Bizworld Updates Monthly Draper Innovation Index US

States Compete to Land in Top Ten of Best Places to Launch a Startup

Texas Climbs Back to 2nd; Colorado Falls to 4th
Arizona Rises, Delaware Drops in DII US Top 10
New Hampshire Breaks into DII US Top 10, Georgia Falls Out
North Dakota and New Mexico Post Solid Gains
Kentucky and Washington See Largest Declines
California Remains 18th in DII US, but Reclaims 1st Place in Tech Innovation
New York and Massachusetts See Little Change

Oakland, California – Bizworld announces the November 2023 update to the Draper Innovation Index U.S. (DII US), which evaluates each state’s innovation and entrepreneurship environment. Published monthly since 2021, the DII US provides the most well-rounded and up-to-date look at entrepreneurial climates, reflecting both traditional and emerging economic metrics, from taxes and regulations to cryptocurrency friendliness and blockchain investment.

“The DII US Top Ten has a balance of small, large and medium-sized state economies,” said DHI Founder Tim Draper. “I see smaller states emerging as start-up hotspots as a very hopeful sign – no matter their size or how established their entrepreneurship ecosystems are, every state can take positive steps to attract and support new entrepreneurs and investors.”

Top Takeaways from the DII US November 2023 Update:

• Texas jumped back into 2nd place , pushing Utah into 3rd place, as Texas outperformed Utah in both overall and cryptocurrency/blockchain related investments as well as across all three business formation statistics.
• Colorado dropped by 2nd to 4th in the DII Balanced scenario, from 1st to 3rd in Tech Innovation and from 3rd to 5 in Regulatory and Tax.
• Thanks to higher venture capital investments, Arizona was able to beat out Delaware for the 7th place.
• New Hampshire broke into the DII US Top Ten thanks to the strongest growth in cryptocurrency/blockchain investments.
• Driven by strong business formation statistics, North Dakota jumped 4 ranks, from 35th to 31st, in the DII US Balanced scenario, also rising by 2 ranks in Regulatory and Tax.
• New Mexico saw growing venture capital investments and improved business formation statistics. These strengths allowed it jump from 37th to 34th in the DII US Balanced.
• Below average business formation statistics drove Kentucky to experience the largest decline in this month’s update, falling 10 places from 33rd to 43rd
• Washington and Arkansas saw similarly weak performances in investments and in business formation statistics; Washington fell from 12th to 17th and Arkansas from 44th to 46th
• As Colorado fell back, California reclaimed its 1st place position in Tech Innovation thanks to overall venture capital investment growth and growing cryptocurrency/blockchain related investments.
• New York improved by 1 rank both in the DII US Balanced and Tech Innovation scenarios as overall and crypto/blockchain related investment growth helped offset comparatively lower business formation trends.
• Colorado’s decline in Tech Innovation allowed Massachusetts to climb back into 2nd place
• Tennessee improved from 16th to 13th in the DII US Balanced scenario due to above-average business formation statistic performance.

“Two of the main factors in this month’s rises and falls were cryptocurrency/blockchain investment and new business formation trends,” said DHI Chief Economic Advisor Dr. Wallace Walrod. “In other words, the DII US rankings continue to reflect the project’s core values of assessing economic freedom, innovation and
entrepreneurship.”

The DII US will continue to post monthly update which can be accessed here.