Kansas City ranks as top U.S. tech, entrepreneurship hub
June 9, 2017 | Meghan LeVota
Kansas City’s emerging tech hub and entrepreneurial ecosystem continue to attract national attention.
On Thursday, Kansas City ranked among the top tech cities in the U.S., according to the Tech Cities 1.0 report by Cushman & Wakefield. The report showcased the nation’s top 25 cities, with Kansas City nabbing the No. 22 spot on the list. The cities were determined by factors such as access to talent, investment capital and growth opportunity.
Cushman & Wakefield Tech Cities 1.0 report
Although it’s no surprise that cities like San Jose and San Francisco outranked Kansas City, The City of Fountains’ performance is still noteworthy. Kansas City fared better than New York City and Los Angeles in metrics such as tech workers per capita, share of workers with a Bachelor’s degree or higher, entrepreneurial growth and share of “knowledge” workers, defined as those in occupations such as architecture, social science, health care and education.
In preparing the report, Cushman & Wakefield found six qualities as essential ingredients for a tech hub: Institutions of higher learning; capital; tech workers; knowledge workers; educated workers; and growth entrepreneurship.
Kansas City ranked No. 18 on percentage of tech workers and No. 16 for entrepreneurial growth. In both areas, the metro is rated above the national average.
To calculate entrepreneurial growth, Cushman & Wakefield tapped the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation’s Index of Growth Entrepreneurship. The index is calculated by the rate of startup growth, share of scale-ups and high-growth company density.
Although these statistics are promising, Kansas City is nowhere close to Silicon Valley with venture capital and deal flow.
In 2016, the combination of venture capital capital activity from San Francisco, San Mateo and San Jose reached $35.2 billion. In Kansas City, that number is less than $2 billion.
Cushman & Wakefield Tech Cities 1.0 report
Ken McCarthy, principal economist at Cushman & Wakefield, said that “tech is everything.”
“Basically every company today is a tech company in one way or another. We’re all using it, we’re using various aspects of tech companies to do various things,” McCarthy said in a release. “Whether it’s Salesforce as customer relationship management, or Workday for HR, and various other database programs, the old way of doing business just doesn’t work anymore.”
Cushman & Wakefield is a global real estate services firm. 2017 marks the first year the firm has released a Tech Cities 1.0 report.
Featured Business
2017 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
Startup stakeholders: Opportunity zones could prompt culture shift on redevelopment
Startup community stakeholders think opportunity zones in some of Kansas City’s poorest areas could work, but only with collaboration between the government and private sector. A number of low-income communities in Kansas City are eligible for designation as opportunity zones — areas in which investors may defer paying capital gains taxes over a certain period…
OP-based motion capture startup DARI Motion sells to Omaha firm
DARI Motion, an Overland Park-based startup that created a motion capture platform that provides biomechanical analysis of athletes, patients and more, recently was acquired by a Nebraska firm. DARI, which stands for Dynamic Athletic Research Institute, was purchased for an undisclosed amount by Omaha-based Scientific Analytics Inc. With the acquisition, the firm aims to transform how…
Axing the status quo: Swell Spark builds experiences from West Bottoms HQ
Human interaction is about more than texting and social media posts, said Matt Baysinger, co-founder and CEO of Swell Spark. “One of the best things in life is sharing a meal together, but sharing a meal together is only as good as the conversation you get to have over that meal,” Baysinger said. “If you…
Metactive announces nearly $3M combined in funding round, government grant
Fairway-based Metactive has raised a $1.2 million round to accelerate the development of its products for the treatment of neurovascular, peripheral vascular and structural heart diseases. The round included Kansas City-based Mid-America Angels, as well as Serra Ventures. Founded by CEO Nick Franano, Metactive has raised more than $10 million to date. In addition to…