Buffalo has arrived as a global “emerging ecosystem” for startup companies, according to an annual report.
This is the first time Buffalo has appeared on the annual “Global Startup Ecosystem Report” published by Startup Genome.
Buffalo is still outside the “top 30” (along with 10 runners-up), which consist mostly of global centers in research, finance and population growth. But it does slide comfortably into the 60-70 range of 100 “emerging ecosystems” alongside such cities as Calgary, Buenos Aires and Luxembourg.
Buffalo scores included:
- Performance (7 out of 10), a calculation of successful exits and funding rounds during the past year.
- Market reach (7 out of 10), a calculation of per capita GDP and corporate base that seeks to measure access startup founders have to a national customer base.
- Funding (1 out of 10), which analyzes access local startups have to funding and year-over-year funding growth.
- Talent and experience (2 out of 10), an analysis of the tech talent in a given region, including the quality, experience and volume of software engineering workers.
Buffalo lags behind some comparable cities on the list, such as St. Louis, Columbus and Hartford, but is the only other city in New York state to make it.
There’s no doubt Buffalo has a budding startup scene compared to its own negligible history, but that has also happened at a time when many other regions have growing clusters of high-growth tech companies. The Startup Genome is a benchmark that shows the city is gaining fame relative to other places as well.
“Silicon Valley’s global share of dollar amount in early-stage investment has declined from 25% in 2012 to 13% in 2021,” the report notes. “As early-stage funding is a leading indicator of the future of tech, this trend suggests that the growth of tech elsewhere will continue to be faster than in Silicon Valley.”
