The research centre StartupBlink has unveiled, at the end of may, his report 2020 on the classification of the ecosystems of start-up 100 countries and 1000 cities in the world. Only eleven african countries are included in the ranking, which compares the ecosystems technology and innovative on the planet. This is the South Africa, Kenya, Rwanda, Nigeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Morocco, Ghana, Uganda, Cape Verde and Somalia. These last two countries are making their entry this year in the rankings.
To achieve this ranking, StartupBlink, is based on an algorithm, built in cooperation with partners that provide data, Crunchbase, Alexa, Unaids, and Meetup, but also more than 40 governments, municipalities and economic development organizations. The ranking is done based on three parameters : the number of start-ups, their quality and their business environment.
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South Africa leader
South Africa is still in the lead of innovation efforts on the continent, despite a slight decrease of one point and occupies the 52nd place in the world. It remains the african country with the best from 2017. It is followed by Kenya at the 62nd place. This year, Rwanda is beyond the Nigeria, respectively in the 65th and 68th place, while Tunisia and Egypt occupies the 77th and 81st place. Morocco comes in the 83rd, ahead of Ghana, who is 85th. Uganda, Cape Verde, and Somalia are, respectively, the 89th, 91st and 95th. These last two countries have made their re-entry into the top 100 this year. On the other hand, some african countries classified in the last year are also out of the list, such as Cameroon, Botswana, Zambia, Algeria and Ethiopia.
If, last year, South Africa appeared to be on the verge of losing its status as the first ecosystem in africa, the country has reinforced this year its position as a continental leader. “After a decline in other african countries, it is clear that the ecosystem of the start-up south africa has an important mission of leading the innovation efforts in Africa. This is due to the fact that the country has a financial market that is more mature and a culture of investment. “
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Nigeria down
Nigeria has lost 12 places and cities in nigeria have experienced a similar decline. Down 21 places, Lagos still ranks as the second best ecosystem of Africa. There is also good news : “Nigeria now has seven cities in the ranking, Kano, entering for the first time this year to 995. The country continues to have the highest number of cities ranked for an african nation, ” says an excerpt of the report. The major challenges that Nigeria is facing relate to an inadequate infrastructure, electric power is unreliable and of poor Internet connections.
The surprise cap-verdienne
” We spent some time in Cape Verde and we were impressed by its potential to become a large ecosystem in africa. We loved to see the true meaning of community training thanks to the efforts of the public sector, Cabo Verde Digital and NOSI. For an ecosystem that did not exist a few years ago, their work has been an inspiration, ” analysis of the report.
From a global point of view, ” the region has not grown as much as the other growth regions of Asia and Latin America. In addition, our algorithm has changed. This brings us closer to the actual results each year. That said, South Africa, Rwanda, Somalia and Cape Verde have had an excellent year, as shown in their ranking of cities, ” pointed out Eli David, CEO of StartupBlink, at Techpoint Africa.
The rankings are competitive, and are only presented the first 100 countries. Consequently, some countries fail to maintain their position in the top 100 and are no longer included in the ranking of 2020. “This does not necessarily reflect a deterioration of the absolute state of the ecosystem-specific, but a faster pace of improvement in other countries,” the report notes.
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dynamic cities
next To the ranking of countries, cities reveals the dynamism of some and particularly in Africa. “In our report 2020, large african cities such as Nairobi and Lagos have recorded substantial decreases, but good news arrived from South Africa with an increase of several rankings of the major cities,” says Martin Jordana, project manager StartupBlink.
The Cape, which is home to 60 % of all start-ups in south africa rose 16 places to arrive at the 146th position and Johannesburg has jumped 88 places to arrive at the 160th position. At the regional level, these two cities are ranked respectively 3rd and 4th in Africa. And Pretoria has made its entry to the 501st site. They are, however, far from catching up Nairobi at the 116th rank (- 11) and Lagos at the 127th rank (- 28).
” The algorithm to the countries and cities is different. The countries take into account the size of the population, which is not the case in cities. This means that countries with high population have more difficulty to classify in head, while their main cities are surperformantes, ” says Eli David. “We plan to cover all ecosystems in the future, and in particular countries such as Senegal and Ethiopia were on the point of enter into the ranking,” said Eli David.
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innovation against the pandemic
This year, StartupBlink, in collaboration with Unaids, has worked on an interactive map of the innovations launched to combat the pandemic of the Covid-19, to help innovators to cooperate and create solutions more quickly. “South Africa, at the cutting edge in this fight, ranks as the 32nd-largest innovation Covid-19 and the city of Cape town is ranked at 79th rank, much better than in the overall ranking. With the Nigeria and Kenya, the South Africa has led the response on the continent in the face of the pandemic, ” the report explains.
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