Tracking the journey of the startup industry globally.
The beginning of a new year is always exciting, fun and thrilling. It is the time when we take some time out and look back at our success, our failures and most importantly our growth throughout the past year. With an ever-growing space for startup industries globally, new ideas pouring in every single day and more job opportunities opening up, let us look back at how this industry performed in the year 2019. So, are you ready?
Driving the economy
With a worth of approximately 3 trillion dollars, the global startup economy has flourished in 2019, it has grown over 20% in two years. For many countries globally, startups rewrote the economic roadmap and rode the growth. The startup ecosystem has expanded leaps and bounds in the past year and the latest Global Startup Ecosystem Report confirms this fact. ‘WeWork’, a startup that revolutionized corporate workspaces, alone contributed 123.7 billion dollars to GDP worldwide directly and indirectly which in turn produced a ripple effect in the economy.
Growing globally
With time, the startup trend has become increasingly globalized. Although the United States with 47,544 startups still dominates the landscape, various other countries from different parts of the world made it to the top 5 in 2019. These include India, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Indonesia. As funding and talent are both becoming decentralized, opportunities are on the rise for several nations to become mini Silicon Valleys. We at .CO also support this. Our recent campaign showcased the stories of .COers across the world – from Colombia to India – innovating, inspiring and breaking paths to boost both local and global economy.
Generating employment
The last year proved how dynamic the startup industry is. The top startups in the United States according to LinkedIn did not even require a college degree for job applicants which stands testimonial to how flexible the industry has become. More than 11,000 positions were filled across the 50 Top Startups last year in the US, and thousands of jobs are still open, all thanks to this. Bird.CO, that operates in the electric scooter category became one of the most happening startups to work for in 2019. As one of the fastest companies to boast a one billion dollar valuation, Bird scooters are now available in over 100 cities across the globe and have nearly 1,000 vacancies up for grabs across the world.
Fastest growing sectors
The year 2019 has been one of the most fulfilling years in terms of growth. According to Global Startup Ecosystem Report, the fastest growing sub-sectors in the startup ecosystem in 2019 in terms of funding, exits and startup creation were Advanced Manufacturing & Robotics, Blockchain, Agtech & New Food, and Artificial Intelligence. Bird.CO rose in 2019 with impressive growth in Series C and Series D funding, raking in around 300 million dollars and 275 million dollars respectively. Although, few sub-sectors like Edtech, Digital Media, Gaming, and Adtech witnessed a dip in investment and startup creation in this period.
Unanticipated disappointments
Every startup aims to be innovative like Tesla. However, 2019 disappointed both the industry and the futuristic automotive and energy company.
Tesla lost $702 million in the first quarter of 2019, despite a brilliant period of record sales, resulting in a wave of shock across the market. However, with the right strategies in place, they did manage to make a comeback with securing a 24% increase in the stock price and 1.9% rise in sales at the end of the third quarter of 2019.
2019 has been a year of impressive ups and surprising downs. With that, here’s looking at an eventful 2020 with ideas that soar and find a digital space of their own, with .CO
