The Southeast is home to unicorns including Magic Leap, AvidXchange, and Kabbage.
The emergence of a cluster of unicorns in the southeast US is a signal that a new regional tech hub is forming away from the usual suspects, the northeast US and California.
The best way to jumpstart a startup ecosystem is for a cluster of big exits to emerge from a previously less-dynamic city or region, as has happened in the southern California area with the exits of Dollar Shave Club, Snap, and Oculus VR recently. Whether through IPOs or M&As, big exits have a lot of benefits, including creating new angel investors out of founders and early employees, not to mention often leading to well-capitalized and well-resourced companies that can attract and retain tech talent to the area.
There needs to be a certain critical mass for this to happen. That seems to be the case in the Southeast. Deals to private companies in the region are on track to be up this year 11% compared to last year. Conduct this search on CB Insights to see the trend in the platform.
