The 20 hottest startup hubs in the world

While Silicon Valley may stand undefeated as the most prominent name for tech entrepreneurs and startup visionaries, other regions all over the world are worthy competitors.

Compass, a San Francisco-based benchmarking software company, has published a 2015 Startup Ecosystem Ranking Report that identifies the top 20 startup "ecosystems" in the world. The report - which last came out in 2012 - ranked cities in five categories: performance, funding, talent, market reach, and startup experience.

To compile the list, Compass consulted with entrepreneurs from 25 countries to conduct more than 200 interviews and 11,000 startup surveys. Startup ecosystems excluded from this report were China, Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea, which Compass said it plans to include in its index later this year.