Amsterdam used to be the place where recent grads would spend a gap-year adventure biking between Red Light district tours and coffee-shop visits. Now it’s where entrepreneurs turn for venture capital funding, innovation infrastructure, and a network of like-minded corporate types. According to a new report on the top cities for innovation, Amsterdam has innovated itself to be one of the hubs for global entrepreneurship.
The report from Innovation Leader looks at the top 15 cities around the globe (excluding cities in North America) that are helping to promote innovation. To make its rankings, the website took into consideration factors like the presence of startups and venture capital funding, nearby top-notch universities, corporate headquarters of large companies, the presence of incubators and accelerator programs, the economic competitiveness of the country, and government support for entrepreneurship, venture capital, and innovation infrastructure.
At the top of the list sits Beijing, thanks to its booming economy, the presence of startups, the 50 Beijing-based companies that ended up on the Fortune Global 500 list, plenty of multinational business folks, and access to government officials (always a good thing in China). While Asian cities dominate the list, Europe is well-represented, too, with four cities there making efforts to support innovative ideas, creative problem solving, and startup culture.
Perhaps the most interesting addition to the list is Jakarta, which is home to several fast-growing startups, including Traveloka, an online travel booking platform; Tokopedia, an online marketplace and provider of financial services; and Go-Jek, the country’s answer to Uber and its first unicorn.
Here’s the full list:
- Beijing
- London
- Tel Aviv
- Singapore
- Shanghai
- Stockholm
- Bangalore, India
- Amsterdam
- Tokyo
- Berlin
- Seoul
- Basel, Switzerland
- Shenzhen, China
- Dubai
- Jakarta, Indonesia
Check out the full details here, and if you’re desperate to know which cities in the U.S. are helping to create an innovation economy, Innovation Leader has a separate 2017 list of the top cities in North America for corporate innovation.
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