SA is Africa’s top startup ecosystem reveals ranking

South Africa may still have the highest ranked startup ecosystem for an African country, but it has fallen one place to 52 out of 100 countries, over 2018.

This, according to StartupBlink, a global startup ecosystem map with tens of thousands of registered startups, co-working spaces and accelerators.

Its Startup Ecosystem Rankings 2020 report ranks 100 countries and 1000 cities for 2020.

Startup Blink draws its data from what it claims is an algorithm that analyses tens of thousands of data points on registered startups, accelerators and coworking spaces listed on the StartupBlink global startup ecosystem map, as well as data received from its global partners such as Crunchbase, Semrush, UNAids and Meetup.

The report by Startup Blink ranks South Africa’s startup ecosystem at 52 out of 100 countries

The report puts South Africa just behind Slovakia, Thailand, Malaysia and Turkey — but ahead of Kenya, The Philippines, Nigeria and Peru.

The US is ranked as the top ecosystem, followed by the UK, Israel and Canada respectively.

When it comes to other African ecosystems, Kenya is ranked 62 (down from 51), Nigeria at 56 (68), Egypt at 60 (81), Rwanda at 64 (65), Morocco at 65 (83), Tunisia at 74 (77), Ghana at 75 (85), Uganda at 81 (89), Cape Verde at 91 and Somalia at 95.

Cameroon, Botswana, Zambia, Algeria and Ethiopia, which were all ranked in Startup Blink’s 2018 report, did not appear in this year’s ranking.

Nairobi top African city

When it comes to cities, the report places Cape Town at 146 (up 11 places from 157 in 2018) and Johannesburg at 160th spot (up 88 places). The report claims Cape Town is home to 60% of all South African startups.

This compares to Nairobi at 116 (down 11 places), Lagos at 127 (down 28 spots) and Cairo at 201 (down 24 spots). Kigali is ranked at 226 (up six places), Tunis at 283 (down 60 spots), Accra at 351 (down 107 places) and Casablanca at 378 (down 94 places).

The ranking places San Francisco as the city with the world’s best startup ecosystem, followed by New York, London, Boston, Los Angeles and Boston, respectively. Six emerging market cities are among the top 25 — with Beijing at 6, Moscow at 9, Bangalore at 14, New Delhi at 15, São Paulo at 18 and Mumbai at 22.

Read more: SA still Africa’s top startup ecosystem but has fallen 13 places, shows new ranking

Featured image: Love Cape Town via Facebook