The European Digital City Index (EDCI) recognizes Amsterdam as the second best startup city in Europe. Yesterday, the 2015 report was published at the ICT 2015 event in Lisbon by the European Digital Forum. The EDCI describes how well different cities across Europe support digital entrepreneurs. For startups and scale-ups, the index provides insights on various factors that determine the strength of ecosystems, allowing them to plan accordingly.
Amsterdam is top ranked in many categories. According to the EDCI: “Amsterdam is considered an exciting and diverse city, and this adds to its allure as one of the best places in Europe to start a business. It scores strongly in our Index for capital, culture and connectedness. In addition, the Dutch capital has been investing resources into its overall innovation strategy in the last few years with projects like the Smart City initiative, where one can test out new products in a "living lab" and make tweaks based on real-word feedback.”
Amsterdam's size also permits a high level of policy experimentation when it comes to entrepreneurship. StartupAmsterdam is noted as an important organisation that provides a wealth of information for young startups an actively contributes to the startup ecosystem in the city. Its action programme consists of 15 measures that also target the themes mentioned in the report such as access to capital, business environment, skills and knowledge spillovers. Amsterdam has also been investing in its innovation strategy, with projects like the Smart City initiative, where new products can be tested in a living lab, and adjusted based on real-world feedback
The EDCI is an important indicator, underlining the skyrocketing performance of the Dutch startup ecosystem. The report acknowledges the StartupDelta initiative as an important contributor to recent successes; ‘it [Dutch ecosystem] has as undoubtedly been boosted by the recent appointment of the former European Commissioner for the Digital Agenda, Neelie Kroes, as Special Envoy to the project.’
The main factors contributing to Amsterdam’s success are the easy access to capital, strong business environment and energetic entrepreneurial climate. Other factors that are weighed in the overall score are (digital) infrastructure, market, lifestyle and skills, including the ability of the Amsterdam workforce to hold a conversation in English.
For more information visit: www.digitalcityindex.eu