GLOBAL OUTLOOK

TECH CITIES OF THE FUTURE

fDi x TNW Tech

Cities of the Future
2020/21 Winners
LONDON RANKS TOP IN FIVE OUT OF SIX
CATEGORIES IN THE fDi/TNW INAUGURAL
TECH CITIES OF THE FUTURE 2020/21.
NAOMI DAVIES REPORTS

L
ondon has won top billing in
fDi and TNW’s Tech Cities of
the Future for 2020/21, as its
combination of capital, talent and
infrastructure has proved unbeata-
ble among European cities. Peers
such as Paris and Dublin have,
however, also developed a compel-
ling proposition for innovators
and start-ups.
The debut Tech Cities of the
Future ranking is focused on finding
those European cities with the most
promising prospects for start-ups,
tech and innovation investment. The
“I’M THRILLED LONDON HAS BEEN
ranking also marks fDi’s first collab- RECOGNISED AS EUROPE’S LEADING
oration with TNW, a media, events
and intelligence company focused
TECH CITY OF THE FUTURE. AS WE LOOK
on new technology and start-ups, TO THE FUTURE, I’M CONFIDENT
and will take the centre stage at
TNW’s Ecosystem couch conference LONDON’S STRENGTHS AS A GLOBAL
scheduled for June 25. TECH HUB WILL CONTINUE TO ATTRACT
Attracting investment INTERNATIONAL BUSINESSES AND
The UK capital triumphed in the TALENT TO THE CITY”
ranking, taking first place in five out
of six categories. According to SADIQ KHAN, MAYOR OF LONDON
research from greenfield investment
monitor fDi Markets, between 2015
and 2019, FDI in the software and IT
services and communications sec-
tors made up about 50% of London’s
total inward FDI, reinforcing its sta-
tus as a tech powerhouse. In 2019,
tech investors in the city ranged

20 www.fDiIntelligence.com June/July 2020

 GLOBAL OUTLOOK
TECH CITIES OF THE FUTURE

TOP 10 TECH CITIES OF THE FUTURE 2020/21 –

INNOVATION AND ATTRACTIVENESS
RANK CITY COUNTRY
1 London UK
2 Paris France
3 Munich Germany
4 Cambridge UK
5 Helsinki Finland
6 Berlin Germany
7 Zurich Switzerland
8 Rome Italy
9 Galway Ireland
10 Bristol UK

TOP 10 TECH CITIES OF THE FUTURE 2020/21 –

COST-EFFECTIVENESS
TOP 10 TECH CITIES OF THE FUTURE 2020/21 – RANK CITY COUNTRY
ECONOMIC POTENTIAL 1 Skopje Macedonia
RANK CITY COUNTRY
2 Iasi Romania
1 London UK 3 Cluj-Napoca Romania
2 Dublin Ireland 4 Kyiv Ukraine
3 Paris France 5 Kaunas Lithuania
4 Istanbul Turkey 6 Bucharest Romania
5 Cork Ireland 7 Sofiya Bulgaria
6 Luxembourg Luxembourg 8 Belgrade Serbia
7 Amsterdam Netherlands 9 Tallinn Estonia
8 Zug Switzerland 10 Vilnius Lithuania
9 Frankfurt am Main Germany
10 Oslo Norway TOP 25 TECH CITIES OF THE FUTURE 2020/21 –
OVERALL
TOP 10 TECH CITIES OF THE FUTURE 2020/21 –
FDI PERFORMANCE RANK CITY COUNTRY
RANK CITY COUNTRY 1 London UK
1 London UK 2 Paris France
2 Dublin Ireland 3 Dublin Ireland
3 Paris France 4 Amsterdam Netherlands
4 Amsterdam Netherlands 5 Berlin Germany
5 Barcelona Spain 6 Munich Germany
6 Berlin Germany 7 Bucharest Romania
7 Madrid Spain 8 Barcelona Spain
8 Belfast UK 9 Belfast UK
9 Vilnius Lithuania 10 Cambridge UK
10 Bucharest Romania Source: fDi Markets 11 Madrid Spain
12 Stockholm Sweden
TOP 10 TECH CITIES OF THE FUTURE 2020/21 – 13 Frankfurt am Main Germany
START-UP ENVIRONMENT 14 Zurich Switzerland
RANK CITY COUNTRY 15 Warsaw Poland
1 London UK 16 Edinburgh UK
2 Reading UK 17 Reading UK
3 Berlin Germany 18 Moscow Russia
4 Warsaw Poland 19 Helsinki Finland
5 Munich Germany 20 Sofiya Bulgaria
6 Zurich Switzerland 21 Milan Italy
7 Cambridge UK 22 Prague Czech Republic
8 Stuttgart Germany 23 Tallinn Estonia
9 Paris France 24 Krakow Poland
10 Moscow Russia 25 Glasgow UK

