Best Startup Cities

Best startup cities in the world in 2027

The best startup cities in the world for 2027, ranked for founders: 1,000 cities in 139 countries, each with a guide to funding, company registration, taxes, founder visas, pros and cons. A second score, the MeanCEO Index, rates every city for women founders.

Top 25 startup cities for 2027

#CityCountryTotal scoreMeanCEO
1 San Francisco Bay United States 329 81
2 New York United States 110.8 78
3 Beijing China 66 62
4 Los Angeles Area United States 58.4 78
6 Boston Area United States 49.8 70
7 Shanghai China 42.2 68
8 Tel Aviv Area Israel 27.1 82
9 Moscow Russia 25.4 63
10 Bangalore India 25.4 61
11 Paris France 25.3 72
12 Seattle United States 24.3 70
13 Berlin Germany 23.9 78
14 New Delhi India 22.4 63
15 Tokyo Japan 21.8 70
16 Mumbai India 19.4 70
17 Chicago United States 19.1 68
18 Austin United States 18.6 76
19 Washington DC Area United States 18.1 70
20 Sao Paulo Brazil 17.6 60
21 Shenzhen China 17.4 70
22 San Diego United States 17.3 81
23 Seoul South Korea 16.7 60
24 Stockholm Sweden 15.7 66
25 Singapore City Singapore 15.7 76

See all 1,000 startup cities, ranked

Best startup cities for women founders in 2027

The ten highest MeanCEO Index scores. A city can be a giant ecosystem and still a hard place to live and build as a woman, so this list looks different from the main ranking.

  1. Tel Aviv Area, Israel: 82/100 (startup rank #8)
  2. San Francisco Bay, United States: 81/100 (startup rank #1)
  3. San Diego, United States: 81/100 (startup rank #22)
  4. Sydney, Australia: 79/100 (startup rank #36)
  5. New York, United States: 78/100 (startup rank #2)
  6. Los Angeles Area, United States: 78/100 (startup rank #4)
  7. Berlin, Germany: 78/100 (startup rank #13)
  8. Vancouver, Canada: 78/100 (startup rank #42)
  9. Santa Cruz, United States: 78/100 (startup rank #109)
  10. Lisbon, Portugal: 77/100 (startup rank #82)

Startup cities by country

All 139 countries by region

How does the ranking work?

The total score is the score a city got in the StartupBlink Global Startup Ecosystem Index (2024 edition). It adds up three parts:

  1. Quantity: how much is going on, measured by the number of startups, coworking spaces and accelerators in the city.
  2. Quality: how well the best local startups do, measured by traction, unicorns and exits.
  3. Business environment: national conditions for doing business, which lift cities that are still small on the first two.

The MeanCEO Index (0 to 100) is our own score for women founders. It rates ten factors from 1 to 10: weather, location, how women-friendly and foreigner-friendly the city is, English as a business language, food, how easy it is to start a family, healthcare, transport and the local startup mindset.

FAQ

Which city is the best for startups?

San Francisco Bay ranks #1 in our ranking with a total score of 329, far ahead of #2 New York (110.8) and #3 Beijing (66). No other ecosystem comes close on the number of startups, unicorns and exits.

Which city is the best for women founders?

On the MeanCEO Index, Tel Aviv Area scores highest with 82/100. The index rates ten factors from 1 to 10, from how women-friendly and foreigner-friendly a city is to healthcare, transport and the local startup mindset.

How current are the scores?

The ecosystem scores come from the StartupBlink Global Startup Ecosystem Index (2024 edition). StartupBlink's 2026 edition ranks 1,556 cities and still puts San Francisco Bay first, followed by New York and London. Since October 2026 we re-check the city guides against official sources (tax authorities, visa offices, company registers), starting with the most-read cities; each page shows when it was last updated.

How many cities and countries are ranked?

983 city guides in 139 countries, with world ranks from 1 to 1,000. The United States has the most ranked cities (263), followed by the United Kingdom (53) and India (43).