New Rankings of the Top US Startup Ecosystems

New Rankings of the Top US Startup Ecosystems

Author

Peter Walker

|

Read time: 

1 minute

Published date: 

September 10, 2025

Bay Area dominates with 51% of AI funding and leads across all sectors—NYC reopens its lead over Boston, and several mid-tier cities are gaining meaningful...

LinkedIn: New Rankings of the Top US Startup Ecosystems

New ranking of the top startup ecosystems in the US - top 5 things to know.

Data by metro area, includes $104 billion in priced round investment over the last 12 months on Carta.

Ecosystems must have 20+ rounds to be included.

𝗧𝗼𝗽 𝟱 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀 𝗧𝗼 𝗞𝗻𝗼𝘄

1. Bay Area is dominant. 51% for AI (surprise surprise) but really solid percentages across all sectors.

2. NYC has re-opened the lead over Boston and has not truly "bad" finishes outside of a slight weaknesses in Hardware

3. LA rounds out the top 4 and has dual pillars in Hardware + Consumer

4. Austin and Seattle = a little bit of everything!

5. Shoutout to Chicago for their (first ever?) placement inside our top 10 overall

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Note that this is across all venture stages. If you'd like to zoom into a particular part of the VC journey, shout that out in the comments.

#𝗰𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮 #𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗽𝘀 #𝗳𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗿𝗮𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 #𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗮𝗽𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹 #𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀

Peter Walker
Author: Peter Walker
Peter Walker runs the Insights team at Carta, focused on discovering key data and narratives across the private capital ecosystem. In a former life, he was a marketing executive for a media analytics startup and led the data visualization team at the Covid Tracking Project.

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