Startup Genome ecosystem report 2022 review

Startup Genome is the world-leading policy advisory and research organisation for public and private organisations committed to accelerating the success of their startup ecosystem. To date, the organisation has advised more than 125 clients across 6 continents in 45+ countries to date – huge work!

Startup Genome’s mission is to accelerate startup success and ecosystem performance everywhere. They have continued to work with global thought leaders and practitioners to define and execute robust policies and programs that drive lasting change.

Just under a month ago, Startup Genome released its 2022 Global Startup Ecosystem Report that detailed insights on the founder journey, capital raising process, and global rankings of the various ecosystems across the world.

And given that the Australian ecosystem has moved from strength to strength year on year, we decided to chalk out the key findings for Sydney and Melbourne’s ecosystem. Take a look:

With Sydney showing Oceania’s biggest leap in rankings, moving up 4 places from last year to #20, its $68B ecosystem value is in large part due to Canva’s $39B valuation.

Closer to home, Melbourne’s been seen as a thriving hub for startups for years. Be it SaaS, Fintech, AI, Blockchain, Big Data, IoT or Life Sciences – the city has been the birthplace of numerous success stories.

In its most recent findings, the Melbourne ecosystem was valued at $17B, with the total early-stage funding rounding off at a solid $816M.

The total early-stage funding for Sydney was higher at $1.3B, with its median seed round sitting at $835k (against a global average of $671k) and the median Series A round hitting a high $5.4M against a global average of $4.7M.

On the flipside, Melbourne’s median seed round sat at $670k with the median Series A round hitting $3.9M. Total VC funding for Melbourne clocked in at $3.1B against the $4.5B global average, whereas Sydney once again topped it higher with $5.9B.

The number of exits for Melbourne’s ecosystem were 185, valued at $7B, with the time to exit being 9.3 years. Sydney witnessed a total of 288 exits valued at $12B, with the time to exit equalling 9 years against a global average of 9.4.

All in all, both states sat well on the Early-Stage Funding Growth Tier, with Melbourne at 6 and Sydney at a solid 9 on 10. (1 being the lowest, and 10 the highest measure of growth).

It’s safe to say that both ecosystems have shown consistent and robust growth across all domains, which is why they both continue to attract entrepreneurs and ecosystem supporters from across the world – Melbourne for its dynamic, educated workforce, world-class universities, and strong government support, and Sydney for its supportive business environment and great quality of life.

And while Sydney continues to attract substantial international investment, Melbourne too shows promise through its initiatives, including LaunchVic’s $10M Alice Anderson Fund backing women-led startups, as well as the $240M Victorian Startup Capital Fund that aims to support early-stage startups with high growth potential.

With the impending economic downturn that’s standing at everyone’s doorstep, it will be interesting to see how both these ecosystems respond. While systems and processes to tackle the same are definitely in place, we guess we’ll know better when the 2023 ecosystem report comes around.

If interested to read global report, head over to the Startup Genome website.