You Do Not Need to Be in the Bay Area to Raise Your First Million

Do you need to move to the Bay Area to raise your first million?

Nope.

Yes, certain locations have much denser markets. And yes, dense networks of angels and pre-seed funds matter.

But the earlier you go in the venture fundraising journey, the more distributed startups become.

For instance, across all rounds raised by Carta companies in the last 12 months, Bay Area companies saw a 34% share. But when you narrow the analysis to rounds under $1 million, that figure shrinks to 24.7%.

𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘁𝘁𝘆 𝗰𝗼𝗼𝗹. If venture is going to take root everywhere, that change is going to start with the smallest rounds. And that's exactly what we're seeing.

Data details for the graphic below:

• 4,009 total rounds by metro of company HQ

• Only rounds raised on SAFEs or Convertible Notes for less than $1 million total

• Rounds defined by combined value of SAFEs or Notes on a single valuation cap

• Only companies on Carta, so not the entire market captured

𝗙𝗮𝘀𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗧𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗱𝘀

• Bay leads but NYC is a close second.

• Boston loses out on third place to Los Angeles (primarily because many biotech first rounds are for more than $1M).

• Miami in 6th is a major jump up from where it started back in 2020.

• SAFEs make up 70% or more of total pre-priced capital invested in the vast majority of these markets, though not all.

• Obviously pre-seed is more active than other stages. Over the same period, there were 5,556 priced rounds on Carta across all named stages.

• Cities that rank higher in this list than in our priced round analysis: Portland, Salt Lake, and Atlanta.

Never a better time to start up 🙏

#startups #preseed #SAFEs #fundraising #founders

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