A year ago, Popular Mecanics named St. Louis the No. 1 startup city in America. This new ranking says St. Louis' startup scene is growing faster than any other city's.
Just where should an entrepreneur live if she wants to make a splash on the startup scene? No, it’s not San Francisco. According to a new study from Mattermark, the city with the fastest-growing startup scene is St. Louis.
As cost of living rises on coastal cities, especially near Silicon Valley, tech entrepreneurs are looking for new places to launch their big ideas. Mattermark’s study tried to answer the question, Which startup hubs performed the best in 2015 relative to the previous few years?
See also: Why Square’s New Office Is A Really Big Deal for St. Louis
Business Insider breaks down the research method:
To get an idea, Mattermark took a look through its funding data, focusing on the number of investment rounds closed and the total deal value. Then it looked to see which cities showed the biggest increase in deal action between 2014 and 2015. It also measured the average annual-growth rate in deal rounds and value between 2012 and 2015.
St. Louis saw a whopping 342.7 percent deal growth in 2015 compared to 2014, with 33.02 percent average growth since 2012. That puts us well above No. 2 on the list, Salt Lake City, which saw 113.27 percent deal growth in 2015, and our neighbors in Kansas City, which ranked No. 10 with 31.56 percent deal growth. The San Francisco Bay Area sees more deals than any other city, but it only ranks No. 15 in terms of deal growth.
The study mirrors findings from last year's Popular Mechanics ranking of the best startup cities in America. The magazine ranked St. Louis No. 1 as well.
"The city is a patchwork of parks, funky old neighborhoods, and grand stone homes, but now a current of commerce races beneath it," Popular Mechanics said about St. Louis. "The new business corridor starts at the riverfront and reaches eight miles west. In two years, when the Gateway Arch park renovation is finished, entrepreneurship, which gave St. Louis its start, will have long since jump-started its rebirth."
Needless to say, St. Louis’ startup community was pretty stoked to hear the news:
Contact Lindsay Toler by an email at LToler@stlmag.com or on Twitter @StLouisLindsay. For more from St. Louis Magazine, subscribe or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
