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How Europe’s biggest economy is uniting its tech hubs to dethrone Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley is by far the most successful tech hub on the planet. However, European and Asian cities have started gaining on the startup mecca — so much so, that you could even say Europe has become better than SV.

But as we’ve pointed out, Europe isn’t one large monolithic block, each country and city has it’s strengths and weaknesses when it comes to startups. If we truly want to understand European startup ecosystems better, we’ll need to take a more in-depth look at each country.

That’s why TNW contacted Brigitte Zypries, Germany’s Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy, to get more information about how Germany — one of Europe’s biggest and most influential economies — plans on stimulating it’s startup scene.

Why only have one ‘Silicon Valley’ when you can have many?

The Digital Hub Initiative is the German government’s big move to strengthen connectivity and cooperation between startups in a digital age. In general, Germany has always done well in startup reports, with cities like Berlin usually getting high scores. But the international competition is fierce and there’s always room for improvement.

According to Minister Zypries, in addition to it’s vibrant startup scene, Germany has flourishing science institutions and market leading SMEs and corporates. However, the problem is that these fields aren’t interconnected enough.

More info: The Digital Hub Initiative