnees equipped with global experience
and an essential desire to make an impact in the local scene.
This fiery energy has rendered Sri Lanka a relatively new, but for-
midable player in tech. While the country may still lack coworking
spaces, events like Disrupt Asia 2016, Sri Lanka's first ever startup
conference and showcase, featured over 40 speakers, among
them many international experts.
1
http://www.colombopage.com/archive_17A/Feb23_1487839041CH.php
Research indicates a growing startup ecosystem comprising of
150-300 active tech startups. This number is bound to grow
after 2016 witnessed one of the biggest exists in the country
with eChanneling, a service to call doctors via web which was ac-
quired for an amount estimated at around $4.5 million. In order
for more success stories like this to happen, Sri Lanka needs to
work hard to master the typical challenges of an ecosystem in the
Integration phase. This was confirmed by a study surveying 250
ecosystem stakeholders, concluding that entrepreneurial culture
and affordable workspace are needed the most.2
Not surprisingly, Sri Lanka does not rank among the top eco-
systems in this year's Index. Due to its infancy, it doesn't have
many output oriented metrics to showcase its progress, but its
Early-Stage Funding is growing at one of the fastest rates in the
world. And its decent Global Connectedness scores, combined
with low cost engineering talent is a bright spot to build around.
The Information and Communication Technology Agency is a
wholly owned institution by the Government of Sri Lanka striving to
make Sri Lanka a digitally-inclusive country.
2
http://www.sundaytimes.lk/160904/business-times/sri-lanka-tech-start-up-ecosys-
tem-need-of-the-hour-207252.html
Voices and Findings
"The startup ecosystem in Sri Lanka has seen a significant
growth since 2015, igniting the wave for digital innovation.
The Government and the industry have jointly taken the ini-
tiative of driving the development of the ecosystem. It is self
evolving and matures on a daily basis fostering the culture
that is required for the Digital Economy."
Muhunthan Canagey
Managing Director and CEO at ICT Agency of Sri Lanka
Sri Lankan startups have the 2nd fastest Time to Hire
an Engineer, with a median of 20 days. The Asia-Pacific
median is 35 days, while the global median is at 41.
"Sri Lanka isn't known for tech startups but some of our
companies power the London Stock Exchange and the
middleware platform for Ebay. So we've certainly had some
international successes and the future looks even brighter.
But, our domestic market is small, so we need more founders
to think 'global' from day one."
Mangala Karunaratne
Founder and CEO at Calcey Technologies
Only 13% of Sri Lankan startups immediately target the
U.S. or U.K. market, significantly below the global average
of 36%. For reference, other nearby ecosystems such as
Bangalore have a rate of nearly double at 25%, indicating
that Sri Lanka startups are focusing on local problems.
127
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Sri Lanka
Metrics
Startup Output
Ecosystem Demographics
Ecosystem Performance
Growth Index
Funding
Country Population
Country GDP
Early-stage Funding

per Startup
Ecosystem Value
Experienced VC Firm Index
Global Avg: $267 bn
Global Avg: $252 k
Global Avg: 1,762
Global Avg: 7
Global Avg: 5
Global
Connections

