Chicago slips in world startup rankings amid global downturn
Story Highlights Chicago dropped to 16th in global startup ecosystem rankings.
Global startup ecosystem value decreased 31% across the board.
Chicago experienced the largest ecosystem value decline among top 20 cities.
Chicago took a slight tumble on a list of the top startup ecosystems in the world.
The Windy City dropped to No. 16 in the 2025 Global Startup Ecosystem Report from Startup Genome in partnership with Global Entrepreneurship Network, which analyzed data from more than 5 million companies across more than 350 markets to determine the top 40 regions for startups. Chicago had ranked No. 15 in 2024.
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North America's top five ecosystems in terms of value and early-stage funding included Silicon Valley in California, New York City, Los Angeles, Boston and Seattle.
Overall, ecosystem value — the sum of startup valuations plus the post-money valuation of exits in the past two-and-a-half years — dropped 31% across the globe. Among the top 20 ecosystems in the report, only three cities saw positive ecosystem growth: Beijing, Los Angeles and Tokyo.
At nearly 40%, Chicago saw the greatest decrease in ecosystem value among those top 20 cities.
This is a trend that started at the end of 2022 as funding dried up and exits began to plummet. Only 12 companies completed public listings nationally during the first quarter, according to PitchBook, as a freeze in initial public offerings seen over the past couple of years has yet to thaw.
Large exits in 2024 were still being handicapped by the inflationary valuations of 2021, concluded the study by Startup Genome, a development organization for the industry. However, there are encouraging signs that large exits are recovering in 2025 and could be back at pre-pandemic frequency by year-end.
In recent quarters, Chicago startups have started to find a new normal in terms of fundraising with dealmaking remaining relatively stable to begin the year.
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