Some Canadian Provinces Beating Out Majority of US States for Venture Capital, New Data Finds

New data reveals that three Canadian provinces are drawing more venture capital funding than the vast majority of US states.

California—home of Silicon Valley—grabbed more than $15 billion in funding in 2013, good enough for 47% of the North American VC market share. Sound staggering? That amount is actually down 50% from 2012, according to Canada’s Venture Capital & Private Equity Association (all values expressed in Canadian dollars).

Massachusetts and New York each snagged $3 billion, while Texas and Maryland combined for $2 billion (note that all four of them combined equals less than half of California—and again, that’s during a bad year for the Valley).

But beyond those states, Canadian provinces start to shine. Ontario drew a respectable $676 million thanks to strong cleantech and info-tech sectors. Driven by a $100-million investment in the e-commerce website provider Shopify, Ontaro ranked 6th last year, ahead of Virgina ($614 million), CVCA data shows.

In 8th was Quebec, whose VC share grew 0.4% over 2012 to clock in at $589 million.

And in 9th was BC, thanks largely to one Vancouver company: more than one-third of all venture capital money invested in BC in 2013 went to HootSuite, who raised a $171 million Series B round—the country’s largest VC round of the year and one of the biggest for a Canadian tech startup ever. That deal spurred a huge leap for BC, who failed to crack the top 20 in 2012.