Forbes ranks Baltimore fifth on list of emerging startup cities

Baltimore ranked fifth in a new study that looked at tech communities outside of the tech hubs that tend to draw the bulk of U.S. venture capital. “The Top 10 Rising Cities for Startups” is the result of a partnership between Forbes and Revolution’s Rise of the Rest.

Steve Case, Chairman and CEO of Revolution announces the first ever Forbes list of rising start-up cities in the U.S. #Under30Summit
1. Columbus, OH
2. St. Louis, MO
3. Atlanta, GA
4. Denver, CO
5. Baltimore, MD pic.twitter.com/w3DDfWK94n

— Forbes (@Forbes) October 1, 2018

The list used data from PitchBook, Moody’s Analytics and the Kauffman Foundation, to compare 30 cities. It shows venture capital continues to concentrate geographically, as 76 percent of the VC money in 2017 went to companies in New York, California and Massachusetts. But this list looked to go beyond the cities that received most of the dollars. From the Forbes report:

To compile the list of emerging startup cities, Forbes eliminated the 10 metro areas that garnered the most VC funding over the past three years, namely San Francisco, New York, Boston, San Jose, Los Angeles, San Diego, Seattle, Chicago, Washington, D.C. and Austin. The drop-off from Austin to No. 11 Atlanta is more than $500 million, according to PitchBook data. Forbes compared the 30 largest metro areas, outside of the 10 above, on 13 factors related to costs (business and living), education levels, college presence, entrepreneurship rates, working age population growth and venture capital investments (density, total number, value and percent changes).

According to the list, the Baltimore metro area received $1 billion in venture capital investment over three years. Rise of the Rest, which was created by AOL cofounder Steve Case, has been a familiar moniker in Baltimore during the time. The initiative’s bus tour visited the city in 2015, and Case was also in Baltimore earlier this year.
“The goal is to level the playing field so everybody, everywhere who has an idea has a shot at building a company and the American Dream,” Case said in a statement. “We believe that supporting the growth of startup communities can help close the innovation gap between the coasts and the middle of the country.”
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