Santa Barbara
Metro area · United States · Pop. 400K
Enterprise value · 2015–2025
Santa Barbara grew 6.4× since 2015
Combined enterprise value of every tracked startup headquartered in Santa Barbara that's still operating today — public and private companies combined, totalled by founding-year cohort.
Adjacent cities by EV
Startup funnel
Santa Barbara's power-law funnel
From the first cheque written to a $10B+ outcome. Each arrow shows what fraction of companies at one stage graduate to the next, tracked by founding cohort.
* C→Unicorn and Unicorn→Decacorn rates are derived from current counts (no founding-cohort data); the four mid-funnel rates use Dealroom's cohort tracking.
Notable companies
Top private companies in Santa Barbara
Up to 20 names per tier from Dealroom's tracked dataset. Decacorns are valued $10B+, unicorns $1B+, thoroughbreds have crossed $100M in revenue.
Academia
Santa Barbara's academic flywheel
Companies founded by university alumni or spun out of research, plus the institutions producing the most founders tied to Santa Barbara.
Vs. similarly-sized ecosystems
How Santa Barbara stacks up
Peers chosen from the same country (United States), sized closest to Santa Barbara by combined EV. The scatter plots growth × current size — outliers in the upper-right are ecosystems compounding fastest.
Top overview
United States — top cities
Top cities in United States ranked by combined EV. Santa Barbara's row is highlighted.
| # | Ecosystem | Combined EV | 5-yr EV growth | Unicorns | VC invested | Tracked startups |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bay Area | $20.1T | 7.9× | 777 | $157B | 24.3K |
| 2 | Seattle | $3.1T | 10.6× | 68 | $6.6B | 2,935 |
| 3 | Austin | $2T | 14.0× | 56 | $8.1B | 2,481 |
| 4 | New York City | $1.7T | 5.3× | 296 | $31.2B | 16.4K |
| 5 | Boston | $1.2T | 4.7× | 185 | $13.6B | 6,194 |
| 6 | Los Angeles | $1.2T | 5.8× | 133 | $18.3B | 8,432 |
| 7 | Miami | $619B | 12.9× | 33 | $2.9B | 2,736 |
| 8 | San Diego | $399B | 6.2× | 52 | $3.3B | 2,230 |
| 9 | Washington DC | $317B | 4.2× | 45 | $3.5B | 2,318 |
| 10 | Chicago | $256B | 3.5× | 50 | $2.1B | 2,924 |
| 11 | Dallas | $195B | 3.9× | 31 | $1.5B | 1,866 |
| 27 | Santa Barbara | $38.4B | 3.9× | 9 | $206.7M | 231 |
Premium analytics
What we don't show on this page (yet)
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