DC tech gets A-listed 3 times

We’re almost starting to believe Mayor Vincent Gray when he claims that D.C. is turning into “a substitute for Silicon Valley.” Well, almost.
Last week, the capital was featured on three lists of the best tech-and-startup hubs in the U.S.

• First off, D.C. is the “state” with the highest “JOBSImpact” score in the country, according to a report put out Thursday by Crowdfund Capital Advisors and The Crowd Data Center. The District received a perfect mark on the indicator, which estimates entrepreneurial-friendliness. Not surprisingly, California trounced all other states in crowdfunding, with $52 million raised between July and September 2014. But Portland topped Los Angeles as the No. 1 crowdfunding city, with $14.9 million. D.C. made neither of the top 10 lists, though it’s worth noting its odd status as a city/state tends to be a handicap in these rankings. [In The Capital]
• D.C. also came at a respectable number nine in the Associated Press ranking of the best cities for tech startup funding. In the first three quarters of 2014, VCs spent about $24 billion on tech startups, including about half in Silicon Valley. But D.C. also saw its share of VC green: $456 million were invested into tech companies here, through 77 deals. [Associated Press]
• And besides that, who’s a “high tech hub”? You guessed it. In its yearly overview of the high-tech sector published Wednesday, the magazine Business Facilities gushed about D.C.’s rapidly evolving infrastructure, citing incubators like 1776 and WeWork, government initiatives like the Digital DC Tech Fund and the Washington D.C. Economic Partnership’s SXSW presence, as well as the “ultra-sleek co-working space” of iStrategyLabs and Social Driver. All of this makes D.C. “one of the leading technology hubs,” according to the report. [Business Facilities]

Bonus point: the DMV area is also attracting the “Young and Restless” in droves, according to a CityObservatory study. DMV close-in neighborhoods saw the largest growth in 25-to-34-year-olds with a degree, a population that increased by 75 percent between 2000 and 2010. During that decade, the young urban professional set grew by 33,000. [New York Times]