Photo Credit: Shutterstock/ Close-up of Cupertino City Limit sign, Cupertino, Silicon Valley

Everybody loves an underdog. This weekend saw a plethora of speculation over new and emerging startup scenes outside Silicon Valley. As Richard Florida writes in the Atlantic, “the location of startup companies is a key indicator of innovation, entrepreneurship and economic growth.”

So what did tech scene observers find? These five locations, which may or may not surprise you, are all home to robust and rising startup scenes.

• China—Judging not based on the number of startups, but the number of startups valuated at $1 billion or more,Richard Florida points to one huge powerhouse outside the United States. While the United States is home to at least 6 in 10 of the world’s most successful startups, Beijing is the runner-up, with 17 (12.4 percent) of billion-dollar startups. This figure is based on a new study by the international investment firm Atomico. China’s big startups include Xiami, Jingdong, Dianping and VANCL.
• Sweden is Atomico’s second runner-up, with a total of 5 billion-dollar startups. These include Spotify, Skype and Kiarna.
• Utah—Meanwhile, writing on Inc.com, Ilan Mochari cites statistics from the Associated Press to point out that Utah is punching above its weight in terms of venture-capital-backed startups as well as the size of these deals. For instance, companies like Qualtrics–a maker of customer analytics software, which received $150 million in Series B fundingin September. Chalk it up to an entrepreneur friendly state or the Mormon work ethic, Utah is a startup hub to watch.
• Poland—Writing in Forbes, blogger Alison Coleman praises Poland as a European startup scene to watch. Poland has a lot of coding talent, and is particularly strong in fashion startups like pl, shwrm.pl and shopping loyalty company ZenCard.
• Tehran—While not exactly a tech hotspot, perhaps its surprising that this Middle Eastern city has a vibrant startup scene at all. “Shades of Silicon Valley are bubbling up in Tehran, which is home to a growing tech ecosystem with start-ups, accelerators and a venture capital firm, despite the significant challenges of launching a tech company in Iran,” says the Washington Post. Iran’s biggest startup is called Digikala and it’s like Amazon.com. The article points out, ironically, that the sanctions regime on Iran have given a boost to homegrown startups because they don’t have to compete with global behemoths like Google and Amazon.