The Financial Times’ fDi Intelligence division said that London was beaten by Vilnius as having have attracted the most greenfield Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) projects of tech startups per capita during the years 2016-2018.
The outfit announced the list of 30 cities with Vilnius ranked as the leading city and London, which came in second.
The Tech Start-up FDI Attraction Index 2019 measures at the city level the number of greenfield FDI projects made in the software and IT services sector per 100,000 inhabitants.
Although London attracted the largest overall number of projects, it scored only 0.875 on a per-capita basis while Vilnius firmly came forward with 1.006. According to fDi Intelligence, measuring on a per-capita basis is important, because tech start-ups often engage in talent-seeking.
The ranking included 997 greenfield investments made between 2016 and 2018 by 674 tech start-up companies across 231 cities. Greenfield FDI project data used in the index is sourced from fDi Markets, a database from fDi Intelligence which tracks crossborder greenfield investment, and excludes retail investments. For a company to be considered a tech start-up and included in the index it had to be in the software and IT services sector and founded since 2014. Cities had to attract at least five greenfield projects from 2016 to 2018 to be included in the index.
According to fDi Intelligence, Vilnius has a clear strategy for attracting tech startups. Researchers estimate that the business-friendly regulatory environment of the city, its open data policy and successful integration of newcomers most contributed to the leadership of Vilnius in the ranking.
It only takes one day to start a business in Vilnius using an e-signature. In addition, most of the municipal data is public and free to use. This is important for all tech startups as their products may be tested with real market data. Combined with the third lowest income tax in the CEE region, this makes Vilnius; business environment both inclusive and attractive.
