Multiple cities in Canada’s top 10 startup ecosystems soared through StartupBlink’s global index for 2023.
Israel startup ecosystem map and research centre, StartupBlink, published its Global Startup Ecosystem Index for 2023 in late May. The report provides rankings for entire countries and for individual cities within those countries.
Though Canada maintains the rank of fourth place among 100 countries, the report found that regions within the country experienced significant changes in the last year.
This year, Canada placed 39 cities in StartupBlink’s top 1,000 cities for startups. The top 10 cities in Canada are:
- Toronto
- Vancouver
- Montréal
- Ottawa
- Kitchener
- Calgary
- Québec
- Edmonton
- Kingston
- Halifax
In the global ranking this year, Ottawa jumped the most, ascending the roster by 21 points, now in 68th place. Kitchener increased 15 places, currently ranked 76th globally; while Québec City is now at 129th place, up 13 places.
Though a number of Canada’s top 10 cities decreased in ranking, the drop was minor. Compared to last year, Vancouver fell by one point, now 41st on the global list.
Both Alberta-based regions in the top 10 also declined in the global rankings. Calgary dropped seven points while Edmonton went down four; currently ranked 111th and 144th on the StartupBlink’s list of cities across the world, respectively.
RELATED: Calgary only Canadian tech city not to drop in Startup Genome’s annual ecosystem report
There were bigger moves in Canada beyond its top 10 cities, however. Winnipeg and Charlottetown both dropped significantly in the global ranking. Winnipeg, which ranks 13th nationally, went down 96 points in the global ranking, now at 288th place. Notably, Charlottetown declined by almost double, dropping 180 points, now at 675th place globally.
In contrast, two small Ontario regions saw big gains. Saint Catharines, which ranks 21st place in Canada, got a lift by 154 points and is now 552nd place in the global ranking. Owen Sound, which placed 29th overall in Canada, went up 215 points in the international list, ranking at 224th place.
Overall, the top three cities were San Francisco, New York, as well as London, United Kingdom.
StartupBlink’s Canadian ecosystem map includes a sample of 4,097 tech companies, of which 22 startups are identified as unicorns that have $1-billion USD valuations.
StartupBlink’s definition of a startup is any business that offers a technology-enabled solution with the potential to achieve scalability. Its evaluation model uses a sum of three subscores, measuring quantity, quality, and business environment across each region.
More information on StartupBlink’s methodology, Canada’s startup ecosystem, and other countries included in the index can be accessed here.
Featured image courtesy Unsplash.
