Midwest Startups
2026 Best of The Midwest:

Startup City Rankings

Each year, we publish a data-driven ranking to help founders, VCs, community leaders, and elected officials identify strengths, opportunities, and trends across 64 Midwest startup ecosystems.

2025 – 2026 Highlights

Key Takeaways →

Explore the Cities

Rankings Legend1–1011–25> 25Moved up in rankMoved down in rankMidwest+
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How Rankings are Calculated

Data is through 6/30/26

Startup Activity

45.5% Weight

A measure of each city's startup community activity and vibrancy, including factors such as the number of active startups within the CBSA, growth in startup formation over the past five years, total number of exits, and the frequency and scale of large outcomes, exits and funding rounds exceeding $50M, in the past decade.

Source: Pitchbook

Access To Resources

37% Weight

A measure of how supportive each city's ecosystem is, including the availability of resources that help startups grow. Factors include total venture capital raised within the metro area, number of local investors, and the presence of accelerators, universities, and government support.

Source: the US Census, US Patent & Trademark Office, Fortune.com, Pitchbook, US News & World Report, US Small Business Administration and individual state websites.

Business Climate

17.5% Weight

A measure of how conducive each city's economic environment is to attracting and scaling businesses. This includes demographic and economic factors such as cost of living, labor costs, tax environment, population, and GDP per capita, as well as connectivity indicators like proximity to airports, number of non-stop flights, highway infrastructure, and internet access.

Source: the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the US Census, the Tax Foundation, the National Digital Inclusion Alliance and Google Flights.
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Annual Rankings

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