StartupBlink along with Crunchbase recently published the Startup Ecosystem Ranking Reports 2019. The report ranks 1,000 cities over 100 countries worldwide based on thousands of data points accumulated and analyzed over the last 5 years, with some interesting insights about the startup ecosystems across the globe.
For example, the Top 10 list witnessed little change, with the USA, UK, Canada, and Israel consistently holding onto the top 4 positions since 2017. There were however, three new entrants into the top 10 rankings – Australia, the Netherlands, and Spain.
The real battle was in the 11-30 ranking list, where some countries rose up the ranks while some of them fell down from their previous1ly held positions. One of the countries that were a surprise entrant to this list was India.
Key insights about the Indian startup ecosystem
When it comes to the Indian startup ecosystem, the data is encouraging. Here are a few insights from the report:
- On the global ranking scale, India jumped to 17th rank, surpassing 20 rivals since 2017, while countries like Singapore and China went down the 2019 rankings taking up the 21st and 26th spot respectively.
- Besides USA, India is the only country that saw the most number of cities ranked in the top 100 cities.
- A total of 6 top-tier cities in the country ranked in the top 100 startup ecosystems out of 1,000 cities considered. Bengaluru jumped to the 11th position from 21st in 2017 while New Delhi jumped up to 18th rank from the previous 23rd rank in 2017. Mumbai ranked 29th whereas Chennai jumped to 74th position, 143 spots up from its 2017 position. Hyderabad jumped to 75th place from the previous 190th and Pune jumped to 82nd position, 136 spots up from 2017.
Factors supporting the rise in rankings of Indian cities
While India’s entry into the top 20 countries may appear as a welcome surprise, there are several factors that have served as a catalyst for the rapid rise of India and its top-tier cities in the rankings. Some of these factors include the upgrading of India’s “Doing Business” score by the World Bank in recent years, owing to the slew of reforms brought about by the incumbent government and the growing entrepreneurial spirit throughout the country.
India has proved itself as a startup powerhouse with large scale startup activity and the emergence of several unicorns across its top-tier cities.
The continuing rise of India and its top-tier cities in the global startup ecosystem rankings is exciting as it showcases the huge potential of the country’s startups and entrepreneurs to stand toe-to-toe with the technology giants and silicon valleys of the world. Having said that, it is critical that the ecosystem continues to get the right support.
The key challenges India will face as it rises in the rankings are government policies, improvement in the quality of startups and increasing the number of unicorns in subsequent years.
Opportunities for workspace solution providers
From the perspective of commercial office spaces and specifically coworking spaces, the rising position of India’s startup ecosystem presents a huge opportunity to support and flame the country’s entrepreneurial spirit. Startups and SMEs require good infrastructure, facilities and the right environment that promotes collaboration and innovation in order to grow and thrive.
Coworking spaces are rightly positioned to provide this kind of support as they offer customers more choices in terms of flexible workspace options, amenities, IT infrastructure support, and tailored pricing. In fact, as per the StartupBlink report, startup teams have reported the biggest benefits from coworking spaces as it gives them flexible pricing while allowing them to operate and network under the same roof.
As the coworking industry continues to evolve and mature, new spaces have sprung up offering tailored workspace solutions to niche clients as well as more efficient access to workspaces through programs such as scalable office spaces, virtual offices, and day passes. Additionally, there has been a growing trend towards larger spaces on the whole with more amenities and creative space. This trend has encouraged workplace solution providers to enlarge their spaces and open up additional spaces, offering more flexibility to customers to move between locations.
Conclusion
The rise of India’s metros in the global startup ecosystem rankings has been supported by the right government policies and growing entrepreneurial spirit in the country. As the country continues to rise, it presents huge opportunities for workplace solution providers and specifically coworking spaces to tailor their offerings to support their customers to continue to innovate, grow and thrive.
