Top Cities In The World For Entrepreneurs

By Emeric Brard
on 6 April 2021

A recent study has looked into which cities around the world are best suited for entrepreneurs across three different industries; the top three types of businesses most commonly launched by expats. The first one is the restaurant industry, the second being a tech startup and the last one an import/export company.

The ranks were determined via a certain set of criteria. For restaurants, they looked for hospitality ecosystem, human capital and real estate cost. For tech startups, they looked at the tech ecosystem, human capital, venture capital, and the main industry for growth. For the imports/exports industry, the focus was more on the logistics ecosystem, logistics cost and the access to markets.

Lets look at the top three cities from each industry.

Restaurant Industry

1 Lisbon

Lisbon, restaurants, cities
Image credit: TAP Air Portugal

Traditional dish: Bacalhau à brás

Undoubtedly Portugal’s favourite fish dish – shredded codfish with fried potato, onion and scrambled eggs.

Top restaurant: Prado

Quite a new dining experience in Lisbon, it boasts a heaviness on produce – very fitting for the vine-filled jungle decor.

2 Barcelona

Barcelona, restaurants, cities
Image credit: Avis

Traditional dish: Bombas

Literally and explosion of flavour in your mouth. They’re stuffed mashed potato balls generally filled with meat.

Top restaurant: Lasarte

The only three Michelin-starred restaurant in Barcelona. It is architecturally splendid and gastronomically inspiring.

3 Istanbul

Istanbul, restaurants
Image credit: Agoda

Traditional dish: Döner

You would’ve maybe tried this in the form of a kebab, but you’ve tried it in Istanbul.

Top restaurant: La Mouette

Enjoy the panache of two young chefs while looking out onto the city’s views.

Tech/Digital Industry

1 San Francisco

Top tech company: Apple

Surprise surprise. San Francisco is home to Silicon Valley – the tech arena of the world.

2 London

London, cities
Image credit: Visit Britain

Top tech company: CDS Group

For IT consulting, custom software development and managed services.

3 New York

New York, cities, entrepreneurs
Image credit: Streeteasy

Top tech company: IBM

The famous computer hardware company is one of the day one companies.

Import/Export

1 Singapore

singapore, cities, entrepreneurs
Image credit: Qantas

Top imports: electrical machinery

Top exports: electrical machinery

2 Shanghai

Shanghai, cities, entrepreneurs
Image credit: Escape

Top imports: electrical machinery

Top exports: vehicles

3 Amsterdam

amsterdam, entrepreneurs
Image credit: Fluent in 3 months

Top imports: mineral fuels

Top exports: machinery

Which city would you start a business in? Let us know below.

Related News


More WLT News