From Renaissance Florence to early 20th century Detroit to Silicon Valley today, innovation hotspots come and go. They are a product of the talent, networks and investment that consolidate in certain places at certain times, and the technological paradigm of their era. Today, Silicon Valley dominates through its strengths in internet businesses and high-tech innovation. Other hubs, such as London and New York, also lead the world in areas such as fintech, media and cyber-security. But the leadership of these cities is being challenged, particularly in other emerging industries, as innovation becomes more dispersed, new technological paradigms emerge and the cost of living in today's leading spots become prohibitive for young entrepreneurs. New research from The Economist Intelligence Unit, commissioned by Pictet, has analysed where commercial activity in today's most disruptive emerging technology fields, such as artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, advanced biosciences and blockchain, is most vigorous, to hint at where new hotspots of innovation and entrepreneurial activity are emerging.

To look back on the year, we compiled a list of our most popular posts for your enjoyment. We found London, Paris, Singapore, Munich, and Tel Aviv to be five innovation hotspots and examined what makes them so attractive to entrepreneurs. We analyzed over 10,000 news articles published over a year span reporting on the food and beverage category. We decided to find out what focus areas of fintech have grown and received the most investment, and which companies are leading the public narrative behind innovation in the finance and banking sectors. We used Quid software to dig deeper into the overall effects from the campaign.

A team at Quid wrote an analysis on 5 innovation hotspots outside the U.S. which was published on the World Economic Forum. Using Quid, we found London, Paris, Singapore, Munich, and Tel Aviv to be five innovation hotspots and examined what makes them so attractive to entrepreneurs. To do this we analysed every company that has received funding in the last 10 years across these five hotspots. We then used Quid's artificial intelligence (AI) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) to "read" the business descriptions of the companies in order to segment each market by theme and derive further insights into the fastest growing segments, the largest exits and the top investors. We also interviewed Tech Pioneers, members of the World Economic Forum's global community of trailblazing companies, who are based in these hotspots.