Software
Engineer Salary

Resource
Attraction
Entrepreneurs
Startups

Global Avg: 300
Global
Avg: 5
Global Avg: 83
Global Avg: 49 k
Global Avg: 6.1
Foreign Customers
Market Reach
Experienced Software Engineers
Experienced Growth Employees
Talent
Visa Success Rate
Founders
Demographics
Women Founders
Immigrant Founders
Startup Experience Index
Global Avg: 23%
Global Avg: 72%
Global Avg: 60%
Global Avg: 41%
Global Avg: 16%
Global Avg: 19%
Global Median: $4.1 bn
5.6 m
$82 bn
$7.21 k
150 - 300 7.4
10%
47
0
16%
10%
5.1
7.3
63%
50%
41%
4.0
Early-stage Funding Growth Index
6.2
$11 k
$32 m
"Sri Lanka is, what Hong Kong is to China, to the South Asian
Region. Innovation happens at the periphery of the client. Sri
Lanka is strategically placed in close physical proximity and
social intimacy to the fastest growing Asian economic pow-
erhouses of the future such as India, Indonesia, and Bangla-
desh. Sri Lankan startups have realized this potential and
have set their sights to win in these markets."
Ruwindhu Peiris
Managing Director at Stax Inc.
Sri Lanka faces typical challenges of the first phase of
the Startup Ecosystem Lifecycle, such as a net negative
Global Resource Attraction with some startups relocating
to higher performing ecosystems.
"The startup ecosystem in Sri Lanka is at its infancy, and I
believe there is a strong upside to startups in the island. This
said, as a country we need to think bigger and open up la-
bour markets so we can attract the best and the brightest to
come work in the island."
Lahiru Pathmalal
CEO of Takas.lk
26% of Sri Lankan startups report that they are working
on a product/service that is globally unique. 34% report a
purely local differentiation of their product/service.
128
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Cape Town
Johannesburg
Lagos
Regional Clusters
Africa
129
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Cape Town
Beautiful beaches and dramatic landscapes have long made Cape
Town a popular place for tourists to visit and for locals to proudly
call home. Yet recent years have given Cape Town a new status
as Africa's prime locale for startups. Much of Cape Town's talent
comes to the "Silicon Cape" for its solid academic institutions and
stays for its moderate living expenses and friendly people.
The Western Cape's startup history can be traced back to 1999
when U.S.based VeriSign acquired Mark Shuttleworth's Thawte in
a stock purchase of $575 million. Cape Town is now home to the
most IT-based companies on the African continent, including an
estimated 700-1,200 currently active tech startups. As one key
driver of growth, the local ecosystem is home to the most mature
funding landscape on the continent, resulting in comparably high
amounts of funding being invested into fledgling startups.
Seed funding in Cape Town predominately comes from angel
investors operating through accelerators. To create investment
diversity and catalyze growth, South Africa's government has
stepped in to establish new tax incentives for venture capitalists.1
1
http://www.tax-news.com/news/Praise_For_New_South_African_Venture_Capital_
Tax_Incentives____65432.html
This will in turn help Cape Town's startups and other small and
medium sized businesses have better access to equity finance.
Going forward, Cape Town's ecosystem leaders cite a need for
more growth capital and collaborations amongst the necessary
stakeholders in South Africa to build a stronger startup ecosys-
tem. There is also a call for more industry specific accelerators
and incubators in South Africanecessary for nurturing a healthy
pipeline of investment-ready ventures.
Cape Town is an emerging city that is not yet plugged into the
global ecosystem and its fluid exchange of resources. However,
above average Startup Experience, low cost of Engineering Talent
and relatively solid Funding factor in the regional comparison are
bright spots to build upon during the next years to come.
Allan Gray Orbis Foundation works with high impact entrepre-
neurs who display the potential to be agents of change and dra-
matically contribute to positive economic, social, and political
change.
South Africa
Voices and Findings
"At the Allan Gray Orbis Foundation we are committed to the
development of a conducive environment for the cultivation
of high impact entrepreneurship and South Africa's inclusion
in this year's ranking is a welcome development to create
global awareness about the opportunities in the local entre-
preneurship ecosystem."
Fredell Jacobs
Head of Impact Assurance at Allan Gray
Orbis Foundation
Cape Town is the largest startup ecosystem on the
African continent, with between 700 - 1,200 active tech
startups.
"The Western Cape has emerged as a center for venture
capital activity in South Africa. The majority of the country's
startups are based here and 75% of venture capital deals
were concluded in this province. These trends speak to the
business confidence in the Western Cape. We know that to
attract investment and to support entrepreneurs to thrive, we
have to create an enabling environment. To achieve this, we
have prioritized the reduction of red tape."
Alan Winde
Western Cape Minister of Economic Opportunities
130
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Cape Town
Metrics
Startup Output
Ecosystem Demographics
Ecosystem Performance
Growth Index
Funding
Metropolitan Population
Metropolitan GDP
Early-stage Funding

per Startup
Ecosystem Value
Experienced VC Firm Index
Global Avg: $267 bn
Global Avg: $252 k
Global Avg: 1,762
Global Avg: 7
Global Avg: 5
Global
Connections

