MORE ANGELS IN MASS. OUTFIELD
Startup investor cash doubles to record
As a jobseeker, does there seem to be an increasing number of jobs in the Bay State's innovation industries? Tell us what you think at bizsmart@bostonherald.com.
That tired notion about having to go westward to find startup cash? That’s so last decade. Angel investment in Massachusetts doubled from 2009 to 2011, according to the firstever interactive report card on the state’s innovation economy, which goes live today at index.masstech.org. It shows a record amount of startup cash flowing into the Bay State, with Massachusetts having retained its first-in-the-nation ranking for the amount of venture capital investment as compared to its gross domestic product.
“What we’re seeing is a major trend for Massachusetts in the growth of angel investment over time,” said Pamela Goldberg, CEO of the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, a quasi-state agency. “It has changed the whole environment for the startup community. I think we have more of those qualified investors here in Massachusetts than we used to.”
In addition to the findings about angel investment, the MassTech Innovation Economy Index, newly overhauled but published since 1997, shows that Big Data is now a key driver in state innovation, with industry employment having jumped 21 percent from 2007 to 2010. Another expanding sector is robotics, which rose 5 percent during the same period.
Patrick Larkin, director of MassTech’s Innovation Institute, called the two industries “indigenous” to the Bay State.
“There’s a natural strength in Massachusetts around hardware and communications technology, and a tremendous software development base,” Larkin said.
But we’re not the only state gaining ground. Academic research and development, a key innovation catalyst, is growing by a faster clip in three states than it is here: North Carolina, California and New York, likely due more to the democratization of entrepreneurship throughout the world than any local failing.
Still, the Bay State leads in the number of college graduates per capita entering the workforce, has the fastestgrowing computer and communications hardware sector in the nation and has the highest number of patents per capita as of 2011.
“There’s no place on the globe where there’s more innovation than Massachusetts,” Larkin said. “That’s our advantage.”
Still, Goldberg pointed to a new effort to expand computer science education in public schools and a new internship program for college students as evidence that the state is diligently focused on building momentum. Said Goldberg, “We have to watch our backs.”