The Startup Ecosystem of San Diego

San Diego boasts 849 startups in our sample database which represents about 2% of The United States’s sampled startups. San Diego is the 9th best startup ecosystem in The United States.

CITY RANKING

In 2022, the startup scene of San Diego shows much promise after advancing in the Global Ecosystem Index by 1 spot.

National Ranking

9th
0
In United States

Regional Ranking

9th
0
In North America

Global Ranking

21st
+
1
Worldwide
Free Dashboard
Pro Dashboard

ECOSYSTEM

Browse the startup ecosystem database of San Diego

Download the Global Startup Ecosystem Index 

Understand our ranking methodology and get the latest insights on the startup ecosystems of 100 countries and 1000 cities around the world!

Download

Ecosystem

The Startup Ecosystem in San Diego

Our startup ecosystem map for San Diego includes a sample of 849 tech companies. We have identified as unicorns 8 startups that have passed the USD 1 billion valuations. Contributing to the vitality of this startup ecosystem are the 1 pantheon member entity. Get the Pro account for unrestricted insights on this ecosystem.

Global Rank

San Diego is ranked within the top 30 startup ecosystems globally.

Top Industries

San Diego’s startups excel particularly in Health where it ranks 4 and in Marketing & Sales, and Fintech. Find out more

Top Cities for Startups in United States - Ranked by StartupBlink
StartupBlink ranks the startup ecosystems of 100 countries and 1,000 cities. Download our latest Global Startup Ecosystem Report.
Rows:
2022 National Rank & Change ▲
2022 National Rank & Change City
search leaderboards icon
Global Rank & ChangeTotal ScoreQuantity ScoreQuality ScoreBusiness Score
1st
0
1st
0
550.269
36.19
510.42
3.66
2nd
0
2nd
0
217.002
18.34
195.00
3.66
3rd
0
4th
0
113.855
14.68
95.52
3.66
4th
0
5th
+
1
108.050
8.66
95.73
3.66
5th
0
11th
+
1
51.966
4.71
43.59
3.66
6th
0
14th
+
3
40.970
5.79
31.52
3.66
7th
+
1
19th
0
34.963
4.96
26.34
3.66
8th
-
1
20th
-
2
32.906
4.36
24.89
3.66
9th
0
21st
+
1
32.558
3.91
24.99
3.66
10th
0
26th
+
1
29.353
4.10
21.59
3.66
Page out of 26

Startups

Notable Startups in San Diego
StockTwits startup icon
StockTwits
Cordial startup icon
Cordial
Ezoic startup icon
Ezoic

Startups

Successful Health startups in San Diego
Element Biosciences startup icon
Element Biosciences
Medsphere Systems startup icon
Medsphere Systems
Truvian Sciences startup icon
Truvian Sciences

Startups

Startups Ranking by Industry

Health icon
Health
#4 worldwide

On our map, you can explore a total of 239 startups for Health.

Marketing & Sales icon
Marketing & Sales
#10 worldwide

In North America, San Diego's Marketing & Sales is in top 10. San Diego has a concentration of about 0% of the country's total Marketing & Sales startups that are represented on our map.

Fintech icon
Fintech
#16 worldwide

Fintech is ranked 16th in the world. Our database contains 64 startups for this industry.

Explore More

ECOSYSTEM

Why should you join San Diego's Startup Ecosystem?

Overview

Within San Diego there is an increased attraction for entrepreneurs to set up their startups in industries such as Health, Marketing & Sales, Fintech. These three industries represent about 58% of the startups represented on the Startup Ecosystem Map of San Diego.

9th

National Rank

9th

Regional Rank

Overview

San Diego is The United States' 9th best startup ecosystem and is ranked 9th in North America. With a population of 5M - 10M people, San Diego is ranked th in the world. The city boasts some notable startup success stories including StockTwits and its startup ecosystem infrastructure is strengthened by organizations such as Qualcomm and Coworking at The Vine.

ECOSYSTEM
Startup Infrastructure in San Diego
With a large variety of initiatives, San Diego's startup ecosystem stands out from other cities in North America. San Diego offers a number of funding opportunities for entrepreneurs and startups. Below is a list of San Diego's most prominent support initiatives:

Accelerators

Zahn Innovation Center SDSU startup icon

Zahn Innovation Center SDSU

Coworking Spaces

Coworking at The Vine startup icon

Coworking at The Vine

DeskHub San Diego startup icon

DeskHub San Diego

Bench Space Coworks startup icon

Bench Space Coworks

Organizations

TheNewBuro startup icon

TheNewBuro

Featured Ecosystem Portals

Go to portal
Go to portal

Work with us

If you are a startup ecosystem developer in San Diego, you can grow your startup economy by becoming a partner.

Find out more

BLOG

Recent Posts

Tue Mar 14 2023

EP 33: Do Small Countries Have an Edge in Building a startup Ecosystem?

Do small countries have an edge in building a startup ecosystem? In this episode, the StartupBlink team and Eli David discuss the unique advantages of small countries for building a thriving ecosystem. In StartupBlink’s Global Startup Ecosystem Index 2022, 9 out of the top 20 highest-ranked countries had a population of less than 10 million, […]

Wed Mar 08 2023

How can collaborating with StartupBlink as an ecosystem partner help your ecosystem and organization?

Collaborating with StartupBlink as a data partner can bring a range of benefits to your organization and ecosystem. As the most comprehensive startup ecosystem map and research center, we publish the Global Startup Ecosystem Index Report (GSEI) annually, ranking the top 1,000 cities and 100 countries worldwide.  StartupBlink’s GSEI is based on an elaborate algorithm […]

Tue Feb 28 2023

The Top 30 Countries by Absolute Power in 2022

What is Absolute Power? Generally, StartupBlink’s GSEI scoring algorithm calibrates the countries’ total score to their population size to check the startup outputs of countries per capita.   The “Absolute Power” algorithm ignores the size of the population and looks at the absolute amount of startup output per country to compare their dominance regardless of population […]