Software
Engineer Salary

Resource
Attraction
Entrepreneurs
Startups

Global Avg: 300
Global
Avg: 5
Global Avg: 83
Global Avg: 49 k
Global Avg: 6.1
Foreign Customers
Market Reach
Experienced Software Engineers
Experienced Growth Employees
Talent
Visa Success Rate
Founders
Demographics
Women Founders
Immigrant Founders
Startup Experience Index
Global Avg: 23%
Global Avg: 72%
Global Avg: 60%
Global Avg: 41%
Global Avg: 16%
Global Avg: 19%
Global Median: $4.1 bn
3.7 m
$59 bn
$20.2 k
700 - 1.2k 4.5
17%
228
18
18%
14%
5.3
4.9
76%
50%
36%
4.0
Early-stage Funding Growth Index
4.8
$20.1 k
$172 m
One third of Cape Town startup founders have gained
at least two years of prior experience in a fast-growing
startup, making them 5% more experienced than the
global average.
"Small angel rounds are available, but very few break into
the super Angel or even series A market. The startup perspec-
tive is that there are no investors. From an investor perspec-
tive this is often due to the quality of the startups."
Nevo Hadas
Partner at &Innovation Consulting
Cape Town startups require 53 days to hire a software
engineer. While it takes 9 days longer in Johannesburg,
the global average lies at 46.
"Constraints are significant and competition for talent is
heated, but interest in and recognition of the quality of com-
panies/products along with significant international cost
benefits make Cape Town extremely attractive."
Brett Commaille
Lead Partner at AngelHub Ventures
Cape Town startups have one of the lowest utilization
rates of startup advisors in the world, with only .85 advi-
sors with equity per startup.
"Ideas are easy, implementation is hard, we help expose star-
tups to thinking that expands their business models, getting
to the 'why' quicker."
Lianne Du Toit
Ecosystem Manager at Graduate School of Business
(GSB) Solution Space
131
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Johannesburg
Johannesburg is South Africa's largest city, and it is also a rapidly
changing city, poised optimistically towards the future. Famous
for its large-scale gold and diamond trade, Johannesburg has also
become one of the main technology innovation hubscomprising
the country's largest R&D, aerospace, high-tech manufacturing,
biotech, ICT, and media clusters.
As of today Johannesburg is already home to an estimated 200-500
currently active tech startups. Johannesburg's rapidly growing
tech scene had over 180 startup events last year, while the city's
combined financial resources infused funding of nearly $252
million for its most promising companies. The high concentration
of talented people in the area helps new startups move quickly.
Recent years have welcomed an influx of tech-friendly activity
for the economic hub. Global technology giant IBM recently an-
nounced that it will invest more than $60 million into a new tech
hub and startup accelerator. In an effort to cement Johannesburg
as a leading digital cluster in Africa, the University of the Witwa-
tersrand reclaimed five unused buildings near its campus and
turned them into the Tshimologong Digital Innovation Precinct.
Alongside the common incubator goals of growing skills, creating
jobs, and providing monetary investment, Tshimologong also aims
to promote the regeneration of Johannesburg's inner-city area.
In the global comparison, Johannesburg is facing challeng-
es around its relative lack of Startup Experience, Funding, and
Global Connectedness. The average valuations of local startups
are currently outperforming considering those handicapping
factors. Johannesburg's challenges are actively tackled through
local leadership, as validated by the fact that Johannesburg has
been the first African city ever to host the prestigious 2017 Global
Entrepreneurship Congress. Here, thousands of people from all
over the world have gathered to discuss the current state and
future of entrepreneurial innovation while being exposed to South
African startups. The exchange with international leaders is key,
for example to enhance knowledge about international markets
and the key ingredients for building globally scalable technologies.
SiMODiSA is a collaborative research, stakeholder engagement,
and policy design effort by key stakeholders from both the public
and private sector in South Africa.
Other Ecosystem Partner: The Business Place
Voices and Findings
"Johannesburg, also known as 'Egoli', the city of gold, is one
of Africa's premium business destinations and pillar of com-
merce. With the current emerging entrepreneurial ecosystem,
it is geared to be a world class start up city that will nurture
and support the next generation of African unicorns. Star-
tups will be refined and polished, just like the natural resour-
ces that come out of its ground."
Matsi Modise
Managing Director at SiMODiSA Association
Johannesburg indicates the 3rd highest percentage of
startups that experienced positive corporate interest and
involvement, at 67%. The global average is at 51%.
"As the financial and corporate epicenter of the continent, Jo-
hannesburg is seen by many as the New York of Africa. With
all major corporate headquarters here and great connectivi-
ty to the entire continent, it is the ideal place to build corpo-
rate partnerships and expand across the continent."
Marcello Schermer
Managing Director at Seedstars World
27% of startups reported that they are offering a product
that is the first of its kind globally. The global average
being 34%, this underlines the approach to focus on the
local market. Only 10% immediately target the U.S. or
U.K. market, far below the global average of 36% as well.
South Africa
132
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Johannesburg
Metrics
Startup Output
Ecosystem Demographics
Ecosystem Performance
Growth Index
Funding
Metropolitan Population
Metropolitan GDP
Early-stage Funding

per Startup
Ecosystem Value
Experienced VC Firm Index
Global Avg: $267 bn
Global Avg: $252 k
Global Avg: 1,762
Global Avg: 7
Global Avg: 5
Global
Connections

