Leaderboard of best US cities for early-stage startups - Q3 edition.
Ground rules: rankings based on total amount raised by startups using Carta in Seed & Series A rounds in the first 9 months of 2023. Data is where the startups is based, not the investors. Objectively correct in every way 😅.
Splitting the data across these verticals (which, I get it, only showing the top 10 here) - do we get any hints that Silicon Valley is losing it's edge?
Bay Area took the top spot for capital invested in 5 of 10 verticals and came second in the other 5. Not much slippage there.
It may be that Carta’s client base is weighted more heavily towards Silicon Valley than startups as a whole - but overall I think the data is fairly indicative of the continued primacy of SV. And everybody loves a list.
Other Interesting nuggets:
Boston holding a strong lead in Medical Devices and a narrow one in Biotech makes MA the top spot for lifescience companies in general.
NYC maintaining it's traditional spot atop the Fintech ranking, although Fintech as a startup vertical has diminished over the past year (and no, that doesn't include Web3).
If AI was a category, the Bay Area would come in first by a substantial margin.
Cool to see LA have a healthy ranking even outside the typical Consumer and Gaming categories.
Chicago is doing relatively better than Dallas but both are lagging when you compare their VC industries to their overall population bases.
You can of course run this analysis on a bunch of other metrics: number of rounds, number of follow-on investments, number of ecosystem exits, IPOs, mergers, on and on. Sure, some of the smaller cities in the grid made the top 8 thanks to a mega round or two.
But generally following the funding gives you a good sense of where startups are thriving, even in this down year.
Feel free to spark fights in the comments, support your city!
And sign up for the link in graphic for full Q3 Carta data, out soon.
#cartadata #Seed #SeriesA #fundraising #startups #founders
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