Dublin ranked one of Europe's top startup hubs - with some of the worst digital infrastructure

DUBLIN HAS BEEN ranked as the eighth-best city in Europe for startups, but poor digital infrastructure is holding the capital back from rising further up the rankings.

Ireland’s largest city retained its ranking from last year out of 60 major hubs around the continent in the latest European Digital City Index, which was compiled by the European Digital Forum think-tank.

Dublin also placed ninth in the scale-up section of the study, one position below where it scored last year, which ranked European tech hubs based on their readiness to help companies with more than 10 employees to grow.

Cities were scored based on 10 key themes that make up a perfect startup hub, such as access to funding, digital infrastructure and lifestyle.

Dublin fared worst in the digital infrastructure category and was shown to be lagging behind the vast majority of tech hubs on the continent, placing 50th overall in the category.

Sub-sections within the digital infrastructure section of the research showed that Dublin was the worst city among those surveyed for cost of broadband and also fared poorly for the availability of fibre internet.

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Dublin’s position as one of the top-10 places in Europe to start a company was heavily influenced by its ranking in the areas like entrepreneurial culture (2nd) and mentoring and managerial assistance (1st). The high score in the latter was based on availability of early-stage assistance and networking events.

The Irish capital was only second best to London in terms of entrepreneurial culture, which is scored based on the multicultural diversity in a city’s startup workforce, a city’s history of highly successful digital companies and a positive perception about entrepreneurship.

The research showed that Dublin was the 11th best city in Europe for access to capital, while noting that the city was “the world’s capital for travel tech” while also building a strong reputation in business-to-business software, fintech and payments.

Overall results

London narrowly edged out Swedish capital Stockholm as the best overall startup city in Europe. The report noted the English capital came out on top due to its excellent access to capital and skilled workforce.

For this, the second annual edition of the study, the European Digital Forum has expanded its scope to feature 25 new cities. The index measuring the quality of a startup ecosystem has also been updated to factor in availability of business angel funding and the availability of entrepreneurial education.

The European Digital Forum is run by several organisations, including Brussels-based think-tank the Lisbon Council, London entrepreneur consultancy non-profit Nesta and the Spanish research bureau Open Evidence.

The research conducted for these rankings was led by Nesta and launched as part of the recent Startup Nations Summit in Cork.

Nesta head of startup and new technology research Christopher Haley said creating a perfect startup ecosystem is about more than just digital infrastructure.

“All European cities must keep pace with the likes of China and the United States and continue to invest in their digital infrastructure. But digital entrepreneurs need much more,” he said.

“It’s important that cities offer skilled talent, opportunities for experimentation and a positive attitude towards entrepreneurship. As the United Kingdom embarks on a ‘hard Brexit,’ it remains to be seen how the United Kingdom will retain its business allure.”