Moscow entered the top 20 most promising technological cities in Europe

The five leaders are London, Paris, Dublin, Amsterdam, Berlin.

Moscow entered the top twenty cities in Europe most promising for investments in technology, innovation and startups. According to the fDi Tech Cities of the Future, the capital was ranked 18th out of 76.

The Tech Cities of the Future 2020/21 ranking was compiled by fDi Intelligence magazine and the technology and innovation magazine TNW (The Next Web) for the first time this year.

“The rating examined 76 European cities, which were assessed in terms of attracting capital, availability of qualified employees and infrastructure development. Moscow this year took 18th place, and in one of the five categories of the rating, Startup Environment, it immediately climbed to the 10th line,” said Vladimir Yefimov, Deputy Mayor of Moscow for Economic Policy and Property and Land Relations.

The five leading cities included London, Paris, Dublin, Amsterdam, Berlin. The overall ranking was generated based on the results that cities scored in each of five categories - Economic Potential, Innovation and Attractiveness, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) Performance, Startup Environment, and Cost Effectiveness. Additional points were awarded if the city fell into a separate, sixth, FDI Strategy category, formed on the basis of fDi Intelligence's polls.

“Every year Moscow is becoming an increasingly attractive city for investment, including in the field of high technologies, and successfully competes in this direction with such world centers as, for example, Helsinki or Milan. The city has created a favorable environment for the development of startups and digital platforms. Work on the implementation of innovative solutions in the life of the city has shown its relevance during the period of time constraints, when the demand for services and goods using online services has sharply increased,” said Kirill Purtov, Minister of the Moscow Government, Head of the Department of Economic Policy and Development.

Experts highly appreciated the capabilities of the Moscow startup ecosystem. This confirms the achievements of the city in creating conditions for the development of technological entrepreneurship. So says the head of the Moscow Department of Entrepreneurship and Innovative Development Alexei Fursin.

“Metropolitan startups have access to the opportunities provided by the Moscow Innovation Cluster, the Moscow Accelerator program for scaling and development of startups, a project for pilot testing of innovations at city sites, and other support measures. They allow ecosystem participants to cooperate, find partners and investors, receive feedback on products from consumers, develop their projects and entrepreneurial competencies and scale up the business,” the head of the department emphasized.

Eduard Lysenko, Minister of the Moscow Government, Head of the Information Technology Department, added that the basis for success in the digital world is such factors as favorable regulations, the creation of ecosystems and the support of talented personnel. The inclusion of Moscow in the top 20 of the Tech Cities of the Future 2020/21 rating, as well as the leading positions in other international rankings for the development of innovations, mean that Moscow's global competitiveness is growing. As the Minister specified, Moscow is not just ready for a digital future, but is one of the cities that define it.

FDi magazine is part of the Financial Times Group and makes ratings of cities and regions in terms of their future development in the next two years. In addition to Tech Cities of the Future, fDi publishes a comprehensive ranking of European Cities and Regions of the Future every two years. In its latest edition, Moscow in the overall standings among the largest cities in Europe was in the top 10.