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Following the general trend of 2022, North America experienced a decline in overall deal activity from 2021. Most notably, Series B+ deal amounts dropped 41% (from $203 billion to $120 billion) and Series B+ deal count 24% (from 2,647 deals to 2,006). Early-stage funding dropped 26% and Series A deal count 25%. Regardless, North America is still the world’s leading startup region, making up 50% of the top 30 plus runners-up ranking.

Taking a longer view, in the period 2018–2022, North America experienced only a 4% increase in Series B deal count, but a 56% growth in Series B+ deal amount. The number of early-stage funding deals have been decreasing since 2018, and in 2022 were 28% below that year’s count, while the early-stage funding amount has increased 26% from 2018 to 2022, highlighting the general trend of inflated values in this period.

The region’s largest exit was Silicon Valley cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, which was valued at $85.8 billion in April 2021. Miami-based medtech MSP Recovery was second highest, valued at $32.6 billion when it IPOd in May 2022. Canada produced 18 unicorns in 2021 and 15 in 2022, largely from the rapidly growing hubs of Toronto-Waterloo, Vancouver, and Montreal, which all maintained their ranking places from last year.

Both the U.S. and Canada have recently introduced dedicated measures to encourage tech innovation. In August 2022, the U.S. signed into law The Inflation Reduction Act, an initiative aimed at promoting domestic manufacturing and accelerating the development of clean technologies. In May 2023, the Regional Technology and Innovation Hubs (Tech Hubs) competition was launched as part of the Investing in America agenda, seeking to develop regional centers of innovation and job creation. Meanwhile, Canada has supported the growth of startups at the national level by investing $90 million in intellectual property programs through the ElevateIP program.

Key Findings

• Fifteen of the top 30 global ecosystems are based in North America, with two in Canada and the remainder in the U.S. A further three are in the runners-up: Salt Lake-Provo, Dallas, and Montreal.
• Silicon Valley continues to dominate the rankings, despite having a reduced market share compared to previous years as more startup ecosystems are sprouting worldwide and North America’s are diversifying.
• Los Angeles moved into the top five for the first time, up two places to #4 thanks in part to an increase in exits over $50 million and over $1 billion. GoodRx was the ecosystem’s highest exit, in an IPO at a valuation of $12.7 billion. The number of unicorns increased to 44, up 21 from last year. SpaceX was the top-valued unicorn at $100 billion.
• Miami moved up an impressive 10 places to #23. It experienced 160% growth in Ecosystem Value from last year, a 64.3% increase in early-stage funding, and an increase in large exits including Medtech MSP Recovery’s $32.6 billion IPO.
• Toronto remains Canada’s leading ecosystem, holding its place at #17. It saw a 54% growth in exits over $50 million, with video-management system Rumble exiting in a $3.85 billion IPO. The number of unicorns increased to 14, with PointClickCare the top valued at $4 billion, contributing to a 65% increase in Ecosystem Value.
• Vancouver and Montreal also remained steady from the GSER 2022, at #30 and #40 respectively, making them Canada’s second and third highest ranked ecosystems.