London ranked second best startup hub in the world for tech

London has been ranked the second best tech startup hub in the world behind Silicon Valley and the top hub globally for fintech according to new research.

The capital’s startup ecosystem had a value of $314 billion, more than treble that of Berlin’s $94 billion and Paris’ $89 billion, according to the 2022 Global Startup Ecosystem Report.

London shared the second-place spot with New York, with Boston and Beijing coming in fourth and fifth place, while several UK cities including Bristol, Bimingham and Belfast were among top emerging ecosystems.

The capital is now home to at least 80 unicorns – tech businesses worth more than $1 billion – and has added a further 7 in 2022.

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said: “London is the undisputed tech and innovation capital of Europe, and this independent report demonstrates that our start-up ecosystem is also one of the most diverse and vibrant in the world.

“The record levels of investment we’ve seen so far this year offers further proof that London’s tech sector continues to go from strength-to-strength.”

London also ranked among the highest for access to early-stage funding, while the capital beat New York on the report’s ‘connectedness’ metric, the ability for a startup to increase its global reach.

However, London lagged behind the Big Apple on ‘performance’ – the economic impact of the ecosystem and the growth of investor exits from startups.

Russ Shaw, Founder of Tech London Advocates, said: “It’s particularly impressive to see how high London ranks with reference to early-stage investment - I hope that this sends a distinct message to aspiring tech entrepreneurs that the capital is the number one destination to start their business.”