Silicon Valley has dominated the tech scene from the beginning but now, there are cities outside of Silicon that are fast becoming tech cities in their own right. These are cities with low costs of living, commercial space for a fraction of the costs in traditional tech cities, and that are attracting the millennial workforce to blooming tech startup cultures in these places.
3 Tech Cities (Outside Silicon Valley) to Watch
We want to highlight 3 tech cities outside of Silicon Valley that you should be watching but there are dozens of them springing up in unusual places. When you factor in the populations of some of these secondary cities, they are actually bringing in more investors than Silicon Valley.
In addition to the 3 tech cities below, Nashville, TN is making strides as a burgeoning tech city as are Portland and Detroit – all of which raked in more than $100 million in tech investmentslast year City Lab reported. Combined, the smallest new tech cities only accounted for less than 1% of all monies invested in tech, but it is far more than these cities have ever raised in the past.
These 3 tech cities join several others in attracting growing interest from investors. Seattle made the top 10 of tech cities while Phoenix is one of 10 cities that brought in about 1% of tech investments last year while Salt Lake City made TechNet’s list of the newest tech cities at number 4.
#1: Salt Lake City, UT
Salt Lake City, UT enjoys the overflow coming from two of its bigger cities that are attracting more investors in tech. Startups looking for cheaper real estate outside of the Silicon Valley have poured over $10 billion into Salt Lake City, Provo, and Ogden, UT. In turn, that is attracting top tech talent to those companies; Utah was named the most innovative State by the U.S Chamber of Commerce among other tech honors.
#2: Seattle, WA
Seattle is not as new a tech city since Microsoft moved its operations there. However, the tech startup scene is only now growing and competing for space with the big tech players. Startups are having a much easier time getting their businesses off the ground than in the Silicon Valley due to a friendlier real estate environment.
CNBC reported on a study from last year that showed Seattle as one of two cities (Portland being the other) projected to be the beneficiaries of the immigration of 25% of residents moving there from the Bay Area to escape high real estate prices. Attracted to new jobs and lower residential costs, Seattle is set to rival Silicon Valley in tech prowess.
#3: Phoenix, AZ
Thirdly, Phoenix also benefits from its proximity. Relatively close to Silicon Valley but away from the ballooning real estate prices businesses are experiencing in Silicon, Phoenix brought in nearly $270 million from investors last year. Largely attracted to the big talent pool as well as low median home prices at around $200K, Phoenix could become one of the largest of the new tech cities.
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