June/July 2020 www.fDiIntelligence.com 21

GLOBAL OUTLOOK
TECH CITIES OF THE FUTURE

5000
from large multinationals Huawei in research and development.
Technologies, Facebook and Robert According to research by TNW,
Bosch to smaller start-ups such as access to capital is the main strength
Chainalysis and Lilium Aviation. of its start-up ecosystem, with the
According to data compiled by average Series A funding round rais-
London & Partners, the UK capital is ing more than $11m.
producing more unicorn tech com- LONDON CONTINUES TO BE As a global financial centre, Lon-
panies (firms valued at more than A HOTBED FOR INNOVATION, don offers start-ups access to a wide-
$1bn) than any other European city. WITH MORE THAN 5,000 range of financing opportunities,
These companies include Monzo, PATENTS IN SOFTWARE AND from venture capital funds and
Revolut, Deliveroo and Farfetch. angel investors to crowdfunding
London continues to be a hotbed MORE THAN 100 IN ARTIFICIAL platforms and banks. Between 2015
for innovation, with more than INTELLIGENCE REGISTERED IN and 2019, London attracted the high-
5,000 patents in software and more THE CITY BETWEEN 2003 est amount of jobs from start-up
than 100 in artificial intelligence AND 2019 companies (defined by this study as
registered in the city between 2003 companies established from 2014
and 2019. In addition, its reputation onwards) out of all 76 cities analysed.
as a talent hub – hosting 370,000 stu-
dents and five of the world’s top 500 R&D hub
universities in electric and electronic Paris is deemed the second-ranking
engineering – contributed to it rank- tech city. The French capital
ing top in the Innovation and Attrac- attracted 50 inward FDI projects in
tiveness category. software research and development
London also led in the Start-up (R&D) between 2015 and 2019, the
Environment category. Figures from highest out of all locations studied.
Dun & Bradstreet show the city Investors include Sweden-based
boasts more than 70,000 companies Inex One, a provider of a software as
in software and IT services, 5,000 in a service procurement tool for advi-
communications and almost 4,000 sory services, which opened a new
engineering and R&D location in
May 2019. Online food delivery app
TOP FIVE EUROPEAN DESTINATION CITIES BY NUMBER OF iFood, a subsidiary of South Africa-
INWARD FDI JOBS CREATED BY START-UPS, 2015-2019, 000s based Naspers, also opened a Paris
8
research office in October 2019.
7 Paris also did well in the Eco-
nomic Potential category – since
6
investors can start a business there in
5 just four days – as well as in Innova-
tion & Attractiveness; the city has 10
4
of the world’s top 500 universities in
3
computer science and engineering.

