Notably, this is the third global ranking this year in which South Florida ranked in the top 25. In Startup Genome\u2019s ranking, the Miami metro area also ranked 11th against its US peers.<\/p>\n
The 2026 GSER includes research and insights from more than 350 entrepreneurial ecosystems and 5.5 million+ companies. The 362-page report looks at the current state of startup activity and includes a ranking of the top 40 global ecosystems and top 100 emerging ecosystems driving innovation. Startup Genome is a San Francisco-based research organization that surveys startups and advises governments and civic leaders on tech ecosystem success.<\/p>\n
Global startup Ecosystem Value \u2013 the sum of exit and funding valuations over the last 2.5 years \u2013 has grown 40% in one year, reaching $10.9 trillion, the report found. \u201cTogether, just three U.S. ecosystems claimed roughly two thirds of the world\u2019s growth in EV. The growth is real, but highly concentrated,\u201d said JF Gauthier, founder & CEO of Startup Genome.<\/p>\n
The report also marked a major shift in the global startup economy \u2014 the recovery has arrived, but AI is determining who benefits from it, the report said. \u00a0AI-Native sub-sector is on track to become the largest share of global startup Ecosystem Value within three years, growing $2.1 trillion or 140% this year as compared to 15.9% for the rest of tech. But again it\u2019s highly concentrated: 86% of all late-stage funding to AI-Native startups flowing to North America, the report found.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo the policymakers, investors, and ecosystem builders reading this report, the data will tell you where ecosystems stand today; not who will lead tomorrow. That answer lies in the choices made now \u2014 whether governments treat entrepreneurs as partners, whether corporations open their doors to startups, and whether ecosystems double down on inclusion when the temptation is to retreat,\u201d said Jonathan Ortmans, president of the Global Entrepreneurship Network, Startup Genome\u2019s partner for the research. <\/p>\n
How Miami\u2019s results stack up<\/p>\n
Year over year, the Miami metro area (Miami-Dade through Palm Beach County) fell in this ranking \u2013 from 22nd in last year\u2019s report to 25th in the world. For Miami, one of the main reasons it fell three sports was because exits over $50 million declined in the Miami metro area (Miami-Dade through Palm Beach County) while globally that trend was up. This pulled down the \u201cmarket reach,\u201d Startup Genome\u2019s research team shared with Refresh Miami.<\/p>\n
Another factor that pulled down rankings was \u201ca softening early-stage funding pipeline,\u201d the researchers said, dragging down the funding category. While my reporting showed that early-stage funding totals and deal count at both the seed and Series A funding was up significantly in 2025 over 2024, the report takes a longer view of 2.5 years for the report. \u00a0<\/p>\n
The talent and experience category showed improvement and the ecosystem ranking in the performance and R&D categories stayed the same, the researchers said.<\/p>\n
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The GSER has been produced since 2012. Miami\u00a0broke onto the Global Listing<\/a>\u00a0as a runner-up (tied at 36th\u00a0with four other ecosystems) in 2019. In 2020,\u00a0Miami moved up to 31st<\/a>. In 2021, despite the momentum the ecosystem was experiencing, the ecosystem\u00a0fell off the list<\/a>\u00a0(it ranked No. 10 on the Emerging Ecosystems list) and a researcher explained that the ecosystems in the universe that they were studying had grown so there was more competition. \u00a0In 2022<\/a>, however, Miami was again a runner-up, ranking 33rd on the Global Top 40 ranking \u2013 setting itself up to leap 10 places to No. 23\u00a0in 2023<\/a>,\u00a0 then to No. 16\u00a0in 2024\u2019s report<\/a>, then 22nd in 2025<\/a>, and now 25th in the world.<\/p>\n The upshot of today\u2019s news: As a global startup ecosystem, Miami ranked in the top 25 in all three global rankings this year. Miami ranked #20 in Dealroom\u2019s ranking<\/a> and #22 in StartupBlink\u2019s<\/a>.<\/p>\n Tampa and Orlando in Top 100 Emerging Ecosystems<\/p>\n This year\u2019s GSER report also included a Top 100 Emerging Ecosystems ranking of earlier-stage metro areas that did not make the top 40. Two Florida ecosystems \u2013 Orlando and Tampa \u2013 ranked in the top 30 of that list. Tampa ranked in the 21-30 list at No. 26, jumping more than 30 positions from the 51-60 grouping last year \u2013 it was the biggest leap withing the top 30. Orlando also ranked in the 21-30 at No. 28, up from the 31-40 group last year on the Emerging Ecosystems list.<\/p>\n Tampa, which ranked on the Top Emerging Ecosystems list for its fourth year in a row, has an engaged corporate community and is strong in fintech, cybersecurity, healthtech and defensetech and is supported by several entrepreneurship organizations and universities. Orlando ranked on the list for the third year in a row and is strong in spacetech, defensetech, cybersecurity, simulation and robotics. Its region includes the Space Coast, and its strong corporate sector includes many defense and aerospace companies and is supported by the region\u2019s university programs.<\/p>\n US and global highlights<\/p>\n Miami was in good company in the GSER ranking. The top 10 ecosystems, in order, are: Silicon Valley, New York City, London, Tel Aviv, Boston, Los Angeles, Beijing, Singapore, Seoul and Seattle. The other US cities in the top 25 were Washington DC (16), San Diego (17), Austin (18), Chicago (20), Denver (21) and Miami (25).<\/p>\n Here are some more global highlights and insights of this year\u2019s report:<\/p>\n DefenseTech is the fastest-growing tech sub-sector after AI Native, with Series A value up approximately 60% over the past year.<\/p>\n Silicon Valley\u2019s Ecosystem Value has surpassed $3 trillion, nearly 3x the next largest ecosystem. North American Ecosystem Value grew 51% since GSER 2025, versus a global increase of 33%.<\/p>\n North America now accounts for 64% of global late-stage funding, up from 56% in 2021.<\/p>\n Toronto-Waterloo and Seattle made impressive progress thanks to their strong AI-Native sub-sector, respectively moving up the #13 and #10 positions.<\/p>\n Stockholm emerged as the standout performer among European ecosystems, jumping eight positions to #23 and tying with Amsterdam-Delta.<\/p>\n Nearly all Chinese ecosystems in the Top 40 saw a decline in their ranking. The exception was Wuxi, which climbed six positions to #36.<\/p>\n Abu Dhabi\u2019s Ecosystem Value grew an impressive $69 billion, the largest rise among Emerging Ecosystems, securing a position in the #41-50 range and #4 in MENA.<\/p>\n Download the 2026 Startup Global Ecosystem Report (GSER) here<\/a>.<\/p>\n READ MORE IN REFRESH MIAMI:<\/p>\n ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/gser_2026-2.jpg\")
<\/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":"In South Florida\u2019s third top global ranking this year, the metro area also ranked 11th against its US…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":272178,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-310392","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\/310392","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=310392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}