Amsterdam in 2nd on best EU start-up city index

The city of Amsterdam has been ranked second, under London, as the best city for start-up companies in the European Digital Cities Index. The index forms part of the European Digital Forum. Its ultimate aim is supporting digital entrepreneurship throughout Europe. The index is used to assess the support from cities for digital entrepreneurship. The index serves as a guide to a cities strengths and weaknesses within its ecosystem when it comes to supporting start-up and scale-up businesses. The index includes all capital cities in the European Union, as well as a few non-capital cities that are considered to be important hubs in digital entrepreneurship are included, such as Cambridge, Barcelona and Munich. The researchers found Amsterdam interesting and diverse, adding that the city invests in innovation. The report mentions a number of projects that shows that Amsterdam is committed to innovation investment. Amsterdam Smart City is a collaboration between government, companies and universities. Another initiative is the Startup Delta by initiator Neelie Kroes, which focuses on the Netherlands as a good start-up location for businesses. The 2016 index will be updated and thus expanded to include more EU cities. Chris Haley, Head of Start-up’s and New Technology Research at Nesta was reported by tech.eu saying that, “Research has indicated that location does matter, and this illustrates ways which top cities can create supportive environments, where lessons can be learnt.”