2 Potential and performance

1
Dublin, capital of the Republic of Ire-
land, places third in the study. The
0
London Paris Amsterdam Berlin Dublin
city ranked second in the Economic
Potential category, with Ireland
excelling in various country level
TOP FIVE EUROPEAN DESTINATION CITIES BY NUMBER OF data points, including the 2020
SOFTWARE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS, 2015-2019 Index of Economic Freedom.
50 Dublin also shone in the FDI Per-
formance category, with the highest
40
level of capital investment in soft-
ware R&D out of all locations ana-
lysed.
30 When Canada-based Traction
Guest, a developer of enterprise visi-
20
tor management systems, estab-
lished operations in the city in
December 2019, it commented:
10 “Dublin is renowned for its thriving
tech community, supportive busi-
0 ness ecosystem and a talent-rich pool
Paris London Barcelona Dublin Vilnius of technology professionals from all
Source: fDi Markets over Europe and beyond.” ■

22 www.fDiIntelligence.com June/July 2020

 GLOBAL OUTLOOK
TECH CITIES OF THE FUTURE

FDI Strategy
LONDON, BARCELONA AND BERLIN HAVE BEEN AWARDED FOR THEIR
EFFECTIVE ECOSYSTEM APPROACH, WRITES ALEX IRWIN-HUNT

S
uccessful tech cities are the TOP 25 TECH CITIES OF THE FUTURE 2020/21 – FDI STRATEGY
result of coordinated govern- RANK CITY COUNTRY
ment strategy aimed at devel- 1 London UK
oping a globally connected and sup- 2 Barcelona & Catalonia Spain
portive community that fosters col- 3 Berlin Germany
laboration, innovation and entre- 4 Tricity (Gdansk, Sopot, Gdynia) Poland
preneurship. 5 Lyon France
London leads the pack in this 6 Amsterdam The Netherlands
regard, ranking first out of 50 Euro- 7 Zurich Switzerland
pean tech ecosystems assessed in the
8 Munich Germany
FDI Strategy category of fDi and
9 Milan Italy
TNW’s inaugural ranking.
10 Cambridge UK
Spearheaded by its economic
11 Zagreb Croatia
development agency London & Part-
ners, the UK capital has effectively 12 València Spain
leveraged its global financial centre 13 Vilnius Lithuania
and academic landscape to become 14 Hamburg Germany
the European home of the most pri- 15 Rotterdam area Netherlands
vate companies valued above $1bn. 16 Manchester UK
The UK’s flagship Tech Nation 17 Sofia Bulgaria
initiative provides a support net- 18 Brussels-Capital Region Belgium
work for entrepreneurs in London 19 Greater Helsinki Finland
and the UK, as well as visas to inter- 20 Düsseldorf Germany
national digital talent. Source: fDi Markets

$25M
Other networks, such as Tech
London advocates, and events, such start-up ecosystem worth $4.1bn,
as SVC2UK, provide wider support according to Startup Genome.
and improve London’s connectivity
with other global ecosystems. Burgeoning Berlin
London has also promoted digi- Berlin’s business development
tal education in schools, including LONDON HAS ALSO agency has launched initiatives and
a £20m ($25m) government pro- portals to create an ecosystem which
gramme to train almost 6000 teen-
PROMOTED DIGITAL boasts over 9,500 start-ups, account-
agers in modern cyber security EDUCATION IN SCHOOLS, ing for 15.8% of Germany’s total.
skills by 2021. INCLUDING A £20M ($25M) The city’s ‘Gründen in Berlin’
Broad tax incentives, such as for GOVERNMENT PROGRAMME platform, which provides informa-
research and development, have also tion, consulting and events for entre-
helped London attract international
TO TRAIN ALMOST 6000 preneurs, and StarterCenter which
tech companies, while the London & TEENAGERS IN MODERN provides advice and mentorship,
Partners Business Growth Pro- CYBER SECURITY SKILLS embody Berlin’s centralised
gramme has aided more than 400 BY 2021 approach to its ecosystem develop-
companies to expand their work- ment.
force and raise financing in London. Specialised entrepreneurial cen-
tres, such as the Factory for Inter-
Bolstered Barcelona & Catalonia ups in Barcelona and Catalonia, net of Things (IoT) start-ups and fin-
As the host of major global technol- including home-grown delivery app tech-focused H:32-Tower, have pro-
ogy events, such as Mobile World unicorn Glovo. vided community spaces for entre-
Congress and Smart City Expo, Bar- Infrastructure, including scien- preneurs in some of the city’s lead-
celona and its surrounding Catalo- tific parks, nine universities and a ing startup segments.
nia region is a leading destination in 200-hectare 22@ innovation district, This short article cannot compre-
the global tech ecosystem map. help bolster Barcelona’s attractive- hensively cover the factors needed to
The ‘Start-up Catalonia’ initia- ness to international tech companies. develop a tech city, but the common
tive, a set of public policies that pro- The public-private partnership thread is clear: ecosystems which
motes tech transfer and entrepre- Pier01, a 11,000 sq m converted build- develop through government policy
neurship, has helped develop an ing in Barcelona that hosts more than driven support, funding and infra-
ecosystem of more than 1500 start- 100 start-ups, has helped develop a structure tend to prevail. ■

