2025 Best of The Midwest:

Startup City Rankings

Each year, we publish a data-driven ranking to help founders, VCs, community leaders, and elected officials identify strengths, opportunities, and trends across 64 Midwest startup ecosystems.

2024 - 2025 Highlights

Exits:
  • Simple Mills acquired for just under $800M | Chicago
  • SafeSend acquired for $600M | Ann Arbor
  • phData acquired for $375M | Minneapolis
  • WarpStream acquired for $135M | Chicago
  • Amplifund acquired for $85M | Cleveland
  • LiveEasy acquired for $78M | Columbus
Raises:
  • $500M for Skild AI | Pittsburgh
  • $300M for Abridge | Pittsburgh
  • $140M for Zing Health | Chicago
  • $125M for Gecko Robotics | Pittsburgh
  • $100M for Remodel Health | Indianapolis
  • $100M for Path Robotics | Columbus
  • $75M for AssetWatch | Columbus
  • $63M for Raise | Chicago
  • $63M for Luma Financial Technologies | Cincinnati
  • $60M for Player's Health | Minneapolis
  • $51M for The Nuclear Company | Lexington
New Funds:
  • Arch Venture Partners $3B Fund XIII | Chicago
  • Energize Capital $430M Fund III | Chicago
  • Vensana Capital $425M Fund III | Minneapolis
  • Moderne Ventures $230M Fund III | Chicago
  • eGateway Capital $94M Fund II | Covington, KY
  • Chicago Ventures $80M Fund IV | Chicago
  • 11 Tribes $46M Fund II | Chicago
  • Bread & Butter Ventures $40M Fund IV | Minneapolis
  • M25 $36.5M Fund IV | Chicago
  • Harper Court Ventures $25M Fund I | Chicago
  • Mastercraft Ventures launches with $2.4M from Badger Fund | Beloit, WI

Key Takeaways

Explore the Cities

Rankings Legend

1-10

11-25

> 25

Moved up in rank

Moved down in rank

Detailed Data

How Rankings are Calculated

Data is through 6/30/25

Startup Activity

43.5% Weight

A measure of each city's startup community activity and vibrancy, including factors such as the number of active startups within the CBSA, growth in startup formation over the past five years, total number of exits, and the frequency and scale of large outcomes—exits and funding rounds exceeding $50M—in the past decade.

Source: Pitchbook

Access To Resources

39% Weight

A measure of how supportive each city's ecosystem is, including the availability of resources that help startups grow. Factors include total venture capital raised within the metro area, number of local investors, and the presence of accelerators, universities, and government support.

Source: the US Census, US Patent & Trademark Office, Fortune.com, Pitchbook, US News & World Report, US Small Business Administration and individual state websites.

Business Climate

17.5% Weight

A measure of how conducive each city's economic environment is to attracting and scaling businesses. This includes demographic and economic factors such as cost of living, labor costs, tax environment, population, and GDP per capita, as well as connectivity indicators like proximity to airports, number of non-stop flights, highway infrastructure, and internet access.

Source: the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the US Census, the Tax Foundation, the National Digital Inclusion Alliance and Google Flights.

Annual Rankings