Atlanta, Georgia has emerged as one of the buzziest new hubs in the nation, with booming enterprise, cybersecurity and SaaS sectors, as well as a slew of investors looking to back the hot new startups coming from the city. Some well-known companies from Atlanta include Calendly, Kabbage, One Trust and FullStory — all unicorns, by the way.
Many, like Calendly, passed through Atlanta Tech Village, which has served as an incubator for the city’s talent ecosystem since it was founded in 2012 by David Cummings.
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Record labels, such as Quality Control, the musical home of the Migos, now have an investment arm, and the local HBCUs, like Morehouse, have their own entrepreneurial and innovation centers. Even the Atlanta Hawks launched their own investment firm to back early-stage talent. In fact, ATL hails itself as so committed to fostering its tech ecosystem that it appointed a chief technology officer, or, as some informally dub the role, a city Tech Czar.
Naturally, the next step was TechCrunch spotlighting the city to showcase all that is new and upcoming. Investors and founders have long expressed excitement about what is happening in the region. Last year, Atlanta startups raised around $1.65 billion, according to PitchBook; though an about 47.9% decline year-over-year, that amount is still the second-highest funding allocated to the city in recent years.
“The venture capital opportunity in the South is better than it’s ever been,” Lisa Calhoun, a general partner at Valor Ventures, told TechCrunch+ last year. “A lot of new founders are starting companies at astonishing rates; in terms of deal flow, we’ve never had so much.”
Tune in to this virtual event on June 7th at 2:00 EDT as TechCrunch Live unpacks what is happening in the Atlanta tech ecosystem. Though much of the event is under wraps (stay tuned), we can promise an exciting slate of panels and articles to showcase the city’s culture and commitment to becoming a tech hub. Trust us, this is not an event you will want to miss, so stay posted for updates, and we hope you can join us as we officially welcome you to Atlanta.
PS: If you are an early-stage Atlanta-based founder, please apply to pitch to our panel of guest investors/judges for our live pitching competition; the winner gets a free table at TechCrunch Disrupt this year to exhibit their company in the expo.