MANILA has one of the most conducive start-up ecosystems in the world, as it ranked high in multiple categories of a report assessing the environment for new enterprises.
Along with Taipei, Busan, Calgary and Frankfurt, Manila was listed as one of the top activation phase ecosystems in the world, according to Startup Genome’s 2019 Global Startup Ecosystem Report. The Philippine capital placed 10th in the global competition for Bang for Buck.
It ranked fifth in the activation ecosystem for connectedness, as well as in exit growth index.
Moreover, Manila was sixth across the world in output growth index and ninth in funding growth index. The assessment also put the city’s financial technology (fintech) industry in the spotlight, as it comprised 15 percent of all start-ups.
According to the report, Manila’s fintech transaction value last year amounted to about $5.7 billion and is projected to hit $10.5 billion by 2022.
The Bang for Buck badge is given to firms who are getting more value for the average funding amount start-ups will get in the ecosystems. With an average funding new enterprises get in this environment, a start-up should be able to hire more software engineers for one year.
Under the activation ecosystem for connectedness, Manila ranked fifth for the quality of relationship local investors, experts and founders have.
Exit growth index measures startup exits in the ecosystem from 2015 to 2016 and 2017 to 2018. Output growth index evaluates the total start-up creation in the ecosystem through an annualized growth rate between 2014 and 2018.
The funding growth index assesses the index of growth in early stage funding in start-ups from 2014 to 2015 and 2016 to 2017.
The report took note of the $26 million raised last year by fintech lender First Circle. It also cited the acquisition of Coins.ph for $72 million and Voyager Innovations for $215 million as factors for Manila’s good standing in the rankings.