Software
Engineer Salary

Resource
Attraction
Entrepreneurs
Startups

Global Avg: 300
Global
Avg: 5
Global Avg: 83
Global Avg: 49 k
Global Avg: 6.1
Foreign Customers
Market Reach
Experienced Software Engineers
Experienced Growth Employees
Talent
Visa Success Rate
Founders
Demographics
Women Founders
Immigrant Founders
Startup Experience Index
Global Avg: 23%
Global Avg: 72%
Global Avg: 60%
Global Avg: 41%
Global Avg: 16%
Global Avg: 19%
Global Median: $4.1 bn
4.4 m
$83 bn
$10.4 k
200 - 500 6.3
25%
94
0
17%
11%
6
5.8
75%
55%
20%
3.6
Early-stage Funding Growth Index
8.2
$20 k
$1.36 b
"Most of the startups in Johannesburg focus on innovations
to address local challenges, with significant support from the
city of Johannesburg, WITS University, and The Innovation
Hub."
McLean Sibanda
CEO at The Innovation Hub
Johannesburg startups have one of the toughest times
hiring engineers, with a median time of 60 days com-
pared to the global median of 41 days.
"South Africa is bottom of the tables in terms of entrepre-
neurship and we have one of the highest unemployment ra-
tes in the worldall of these issues need to be addressed. My
dream is for the private and public sectors to work together
to support entrepreneurs with effective funding and business
support to create the jobs that we need and to solve our
local problems and challenges."
Claire Bussetti
Financial Services Professional
Johannesburg startups have 0.9 Advisors with Equity, in-
dicating a lack of support systems for founders who are
facing challenges they need help with. The global average
lies at 1.2
133
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Lagos
Lagos, the most populated and fastest growing city on the African
continent, is a rising star in the global startup ecosystem. The city
has transformed tremendously in the last four years, as reflected
in skyrocketing smartphone use and connectivity. While Nigeria is
busy adding six million new internet users every year, the fever-
ish entrepreneurial energy of Lagos and its estimated 400-700
active startups stayed consistent by providing them with useful
new technologies.
Few things can signify the arrival of a city as a contender on the
global startup scene a visit from Mark Zuckerberg, who came to
Aso Villa Demo Day to share his journey to developers and the 30
startups in attendance. As a more general trend, the ecosystem
benefits from globally connected expats bringing back knowledge
and financial capital after working in the U.S or U.K.
At the same time as the business models of local startups become
more robust and innovative over time, we also see more of them
also make headlines by receiving big checks from top Silicon Valley
VCs including Greycroft, Khosla Impact, Green Visor, Social Capital
Partnership, and many others. Among the recent ecosystem vic-
tories is Y-Combinator incubated Flutterwave, a FinTech startup
which is revolutionizing payment methods in places where there
was previously no universally used and accepted payment system
in place and transaction would often take days.
In the global comparison, Lagos is one of the weaker performing
startup ecosystems to date. It is comparably isolated and inexpe-
rienced, but it has low cost engineering talent, who speak great
English assets that could enable them to increase their global
integration. We anticipate more headlines from Lagos as they
work to establish themselves as a hub for startup investment and
innovation over the next few years.
Voices and Findings
"The Lagos startup ecosystem has shown tremendous
growth in the last 12 months with our startups like Flutter-
wave and Paystack amongst many others getting into presti-
gious accelerators like Y Combinator and raising funds from
top tier international investors."
Yele Bademosi
General Manager at Starta Africa
At $2 billion, the Lagos startup ecosystem is the most valu-
able startup ecosystem on the African continent, but only
second in number of startups after Cape Town.
"These are exciting times for the fast-growing Lagos star-
tup ecosystem. We are seeing great and innovative startups
come through the system and local and international inves-
tors proving seed capital to scale the ventures. To be sure,
there are still a lot of challenges facing the ecosystem but
that's to be expected since the ecosystem is in its infancy."
Collins Onuegbu
Director at Lagos Angel Network
The Lagos ecosystem has the 9th highest rate of Found-
ers with an Undergraduate Degree at 59% while 93% of
them have a technical background, the 3rd highest rate
in the world.
Nigeria
134
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Lagos
Metrics
Startup Output
Ecosystem Demographics
Ecosystem Performance
Growth Index
Funding
Metropolitan Population
Metropolitan GDP
Early-stage Funding

per Startup
Ecosystem Value
Experienced VC Firm Index
Global Avg: $267 bn
Global Avg: $252 k
Global Avg: 1,762
Global Avg: 7
Global Avg: 5
Global
Connections

