附近上门

U.S. early-stage funding has more than doubled year over year in the past two quarters. But not all tech hubs are sharing equally in the gains.

Subscribe to the 附近上门 Daily

At least 11 states have seen early-stage funding more than triple, according to a 附近上门 analysis of U.S. states with $100 million or more in Series A and B investment. Top gainers by percentage, deal count and total investment include New York, Florida, Ohio and Michigan.

Meanwhile, a number of states with sizable tech hubs are seeing smaller investment gains, well below the national average. This includes Texas, Washington and Illinois.

To put it in perspective, below we ranked 26 states with the highest early-stage investment totals, along with the U.S. as a whole.

At first glance, it鈥檚 obvious this is a pretty upbeat set of stats. Every state on the list but New Jersey has seen at least a double-digit percentage gain in early-stage investment.

It鈥檚 also clear that narratives of the San Francisco Bay Area鈥檚 entrepreneurial decline are premature. Early-stage venture funding in California hewed fairly close to the national average. The nation鈥檚 third-largest venture hub, Massachusetts, was also only a bit below the U.S. average.

Still, other tech ecosystems are seeing faster growth, and in particular the distribution of really large early-stage rounds appears to be happening across a wider swath of geographies.

Investment gains far outpace deal count growth

The size of the typical early-stage round has also been on the rise. In Q2 and Q3 of 2021, the average early-stage round was around $28 million, up from $18 million a year earlier.

As a result, we鈥檙e seeing far larger increases in early-stage investment than deal count this year. However, more rounds are also getting done in most states, as illustrated in the chart below:

Looking at both investment totals and deal count, a few trends stand out:

Supergiant rounds fueled most gains in many states: In many of the states surveyed, a single supergiant round or two accounted for most or all of the gains in investment totals. In Vermont, for instance, virtually all funding came from a single $366 million round for electric aircraft upstart . Other big rounds that moved their state鈥檚 totals include:

• 碍别苍迟耻肠办测鈥檚 raised a $100 million Series A;
• 罢别苍苍别蝉蝉别别鈥檚 raised a $160 million Series B;
• 惭颈蝉蝉辞耻谤颈鈥檚 landed $172 million in Series B funding; and
• Rhode Island鈥檚 raised a $150 million Series B.

Texas is up, but underperforms: Sometimes data does not match the overall narrative we hear about a locale, and this seems to be the case with Texas. The second-largest state by population, Texas has garnered a lot of ink around , with and both moving their headquarters to Austin, and scaling up there. But while big tech is all over Austin, early-stage growth is below average. Overall investment was up 66 percent year over year in our analysis鈥攁 big increase, but still less than half the U.S. average.

New York on the rise: New York鈥檚 startup scene saw gains earlier this year, and momentum continues. The 200 percent year-over-year increase in early-stage funding is well above the national average. It鈥檚 particularly remarkable for such a large, established startup hub, which requires more than a couple big deals to really impact percentage gains. It helps that New York City has one of the more diversified startup scenes, spanning fintech, digital media, consumer, real estate, enterprise software, health and, increasingly, biotech.

Midwest bellwethers: Some of the largest gainers in our survey were Midwestern states, with 聽Michigan and Ohio in particular posting sharp gains in early-stage funding. Both states have the criteria one generally associates with successful startup hubs鈥攍arge metro areas, major research universities, and a lot of STEM talent鈥攕o it鈥檚 not surprising to see early-stage investors finding deals. However, these are unusually sharp investment gains paired with rising deal count.

Mountain highs led by Utah, Colorado: Utah and Colorado aren鈥檛 exactly up-and-coming startup hubs, as both have a history of launching high-valuation technology companies. However, data shows early stage activity is accelerating further in these two Mountain Time Zone states, with investment more than tripling year over year.

Illustration: