CAP57

Why frontier cities matter now

A widening capital mismatch is creating asymmetric opportunity across middle-power ecosystems.

More than 70% of global venture capital deployed in 2024 flowed to three geographies: the United States, the United Kingdom, and China. This concentration persists despite the fact that over 60% of the world's population under 30 lives outside these markets. The talent is elsewhere. The problems being solved are elsewhere. Increasingly, the exits are elsewhere.

The Capital57 City Index is the analytical foundation of Capital57's investment strategy. Covering 100 cities across the world's most dynamic economies, the Index scores each city across two independent dimensions; ecosystem maturity and frontier growth signal to produce rankings, tier classifications and investment conviction that no single existing benchmark provides.

The Index is not designed to identify where the most capital already sits. It is designed to identify where the most opportunity remains uncaptured.

“The most important opportunities in the next decade of technology are not where the money is”

Key Findings

Snapshot insights from this edition

Kigali (Rwanda) ranks first in the entire Capital57 Frontier Index with a score of 90, ahead of every city in Southeast Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East, driven by the strongest government digital commitment in sub-Saharan Africa and a youth population median age of 19.

Tashkent (Uzbekistan) ranks second on the Frontier Index. Central Asia is the most systematically underpriced region in global venture: both Tashkent and Almaty appear in the global top 30 on the Frontier dimension yet attract less than 1% of global venture attention.

The MENA corridor made up of Riyadh, Cairo, Dubai, Doha, Jeddah, Casablanca, and Amman, is the fastest-moving region in the index, combining high government digital ambition with young, connected populations and rapidly maturing startup ecosystems.

Southeast Asia continues to produce the most capital-efficient startup ecosystems in the world. Jakarta and Ho Chi Minh City both rank in the top 15 globally on the Frontier dimension, with blended scores that reflect both momentum and white space.

The Capital57 Index introduces a proprietary fourth dimension absent from every other city benchmark: Middle Power Independence; the degree to which a city's home nation operates with strategic autonomy from superpower geopolitical influence. Every investee city in the Capital57 network scores above 10/20 on this gate, making it a non-negotiable pre-cursor to inclusion.

The methodology behind the Index

A blended framework balancing present readiness with forward-trajectory signals.

The Capital57 City Index evaluates 100 cities across two independent scoring frameworks, each capturing a different dimension of investment opportunity. Cities are never assessed on a single dimension alone. A city can score highly on maturity without having significant growth signal, or vice versa. The combination of both lenses produces the tier classifications that drive Capital57's allocation decisions.

Both frameworks are scored from 0 to 100. Thresholds for tier classification are set at the median of each index across the 100-city dataset, ensuring that tier assignments reflect relative positioning within the actual distribution of cities evaluated, rather than arbitrary round numbers.

The Maturity Index (0–100)

The Maturity Index measures the current state of a city's startup ecosystem: how much infrastructure exists, how many companies have scaled, how capable the talent base is, and how independently the city operates from geopolitical influence.

The Frontier Index (0–100)

The Frontier Index measures growth signal: the conditions that predict where the next generation of significant startup ecosystems will emerge. High Frontier scores identify cities where the population dynamics, digital adoption rates, government ambition and competitive white space suggest that an ecosystem is being built, even if it cannot yet be seen in funding data.

The Blended Score and Tier Classification

The Blended Score weights the Frontier Index more heavily than Maturity (60% Frontier, 40% Maturity) to reflect Capital57's early-stage mandate. We are investing in where ecosystems are going, not where they have already been.

Methodology is not a technical appendix; it is the investment thesis made auditable.

The four tiers: Pioneer, Accelerator, Anchor, Keystone

Tiering reveals where risk, maturity and upside intersect in different market archetypes.

The City Index assigns tiers based on the position of each city's Maturity and Frontier scores relative to their respective index medians. The Maturity threshold is set at 55 (the median) and the Frontier threshold is set at 57 (the median)

Tiers are not labels of prestige — they are tools for sequencing capital intelligently.

The top 10: a closer look

A city-by-city reading of leadership signals, structural constraints and investable momentum.

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Top-ranked cities are not perfect; they are simply the most coherent in mandate, talent and execution.