Toronto ranks 6th in list of Top 25 Global Cities for Women Entrepreneurs: Dell

June 23, 2016

Female entrepreneurs looking for a place to setup shop may want to consider New York City. If they’d rather stay in Canada, a new study from Dell finds that Toronto is the ideal new home.

Dell, together with research company HIS and the Technology and Entrepreneurship Centre at Harvard, examined which cities around the globe may be the most hospitable for female entrepreneurs.

“Innovation and job creation by women entrepreneurs is critical for a thriving global economy, yet our research shows some cities and countries are doing far more than others to encourage and support this important subset of the startup community,” said a statement form Karen Quintos, senior vice president and chief marketing officer　at　Dell.　”Our index provides insights to move the conversation with policymakers and city leaders from awareness　to action and, in turn, to empower women entrepreneurs to have the greatest economic impact on the world.”

Dell’s research examines five categories of city characteristics:

Capital – Number of women in a seed round or higher investment cycle, Number of high-potential, net-worth investors and the percentage of investment firms with at least one female executive

Technology – Percentage of women who use the Internet, the percentage of women with smartphones, and ratio of male/female use of smartphones for transaction

Talent – Female labor force participation rate, the percentage of female enrollment in business schools, and the percentage of women with tertiary education.

Culture – Presence of female entrepreneurs, networking groups for women entrepreneurs and businesswomen, policies around equal pay and hiring, and prevalence of paid maternity and paternity leave.

Markets – The percentage of women on corporate boards, the percentage of city startups run by women, and transportation costs.

These categories were organized into two separate groups: operating environment and enabling environment. The overall rating has 70 indicators, of which 44 have a gender-based component.

Overall Ranking:

1. New York
2. Bay Area (San Francisco and San Jose)
3. London
4. Stockholm
5. Singapore
6. Toronto
7. Washington, DC
8. Sydney
9. Paris
10. Seattle
11. Munich
12. Austin
13. Beijing
14. Hong Kong
15. Taipei
16. Shanghai
17. Tokyo
18. Mexico City
19. Sao Paulo
20. Seoul
21. Milan
22. Delhi
23. Johannesburg
24. Jakarta
25. Istanbul

Dell said New York grabbed the top spot for its ability to attract and support High Potential Women Entrepreneurs (HPWE) with a top-ranked operating environment and an enabling environment ranked fifth.

The report added that while New York City ranks No. 1 for Markets and Capital, it is No. 2 in Culture and No. 4 in Talent. It tops the list for its performance in Policy Enabling Market Access and is No. 2 for the Frequency & Value of Funding to businesses with women entrepreneurs.

Toronto ranked #1 in Culture, #7 in Market and #10 in Talent, achieving an overall position of #6.