Romania drops 7 places in the ranking for world’s best startup ecosystems

Romania has moved down 7 places from last year to 45th in ranking of 100 economies with the best startup ecosystems.

By Claudiu Vrinceanu

Romania has decreased by 7 spots and now stands at 45 in the world, while at a city level, 7 out of 8 cities have experienced a drop, some of which have fallen by more than hundred places, according to a report released by StartupBlink, a global comprehensive startup ecosystem map and research center.

Bucharest remains the leading startup ecosystem in Romania despite a decrease from the top 100 list to 103.

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Good news, however, for the 2nd ranked city in the country: Cluj-Napoca has increased by 31 spots to 214. “Romania has an impressive number of cities in the rankings and now it is time to build quality in order to increase the potential of the whole country. At the same time, the focus should be directed toward Bucharest getting back into the top 100 list”, said the report.

Cities Startup Ecosystem Overview

Romania is a country with a vibrant economy that will hopefully begin to leverage its high quality IT sector to deal with the consequences of the COVID–19 crisis, according to StartupBlink.

More than 100,000 Romanians are already taking part in the IT scene, mainly as employees, freelancers and remote workers for foreign companies that are aware of the local talent pool. Romanian entrepreneurs already enjoy improved infrastructure with fast Internet connections, but this will not be enough to build a regional hub. More scaleups should be created in the ecosystem, and more effort promoting the ecosystem globally is painfully needed.

“Outside of the capital of Bucharest, one city that has managed to build a name for its ecosystem is Cluj Napoca, with ecosystem developers who know the path to growth includes attracting more foreigners. Last but not least, after the creation of their first unicorn, UIPath in 2018, we are optimistic that additional milestones will soon be met by Romanian startup ecosystems”, said the study.

The report ranked 100 countries and territories around the world based on three basic aspects – quantity, quality and business environment.

In terms of quantity, the number of startups, co-working spaces and startup accelerator events in a country are counted; the quality score measures the impact of an ecosystem’s start-ups based on several factors, including customer base, authority, website visits and valuations; the business environment assesses how easy it is to do business in a given location, based on technological infrastructure, bureaucracy and red tape.