Are you looking for a deep dive into the Las Vegas startup community and its investors? There is now a website for that.
StartUpNV, a nonprofit incubator and accelerator for startups based in Nevada, partnered with the City of Las Vegas on Thursday to launch a platform to provide a list of Las Vegas-based startups with data such as funding rounds and valuation.
Jeff Saling, Executive Director of StartUpNV, said previous attempts to create a similar database have failed. It wasn’t until the nonprofit partnered with Amsterdam-based data company Dealroom.co that it was able to bring the idea to life.
“We made a couple of attempts, embarrassing attempts to do something like this on our own website, and we found it impossible to get everything in there and keep it going,” Saling said. “It was like a miracle that we could do this and make this work and make it available to the community.”
“Tremendous dynamism”
Dealroom.co helps organizations, local governments and businesses discover and track technology companies and venture capital activity through its own platform.
Las Vegas is the company’s first US platform with more than 35 global markets including France, the UK, Berlin, Alberta, Melbourne and Taiwan.
“The startup scene in Vegas is tremendously dynamic, and considering the quality of life and affordability of the city, it has become one of the go-to places for startups,” said Darren Stauffer, Director of Dealroom.co, in a press release. “The City of Las Vegas and StartUpNV share our mission to understand their startup ecosystem in a transparent way and to provide insights and visibility.”
The platform at https://vegas.dealroom.co/intro lists more than 1,200 startups from Las Vegas.
Visitors can follow the activity of investors, accelerators, universities and corporations within the Las Vegas technology scene.
Various search options also allow users to see the number of unicorns, companies valued at $ 1 billion or more, and the number of future unicorns or startups valued at $ 200 million to $ 800 million.
There are also interactive maps and charts, such as one that shows a breakdown of investments by industry – FinTech ranks # 1 with $ 410 million in investments this year, up from $ 7.4 million in 2020.
“I’ve never had an asset like this”
Saling said the data is open and collaborative, which means startups can add company details to improve their profile.
“We have never had such an advantage, especially for people who are new to the ecosystem and trying to get involved in the community,” he said.
Saling added that the data will help Las Vegans see how the startup community is growing and what types of investors are flocking to the area.
Acting Director of Economics and Urban Development for the City of Las Vegas, Ryan Smith, pointed out the financial benefit of the platform.
“Companies from around the world naturally have an interest in our city, and we want to make sure we share data and demographics about our community that can lead to smart investments and new industries in Las Vegas,” Smith said in a press release.
Saling said the nonprofit was able to cover the cost of its partnership with Dealroom.co through a recently awarded government grant, even though the funds only cover a year.
“We hope we can raise some money for it over the past few years, but we at least needed some money to get started,” he said. “It was a government grant that gave some sort of connection to international markets, which was perfect as we are the first (dealroom) store in the US that connects to 35 markets around the world.”
Contact Subrina Hudson at shudson@reviewjournal.com. Follow @SubrinaH on Twitter.
