Quick, close your eyes and picture the "where" of startups. No peeking at the table.
Did your brain conjure an image of a golden (okay like burnt orange) bridge? Or perhaps a nondescript office lot in Palo Alto?
Congrats, you win. The Bay Area maintained an impressive hold over the capital flows in startupland last year, with startups based in the Bay taking in 42% of all the money raised by startups on Carta.
Rounding out the top 5: NYC in a strong second, LA in 3rd, Boston 4th, and Austin 5th. Any surprises there?
Of course an overall list, which includes massive late-stage rounds and glides across many industries, is resistant to change. Whereas you do see movement in the sub-sector lists (shoutout to Austin and LA for their hardware gains and Miami for the fintech jump).
My overriding take on these data is usually the same: Bay Area startup dominance is doing just fine AND it's actually possible to start up in more places across the US than ever before.
January is for optimism, ya know?
Onwards.
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Cheers,
Peter Walker
Carta Insights
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