Sydney was ranked 24th in the world, behind San Diego (21), Berlin (22) and Bangalore (23), and ahead of Hangzhou (25), Atlanta (26) and Vancouver (29).
The good news for the Emerald
City is that it’s halted a three-year greece cell phone database slide in the annual rankings, rising 3 places from 27 in 2020 (23 in 2019). Melbourne is equal 36th – the same as 2020 – alongside Geneva/Bern, Delhi and Dublin in the GSER rankings.
Silicon Valley maintained its top slot, but the big improver in the last 12 months is London, now ranked equal second alongside New York City, up from 4th in 2020. Beijing dropped from 3 to 4. Next on the top 10 list are: Boston, Los Angeles, Tel Aviv, Shanghai, Toyko and Seattle.
North America continues to dominate the Global Rankings, with 50% of the Top 30 ecosystems coming from this region, followed by Asia with 27% and Europe with 17% of the top performing ecosystems globally.
The global startup economy is worth over US$3.8 trillion in ecosystem value.
Sydney bounces back
The Startup Genome report says the Sydney ecosystem is now worth US$17.4 billion (A$24bn) and Melbourne’s US$7.6bn (A$10.5bn).
Melbourne’s ecosystem rose in value by A$3 billion rapid rise in the value in Victoria’s capital is revealed in the annual report, growing from $2.21bn 2018, up 475% in just four years.
The startup ecosystem rankings look at five key criteria in each city: Performance, funding, connectedness, market reach, talent and knowledge.
With Silicon Valley topping the list with straight 10s in all categories, Sydney’s scores were: performance 4, funding 4, connectedness 8, market reach 5, talent 4, knowledge 1.
Melbourne’s scores were: performance 1, funding 1, connectedness 4, market reach 2, talent 2, knowledge 1.
Sydney’s early-stage funding sat at US$922 million in FY21, more than double the global average of US$431m.
The median seed round was US$525,000 (global av. US$494,000). The median series A$4 million (global av. A$2.7m).
Atlassian, and local unicorns Canva and Zip singled out as part of a Sydney’s “dynamic, educated workforce” in the GSER.
“What truly sets Sydney apart is its tight-knit tech community centered around a handful of innovation centers and accelerators. The Sydney Startup Hub opened in 2017 and generated more than $280 million in investment and over 1000 jobs in its first 2 years in operation,” the report said.
“Since December 2020 Sydney Quantum Academy has been working to build on that strength by supporting established companies, startups like Q-CTRL, and government-backed enterprises like Silicon Quantum Computing.”
Sydney topped the Oceania region, follow by Melbourne and New Zealand, which together, account for 90% of the region’s ecosystem value, worth US$30 billion (A$41.5bn).
Sydney and Melbourne, are in the top 25 ecosystems globally for Connectedness and Talent.
The report says early-stage funding in Oceania between 2018 and 2020 totaled over US$2 billion, a 35% increase from the previous two-and-a-half-year period.
The Startup Genome report singles out fintech and digital & creative industries as Sydney’s sub-sector strengths, with Australia ranked equal first in the world for technological readiness, for fintech , with more than 60% of the nation’s fintech companies planting their HQ in the city.
Athena Home Loans and Zip are cited as local success stories.