In Dealroom\u2019s ranking for its Global Tech Ecosystem Index 2026<\/a> released today, the Miami metro area (Miami-Dade through Palm Beach County) currently ranks #20 in the world in the Global Champions category based on 2025 data and growth.<\/p>\n The Global Champions category, which measures scale, ranks the world\u2019s biggest and most established ecosystems by absolute metrics: VC investment, enterprise value, unicorn count, and university linkages, and that\u2019s the category that makes the most sense for Miami, said Aoife Morrin, Dealroom\u2019s Head of Ecosystem Growth, who shared some insights with Refresh Miami. These are hubs with the depth to support startups from seed to IPO and that often shape global tech trends, he said. The ranking shows that Miami metro is stronger than 94% of the hubs.<\/p>\n Miami also ranked 10th in the United States in the Global Champions category.<\/p>\n Behind the numbers<\/p>\n How is Miami performing\u00a0 against its peers? The trajectory is quite positive and Palantir and OpenEvidence\u2019s relocations helped lift the lastest ranking. Morrin says Miami\u2019s strength is the concentration of large, mature, VC-backed companies headquartered in or relocated to the metro: Palantir anchors<\/a> the ecosystem, alongside Monolithic Power Systems, Citadel Securities, Chewy and Ultimate Software, according to Dealroom\u2019s research. Recent\u00a0 activity is also healthy: Alongside Palntir, 2025 brought Miami a new unicorn: OpenEvidence<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cMiami\u2019s post-pandemic capital-and-talent influx is continuing to compound into real company formation. The headline enterprise value is heavily concentrated in Palantir, so the underlying ecosystem is smaller than the #11 global EV rank implies, but the breadth of mid-cap activity and the pace of new unicorn creation point to continued upward pressure on Miami\u2019s position in subsequent editions,\u201d Morrin said.<\/p>\n A persistent weakness, Dealroom\u2019s analysis found, is the alumni-founder pipeline, where Miami ranks #74\u201392 globally versus Chicago at #8\u20139 and Toronto-Waterloo at #12\u201313. \u201cThat\u2019s a structural reflection of Miami being a destination ecosystem rather than a university-driven one,\u201d Morrin said.<\/p>\n The Bay Area, New York City, and Boston remain the top tech hubs globally, according to Dealroom\u2019s ranking of Global Champions. Other top 10 global champions (from No. 4 to 10) are: London, LA, Austin, Tel Aviv, Paris, Beijing, and Seoul. <\/p>\n Miami\u2019s rankings in two other categories<\/p>\n The other two categories Dealroom ranked are for watching the progress of smaller ecosystems that are, on a per capita basis, punching way above their weight in a particular sector (Density Leaders) and fast-growing ecosystems among emerging markets (Rising Stars).<\/p>\n \u2713<\/p>\n Check your inbox for a confirmation email.<\/p>\n In the Density Leaders category, which ranks ecosystems relative to their size, rewarding cities that punch above their economic weight on startup activity and university linkages, Miami ranks 48th of 325, stronger than 86% of the hubs.<\/p>\n Rising Stars identifies the fastest-growing ecosystems through growth in enterprise value and unicorn creation over time, adjusted for economic conditions. These are often under-the-radar hubs signaling the next wave of global innovation.Miami\u00a0 ranks #67 of 325, climbing 29 spots and landing at a stronger ranking stronger than 80% of the hubs, Dealroom.<\/p>\n In the US though, Miami took the No. 2 spot among Rising Stars, only following Austin..<\/p>\n \u201cBreaking into the top 20 tech ecosystems globally \u2014 a list that includes the cities that have defined the startup world \u2014 is a real milestone for Miami. And climbing 29 spots among the fastest-growing ecosystems tells you the trajectory is only getting stronger. Behind those numbers is a real shift: talented, ambitious founders, investors and tech talent are committing to Miami for the long term. Not passing through. Building here,\u201d\u00a0said Refresh Miami CEO Maria Derchi Russo, about the report\u2019s release.<\/p>\n Notably, this is the second global ecosystem ranking this year that Miami has ranked high. In early May, StartupBlink\u2019s report ranked our metro area\u00a0 No. 22<\/a>.<\/p>\n Sector watch<\/p>\n One of the aims of the report new report and Dealroom\u2019s release of the data is to make it very open so every ecosystem can understand where their strengths lie so they can lean into them and also where there are some gaps in their ecosystems that they could address, said Dealroom\u2019s Head of Insights Orla Browne said in a Dealroom video conference about the report\u2019s findings this morning.<\/p>\n The report said that Miami came up 14th in the Global Champions category for Defense sector (9th in the US). \u00a0On its accompanying dashboard for the Global Champions, Miami currently ranks #12 globally in Blockchain; 13th in Health and Medicine; 14th inr Gaming; 15th in both Fintech and Cybersecurity; and 22nd for AI. <\/p>\n Comparing Miami\u2019s rankings to No. 6 Austin, shows that both Miami and Austin are very close on the strength of early stage venture capital, said Browne. But Austin attracted more about 40% capital in $15 million to $100 million rounds, and double the amount in late stage rounds of over $100 million.<\/p>\n As a reminder, Refresh Miami has featured Dealroom\u2019s Miami data and insights on its platform\u00a0since October 2023<\/a>. You can find our free ecosystem dashboard powered by Dealroom\u00a0here<\/a>. In the ecosystem dashboard on Refresh Miami, you can find sections such as the investment heatmap that show the strength of sectors for VC as well as fundings, exits and other venture data in real time, lists of Miami area startups and investors, and much more.<\/p>\n Download the 2026 Dealroom report\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n READ MORE IN REFRESH MIAMI:<\/p>\n ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/dealroom3-1024x582.jpg\")
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<\/p>\n![\"Nancy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/60b7851ea3a84-bpfull.jpg\")
<\/a> I am a writer and editor with extensive media experience and a passion for journalism and serving the community. Most of my career has been spent with the Miami Herald in business news, and my expertise is writing about tech and entrepreneurs. I love hosting this blog for Refresh Miami and we aim to be the go-to site for South Florida startup and tech news, features and views. Have news? Contact me at [email\u00a0protected]<\/a>. Thanks for reading! <\/a>Latest posts by Nancy Dahlberg (see all<\/a>) \t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dealroom\u2019s new Global Tech Ecosystem Index report also ranks Miami No. 2 in the US among the fastest-growing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287605,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-287604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}