Software
Engineer Salary

Resource
Attraction
Entrepreneurs
Startups

Global Avg: 300
Global
Avg: 5
Global Avg: 83
Global Avg: 49 k
Global Avg: 6.1
Foreign Customers
Market Reach
Experienced Software Engineers
Experienced Growth Employees
Talent
Visa Success Rate
Founders
Demographics
Women Founders
Immigrant Founders
Startup Experience Index
Global Avg: 23%
Global Avg: 72%
Global Avg: 60%
Global Avg: 41%
Global Avg: 16%
Global Avg: 19%
Global Median: $4.1 bn
21 m
$75 bn
$77.8 k
400 - 700 6.6
14%
56
15
4%
6%
5.1
3.8
77%
63%
39%
4.1
Early-stage Funding Growth Index
4.2
$14.1 k
$2 b
"A population of 20 million, long-ignored by global com-
panies, means that Lagos tech startups have a large, ready
customer base without having to expand geographically.
But, this also reflects a shortfall in the thinking of many local
founders, who lack context of how their business may fit into
a global competitive landscape and scale. Increased dia-
logue with international investors, Nigerian-returnees who
have worked at tech companies globally, and the adoption
of Lagos as a key market of focus by some of the world's best
incubators, has already helped shape otherwise conservative
thinking around business models and innovation."
Alexandra Novitske
Principal Investment Officer - Africa at Singularity Investments
Lagos startups have one of the lowest rates of Foreign Cus-
tomers at 6%, suggesting challenges to Go Global (overall
average at 23%). Only 11% of startups plan to Go Global.
"Entrepreneurs in the Lagos ecosystem and in Africa at large,
have an opportunity to tremendously impact the high rate
of unemployment plaguing the continent through innovati-
on in the new economy. I encourage us all to keep pushing
boundaries regardless of the challenges we face and take on
the opportunities by playing to our natural resilient strength
as Africans."
Emeka Akano
Co-Founder and CEO at Jara Mobile
135
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
We would like to express our deep gratitude towards all who
helped to make this project possible. A global project like the
Startup Ecosystem Report can only be realized with enormous
efforts from both the project team and external supporters.
Several partners have invested significant resources into the
project. Numerous advisors, founders, investors, and industry
experts have given us access to their knowledge, networks, and
time because they support our vision and wanted to move their
ecosystem and the whole startup sector forward. Thank you.
Authors
JF Gauthier, CEO and Founder
Marc Penzel, COO and Founder
Max Marmer, Writer & Founder Emeritus
Project Team
Anne Driscoll, CMO
Jenna Yee, Head of Operations
Dane Stangler, Senior Advisor
Bjoern Herrmann, Senior Advisor
Kanika Singal, Senior Advisor
Shane Reiser, President, Startup Genome Nonprofit
Simon Senkl, Head of Data Science and Engineering
Miro Zhelezov, Growth
Tilman Wiewinner, Global Relationship Manager
Matthias Ivantsits, Data Analytics and Software Engineering
Karan Singal, Director Indian Operations
Rahul Chatterjee, Secondary Research Director
Parshant Sharma, Secondary Research
Acknowledgment
and Partners
136
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Acknowledgment and Partners
Mahesh Dabral, Secondary Research
Sunita Swain, Secondary Research
Sandeep Bajjuri, Primary Research
Agil Manizada, Data Analysis
Christopher Raic, Data Analysis
Marc Eschen, Data Analysis
Amy Woodward, Software Engineering
Felix Noller, Lead Designer
Diana Martinez, Designer
Livia Gauthier, our mascot
Gio Marcus, Editor
Academic Contributors
Ron Berman, Assistant Professor of Marketing, The Wharton
School of the University of Pennsylvania
Survey Participants and
Interviewees
Thanks to the more than 10,000 survey participants and the ~275
intervieweesstartup founders, investors, leaders of accelerators,
incubators and startup hubs, and policy-makersall over the
world who trusted us by sharing their confidential information
and expert knowledge with us. By providing us with solid quanti-
tative data and insights, they created the basis and the heart of
our research.
Thank you for your support!
Partners and Collaborators
Global Partners
CrunchBase: Everyday investors, journalists, founders, and the
global business community turn to CrunchBase for information
on startups and the people behind them.
Dealroom.co provides data-driven intelligence on high-growth
companies.
Global Entrepreneurship Network is a year-round platform of
programs and initiatives created by the communities that cel-
ebrate Global Entrepreneurship Week each November.
Orb Intelligence: Business Information for B2B Marketing and
Sales. Orb provides company information and smart algorithms
as a service to marketing software vendors and B2B agencies.
Angel Resource Institute provides education, training, men-
toring, and information on best practices in the field of angel
investing to improve connections between angel investors and
entrepreneurs.
Regional Report Partners
We expect to publish regional reports over the coming months
in partnership or collaboration with the following organizations.
SPAIN
Catalonia Trade & Investment/ACCI is the Catalan Government
agency for foreign investment and business competitiveness. It
promotes startup innovation in over 110 markets with 39 offices
around the world.
ONTARIO
The Government of Ontario, Ministry of Research, Innovation
and Science supports world-class research, commercialization
and innovation taking place across Ontario through a range of
programs and services.
MaRS: with 1.5 million square feet of space in downtown Toronto,
MaRS is the world's largest urban innovation hub. It supports
scaling ventures that are tackling key challenges and helps open
global markets to drive adoption of new solutions.
Communitech, founded by entrepreneurs in 1997, now supports
an ecosystem of more than 1,000 tech companiesfrom startups
to rapidly growing mid-size companies and large global players.
137
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Acknowledgment and Partners
Ecosystem Partners
Multi-Locations
BCG Digital Ventures
Global Entrepreneurship Network
Samsung NEXT
Seedstars World
Startup Digest
Startup Socials
Startupbootcamp
Techstars
Ecosystems by alphabetical order
Amsterdam
B. Amsterdam
Bright Move
Rockstart
Startupbootcamp
StartupJuncture
UtrechtInc
YES!Delft
Atlanta
ATDC
Atlanta Tech Village
FlatironCity
TechSquare Labs
Austin
Austin Technology Incubator
Built In
Central Texas Angel Network
St. Edward's University
Techstars
The University of Texas at Austin
WeWork
Bangalore, Delhi, and Mumbai
91springboard
Global Incubation Services
India Business Group
Innov8
INVEST INDIA
KarmaCircles
Kyron Global
LetsVenture
Microsoft Ventures
Mumbai Angels
NASSCOM
CO-LIV
TLabs
Barcelona
101 Startups
Antai Venture Builder
Connector
SeedRocket
Beijing
91Maker
creativeyoungcommu
Cyzone
Innoway BJ
Makesglobal
Noodle&Meetup
Startup Grind
Suhehui
technode
138
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Acknowledgment and Partners
Berlin
Berlin Valley
DB mindbox
Factory Berlin
FinLeap
Hub:raum
KPMG
Microsoft Accelerator
Project A
Rocket Internet
Techstars
Boston
Carlton PR & Marketing
CIC
Health Innovators
MassChallenge
PitchFull
Techstars
The Capital Network
Cape Town
AngelHub Ventures
Kieno Kammies Strategic Business Solutions
Silicon Cape
Techstars
The LaunchLab
Warren Harding
Chicago
Catapult Chicago
MATTER
The Shift Chicago
University of Chicago
Colorado
BEN Colorado
Built In Colorado
Estonia
Buildit
Civitta
Contriber
Startup Wise Guys
Tehnopol
Frankfurt
Commerzbank
Deutsche Bank
Deutsche Brse Group
Frankfurt Economic Development
HTAI
ING-DiBa
KPMG
Merck
PwC
Helsinki
ArcticStartup
Conor Venture Partners
Espoo Innovation Garden
FiBAN
FVCA
Nestholma
NewCo Helsinki
NFBAN
Slush
Startup Sauna
Startup100
Houston
Circular Board
Fannin Innovation Studio
HATCH pitch
Houston Angel Network
Houston Technology Center
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Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Acknowledgment and Partners
Mercury Fund
RED Labs
Rice University - McNair Center for Entrepreneurship and In-
novation
Rice University - OwlSpark
Rice University - Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneur-
ship
Station Houston
Unconventional Capital
Jerusalem
Jerusalem Venture Partners (JVP)
Jumpspeed Ventures
Made in JLM
MassChallenge
Siftech
Johannesburg
Edge Growth
Endeavor
Everlytic
Raizcorp
Seed Academy
Technology Innovation Agency
Kuala Lumpur
1337 VENTURES
Agensi Inovasi Malaysia
Cradle Fund
MAD Incubator
Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation
Malaysian Technology Development Corporation
MAVCAP
Maybank
myNEF
SME Corp.
TeAM
Technology Park Malaysia
Telekom Malaysia
TERAJU
Lagos
Jara Mobile
OIIE
Seedstars World
Singularity Investments
TechCabal
Techpoint
Lisbon
Beta-i
BGI
Fbrica de Startups
Labs Lisboa
LISPOLIS
Startup Lisboa
Tec Labs
London
Balderton Capital
KPMG
MassChallenge
Techstars
The Accelerator Network
Wayra UK
Los Angeles
Mucker Capital
WeWork
Malta
The Malta Communications Authority

