Concerns and misconceptions about the region's livability are also holding Atlanta back, the report said.
“If we create that right environment, we can [it] It seems very reasonable that we should produce [that] “Many startups are making annual net profits,” said Parmeet Grover, managing director and senior partner at BCG. He has been researching this issue for the past nine years and was one of the report's lead authors.
The study is based on more than 50 interviews with stakeholders across the region, analysis of multiple quality of life and business indicators, and 11 case studies on different cities' approaches to entrepreneurship and innovation.
Atlanta's current tech scene is best known for its under-the-radar technology, including payment processing, marketing, cybersecurity, and software that helps businesses operate. The city is sometimes referred to as “Trade Alley” because an estimated 70 percent of the world's financial transactions go through companies headquartered in the area, according to the Georgia Department of Economic Development.
The city counts Mailchimp and Calendly as two of its largest local startups. The former was acquired by Intuit in 2021 for $12 billion, and the latter was recently valued at $3 billion. Atlanta has also attracted major corporate offices for Google, Microsoft, Salesforce and other West Coast companies, which rely on a diverse workforce of graduates from Georgia Tech, historically black colleges and universities in other regions. The company has expressed a desire to utilize talented engineering and technology talent.
Metro Atlanta also has a large corporate community with 17 Fortune 500 company headquarters. Large companies often invest in and buy services and products from startups. As these small businesses scale up, the same large companies often acquire these startups, providing an exit for the founders and injecting capital that can be used again in the startup ecosystem. To do.
Becoming a top-five hub is a key goal of Mayor Andre Dickens, who last year established the city's first Office of Innovation.
“Atlanta has a lot of great companies, so there are a lot of technology jobs, but we want to increase the amount of investment,” Dickens told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “What we’re behind on is venture capital.”
According to the report, part of the reason Atlanta's tech ecosystem doesn't rank in the top five is because of a broader perception of the city's livability, and because local universities play a sufficient role in creating new startups. The main reason for this is that they are not fulfilling their goals. Atlanta's universities produce more than 13,000 technology graduates each year, and Emory University and Georgia Tech spend more than $2 billion annually on research, but they have a comparable amount of research that converts into patents. I'm behind university.
Furthermore, entrepreneurial support systems are too pervasive and do not equitably represent women and minority founders. The report found that from 2019 to 2022, 94% of Atlanta's Series A funding (the first investment money a company typically raises after a seed or angel investment) went to white founders, but the same percentage went to white founders. The area's population was only 43% white.
Grover and his colleagues believe that addressing these gaps will initially start with what they call startup mills. It is a proposed public-private partnership of technology players with a physical presence that “will serve as a catalyst to bring key stakeholders together towards this common goal.” I’m going to be in the top five and do whatever it takes,” Glover said.
BCG will be an “integral part” of the factory, but it is still in the very early planning stages. In addition to the consulting group, Georgia Tech and the City of Atlanta are some of the initial members, with more to come.
Grover also wants to set up an investment fund within the startup mill. While the entity structure is still being discussed, Glover said the vision is to potentially raise $300 million for the first fund, with BCG potentially becoming a limited partner.
BCG employs more than 1,000 people in Metro, and many of its customers include large Fortune 500 companies and governments. Glover said they conducted this research for free and are helping implement several recommendations to give back to the communities in which they work.
Prominent technology employers in metro Atlanta
The Atlanta area is home to major offices for many well-known companies and global technology companies. Below are some examples of these celebrities.
Amazon
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Cisco
equifax
fiserv
global payments
intercontinental exchange
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mail chimpanzee
microsoft
NCR Atreos
NCR Voices
sage
sales force
visa
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