Monday, January 26, 2026
Interesting VC stats
Some of California's most prominent venture capitalists have a proclivity for slamming their state, arguing that fiscal mismanagement and high taxes will cause startups to form elsewhere.
So far that doesn't seem to be happening.
For the record, I live in Massachusetts and my mother worked on Route 128 back when that meant something.
I've got no dog in this fight, but I do have data.
California startups raised a whopping 62% of all U.S. venture capital dollars in 2025, per the PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor.
That's above either 2024 (54.2%) or 2023 (46.9%), and even the decade-earlier mark of 47.2%.
Yes, a big part of that is skewed by giant raises for AI giants like OpenAI, Anthropic, and DataBricks.
So I also looked at the number of startups funded — regardless of round size — and California still easily retains its lead.
The state is home to 31.5% of U.S. VC deals last year, compared to 31.7% in 2024 and 29.1% in 2023. In 2015, California's market share was 32.5%.
For context, the runner-up in 2025 was New York with 13.3%. Massachusetts was next, just ahead of Texas — both below 6%.
The bottom line: California's crown may be tarnished on social media. On spreadsheets, however, it still sparkles.
So far that doesn't seem to be happening.
For the record, I live in Massachusetts and my mother worked on Route 128 back when that meant something.
I've got no dog in this fight, but I do have data.
California startups raised a whopping 62% of all U.S. venture capital dollars in 2025, per the PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor.
That's above either 2024 (54.2%) or 2023 (46.9%), and even the decade-earlier mark of 47.2%.
Yes, a big part of that is skewed by giant raises for AI giants like OpenAI, Anthropic, and DataBricks.
So I also looked at the number of startups funded — regardless of round size — and California still easily retains its lead.
The state is home to 31.5% of U.S. VC deals last year, compared to 31.7% in 2024 and 29.1% in 2023. In 2015, California's market share was 32.5%.
For context, the runner-up in 2025 was New York with 13.3%. Massachusetts was next, just ahead of Texas — both below 6%.
The bottom line: California's crown may be tarnished on social media. On spreadsheets, however, it still sparkles.
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