Startup City Rankings
Every year, we dive into the data to provide an analytical, objective benchmark to help startup stakeholders from founders and VCs to community champions and elected officials understand how cities within the Midwest are performing relative to each other in their tech startup ecosystems.
2021 – 2022 Highlights
- Chicago had 12 Unicorns minted in 2021 calendar year including ActiveCampaign, project44, and M1
- Cincinnati's VNDLY acquired by Workday for $473M, and had its first 3 Unicorns: Astronomer, Enable Injections, 80 Acres Farms
- St. Louis' Varsity Tutors and Benson Hill completed their reverse mergers at $1.7B and $1.3B market caps
- Minneapolis' When I Work raised $200M, Arctic Wolf $150M, Suma Brands $150M, and Branch $75M
- Columbus' Branch Insurance raised $147M at a $1B valuation, and Loop $65M
- Ann Arbor's Workit Health raised $118M, May Mobility $83M, and SkySpecs $80M
- Midwest VCs raised large funds including: Drive $1B, Arthur $375M, Jump $350M, Baird $340M
Explore the Cities
How Rankings are Calculated
Data is through 6/30/22
Startup Activity
40.5% Weight
A measure of how active and vibrant the startup community in each city is. Factors included are how many active startups are in the CBSA, the growth in startup formation over the last 5 years, the number of exits, and the scale of large outcomes in the last 10 years - exits and fundraises of $50M and higher.
Source: PitchbookAccess To Resources
42.5% Weight
A measure of how supportive the city's ecosystem is and resources available to help startups grow. This includes how much each Metro has raised from VCs, the number of local investors, incubators/accelerators, universities, government support, and the quality, quantity and loyalty of the available talent.
Source: the US Census, US Patent & Trademark Office, HumanPredictions, Fortune.com, Pitchbook, US News & World Report, The Global Accelerator Network, US Small Business Administration and individual state websites.Business Climate
17% Weight
A measure of how conducive the city's economic environment is to attract and scale a business. It includes demographic and economic factors such as the cost of living, labor costs, business tax friendliness, and population and GDP per capita. As well as ‘connectivity’ indicators like nearness to an airport, number of non-stop flights, highway infrastructure, and quality of 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.