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Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Acknowledgment and Partners
Melbourne
Hub Australia
Inspire9
Melbourne Accelerator Program
Startup Victoria
Teamsquare
Mexico City
Hackers/Founders
Techstars
Montreal
Arche Innovation
Credo
District 3
FounderFuel
Notman House
Real Ventures
Startupfest
Moscow
GVA
HSE
IIDF
Maxfield Capital
New York City
Digital.NYC
District Cowork
ff Venture Capital
Gust
Rubicon Venture Capital
New Zealand
Lightning Lab
New Zealand Venture Investment Fund
Powerhouse
Snowball Effect
The Ice House
Ottawa
Algonquin College
Capital Angels
Kanata North BIA
L-SPARK
La Cit
Lead To Win
Startup Garage
Paris
50 Partners
NUMA
TheFamily
Quebec City
BDC
PwC
ROBIC
VETIQ
Ville de Quebec
Santiago
Austral Incuba
Chrysalis
Fundacion Chile
Imagine Lab
Incuba UC
INNOVO
Magical Startups
Santiago Innova
Start-Up Chile
UDD Ventures
University of La Frontera
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Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Acknowledgment and Partners
So Paulo
ABStartups
colab.re
CUBO
Dnamo
Google
So Paulo Negcios
Start-Up Brasil
Startup Farm
Techstars
X4Start
Seattle
Techstars
Seoul
Academy X
Big Bang Angels
BLT patent & law firm
FuturePlay
Google Korea
ROA Invention LAB
SparkLabs
The Innovation Hub
VENTURE SQUARE
Shanghai
ChinaAccelerator
Ether Capital
Innoclub
Innospace+
NakedHub
People Square
Startup Grind
technode
Xnode
Silicon Valley
Computer History Museum
GSVlabs
Manos Accelerator
PARISOMA
RocketSpace
Singapore
500 Startups
AIRmaker
Collision 8
Entrepreneur First
Expara
Golden Gate Ventures
JFDI
muru-D
SeedPlus
SGInnovate
Singapore Management University
Spacemob
SPH Plug & Play
Startupbootcamp
TAG.PASS
The Finlab
Sri Lanka
Lankan Angel Network
SLASSCOM
Startup Sri Lanka
St. Louis
BioGenerator
Capital Innovators
CIC
Cultivation Capital
Donald Danforth Plant Science Center
ITEN
Missouri Technology Corporation
Prosper Women Entrepreneurs
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Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Acknowledgment and Partners
T-REX
Yield Lab
Stockholm
Epicenter
Impact Hub
Industrifonden
Keiretsu Forum
NFT VENTURES
SSES
Startup Grind
STING
Stockholm Business Region
SUP46
Sweden Demo Day
Venture Cup
Tel Aviv
Geektime
SOSA
Toronto
Centre for Social Innovation
City of Toronto
DMZ
NEXT Canada
OneEleven
Toronto Global
Turin
2i3T
I3P
USA
Rise of the Rest
Vancouver
BC Tech Association
HIGHLINE
Launch Academy
RADIUS SFU
Sauder S3i
Startup Package Partners
To reward participants of our online survey, multiple great com-
panies agreed to offer huge discounts on their product:
AWS China is a secure cloud services platform, offering compute
power, database storage, content delivery and other functionality
to help businesses scale and grow.
Compass is the leading solution for automated management
reports and benchmarks for small and medium-sized online
businesses.
Foundersuite is a collection of software tools and templates that
help startup CEOs execute more efficiently and effectively.
Hotjar is a new powerful way to reveal true website user behavior
and experiences in one central tool giving you the big picture
of how you can improve your site's UX and conversion rates. All
your data is securely stored in the cloud and accessible at light-
ning speed.
Olark is a lightweight chat tool that you can integrate on your
site or application within a
few minutes. It's great for engag-
ing and
learning from your customers right when they use
your product.
Zendesk is a customer support application. Being responsive
and in touch with your customers makes a big difference no
matter in what stage your company is.
Promotional Partners
Sticky Docs
Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center
Launch Pad
Hermes Group
143
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
The ranking methodology focuses on the following aspects:
Stakeholder Objectives: informing our stakeholders' strategic
decisions
Objectivity and Transparency: producing a data-driven, objective
ranking based on a transparent weighting formula and factors.
Data Sources: using multiple data sources to assess a large
sample of startups.
Robustness and Stability: testing multiple formulas to make
sure the ranking is robust to different data selection methods.

