A global startup report from Startup Genome has looked at every major startup centre around the world, including our little neck of the woods, and has placed Perth 5th on our ‘Oceania’ region, behind Sydney (1st), then Melbourne, New Zealand and Brisbane.
“Early-stage funding in Oceania between 2018 and 2020 totalled over $2 billion,” the report says, “A 35% increase from the previous two-and-a-half-year period.
“Oceanic startup ecosystems are collectively worth over US$30 billion in value, with 90% concentrated in Sydney, Melbourne, and New Zealand. Two Oceanic ecosystems, Sydney and Melbourne, are in the top 25 ecosystems globally for Connectedness and Talent.”
The ratings for all major cities and regions as regards startups looks at 150 cities in more than 180 countries. They were each judged on:
- performance (ecosystem value, exits and startup success),
- funding (access, quality and activity),
- connectedness (local connectivity and infrastructure),
- market reach (global leading companies, IP commercialisation and local reach)
- knowledge (research and patents), and
- talent (access, quality and cost).
No surprises, Silicon Valley topped the charts, with New York second, then London, Beijing and Boston. The top 7 in the list (Los Angeles and Tel Aviv were 6th and 7th respectively) were all worth at least US$110 billion in value. An astonishing number. These 7 have been at the top for the past 3 consecutive years, according to the report.
The highest Aussie centre was Sydney coming in at 24th, with Melbourne in a tie for 36th. Six countries boast two or more leading startup cities in the top 30 globally, with the US on 15, and China, India, Canada, Germany and Australia with two each.
Half of the top 30 centres were in the States, with Asia accounting for just over a quarter, then Europe.
“Asia … has the potential to catch up with North America as evidenced by the steady growth in exit value. Exits in the first half of 2021 alone total over US$423.5 billion,” the report noted.
Perth did not make into the top 100 startup cities or centres in the world (Brisbane made it into the 70s), but one wonders what real analysis of the WA ecosystem was actually performed. However, we did get a mention in the Oceania region, as one of top 5 centres.
Unicorns could come from anywhere
Noting how unicorns (private companies worth more than US$1 billion) were now proliferating and originating from all over the planet, the report noted (see chart) how Europe has more cities with more than one unicorn (65) than the USA (42) and China (23), rest of Asia (23) and the rest of the world (17).
That’s a lot of unicorns.
Go to it, #WA #startups!
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You can download and read the report on Startup Genome website. Lots of cool stuff to fill out a slide deck with.
