SA is Africa’s Top Startup Ecosystem Reveals Startup Blink Report

• A recent report by Startup Blink shows that South Africa is the highest-ranked startup ecosystem in Africa.
• The Startup Blink report places the startup ecosystem of South Africa at 52 out of 100 countries.
• 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).

According to a report by Startup Blink, a global startup ecosystem map and research centre, South Africa is the highest-ranked startup ecosystem in Africa. However, the nation has fallen one place to 52 out of 100 countries, over 2018.

This, according to Startup Blink’s global startup ecosystem map has 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 collects its data from what it claims to be an algorithm that analyzes tens of thousands of data points on registered startups, accelerators and coworking spaces listed on StartupBlink’s global ecosystem map, as well as data received from its global partners such as Crunchbase, Semrush, UNAids and Meetup.

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The Startup Blink report places the startup ecosystem of South Africa at 52 out of 100 countries. The report puts South Africa right after Slovakia, Thailand, Malaysia, and Turkey but ahead of Kenya, the Philippines, Nigeria, and Peru.

The top ecosystems are the United States, followed by the United Kingdom, Israel and Canada.

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 StartupBlink’s 2018 report, did not appear in this year’s ranking.

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 states that 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 identifies San Francisco as the city with the best startup ecosystem in the world, followed by New York, London, Boston, Los Angeles and Boston. 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.