June/July 2020 www.fDiIntelligence.com 23

 SPOTLIGHT ON CORK
ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE
Ireland and the Local Enterprise office network
provide companies and start-ups with vital
support and financial aid. The Cork region is
also home to dynamic start-ups, fostered by
our supportive innovation ecosystem that
supports high value sectors such as ICT,
Financial Services, Internationally Traded
Services, Cyber Security and Nanotechnology.
The tremendous achievements of the City
in recent times are a testament to the leader-
ship role taken by Cork City Council and other
key stakeholders in promoting the City region
to a range of international investment and
tech start-ups.

INVESTING IN TOMORROW
Cork’s construction sector is experiencing a
renaissance with large city centre development
as demonstrated by the multiple cranes on the
skyline. Over €1bn of office, hotel and apart-
ment developments are currently underway in
the City. In addition brown-field development
opportunities on a 179 hectares will result in a
complete regeneration of the City Docklands
area with employment projections of 30,000
jobs and 30,000 residents. This will enable the
city’s population and local economy to con-
tinue to grow over the next 20 years, projected

CORK: A CITY RISING

population to reach over 350,000 by 2040.

Cork City Council CE, Ann Doherty said:

“We are delighted to see Cork being ranked
so highly as a location for investment and eco-
Cork has a proud reputation as Ireland’s second largest economic nomic potential. Cork City Council has worked
engine and has an enviable track record in investment attraction. hard with IDA Ireland, UCC, CIT and Enterprise
Ireland to make Cork a global investment capi-
tal where businesses are enabled to flourish
Cork is a compact city with an excellent renowned, even among the Irish, for an out- and expand. Because we are an agile, compact
business ecosystem. standing culture, charm and wit. A City with a city each investor who comes to Cork City can
The size of the city means that all stakehold- thriving cosmopolitan café and pub culture, enjoy focused attention from the agencies to
ers from business to academia can respond the city is well renowned for a vibrant, interna- support the needs of business.”
meaningfully to the needs of investors. Even tionally accredited, night-time economy while
though the City is compact it hits above its there is also excellent connectivity to outdoor Welcoming the accolade, Lord Mayor of
weight in terms of education, culture and access life in Ireland’s stunning south-west region. Cork, Cllr. John Sheehan stated:
making the city a great place to live and work. “We are delighted to be ranked the fifth
Cork has an agile and cost efficient econ- GLOBALLY CONNECTED overall best city in Europe for economic poten-
omy ready to adapt to all external economic An english-speaking city, located inside the tial. Despite the enormous challenges posed by
shocks and come through due to a bed-rock euro-zone, Cork is connected to the global Covid-19, Cork remains on track to retain its pool
of professional talent and an innate economic stage through an International Port and of FDI and expand its economic base in 2020.
resilience. It is a place of explorers and thinkers; Airport and is an ideal location from which to This confidence in our collective futures for Cork
who help businesses thrive. World class access the EU. Cork has a well developed rail, to thrive is clear in the sustained growth evident
research in Tyndall Institute, University College bus and road network and is easily accessible with the large numbers of people from overseas
Cork and the newly established Munster by land, air and sea. In addition to impressive choosing Cork City as a place to live and work.”
Technical University provides a competitive hard infrastructure, the city also boasts an
edge where talent and skills are in abundance. excellent broadband and communications Contact:
With over 150 overseas companies infrastructure allowing for one of the highest Cork City Council, City Hall
employing 39,000 people, many leading concentrations of ICT activity within the OECD. Anglesea Street, Cork T12 T997
brands such as Apple, Johnson Controls and Tel: +353 21 4924000
Pfizer are building global success in Cork. Fast HOME OF CO-CREATION AND www.corkcity.ie
growing indigenous companies such as INNOVATION
Teamwork along with multinationals choose Fast growing indigenous companies as well as
Cork to take advantage of our ecosystem’s multi-nationals have chosen Cork as their
vast strengths, combined with the quality of home to take advantage of our ecosystem’s Sponsored by
life that exists in the City. vast strengths, combined with the quality of
life and environment.
UNPARALLELED LOCATION The appeal of Ireland for Foreign Direct
Cork offers an immediate and unparalleled Investment is enhanced by an attractive regu-
location for both visitors and investors alike. latory and tax system underlined by a 12.5%
Voted by Condé Nast as Europe’s friendliest corporation tax rate. Semi-state and govern-
City, Cork is an immersive business and visitor ment agencies such as the Industrial
experience with a sense of place and people, Development Authority (IDA), Enterprise
 GLOBAL OUTLOOK
TECH CITIES OF THE FUTURE

