The Valencian startup ecosystem gains positions in Europe, according to the latest Startup Heatmap Europe 2023, presented in Budapest a few days ago. The report prepared by the non-profit association European Startup Initiative (ESI) collects the opinion of 10,000 founders and tracks data from the startup ecosystem of more than a hundred cities.
A portrait of the European entrepreneurial system in which Valencia remains in the top 50 of the most popular ecosystems and recovers positions this year compared to 2019, when it was ranked 32nd. In 2021 it fell to 41st and this 2023 ranking places it in 33rd place, being the fourth Spanish city to appear on the list. Ahead, Barcelona, ??which confirms its third position for the fifth consecutive year and is only behind London and Berlin.
Madrid, with the 11th position and Bilbao with the 44th confirm the entrepreneurial pulse of the State and it is Malaga that gives the surprise, jumping to the top 20 with a 19th position. The Andalusian city is, along with Paris -which has made “the greatest leap in popularity” of founders among all European centers-, one of the fastest growing, already confirming itself as the third entrepreneurial hub, ahead of Valencia.
Behind, there is only Bilbao, which remains in 44th position, three points below the last edition of 2021. In that year it was ranked 41st, while Valencia occupied 42%. Now there is more distance between both ecosystems.
In addition to the ranking, the report breaks down some of the most relevant aspects of ecosystems and rates their position in different classifications. Thus, Valencia is in the 39th position by number of developers (one of the most demanded profiles in the current job market) with 2,123 developers and in the 58th number by female entrepreneurship, since only 6% of the founders are women. The European average stands at 13.51%. Barcelona, ??for example, almost doubles the figure for Valencia and exceeds the average, with 14.25%.
The best classifications of the Valencian ecosystem are obtained in the ease of doing business (13th position) or in the international profile of the founders (12th), which stands at 48% and which confirms the increasingly cosmopolitan aspect of the ecosystem Valencian startup.
