South Florida is among the world’s Top 20 venture capital ecosystems when measured by growth, according to an analysis from PitchBook.
The data company’s new Global VC Ecosystem Dashboard compares the overall development and growth rates in cities across the planet. Those with high development scores have a track record of robust capital raises, active dealmaking and successful exits of venture capital-backed startups. In comparison, cities with high growth scores are typically emerging tech hubs with momentum behind their deals, e and fundraising activity.
“These places could be growing their VC activity at a faster rate than more established, expensive, and saturated locations,” the report said.
Cities with the largest development scores, like San Francisco, had the lowest growth scores due to the sheer size of those existing ecosystems.
With a growth score of 60.5, Miami came in at No. 16 – behind other U.S. cities like Detroit, Raleigh and Houston. Dubai’s emergence as a center for business, tourism and finance helped push it to the No. 1 spot of the growth ranking.
The Miami area experienced $17.9 billion in deal value between the third quarter of 2017 and the second quarter of 2023. There were 1,975 venture capital deals during that period and 116 businesses completed exits valued collectively at $10.6 billion.
Miami is considered an “emerging” tech hub based on its growth score, along with locations like Paris and Washington, D.C.
South Florida startups attracted about $582 million from VC investors over 94 deals in the first quarter, making it the sixth-most active market in the country. Although Miami’s market was “well below” the top 10 most active markets in the U.S. before the Covid-19 pandemic, PitchBook reports the region doubled its deal count between 2019 to 2022.
“Miami has demonstrated staying power in its VC activity,” PitchBook noted in its recent Venture Monitor report.
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The world’s most developed VC ecosystems come as no surprise: San Francisco leads the pack, with a development score of 89.4. It was followed by New York City, Beijing, Shanghai and Los Angeles.
While some entrepreneurs and companies made moves to leave California during the Covid-19 pandemic, the state is still miles ahead of any competitors when it comes to VC deal value, deal counts and successful exits.
“As expected, San Francisco is statistically the most developed VC ecosystem in the world,” the report said. “There is a sizable gap between San Francisco and the remaining locations.”
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