Tel Aviv Ranks 3rd In Top 15 Global Hotspots For Corporate Innovation

Tel Aviv ranked third in corporate innovation and R&D activity among 15 international cities outside of North America for Innovation Leader’s list of “Top 15 Global Innovation Hotspots.”

The so-called White City was preceded by Beijing and London in the first and second spots, respectively, and beat out Singapore and Shanghai to round out the top five.

Innovation Leader calls itself a magazine “focused on providing research, tools, strategies, and networking for corporate innovation execs.”

“For our list of the top cities for corporate innovation around the world, we examined an array of factors that create a constructive context for big companies that want to engage in ecosystems outside of their home turf,” wrote Dave Sebastian and Scott Kirsner, Innovation Leader CEO and co-founder. 

The magazine took into account the presence of startups and venture capital funding, trade shows and conferences in each city, shared co-working spaces, incubators, and accelerator programs, economic competitiveness, and other factors when coming up with the cities. The writers also sought input from more than a dozen investors, entrepreneurs and executives who have worked and traveled widely.

“Our list focuses on something different than startups and venture capital,” Kirsner said in a press statement. “We’re looking at the amount of research and development and innovation activity that big companies do in each city.”

Sebastian and Kirsner wrote that Israel “punches way above its weight when it comes to R&D investment and entrepreneurial mojo”, as it comes in third as having the most companies traded on the “tech-centric” Nasdaq index behind the US and China and has more than 350 multinationals have centers within the country. It is well-known for two major Israeli-founded companies that had billion dollars exits — Mobileye (acquired by Intel) and Waze (acquired by Google.) The country also boasts top knowledge and talent in fields like cybersecurity, digital health, agritech, food tech, automotive, water, energy, fintech, and the mobility sector and also has a large presence of US venture firms.

“The center of it all is Tel Aviv,” the article read, noting that Tel Aviv University and the Technion produce dozens of entrepreneurs, techies, and scientists every year. The city is also home to dozens of innovation and R&D labs established by multinationals such as Visa, Samsung, Barclays, and so on.

The five cities that round out the top 10 include Berlin, Tokyo, Amsterdam, Bangalore, and Stockholm.

Other cities in the Top 15 are Jakarta, Dubai, Shenzhen, Basel, and Seoul.

The list comes on the heels of Savills Tech Cities’ index of most successful cities for tech and startup companies. Published in February 2019, it placed Tel Aviv at 18, between Beijing at 17th and Dublin at 19th.

Innovation Leader’s list appears on its website and in the Spring 2019 issue of the print magazine, which will be published this month.