The ranking captures only a fraction of Startup Genome's eco-
system assessment framework. The broader framework provides
an in-depth, quantitative analysis of the ecosystem, including the
identification of its lifecycle phase, strengths and weaknesses,
and benchmarks.
1. Stakeholder Objectives
We took four different perspectives when defining the objectives
of this report.
Startups: Where should I form my tech startup in order to max-
imize my chances of building a global success? Where should I
open a second office?
Startups, Investors, and Supporters: What ecosystem weakness-
es do I have to compensate for?
Investors: where are there Funding gaps I can take advantage
of?
Ecosystem Leaders: how can we accelerate the growth of our
startup ecosystem?
2. Data Sources
We have focused our efforts on collecting measurable and veri-
fiable information from startups and investors, local ecosystem
partners, and third-party sources.
Here's a description of our main datasets:
Startup Genome proprietary data
Interview of Experts: ~ 275 interviews across 25 countries with
founders, investors, and industry experts in 2015 and 2016;
2016 Startup Ecosystem Survey with more than 10,000 par-
ticipants with the majority concentrated in 56 ecosystems;
CrunchBase: global dataset on funding, exits, and locations of
startups and investors;
Orb Intelligence: global dataset on funding, exits, and locations
of startups and investors;
Dealroom: global dataset on funding, office location funding
flow;
Local partners (accelerators, incubators, startup hubs, inves-
tors):
list of startups;
list of local funding events
Methodology
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Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Methodology
3. Definitions Used
(see the 'Model Explanation' section for the main definitions)
Tech Startup. Steve Blank defines a startup as a "temporary
organization in search for a repeatable and scalable business
model". We then define tech startups around the usage of
the term in Silicon Valley: startups whose products are mostly
software-based. This includes web, mobile and other software,
including eCommerce companies that offer their platform to
others, and small web-connected devices (e.g. IoT). We collect-
ed data from hardware, biotech, nanotech, and cleantech but
excluded them from our analysis. This is the only way to analyze
a more homogenous set of startups (rather than comparing
apples to oranges).
Location: where possible we assigned a startup to the ecosys-
tem where it was created by manually researching all of the
large acquisitions and the largest exits.
Indexes: an index is obtained by capping the z-score of each
ecosystem's value for for any factor, sub-factor or metric at five
standard deviations away from the mean, then adding five. This
results in an index of zero to ten with an average of five, and
each point up or down representing a movement of one stan-
dard deviation away from the mean. For instance an ecosystem
Output growth rate of 12% compared to a mean of 10% and
standard deviation of 2% for all the ecosystems would result in
an Output Growth Index of 6 for that ecosystem.

4. Selected Data Timeframes:
Ecosystem Value, Exit Value, and Startup Valuation: sum of exits
and funding rounds of 2014, 2015 and 1H2016
Latest quality year: in 2015 we assessed that it takes one year
for half of the seed rounds to find their way into our major data
sources. Therefore for earlier-stage metrics the year 2015 is
the latest one for which reliable benchmarks can be computed.
Early-Stage Funding: Sum of all Seed and Series A investments
in 2014 and 2015, corrected for obviously missing rounds.

5. Ranking Methodology
The ranking is a weighted average of the following factor scores:
Performance: 30%
Funding: 25%
Market Reach: 20%
Startup Experience: 15%
Talent: 10%

