Techstars releases first “State of Innovation Survey”
The report highlights findings across five core areas including the top 10 U.S. emerging tech hubs. Atlanta ranks second behind Austin, TX, and just ahead of Miami, FL.
Techstars, one of the largest pre-seed investors in the world, made at least two announcements last week. One was introducing the participants in the second cohort of the Knoxville-based “Techstars Industries of the Future Accelerator” (see teknovation.biz article here). The other was the results of its inaugural survey on the state of innovation within the global early-stage start-up ecosystem.
The latter, appropriately titled “Techstars 2023 State of Innovation Survey,” features insights based on the survey responses of more than 1,600 current, past, and aspiring entrepreneurs and venture capital investors on how they view innovation on their home turf and around the world.
In her introduction, Maëlle Gavet, Chief Executive Officer of Techstars, highlighted findings across five core categories. They were technology hubs, regions, sectors, firestarters, and attitudes of founders.
“While almost two-thirds (63 percent) of entrepreneurs and venture capitalists (VCs) view Silicon Valley as the world’s most innovative hub today, just 45 percent expect it to be so in five years’ time, reflecting a shift to a more multipolar, global ecosystem,” she wrote.
What areas are going to emerge? The majority of entrepreneurs and VCs surveyed (51 percent) consider Asia-Pacific to be the most innovative region outside of the U.S. today, suggesting that it could soon challenge the historic U.S. dominance. Of the top 10 U.S. emerging tech hubs, Atlanta ranks second behind Austin, TX, and just ahead of Miami, FL.
What sectors will be the hottest in five years? Nearly half of the entrepreneurs and VCs surveyed predict that HealthTech (51 percent) and Sustainability (44 percent) will be
the two most innovative fields, indicative of the way founders are increasingly pursuing many of the biggest challenges of our era – from health and longevity to climate change and food resilience.
The report can be downloaded at this link.
