- Bridging the Cleantech Scaleup Gap
- Mitigation is Not Enough: We Need More Scaling of Innovation to Adapt to a Changed Environment
- Global Cleantech Trends
- Global Cleantech Ranking: Top 25 + Runners-Up
- Top Cleantech Ecosystems by Region & Ecosystems to Watch
- Top Cleantech Ecosystem Players
- Global Blue Economy Trends
- Global Blue Economy Ranking: Top 25 + Runners-Up
- Top Blue Economy Ecosystems by Region & Ecosystems to Watch
- Top Blue Economy Ecosystem Players
The Global Startup Ecosystem Report Climatetech Edition
Global Cleantech Ranking: Top 25 + Runners-Up
Key Findings
- The U.S. is the world’s leading nation in Cleantech in terms of the number of ecosystems represented in the top 25.
- Silicon Valley and London are the world’s leading Cleantech ecosystems, at #1 and #2 respectively.
- Amsterdam has jumped from #7 in 2021 to #3, holding the highest number of Cleantech startups in Europe outside of London.
- Singapore moved up an impressive 18 places, from #26 to #8, and is the only Asian ecosystem in the top 10.
- Seoul made its first appearance in the Cleantech rankings, at #15, reflecting its overall maturation as a startup ecosystem.
- Two new Chinese ecosystems also entered the Cleantech rankings: Wuxi at #19 and Hangzhou at #22.
Global Top 25
As in the 2021 Startup Genome Cleantech report, the U.S. has the highest number of ecosystems in the top 25 global Cleantech ecosystems, with a 24% share. China follows, with a 20% share of the top 25 Cleantech ecosystems. However, it's worth noting that none of China's ecosystems are represented in the top 10. The only Asian ecosystem to achieve a top 10 ranking is Singapore.
The distribution of top ecosystems by country in this report represents a change from the first Startup Genome Cleantech report. While the U.S. led that ranking as well, China only had one ecosystem ranked. Now home to five top ecosystems, China’s recent significant investment and emphasis on Cleantech is clear.
Asia, Europe, and North America each have eight ecosystems in the top 25. This indicates that as Cleantech matures, more ecosystems are generating competitive startups in the sub-sector, most notably in Asia, which only had two ecosystems in the top 25 in the 2021 Startup Genome Cleantech report.
Silicon Valley retains its position as the #1 Cleantech ecosystem globally. However, several other ecosystems have made substantial strides since the 2021 report. Notably, Amsterdam moved from #7 in 2021 to #3, overperforming in Cleantech relative to its overall 2023 GSER ranking. This improvement is thanks in large part to it holding the highest number of Cleantech startups in Europe outside of London, as well as the number of exits it has generated since H2 2018.
The largest improvement came from Singapore, which moved from #26 to #8 due to its strong startup talent pool — it is the only ecosystem outside of Silicon Valley to score a 10 in this factor. Two Chinese ecosystems made their first appearance in the Cleantech rankings: Wuxi (#19) and Hangzhou (#22), which both experienced large exits that boosted their Funding and Performance scores. Seoul also made its first appearance in the Cleantech rankings, at #15, reflecting its overall maturation as a startup ecosystem, which is now extending to emerging sub-sectors including Cleantech.
Due to both the emergent nature of Cleantech, as well as the particular innovative capabilities required to produce novel technologies, several smaller ecosystems outperform their overall GSER 2023 ranking. For example, Oslo (#10) is significantly punching above its weight relative to its Ecosystem Value under $15 billion. This is due to the Norwegian ecosystem’s strong Focus score. Oslo has also produced four exits over $50 million since H2 2018 — a high number considering the size of the ecosystem. Wuxi similarly overperforms in Cleantech relative to its overall GSER rank, thanks to a high number of Series A deals and exits over the past two years.