MINNESOTA LEADS MIDWEST IN HEALTH-TECH STARTUPS

For any business ecosystem to survive, the environment must be robust enough to support the mature firms, while providing the necessities that ensure future growth and development. Minnesota has a longstanding track record in healthcare and health technology that position the state as a global leader. Despite this, it is often undervalued for its sustained success leading the health tech start-up community worldwide.

This year has seen the Midwest region receive increased national attention for its thriving startup ecosystem. The health-tech community in particular, has been a hot topic. However, the majority of these publications have failed to further define the major players in the Midwest. Therefore, we investigated metrics surrounding health technology startup viability and success from 2012–2016 for each state in the Midwest. Our results show Minnesota leads the entire region when it comes to launching and succeeding as a health technology start up over the past five years.

From 2012–2016, Minnesota led all Midwest start-up ecosystems with $389.4 million dollars raised in Medical Alley. This was $98 million more than the next closest region, Illinois ($291.4 million). 

Unlike the East and West Coasts, the Midwest has not historically produced a standalone state. This failure to describe the leading states within the Midwest prevents its leaders from receiving the national recognition they deserve and hinders future success in health technology innovation. If investors aren’t familiar a region, how can they invest efficiently? If entrepreneurs don’t know where the best place for success is, how do they identify where they need to be when they establish their companies? Therefore, we first described the Midwest in a state-by-state rank based on the total investment dollars raised by companies founded between 2012 and 2016 (figure 1). During this time, Minnesota led all Midwestern startup ecosystems with $389.4 million dollars raised. This was $98 million more than the next closest region, Illinois ($291.4 million). Given this, it is no wonder the term Medical Alley is synonymous with Minnesota!

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