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The Top 100 Trending Startup Cities

by Startups of The Year September 30th, 2024

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Startup of the Year Voting closed after a 6 month run from June 2022 to January 2023. On Valentine’s Day, the startup of the year winners were announced and we open sourced this startup voting data if anyone would like to use it. By digging into the aggregate vote count each city’s startups earned, we can approximate the HackerNoon community’s interest for startups in all the major cities of the world.

featured image - The Top 100 Trending Startup Cities

Curious about where startups thrive?

Startups of The Year 2023 celebrated 1,382 winners on January 24, 2024, after a 9-month journey that kicked off in May. We’ve open-sourced the voting data, offering insights into global startup hubs, popular domain endings, and more for those who want to explore further.

Each winning startup received a free .Tech domain, a HackerNoon NFT, and an Evergreen Company Page. These pages include key business details like headcount, founding year, social links, domain ranking, live updates from HackerNoon stories, and relevant headlines. Public companies also get rankings and stock price visuals.

By analyzing the total votes received by startups in each city, we’ve measured the global interest of the HackerNoon community and compiled the findings into this detailed breakdown. Enjoy!

Most voted on Startup City Award (Rank By Votes, Name, Population, Votes)

RANK	CITY NAME	POPULATION	VOTES
1	Sydney	5.3 million	159,361
2	London	9.5 million	138,496
3	Singapore	5.6 million	38,887
4	Telangana	39 million	22,064
5	San Francisco	873,000	19,147
6	Mumbai	20.7 million	13,974
7	Austin	975,000	12,756
8	Cleveland	367,000	11,770
9	Bengaluru	13.6 million	8,452
10	Algiers	4.5 million	8,184
11	Manhattan	1.6 million	7,898
12	Chicago	2.7 million	5,616
13	Melbourne	5.1 million	4,817
14	SoMa	30,000	4,630
15	Tel Aviv	465,000	4,551
16	Dubai	3.5 million	4,063
17	Visakhapatnam	2.2 million	3,929
18	Toronto	2.9 million	3,902
19	New York City	8.5 million	3,777
20	Berlin	3.6 million	3,773
21	Seattle	740,000	3,640
22	Los Angeles	3.9 million	3,210
23	Palo Alto	68,000	2,930
24	Warsaw	1.8 million	2,861
25	Miami	454,000	2,801
26	Powai	150,000	2,503
27	Perth	2.1 million	2,349
28	Ghent	260,000	2,097
29	Boston	645,000	1,996
30	Dublin	1.3 million	1,976
31	Amsterdam	920,000	1,970
32	Bari	320,000	1,959
33	Downtown San Francisco	873,000	1,758
34	Kyiv	2.9 million	1,709
35	Tallinn	445,000	1,697
36	Lagos	16 million	1,676
37	Frankfurt Am Main	770,000	1,636
38	Paris	2.2 million	1,553
39	Barcelona	1.6 million	1,481
40	Delhi	32 million	1,312
41	Lisbon	545,000	1,257
42	Alcobendas	116,000	1,182
43	Houston	2.3 million	1,182
44	Hong Kong	7.3 million	1,181
45	Accra	2.5 million	1,178
46	Ahmedabad	8.3 million	1,157
47	Stockholm	975,000	1,135
48	Zurich	440,000	1,133
49	Munich	1.5 million	1,047
50	Mexico City	22 million	1,042
51	Gibraltar	34,000	1,039
52	Washington DC	670,000	1,039
53	San Diego	1.4 million	1,038
54	Santiago	6.3 million	1,030
55	Buenos Aires	15 million	1,015
56	Lombardy	10 million	1,001
57	Noida	750,000	958
58	Tokyo	37.5 million	950
59	Chennai	11.2 million	946
60	San Jose	1.1 million	923
61	Seoul	9.5 million	917
62	Denver	740,000	901
63	Gurgaon	1.2 million	900
64	Zug	30,000	878
65	Hyderabad	10.2 million	876
66	Oslo	700,000	808
67	Atlanta	510,000	716
68	Goa, India	1.5 million	716
69	San Francisco, Bay Area	7.75 million	702
70	Brooklyn	2.7 million	695
71	Vienna	2 million	682
72	Richmond	116,000	681
73	Sao Paulo	12.4 million	667
74	Columbus	922,000	662
75	Pune	7.7 million	623
76	Jaipur	4 million	619
77	Kuala Lumpur	1.9 million	609
78	Charlottesville	46,000	530
79	Pittsburgh	303,000	510
80	Montreal	1.8 million	504
81	Copenhagen	805,000	503
82	Vancouver	675,000	490
83	Baku	2.3 million	489
84	Madrid	6.7 million	466
85	New Delhi	32 million	433
86	San Mateo	105,000	428
87	Atasehir	422,000	396
88	Vilnius	600,000	390
89	Phasi Charoen	130,000	381
90	JLT	75,000	374
91	Tampa	385,000	374
92	Rome	2.8 million	372
93	Bangkok	11 million	352
94	Wilmington	71,000	352
95	Istanbul	15.8 million	341
96	California	39 million	336
97	Dallas	1.3 million	328
98	Bangalore Urban	1.3 million	327
99	Mountain View	82,000	315
100	Limassol	240,000	308