Silicon Roundabout: in London, tech companies have traditionally settled in the east of the city

Why tech cities matter

W
BEYOND SILICON hat do cities such as Guadalajara, Unique selling points
Lagos, Denver, Tokyo and London have Each tech city, or cluster, has its own story and
VALLEY, TECH in common? unique selling point, but each one strives to
CLUSTERS ARE BEING They are all tech cities, part of a long list of birth and support the next wave of successful
REPLICATED ACROSS technology hotspots that are home to – and technology companies.
THE GLOBE AND seek to attract – innovative companies of any Tech cities are hugely beneficial to local,
CAN PROVE HUGELY size to their streets. national, and international economies. They
BENEFICIAL Silicon Valley, with its high concentration create employment, attract investment, talent,
TO NATIONAL of hardware and software companies, is by far and can help re-energise local pockets in cities
the most famous representation of a tech city – and more remote areas.
ECONOMIES, WRITES but the concept has been exported and repli- Successful tech clusters can help cement cit-
YESSI BELLO PEREZ cated across the globe. ies’ prominence on a global scale, making them
In London, for example, technology compa- more attractive to incoming businesses, inves-
nies have historically settled in the east of the tors, tourists and workers. Lesser known hot
city, around Shoreditch. The mass arrival of spots, on the other hand, can literally be put on
start-ups into the area has, over time, paved the the map thanks to a specific company’s success
way for a wider ecosystem of co-working spaces, – and the world hearing about it.
accelerators, incubators, venture capital inves- The positive effects are obvious but they
tors, and entrepreneurial density. also bring about certain challenges. Driven by
But tech cities are also springing up further the surplus of demand, office space can become
afield, sometimes in surprising locations. Silicon unaffordable for the less funded, or less success-
Mountain is the name coined to represent the ful, start-ups. There is also the danger of insu-
ecosystem in the mountain area of Cameroon, larity and the cluster itself becoming less recep-
with an epicentre in Buea, which is home to tive to external collaboration.
start-ups and a growing community of develop- But one thing is for sure: tech cities seldom
ers, designers and universities. The model is also emerge on their own, rather they are often the
spreading across the country. Just last year, the byproduct of resolute urban planning and gov-
Cameroon government announced plans to ernment intervention.
back a new tech hub to be called ‘Cameroon
Silicon River’ in its capital city Yaoundé. Policy support
On the other side of the world, Guadalajara Traditionally, they have been intrinsically linked
– Mexico’s second largest city – has reinvented to clustering – the building of technology parks
itself as a technology hub, transforming into a or specific innovation districts where companies,
research and development hotspot and giving R&D labs, universities, and the private sector can
outsiders an insight into its potential future. co-exist in close proximity and harmony. This

