StartupBlink has just released the 2019 edition of its Startup Ecosystem Rankings Report, which now encompasses 1,000 cities and 100 countries across the world. This is the first StartupBlink report that aims to track both momentum and trends within the global startup ecosystem.
StartupBlink’s algorithm analyzes tens of thousands of data points. Data is coming from the company’s community of 50,000 members as well as from such partners as Crunchbase and SimilarWeb. The ranking is based on criteria related to the quantity, the quality and the business environment of each ecosystem at the country or city level.
Unsurprisingly, the US leads the country ranking, far ahead of any other country. Then come the UK, Canada, Israel and Australia, immediately followed by a range of European countries. Among them is Russia, ranked 15th, up from 18th place in the previous, 2017 ranking.
Russia is ahead of India (17th place), South Korea (19th), Singapore (21st) and Japan (23rd) – but behind its small neighbors Finland (12th) and Estonia (13th).
In the city ranking (dominated, of course, by San Francisco and its area), Moscow does not do bad at the 10th place. The Russian capital is well behind New York, London, Los Angeles and Boston, but not that far from Tel Aviv, Berlin, Chicago and Seattle.
“Startup ecosystems are important. Good startup ecosystems create jobs, boost the economy, increase tax revenue, improve quality of life and urban innovation, and attract and retain talent. There are only two options – progress forward or get left behind,” says StartupBlink founder Eli David.
“Ranking these startup ecosystems is also important,” he continues. “As an entrepreneur, location will greatly influence the chances your startup will succeed. Corporations use these rankings to make decisions about future expansion, universities and consulting agencies use them for research, and governments and local development organization use them to gauge how well their programs are paying off.”
David consistently recommends entrepreneurs to “run away” if they operate in an underperforming ecosystem, “where authorities makes life difficult for entrepreneurs” – unless these entrepreneurs are strong enough to “take the lead” in such places.
