Definitive leaderboard - best US metro areas for seed + Series A startup fundraising.
And by "definitive", I mean: rankings based on total amount raised by startups using Carta in Seed or Series A rounds from Q4 2023–Q3 2024. So, you know, completely correct 😁
We included seed rounds done on SAFEs if more than $2M was raised in the round.
The big question is: if we split the data by vertical, do we get more intriguing answers than “Bay Area wins”?
Turns out, not really. Bay Area took in 35% of capital invested and came in first in 5 of the 6 listed sectors.
Of course total capital raised isn't the only metric that matters - but it does give us a sense of scale in each metro area (which are defined as Metropolitan Statistical Areas with a little discretion to combine if they are often considered one ecosystem).
𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗵𝗶𝗴𝗵𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀:
Bay Area, New York, and Boston only three ecosystems to top $2B over the past 12 months in seed + Series A.
Healthtech seems to be the most evenly dispersed of the major verticals (lead metro only saw about a quarter of all investment which is comparatively quite low).
LA moving up the list for early-stage hardware and fintech (and maintaining its traditional strong showing in consumer).
Strong showing in SaaS for Seattle, breaking into the top 3 for the first time on a rolling 12-month basis.
DC had a decent showing, appearing in 5 of 6 top tens by sector.
25 metro areas had total raised above $100M in this time period in seed + Series A.
No 11 - No 15, in order: Miami, Pittsburgh, Salt Lake City, Phoenix, Atlanta.
How'd your ecosystem do?
#startups #founders #Seed #SeriesA #fundraising
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