Data from the 2023 Startups of The Year shows that locations historically known for being startup-friendly through business and tax incentives—like Singapore (3rd), Dublin (30th), and Dubai (17th)—attracted global interest in their startups, far surpassing their local populations.

Despite their strong reputations as business and tax havens, several cities have underperformed in global interest. Zug, Switzerland (64th), Luxembourg, and New Delhi (85th) have all seen lower-than-expected engagement. Even San Francisco (5th), despite its tech dominance, together with Dubai (16th) and Hong Kong (44th), known for their pro-business environments, haven't captured as much global attention as their track records would suggest.

Several smaller or unexpected cities have ranked surprisingly high. Cleveland ranks 8th with 11,770 votes, despite not being a typical global business hub. SoMa, a San Francisco neighborhood, is 14th with 4,630 votes, despite its tiny population. Gibraltar stands out at 51st, likely due to its financial center status, despite having just 34,000 residents.

These trends illustrate a shifting landscape in global startup interest, where both traditional and emerging locations experience varying degrees of success. While some well-established hubs are failing to attract the anticipated global engagement, smaller, unconventional cities are making unexpected progress. This indicates that the global startup ecosystem is becoming more dynamic and dispersed, with opportunities emerging in a wider range of locations. We look forward to seeing what the next Startups of the Year data will reveal as these trends continue to evolve.

Startups can thrive anywhere!

Reflecting on the Startups of The Year 2023 data, it’s clear that startups can emerge from any corner of the globe. This is a strong testament to how technology has democratized entrepreneurship. Several factors have contributed to this shift, including easier access to technology and tools, the rise of remote work and global talent acquisition, and local innovation initiatives.

Access to technology and tools: Thanks to the widespread access to digital tools and cloud technologies, startups can thrive everywhere. Platforms like AWS and GitHub help startups to operate globally from any location, allowing less traditionally recognized and even remote regions to launch competitive businesses on a global scale.

The shift toward remote work and hiring global talents: The rise of remote work has left a lasting mark on the startup ecosystem by allowing companies to recruit top talent from anywhere in the world (take HackerNoon for example). This trend has opened opportunities for startups as they can now build strong teams without the need for physical relocation, significantly leveling what the global market has to offer.

Local innovation initiatives: Local governments and institutions are increasingly providing support and funding to nurture startups within their regions. For instance, initiatives in cities like Boulder (US) and Lagos (Nigeria) have seen significant investment in infrastructure to support tech startups, reflecting a growing recognition that fostering local innovation is key to economic development.

With that being said, startups no longer have to be confined to traditional tech hubs such as San Francisco or New York. They can now emerge and succeed from any part of the world, driven by technology, global connection, and local support.

Check out what some of the 2023 Startup participants had to say about their company, experiences, global startup interest, and the future of startups:

Meanwhile, subscribe to our Startups page to stay informed on all the latest updates about Startups of the Year.

About HackerNoon’s Startups of The Year

Startups of The Year 2024 is HackerNoon’s flagship community-driven event celebrating startups, technology, and the spirit of innovation. Currently in its third iteration, the prestigious Internet award recognizes and celebrates tech startups of all shapes and sizes. This year, over 150,000 entities across 4200+ cities, 6 continents, and 100+ industries will participate in a bid to be crowned the best startup of the year! Millions of votes have been cast over the past few years, and many stories have been written about these daring and rising startups.

The winners will get a free interview on HackerNoon and an Evergreen Tech Company News page.

Visit our FAQ page to learn more. Read more about this year’s design system here.

HackerNoon’s Startups of The Year is a branding opportunity unlike any other. Whether your goal is brand awareness or lead generation, HackerNoon has curated startup-friendly packages to solve your marketing challenges.

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