Economic Intelligence Brief No. 11

The Crowdfunding Genome

America's top-30 startup-crowdfunding ecosystems, ranked.

Top 30 — U.S. crowdfunding ecosystems ranked

Summary

Which U.S. metros are the strongest crowdfunding ecosystems? This brief ranks the top 30 across five factors of startup health.

Key findings

• Top five: Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, San Diego, Austin.
• Scored 1–10 on Momentum, Capital, Expertise, Network, and Scale.
• No single city wins every factor — strengths are specialized.
• The 30 ecosystems span 20 states plus DC and hold 73% of funded activity.

Frequently asked questions

Which U.S. metros lead in crowdfunding?

The top five are Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, San Diego, and Austin. The 30 ranked ecosystems span 20 states plus DC and hold 73% of funded activity.

How is each ecosystem scored?

On five factors — Momentum, Capital, Expertise, Network, and Scale — each on a 1–10 scale.

Audience

EIG · Brookings · economic development

About this brief

Published by CCLEAR.ai. Anchored to public SEC EDGAR filings and hand-verified against a locked data snapshot. CCLEAR is a data publisher, not an investment adviser; figures describe market activity, not investment outcomes or advice.

The Crowdfunding Genome · CCLEAR Research Library · License the data · Commission research

More briefs in the CCLEAR Research Library

• Democratized Capital — Women & Minority Founders in Reg CF — How crowdfunding distributes capital to women- and minority-led companies.
• Funding America's Industrial Base — Crowdfunding capital flowing to U.S. manufacturing, energy, and clean tech.
• The Main Street Barometer — Retail investor sentiment and participation, tracked over a decade.
• A Market Comes of Age — A decade of valuation and capital-structure trends.
• What's Your Company Worth? — Valuation benchmarks by company age and revenue stage.
• Innovation Geography — How startup capital is decentralizing across the country.
• Built to Last — Survival rates of crowdfunded companies vs. national baselines.
• The $42.5 Billion Engine — The economic output generated by Reg CF companies.
• The First Two Weeks — How a campaign's first 14 days predict its final raise.
• The CrowdFinance Index — A daily, rules-based index of the crowdfunding market.
• After the Raise — What happens to companies after they crowdfund.
• The Language of the Raise — NLP on 6,800 pitches — the words that move money.
• What Capital Costs — The cost and structure of crowdfunding capital by instrument.
• Regulation Crowdfunding by Congressional District: A Report Card — A rolling, district-by-district scorecard of Reg CF activity across all 435 U.S. House districts.
• Marked Up — How valuations grow when companies crowdfund again, and the paper markup that creates.
• The Exit File: Sales, Mergers & Public Listings of U.S. Regulation Crowdfunding Companies — Crowdfunded companies are exiting — $6.1B in sales, mergers and public listings in just fourteen months.
• The Intersection Penalty — Why Two Founder-Identity Advantages in Reg CF Do Not Combine — Two founder-identity advantages that are each real on their own do not add up.