Melbourne isn't going to be the next Silicon Valley but that doesn't mean it's not a city to watch when it comes to start-ups, a global report has found.
The city has been named as one of 12 emerging start-up hubs, alongside the likes of Greater Helsinki, Jakarta, Montreal, Mumbai, Seoul and Tokyo, by the 2019 Global Startup Ecosystem Report.
These centres have been dubbed "challenger ecosystems", meaning they're considered a "real chance" of becoming some of the world's start-up leaders.
"There will be no 'next Silicon Valley.' Instead, there will be 30 'next' hubs, distributed around the world, reaching critical mass driven," Friday's report by Startup Genome said.
"While none of them will be as big as Silicon Valley, in the foreseeable future, each will thrive."
Melbourne's start-up strengths lie in education technology - a sector targeted by more than one in 10 start-ups - and life sciences.
"The substantial growth we're seeing affirms that start-ups will play an important part in our future economic mix, representing a major opportunity for Victoria and Australia to make global gains in innovation," said Kate Cornick, the chief executive of the government's start-up agency LaunchVic.
Startup Genome last year estimated Melbourne's start-up "ecosystem" had the potential to grow to more than $US4 billion over coming years, Dr Cornick added.
But she said growth of $US1.6 billion to $US2.24 billion since then showed the city was on track to exceed this.
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