California
State · United States · Pop. 39.4M · #3 region by EV
Enterprise value
How much California’s VC-backed companies are worth
Combined enterprise value of VC-backed companies headquartered in California, founded since 1990 and still operating, at the end of each year. Companies stay in the total after they list or are acquired.
VC investment
How much venture capital flows into California
VC investment into California-headquartered, VC-backed companies, broken down by round size, company location, sector and funding stage.
Startup funnel
California's startup funnel
Companies headquartered in California at each stage today, by total VC raised. Hover a bar for the split.
Source: Dealroom.co
Quarterly report
California's latest quarter in venture capital
VC raised by California-headquartered companies in the quarter shown, against the quarter before and the same quarter a year earlier.
Latest complete quarter
Loading VC raised by California-headquartered companies…
Largest rounds
Largest funding rounds in California
A live treemap of the largest VC rounds. Each cell is one round into California-headquartered companies, grouped by Dealroom sector.
Largest rounds in California - 2026
Academia
California's academic flywheel
Companies founded by university alumni or spun out of research, plus the institutions producing the most founders tied to California.
| # | University | City | Unicorns | Companies |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 🇺🇸Stanford University | Stanford, CA | 478 | 13K |
| 2 | 🇺🇸UC Berkeley | Berkeley, CA | 190 | 8,909 |
| 3 | 🇺🇸UCLA | Los Angeles, CA | 60 | 4,599 |
| 4 | 🇺🇸USC | Los Angeles, CA | 48 | 3,752 |
Location comparison
How California stacks up
Compare California with peers from the same country (United States) — switch between combined EV, EV growth, and a growth × size view. Expand the table for the full ranking.
Combined enterprise value of each ecosystem.
Top regions in United States ranked by combined EV. California's row is highlighted (#1).
| # | Ecosystem | Combined EV | EV growth | Unicorns | VC invested | Tracked startups |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | California | $21.6T | 7.7× | 1,138 | $179B | 37K |
| 2 | Western United States (Pacific, excl. Bay Area) | $4.5T | 4.8× | 328 | $29.9B | 16.6K |
| 3 | Northeastern United States | $3.3T | 4.5× | 650 | $53.1B | 31.3K |
| 4 | Washington (State) | $2.9T | 4.5× | 75 | $7.5B | 3,270 |
| 5 | Texas | $2.7T | 10.5× | 139 | $11.4B | 6,785 |
| 6 | Southeastern United States | $1.4T | 4.8× | 191 | $11.8B | 14.5K |
| 7 | New York State | $1.4T | 5.1× | 300 | $31.1B | 15.8K |
| 8 | Massachusetts | $1.1T | 4.4× | 209 | $12.9B | 6,135 |
| 9 | Florida | $798B | 9.8× | 67 | $4.1B | 4,904 |
| 10 | Midwestern United States | $668B | 3.7× | 124 | $9.5B | 10.8K |
| 11 | Western United States (Mountain) | $403B | 4.4× | 112 | $10.2B | 5,588 |
| 12 | Illinois | $270B | 3.6× | 55 | $2.3B | 3,158 |
Sector concentration
Where California punches above its weight
Sectors in which California's share of the global unicorn pool is bigger than its overall share. A 5× over-index means California is 5× more represented in that sector than in the global average. Source: top-hub aggregation across the 18 simplified sectors.
More data
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