Two VC Powerhouses Face off in the World Series

With the start of the World Series this week, where the Los Angeles Dodgers and Boston Red Sox duke it out for the biggest bragging rights in baseball, we thought it would be fun to do a quick rundown of the venture ecosystems for these two U.S. startup powerhouses.

Slack, social media, and water cooler-talk has been bustling with competitive banter this week – at least this has been the case at NVCA! For those looking to share in the cheer or the tears that are sure to come over the next week, feel free to celebrate/commiserate with NVCA’s own Jeff Farrah  and Stephanie Volk   . In the meantime, I’m looking forward to Giants spring training come February

Both LA and Boston have played lower fiddle to the Bay Area in terms of venture activity and recent World Series wins (go even-year Giants in the 2010s!). But as PitchBook pointed out in two FactBooks last year, both LA and Boston have lots to be proud of with their burgeoning venture scenes. PitchBook ranked Boston and LA as the fourth and fifth, respectively, largest U.S. metropolitan statistical area (MSA) by size.

Boston vs. LA Highlights from the 3Q PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor

Investment into VC-backed Companies

Venture-backed Exits

Note: spike in 2017 due to Snap IPO

VC Fundraising

*As of 9/30/2018. Source: 3Q 2018 PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor. Stats refer to Boston and Los Angeles Metropolitan Statistical Areas.

Does Boston’s lead over LA in venture investment translate to a World Series win? Or will Birds prevail over biotech? The Red Sox are off to an impressive 2-0 lead, but the Dodgers are back at Chavez Ravine for the next three games and could jump ahead of Boston before the series heads back to Fenway. It will be fun to watch!

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