June/July 2020 www.fDiIntelligence.com 25

GLOBAL OUTLOOK
TECH CITIES OF THE FUTURE

kind of approach requires significant investment Amsterdam as their European HQ.

and support from local authorities. While the Dutch and UK governments have
Governmental policy plays a pivotal part in made great strides they arguably pale in com-
the ideation and creation of tech cities. It is parison to French president Emmanuel
almost always impossible to imagine such a Macron’s pledges to make France, and in par-
cluster existing without the direct intervention ticular, Paris, Europe’s start-up nation. The city
from governments hoping to get ahead in the is already home to Station F, a multi-million
global tech race. pound start-up incubator that is largely touted
In November 2010, former British prime as a symbol of France’s tech renaissance.
minister David Cameron set out the govern- Since being elected in 2017, Mr Macron has
ment’s ambition for London’s East End to constantly tried to woo tech entrepreneurs and
become a world-leading tech city to rival Silicon executives with a string of tempting initiatives,
Valley. Speaking to high tech business leaders including tax breaks, subsidies, and credits for
and entrepreneurs in the area, Mr Cameron research. In spring 2018, he vowed to pour
said the Olympic Park press and broadcast cen- €1.5bn into AI research through to 2022.
tres in London would exist beyond the 2012 Berlin, Germany’s hip capital city, is a vet-
Olympic Games and be used as an accelerator eran in European tech city rankings and has
space, offering flexible office space, facilities also benefited from the government’s Digital
and expertise to the city’s tech companies. Hub Initiative which seeks to strengthen con-
“Right now, Silicon Valley is the leading nectivity and cooperation between startups in a
place in the world for high-tech growth and digital age.
innovation. But there’s no reason why it has Government intervention in the emer-
to be so predominant,” Mr Cameron said at gence of tech cities or clusters should not take
the time. anyone by surprise. Tech and innovation
“Our ambition is to bring together the crea- undoubtedly go hand in hand with economic
tivity and energy of Shoreditch and the incred- prosperity and it is in every government’s
ible possibilities of the Olympic Park to help interest to promote this.
make east London one of the world’s great tech- On the other hand, tech cities are an inte-
nology centres. I want to show you how we can gral part of local entrepreneurial ecosystems
get there,” he added. and without them, it would not be farfetched
As part of his strategy to boost the country’s to question the long-term survival of risky, yet
tech capabilities, Mr Cameron also launched valuable, start-up companies.
Tech Nation (formerly Tech City) – a government Urban dwellings and capital cities unsur-
quango that seeks to support, promote and con- prisingly make the most appropriate settings
solidate technology clusters all over the UK. for tech cities or clusters, but it is possible that
Over in the Netherlands, the Dutch govern- this phenomenon will eventually spread across
ment has worked hard to negotiate favourable entire countries, reaching smaller cities and
trade deals with nations across the globe, to towns as both startups and governments look
make cities such as Amsterdam, Rotterdam or for opportunities further afield. ■
Eindhoven attractive to operate in.
StartupAmsterdam, for example, was born Yessi Bello Perez is a senior writer at TNW’s Growth
out of a collaboration between the City of Quarters.
Amsterdam and the private sector, which
came together to devise a start-up and scale-
up-focused initiative to help these very compa-
nies grow in a suitable environment. Today,
several international tech companies includ-
ing Netf lix, Uber and Tesla have chosen

GUADALAJARA – MEXICO’S SECOND

LARGEST CITY – HAS REINVENTED
ITSELF AS A TECHNOLOGY HUB
26 www.fDiIntelligence.com June/July 2020