According to an article in the online magazine The Atlantic Cities, the Champaign-Urbana metro area ranks in the top 10 when mapping venture capital deals per 100,000 people by metro. San Jose (the Silicon Valley) tops the list with 22.6 venture capital deals per 100,000 people.
“My bottom line: Silicon Valley’s lock on high-tech activity is no longer what it once was. San Francisco, along with urban centers in New York and Boston-Cambridge, have upped the ante, and smaller college towns have also shown they can play as well,” writes author Richard Florida.
The top 10 continues with:
San Francisco, 17.2
Boulder, Colorado, 13.6
Boston, 9
Ann Arbor, 6.4
Lawrence, Kansas 5.4
Austin 5.1
Charlottesville, Virginia and Missoula, Montana, 4.6
Champaign-Urbana, 3.4
San Diego 3.3