NASHVILLE PHILADELPHIA FIG. 14 Nashville seed- and early-stage VC deal activity Philadelphia startups have a wealth of resources, including 59 world-class universities and a long list of potential Fortune 500 clients for enterprise startups. Two local schools—University of 47 44 45 Pennsylvania and Drexel University—play prominent roles in the 41 37 39 ecosystem. Both of Philadelphia’s latest unicorns, Gopuff and 34 33 Misfits Market were founded by former students at the schools. 29 You’ll also find alumni of those schools serving as angel investors 5 5 24 to local startups before they get recognized at a national level. . 2. 8 7 $6 8 2 9 2 $ 9 2 2 . 2 2 . . . . . . . 1 And then there’s the established companies here—Comcast, 6 0. 1 43 3 9 3 9 5 8 0 0 3 6 6 33 Aramark, AmerisourceBergen and Lincoln National, among $1 $ $1 $2 $1 $1 $1 $1 $ others. Comcast is a familiar name in Philadelphia, and they’ve 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 * taken steps to increase their engagement with startups and 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 20 1 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 02 founders, including event sponsorships and accelerator 2 partnerships with Techstars, Dreamit Ventures and others. Deal value ($M) Deal count We have a reputation for being the city where startups get off Source: PitchBook | Geography: Nashville the ground before moving to Silicon Valley or New York to grow *As of September 1, 2021 and exit. That narrative is changing. If the current “work from anywhere” movement becomes the new normal, Philadelphia ashville’s seed- and early-stage market has brought in has a unique opportunity to bring in new talent and be the city consistently high dollar amounts—only three years have been where dreams are started, evolve, and get realized. N below $100 million. Deal volume has fluctuated, peaking at 59 seed and early-stage rounds in 2014. Over $330 million has been WILLIAM CROWDER invested through early September. A decade ago, that combined value Founder and Managing Partner, Aperture Venture was only $68.5 million. Capital Healthcare has been the biggest sector in the city for many FIG. 15 Philadelphia seed- and early-stage VC deal activity decades, and several healthcare-focused family offices, angel 188 180 networks, and institutional funds have been formed to help the 172 sector grow. HCA Healthcare is headquartered here, where the 153 bulk of their 235,000 employees live. Automotive is another 127 124 135 legacy sector, with Nissan North America and Bridgestone 116 108 Americas headquartered in the city. 85 92 .7 0 5 4 . .0 Nashville’s biggest startup success—SmileDirectClub—was . 9 1 0. 5 1 76 9 8 9 3 3 2 2 . . 8 initially crowdfunded through IndieGogo. It went public in 2019 at 24 $ .1 9 8 9 .6 . 2 $ 6 $ . $ 0 4 6 an $8.9 billion valuation, marking the first major direct-to- $ 0 6 0 3 3 100 5 75 , , 8 , consumer success story for the ecosystem, expanding 1 $ $ $1 $1 $ $ Nashville’s prospects beyond traditional healthcare. Other 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 * sectors are emerging as well. A number of fintech startups are 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 20 1 making waves, including Built Technologies, Blueprint Title, and 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 02 2 Alto. Deal value ($M) Deal count We think Nashville is poised to become a breakout venture Source: PitchBook | Geography: Philadelphia hub in as quickly as 3–5 years. More and more entrepreneurs *As of September 1, 2021 are relocating here from the Bay Area, New York, and Los Angeles, and several venture firms have opened offices in hiladelphia’s ecosystem has grown by leaps and bounds over Nashville. Even corporations are moving here, the biggest being the past ten years. 85 seed- and early-stage investments were AllianceBernstein, which manages almost $600 billion of assets. Pmade in 2011, worth a combined $230.5 million. Three of the past It moved its headquarters from Wall Street, where it had been four years, by contrast, have all exceeded $1 billion of seed- and early- since its founding. stage VC investment, topping out at $1.3 billion in 2019. Philadelphia also routinely sees at least 150 seed- and early-stage financings each MONIQUE VILLA year, which bodes well for a growing ecosystem. Investor, Mucker Capital, Co-founder, Build in SE 9 / Beyond Silicon Valley: Coastal dollars and local investors accelerate early-stage startup funding across the US