We calculated an ecosystem index value for each factor, based on
the sub-factor and metrics detailed below. The ecosystems scores
were multiplied by the above weights to establish the overall rank
of each ecosystem. The weights of the factors were determined
in 2015 and adjusted in 2016 through correlation analyses and
modeling work based on linear regression analyses, using factor
indexes as independent variables with the performance index as
dependent variable. Startup Experience gained weight as it now
includes a more reliable metric of experience and has a stronger,
clearer relationship with Performance. The weight for Talent was
reduced because its resulting regression coefficient was lower.
We then varied the weights and scoring sensitivity for each sub-
factor and metric to measure the fit of the model as measured by
the regression's r-squared (0.90) and the variables' t-values. Finally,
adding the actual Performance Index to the ranking formula
serves to include the influence of unobserved factors on the
performance of an ecosystem.
6. Changes from 2015
In general we diversified the ranking away from size and towards
more current and leading indicators of success.
Reduced the overall weight attributed to metrics capturing
ecosystem size ("bigger is better" metrics)
Increased the overall weight of current and leading indicators
(e.g. startup valuation and growth indexes), reducing the weight
of lagging indicators (e.g. Exit Value)
Adopted log functions where this showed a better fit with per-
formance measures, reducing the score of larger ecosystems
Added Global Connectedness to better capture the relation-
ships between entrepreneurs that have a marked impact on
the ability of startups to "Go-Global" (see the Global Connect-
edness section)
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Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Methodology
7. Ranking Details
Performance
Captures the actual leading, current, and lagging indicators of
ecosystem performance.
50% Startup Valuation (or Startup Value) (Log of): sum of all
startups valuations and estimated valuations during the time-
frame without double-counting
25% Exit Value = 90% Exit Value + 10% Exit Value Growth Index:
sum of all exit valuations plus exits with unknown valuations
estimated at the 25% percentile of global exits with known
valuations
25% Output = 90% Output + 10% Output Growth Index
Number of startups
A new statistical method, MSE (Multiple System Estimation),
led to much more reliable estimations
Funding
Quantifies funding metrics important to the success of early-stage
startups.
90% Access
90% Early-Stage Funding = 90% sum (log) + 10% amount per
startup
10% Early-Stage Funding growth rate (2012/13 vs 2014/15)
10% Quality (Experienced VC Firm Index)
50% number of VC firms with 5-year experience (log)
50% ratio of experienced to non-experienced VC firms
Market Reach
Measures early-stage startup access to customers allowing them
to scale and "Go-Global" from the onset.
50% Reach: mix of local GDP and Global Reach to balance the
effect that very small economies have, by definition, a high pro-
portion of customers from neighboring countries but it is not
strictly indicative of their ability to go-global
40% Local Reach: National GDP
60% Global Reach: percentage of Foreign Customers
50% Global Connectedness
50% Global Market: Meaningful relationships with local entre-
preneurs reported by international entrepreneurs (Inbound
Entrepreneur Connections), indicating to what degree start-
ups from all over the world are active in this ecosystem,
making local customers knowledgeable of global innovations
(Global Customers)
40% Global Connections: Average number of meaningful
relationships reported by local entrepreneurs (Outbound En-
trepreneur Connections) with international entrepreneurs in
the following top ecosystems (excluding any such ecosystem
located within their country): Silicon Valley, New York City,
London, Berlin, Tel Aviv, Singapore and Shanghai.
10% Global Connections Made Locally: Meaningful interna-
tional relationships with entrepreneurs reported by local en-
trepreneurs as having been made locally, indicating to what
degree an entrepreneur can build a global network without
travelling
Talent
Assesses the talent early-stage startups have access to.
80% Access
37.5% Experienced Software Engineers: percentage with 2+
years prior experience in a startup
12.5% Time to Hire Software Engineers (lower is better)
25% Experienced Growth Team: percentage with 2+ years
prior experience in a startup
12.5% Days required for an answer to a work visa application
(lower is better)
12.5% Work Visa Success Rate
10% Quality
80 points National Score at Coding tests: HackerRank and
TopCoder, capturing the average raw talent of developers in
each countrythis is what an ecosystem starts with
50 points Startup Experience: number of exits over $50 million
during the last 10 years, measuring actual scaling experience
accumulated by the ecosystem and present (on average) in
the technical team
15 points Global Resource Attraction: indicates the ability to
attract high-quality talent from other countries
10% Cost: software engineer salary (lower is better): from Glass-
door, Salary. com, and PayScale
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Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Methodology
Startup Experience
Captures the degree of startup experience in an ecosystem and
the degree to which its founders espouse practices that are
known to positively impact a startup's success based on Startup
Genome research.
60% Ecosystem Experience: cumulative number of startups over
10 years that started in the ecosystem and exited
66.7% log of number of exits over $1 billion
33.3% log of number of exits over $50 million
40% Team Experience
33.3% percentage of startups with at least one founder with
prior experience in a hypergrowth startup or unicorn
33.3% average number of advisors with equity, indicating the
advisor is worth giving stock to and is actually involved
33.3% ESOP to All: percentage of startups that offer stock
options to all their employees, indicating the founder knows
it has a positive impact on performance and that employees
value it enough for the founder to offer them, indicating a local
startup culture (see 'Startup Genome Report Why Startups
Succeed' in our website research section)
Growth Index
33.3% Output Index: annual growth in the three-year average
formation of startups (2010-2012 vs 2013-2015, longer time-
frame is used due to the two- to three-year delay in the capture
of startup formation in popular databases)
33.3% annual growth in the average of early-stage funding
(2012-2013 vs 2014-2015, 2015 being the last selected year
because of the one- two-year delay in the capture of seed
funding events in popular databases)
33.3% annual growth in the two-year moving average of Exit
Value (2013-2014 vs 2014-2015, selected to be consistent with
other measures)
147
Copyright 2017 Startup Genome LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Primary Data Sources
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Orb Intelligence Inc. (2017). orb-intelligence.com Database [Database]
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