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Well-funded startups are scaling up all across the nine-county region known as the San Francisco Bay Area. That includes many cities and towns not commonly considered tech havens.

We鈥檙e not talking about a couple of small early stage rounds either. The region鈥檚 startup funding machine is so vast that towns non-locals have never heard of boast venture investment tallies larger than most U.S. states.

In an effort to track funding growth in some of these other Bay Area towns, 附近上门 News is highlighting stats for four cities in the East Bay: Berkeley, Emeryville, Hayward and Fremont. We鈥檒l focus on Oakland in a separate story publishing shortly. Join us on the road trip.

Berkeley

First stop is Berkeley, a city of 120,000 famed for its prestigious university, liberal politics, and inventive cuisine.

While best known as a university town, Berkeley is pretty good at churning out funded startups too. Over the past three years, companies based in this sunny locale have brought in $880 million across at least 257 known rounds. That鈥檚 more than much larger cities like Miami and Phoenix.

So far this year, the startup machine continues to chug along, with just over $280 million invested across nearly 70 funding rounds. The deal mix is an eclectic one, spanning food, data security, and healthcare, among other sectors.

Berkeley is particularly strong as a hub for food-related businesses. Three of the 10 largest 2019 deals have ties to the space: , a maker of smart electric coffee roasters, , a maker of animal-free dairy proteins identical to cow鈥檚 milk proteins, and , a maker of high-protein, meat-free dog food.

The city has its share of heavily funded startups too. Standouts include, , a quantum computing play, , a maker of solar lighting and power products, and ,聽 a drone company that鈥檚 seen its .

Resources for seed-stage, and the city鈥檚 proximity to the even deeper capital pools of San Francisco and Silicon Valley don鈥檛 seem to hurt.

Emeryville

Next stop is Emeryville, a city of 2 square miles just across the Bay Bridge from San Francisco. Most locals know it as a good place to get stuck on twelve lanes of highway or go to Ikea.

Startups and mature companies alike seem to like this little concrete-covered patch of a town. It鈥檚 the headquarters of , along with e and .

Emeryville has its share of high valuation venture-backed companies too. Several that have raised over $200 million in venture and growth financing are based there, including , a custom microbe developer, , an enterprise security provider, and , a developer of high performance fabrics.

Across all stages, the funding totals are quite high. Over the past three years, at least 48 private, Emervyille-based companies pulled in $1.53 billion in venture through growth financing, per 附近上门 data. In dollar totals, it鈥檚 actually ahead of major cities like Dallas and Portland, Oregon, per 附近上门 data.

Yet while Emeryville still maintains a busy startup scene, funding has slowed down some in 2019, with seven companies raising a combined total of $163 million so far this year. While that鈥檚 still a big number for a little city of 12,000, it indicates funding may have passed its peak.

Hayward

If you spend countless hours staring at venture funding data, occasionally something really surprising pops up. Hayward is such a thing.

Over the course of decades spent to some extent covering the Silicon Valley startup scene, I have never heard anyone say: 鈥淗ey, check out Hayward. It鈥檚 a real hotbed of startup activity.鈥� In fact, I鈥檝e never heard anyone in startup circles say much of anything about Hayward, a city of about 150,000 inhabitants located just north of Fremont.

Yet if you look at the venture funding numbers, Hayward is really cleaning up. Over the past three years, companies in the city raised a total of $2.07 billion in seed, venture and growth funding, across 40 rounds. In dollar terms, that鈥檚 bigger than the entire state of Oregon and nearly double the state of Tennessee.

In many respects, these numbers look like a fluke. So far in 2019, Hayward-headquartered companies have pulled in just $142 million across six known rounds. Nearly 40 percent of the three-year total, meanwhile, comes from a single, $790 million Series C round for , a lithium ion battery maker. While that鈥檚 technically a venture round, Farasis was founded in 2002, so it鈥檚 not really a startup.

Still, flukiness aside, Hayward鈥檚 venture scene is a lot more happening than its lack of buzz would suggest. It鈥檚 a sizeable hub for biotech, home to , a heavily funded developer of therapies for chronic diseases, , a cancer immunotherapy company that went public last year, and , which develops radiation therapy technology. For 2019, meanwhile, the biggest funding recipient is , a maker of smart-tinting glass.

Part of the reason Hayward has less buzz than its numbers would support may be that it鈥檚 not a hub for consumer-facing apps. Also, high-valuation companies based in the city aren鈥檛 overnight unicorns — they鈥檝e grown a bit more slowly.

Fremont

For our next stop, we鈥檙e driving south to Fremont, a sprawling city of 235,000 known for being reasonably commutable to virtually all the major Bay Area tech employers.

Yet while Fremont is best known as a place to commute from rather than commute to, it has an extensive tech and startup scene of its own. Its largest private employers – Tesla, Lam Research, and Western Digital – are a pretty techie bunch. Quite a few up-and-coming tech players are setting up shop in Fremont as well.

Over the past three years, Fremont-headquartered companies have raised a total of $1.33 billion in seed, venture and growth financing. That鈥檚 about on par with Houston and Philadelphia.

So far this year, Fremont funding volumes appear to be holding steady, with $360 million across 16 known rounds. Large funding recipients include , a maker of flexible displays, , a developer of computer-assisted surgery technology, and , a self-driving car startup with headquarters in both Fremont and China.

Key assets for Fremont includes its size and its centrality. The city boasts the second-largest land area of any municipality in the Bay Area, providing plenty of space for startups to bloom.

The Significance Of Capital Moving A Few Miles East

So why are we tracking East Bay funding, and why might it matter?

For the broader San Francisco Bay Area economy, it may not matter that much if a company sets up shop in the center of Silicon Valley or 15 miles east in a city like Hayward. But for the region to sustain its status as the leading global startup hub, such decisions are significant.

One takeaway is that Northern California is more flexible than critics might contend in providing room for both startups and established tech companies to grow. In this respect, maybe corporations aren鈥檛 too different from people. When we鈥檙e priced out of one neighborhood, chances are the next place we look will be one nearby.

Photo by via Unsplash.