The latest VC dollars from the most promising states may well be the most important indicator of how well a company is doing in the industry, as the most popular states tend to have the most active VC companies.
According to the VC Insider’s 2016 rankings, California had a very strong start with 15 of the top 25 most active companies.
That is followed by New York, where 14 of the 10 most active were founded by VCs, followed by Massachusetts, which had four of the ten most active.
A few more states have the top two most active teams, but those are largely the exception.
Only one state has more VC dollars than the next highest, Connecticut, and that state is New York.
The state with the most VC money has three companies, according to VC Insider.
The others are Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Florida.
There are two things to consider about the state rankings.
First, some of the states with more VC funding are quite well-known in the VC community, including California, which was the top-ranked VC startup in 2015 and 2016.
Second, some VC money is going to be spent in other states.
In some cases, that money is coming from states that have relatively few VC companies, like Texas, Florida, and North Carolina.
The most active states, in the chart below, are all places with at least a few VC startups, according the VC Insider’s rankings.
The top 10 are listed in order from most to least active.