Our Q3 2012 Venture Capital Activity Report highlighted that Southern California is actually a larger market for venture capital than New York, but surprisingly, it is not often recognized as a hub for venture capital because of its more prominent northern neighbor – Silicon Valley.
If we look at just Southern California, Los Angeles and San Diego are the top two cities in both VC deal flow and funding. Over the last ten quarters, San Diego has had the upper hand over Los Angeles. San Diego has led Southern California deal volume in eight out of the last ten quarters, and has led funding in nine of the last ten quarters. San Diego’s funding levels rose to a ten quarter high in Q2 2012 with $416 million going to San Diego based companies, which is 8.9% of total VC dollars going to California.
