Deloitte: Less than 5% of Australian startups manage

By Rob Starr, Content Manager, Big4.com

Only 4.8% of Australian technology startups grow into successful, global companies whereas many more Silicon Valley (8%) and New York (6.7%) based startups reach scale, according to new research released today, Silicon Beach: A study of the Australian Startup Ecosystem.

The research identifies four main startup hubs in Australia: Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth.  Sydney is home to the greatest number of tech startups in Australia — 1.5 times more than Melbourne, six times bigger than Brisbane and eight times larger than Perth.

According to the research, Sydney entrepreneurs are 86% less likely to want to get rich, 45% less likely to want to change the world, and 37% more likely to want to build a great product, than their counterparts in Silicon Valley.

“Without a doubt, Sydney is the largest startup ecosystem in Australia. We’re seeing some good companies come out of Melbourne and the other capital cities, but Sydney demonstrates the most established network of startup founders, investors, and accelerators and incubators,” said Joshua Tanchel, a co-author of the report and Partner at Deloitte Private.

The research also shows Australian companies are failing to maximise grant opportunities: only 39% of companies in the research have applied for some kind of grant. Programs like ‘Commercialisation Australia’ are still underutilised; only 21% of startups in the research that accessed grants have applied for ‘Commercialisation Australia’ support.