Study: DC-area ranks 10th in venture investment

We know from following the Rise of the Rest that D.C. isn’t in the top three for metros venture capital investments, but a new study said it makes the top 10.

Writing at CityLab, Richard Florida offered up the data in an article examining the investments across various cities earlier this week. According to Florida’s findings, the DMV area raked in $1.09 billion in venture capital investments in 2016.

This billion-dollar investment ranks the DMV number 10 in the top list of metro areas, coming closely under the Chicago area which ranked ninth with $1,245,000,000. (Silicon Valley is, to no surprise, ranked number one.)

Being in the top 10 receivers of funds means D.C. is part of the coastal groups who take the lion’s share of all investments for the country.

“For all the talk of the “rise of the rest,” investment in high-tech startups is clustered in the Bay Area, and the New York-Boston-Washington Corridor,” Florida writes.

3. Have a look at this map of venture capital investment in 2016: pic.twitter.com/xl9Obz8MQy

— Richard Florida (@Richard_Florida) October 4, 2017

The article also breaks down metro area’s investments as a share of the country’s total VC-backed investments. According to this, the DMV’s garnered 1.59% percent of the total amount VC’s invested nationwide in 2016.

Another ranking system Florida used was by distributing a metro area’s total VC investment against its population. When looking at this per capita investment amount, the heavy hitters like Silicon Valley and Boston remains on the top of the list with the equivalent of $5,001 and $1,257 invested per person, respectively. But a few up-and-coming hubs like Boulder ($1,143 per person) and Provo, Utah ($910 per person) also ascend to the top. The DMV, on the other hand, falls to 24th place.

Florida partnered with the Martin Prosperity Institute to crunch this 2016 VC data on 200 American cities. The data itself he obtained from Pitchbook.

Florida’s article is part of a CityLab series keying up for an urban leader conference in Paris later this month. The conference is bringing together mayors and other urban stakeholders to discuss the issues facing their cities – such as how to increase VC investments. Find more articles in the series by searching for #CityLabParis.