Sydney’s startup ecosystem has been highly commended in 2018’s Startup Genome report, which labelled the city as the fourth best for local connectedness, and as an ecosystem to watch for developing fintech and adtech companies.
Melbourne was also slated as an ecosystem to watch for the emerging adtech space, along with the health and life sciences industries. Startup Genome is a report backed by research into more than 10,000 startups, and has been publishing global reports since 2012.
The report categorised “local connectedness” as “the internal knowledge network of an ecosystem”, which measures the extent to which a “startup community is tightly-knit (a factor that facilitates the flow of knowledge) or is only loosely connected”.
“Overall, local connectedness correlates strongly with overall ecosystem rank,” the report read.
Australia also took home accolades as a top five country for blockchain- and artificial intelligence-related patents, which in a statement, StartupAus chief executive Alex McCauley said was “international recognition of the powerful momentum within the sector[s]”.
In a statement, Jobs for NSW chair David Thodey said the report’s results shows Sydney is one of the best startup hubs in the APAC region, and a number of efforts from the state government and global tech giants have gone a long way towards improving the city’s status.
“The survey shows nowhere in the Asia Pacific beats Sydney as a place where founders can best connect and build strong relationships — not Singapore, not Hong Kong, not Shanghai, and certainly no other Australian city,” Thodey said in a statement.
“The strong connections between startup founders in Sydney are testament to investments made in recent years, including the $35 million Sydney Startup Hub and efforts to connect Sydney with startup communities around the state.
“Microsoft recently brought its world-renowned intensive program for start-ups to the Sydney Startup Hub, making it one of only eight global host locations — a huge vote of confidence in Sydney’s status as a global startup leader.”
Dominic Powell is a journalist at SmartCompany and a tech and music geek. When he’s not writing, you can find him reading or browsing record shops.
