Inc. magazine and innovation policy company Startup Genome have ranked the city of Riverside No. 35 on their list of the 50 best areas in the U.S. for starting a business in 2020.

The rankings, known as the Surge Cities Index, were based on seven essential indicators such as early stage funding and job creation. Riverside came in at No. 14 in net business creation and No. 16 in both the job creation and wage-growth categories.

The index recognized UC Riverside’s vigorous efforts to grow an entrepreneurial ecosystem in the region.

“The local university became the beating heart of this startup community,” the article states, citing UCR’s Wet Lab Incubator and Entrepreneurial Proof of Concept Center and Small Business Development Center, or EPIC SBDC, the Highlander Venture Fund, and the institution’s partnership with the city and county to manage the EXCITE incubator in downtown Riverside. 

“Having our growing startup ecosystem recognized on a national level by Inc. magazine is key to attracting more C-level talent to help scale our most promising deep-tech startups coming out of the UCR labs, as well as getting Riverside on the radar of angel investors and seed-stage venture capitalists,” said EPIC director Scott Brovsky.