A new report bodes well for the growing startup scene in the Triangle, particularly when it comes to the jobs venture-backed companies are creating compared to other regions.
A report out of the National Venture Capital Association, Venture Forward and the University of North Carolina Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise shows venture capital backed companies accounted for 76,700 jobs in the state in 2020.
More than 14,500 of those jobs were in the second congressional district, which includes Raleigh. Compare that to just over 12,600 in District 12, which includes the Charlotte metro, and just over 8,000 in District 6, which includes Greensboro.
Greg Brown, executive director of the Kenan Institute for Private Enterprise, said the report’s outcome wasn’t really a surprise.
“I think it’s less of a surprise and more of a quantification of what most people who follow venture capital know,” he said. “A lot of high growth companies are VC backed.”
The report, which Brown said took three to four months to assemble, finds that VC-backed companies statewide grew at an annualized growth rate of 4.5 percent between 2010 and 2020. But what it also found is that the workforce being created in North Carolina pales in comparison to some other states in the entrepreneurial Southeast:
Employment from venture capital-backed companies in 2020 by state:
- Florida: 152,443
- Virginia: 105,223
- Georgia: 99,370
- North Carolina: 76,716
- Tennessee: 59,016
- South Carolina: 28,354
The report looked at company-level data for over 67,000 VC-backed companies that received venture financing dating back to 1970 to map the location of approximately 3.8 million jobs at VC-backed companies in 2020.
