In the two years since the pandemic set in, only two states — Mississippi and Kentucky — saw a decline in venture capital deal activity, according to PitchBook’s VC Quantitative Perspectives report. In almost every other state, both the number of VC deals and their value increased during the period.
Meanwhile, although Silicon Valley still leads the pack among U.S. tech hubs, PitchBook’s researchers found that tech employment picked up at a comparatively quicker pace in smaller tech hubs around the country during the period. The concentration of tech jobs outside of traditional funding hotbeds, like New York and California, sped up amid the pandemic as investment grew in smaller markets, as shown in the table below.
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States with the biggest gains in VC deal activity
February 2020-February 2022, per PitchBook
| Rank | State | Change in deal value | Change in deal count |
| 10 | Illinois | 140% | 20% |
| 9 | Vermont | 452% | 16% |
| 8 | Rhode Island | 140% | 51% |
| 7 | Nevada | 229% | 41% |
| 6 | Montana | 274% | 38% |
| 5 | Delaware | 184% | 92% |
| 4 | Iowa | 232% | 56% |
| 3 | Wyoming | 268% | 88% |
| 2 | Idaho | 305% | 44% |
| 1 | West Virginia | 443% | 250% |
How the traditional hotspot states fared
In California, deal count grew 13% and deal value grew 71% during the period. In New York and Massachusetts; deal count increased 20% and 18% and deal value increased 71% and 106%, respectively.
Wrap-up
Since the pandemic emerged, many states with smaller startup milieus have picked up steam. Those that have traditionally led the pack also continued to thrive. These findings are in keeping with the overall growth of VC investment in the U.S. At the same time, they also show that predictions of tech hotspots being usurped by more affordable cities as remote work came to the fore during the pandemic proved misguided.
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