The Tokyo Consortium will hold an event on Tuesday, December 2022, 12, with the theme of ``Tokyo's startup ecosystem as seen from the world - Possibilities of the future Tokyo ecosystem from a leading expert''.・We held an event to discuss the nature of the ecosystem. On the day of the event, we invited experts who participated as committee members in August's overall promotion working group (indicators review) for a panel discussion.
Startup Genome publishes the Startup Ecosystem Ranking (GSER) of cities around the world every year. In this ranking for 2022, Tokyo was ranked 12th among cities in the world.
GSER evaluates the maturity of the world's city ecosystem in six areas (performance, financing, talent/experience, market reach, community/infrastructure, and knowledge). While the evaluation of resource items such as ``Procurement'', ``Human Resources/Experience'', and ``Knowledge'' is high, the evaluation of ``Community Infrastructure'' regarding network formation is low. The Tokyo Consortium aims to establish Tokyo as a global hub city for the startup ecosystem, and will need to work on providing a place for entrepreneurs to interact and disseminating information overseas.
A startup ecosystem is formed when people and organizations in a location interact as a system that generates new startup companies. Currently, various cities around the world are creating bases, providing opportunities for players to gather, and building platforms in collaboration with countries, cities, universities, etc., creating a new type of ecosystem that goes beyond the traditional Silicon Valley type. The formation of is progressing.
Mr. Fujimoto served as the moderator, and Mr. Tajima from an investor's perspective, Mr. Shimaoka from an academia perspective, and Mr. Odashima from a startup support perspective discussed Tokyo's efforts to improve its GSER ranking.
・ GSERランキングの必要性について
There was a common opinion that the GSER ranking is not an end in itself to improve rankings, but is merely a means to an end. In addition, we received the opinion that the GSER ranking can be used as a common vision for entrepreneurs, and that it can be used as an indicator to understand Tokyo's position in the world from the perspective of the maturity of the startup ecosystem. Ta.
・ 今後東京圏がスタートアップ・エコシステムの形成に向けて着手していくべきこと
We received your opinions on what the Tokyo area should undertake in the future to form a startup ecosystem.
The results of the GSER analysis show that the lack of funding for startups and the lack of large-scale exits are issues in the Tokyo area. This is due to the lack of M&A due to the lack of funding from overseas and limited opportunities for matching with large companies. The lack of funding from overseas is due to the fact that Tokyo's ecosystem and the efforts of Japanese startups are not communicated to the world. Japanese startups are not well recognized by foreign investors, making it difficult to raise funds from overseas. Therefore, Japanese startups need to keep in mind that they will compete on a global scale and raise their perspective. In addition, from the perspective of disseminating information, there are also issues such as the difficulty for foreign startups to expand into the Tokyo area due to the large disadvantages in terms of language and environment. As the Tokyo Consortium, we need to communicate the appeal of the Tokyo area ecosystem in English and actively attract overseas startups. Regarding collaboration with large companies, there has recently been a move by companies to establish corporate venture capital (hereinafter referred to as CVC) and acquire startups as part of their strategic policy. However, in many companies, there are cases where CVC itself is the goal, and management is focusing on CVC as a means to fill the gap between the company's desired direction and its current situation, rather than as an end in itself. We need to actively work on collaboration with startups.
It is also essential for the startup ecosystem to increase the number of excellent startups. In order to increase the number of talented entrepreneurs, it is necessary to have discussions that involve not only universities but also large companies and startups. Entrepreneurship education is spreading at universities with the aim of developing startup talent, and in addition to jointly developing and implementing entrepreneurship education classes in collaboration with private companies, universities also provide opportunities to pitch to overseas entrepreneurs. We are focusing on creating points of contact between students and entrepreneurs. These opportunities are expected to have a positive impact on the students and professors around them, change their mindsets, and lead to a broader range of startups. Additionally, in order to foster entrepreneurs, changes are required in the systems of large corporations. There is a need for companies to change their employee development systems, where they train employees from scratch, and the attitude of managers who are reluctant to make mistakes, and it is expected that the systems and corporate culture of large companies will change.
