In South Florida’s third top global ranking this year, the metro area also ranked 11th against its US peers
The Miami metro area ranks No. 25 in the world among startup ecosystems, according to the 2026 Global Startup Ecosystem Report released by Startup Genome and the Global Entrepreneurship Network today at VivaTech in Paris.
Notably, this is the third global ranking this year in which South Florida ranked in the top 25. In Startup Genome’s ranking, the Miami metro area also ranked 11th against its US peers.
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.
Global startup Ecosystem Value – the sum of exit and funding valuations over the last 2.5 years – has grown 40% in one year, reaching $10.9 trillion, the report found. “Together, just three U.S. ecosystems claimed roughly two thirds of the world’s growth in EV. The growth is real, but highly concentrated,” said JF Gauthier, founder & CEO of Startup Genome.
The report also marked a major shift in the global startup economy — the recovery has arrived, but AI is determining who benefits from it, the report said. AI-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’s highly concentrated: 86% of all late-stage funding to AI-Native startups flowing to North America, the report found.
“To 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 — 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,” said Jonathan Ortmans, president of the Global Entrepreneurship Network, Startup Genome’s partner for the research.
How Miami’s results stack up
Year over year, the Miami metro area (Miami-Dade through Palm Beach County) fell in this ranking – from 22nd in last year’s 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 “market reach,” Startup Genome’s research team shared with Refresh Miami.
Another factor that pulled down rankings was “a softening early-stage funding pipeline,” 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.
The talent and experience category showed improvement and the ecosystem ranking in the performance and R&D categories stayed the same, the researchers said.
The GSER has been produced since 2012. Miami broke onto the Global Listing as a runner-up (tied at 36th with four other ecosystems) in 2019. In 2020, Miami moved up to 31st. In 2021, despite the momentum the ecosystem was experiencing, the ecosystem fell off the list (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. In 2022, however, Miami was again a runner-up, ranking 33rd on the Global Top 40 ranking – setting itself up to leap 10 places to No. 23 in 2023, then to No. 16 in 2024’s report, then 22nd in 2025, and now 25th in the world.
The upshot of today’s news: As a global startup ecosystem, Miami ranked in the top 25 in all three global rankings this year. Miami ranked #20 in Dealroom’s ranking and #22 in StartupBlink’s.
Tampa and Orlando in Top 100 Emerging Ecosystems
This year’s 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 – Orlando and Tampa – 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 – 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.
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’s university programs.
US and global highlights
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).
Here are some more global highlights and insights of this year’s report:
- DefenseTech is the fastest-growing tech sub-sector after AI Native, with Series A value up approximately 60% over the past year.
- Silicon Valley’s 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%.
- North America now accounts for 64% of global late-stage funding, up from 56% in 2021.
- Toronto-Waterloo and Seattle made impressive progress thanks to their strong AI-Native sub-sector, respectively moving up the #13 and #10 positions.
- Stockholm emerged as the standout performer among European ecosystems, jumping eight positions to #23 and tying with Amsterdam-Delta.
- Nearly all Chinese ecosystems in the Top 40 saw a decline in their ranking. The exception was Wuxi, which climbed six positions to #36.
- Abu Dhabi’s 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.
Download the 2026 Startup Global Ecosystem Report (GSER) here.
READ MORE IN REFRESH MIAMI:
- Miami cracks into the top 20 global ecosystems in new ranking
- On the rise: Miami area shines in new global ecosystem ranking
- South Florida is becoming a mission-critical hub for defense innovation
- Palm Beach County is turning inbound talent, AI trust, and institutional growth into a serious innovation ecosystem
- How Miami became a launchpad for cross-border payment startups
- As tokenization grows up, here’s how Miami builders are turning blockchain into market infrastructure
- Brazil’s innovative Link School of Business to launch in Miami, drawn by the area’s rising tech scene
