Houston and the rest of Texas are experiencing a boom in the creation of startups.
One barometer of growth in startup activity: The Houston metro area saw a 92 percent rise from 2024 to 2025 in the number of account applications submitted to Bluevine, a banking platform for small businesses.
New data from Bluevine also shows healthy year-over-year growth in account applications submitted by entrepreneurs in Texas’ three other major metros:
242 percent growth in the San Antonio area153 percent growth in the Austin area28 percent growth in Dallas-Fort Worth
Further evidence of Texas’ uptick in business creation comes from a new state-by-state analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data by digital mailbox provider iPostal1.
From 2019 to 2024, the number of new business applications jumped 60 percent in Texas, according to the iPostal1 analysis. Wyoming tops the list, with a five-year growth rate of 216 percent.
“The U.S. has no shortage of ambition, but opportunity isn’t spread evenly,” says Jeff Milgram, founder and CEO of iPostal1. “In states like New York, Florida, and Texas, entrepreneurship is booming — people are starting businesses, taking risks, and finding opportunity.”
“Other states are still catching up,” Milgram adds. “Sometimes it’s access to funding, sometimes local policy, or just the confidence that new ventures will be supported.”
Women own many of the new businesses sprouting in Texas, according to a new analysis of 2024-25 data from the U.S. Small Business Administration. The analysis, done by SimpleTiger, a marketing agency for software-as-a-service (SaaS), shows Texas ranks eighth for the highest concentration of women entrepreneurs (109 per 1,000 female residents) among all states. That rate is three percent higher than the national average.
“Women entrepreneurs are no longer a side story in small business growth; they’re a leading indicator of where local economies are expanding next,” SimplyTiger says. “When women-owned business density is high, it usually signals stronger access to customers, networks, and startup pathways that make it easier to launch and keep going.”
In a December news release, Gov. Greg Abbott highlights Texas’ nation-leading job gains over the past 12 months, driven by employers small and large.
“From innovative startups to Fortune 500 corporations, job-creating businesses invest with confidence in Texas,” Abbott says. “With our strong and growing workforce, we will continue to expand career and technical training programs for better jobs and bigger paycheck opportunities for more Texans.”