2014 saw a stronger presence of non-US companies on our list of innovative startups receiving the largest A rounds (Table 1). Although Cambridge, Massachusetts, continues to be well represented (four startups on the list), four financings went to non-US firms, up from just one in 2013. The United States continues to dominate the global startup scene (Fig. 1), although the United Kingdom, with 14 A rounds, is resurgent (4 companies in 2012; 10 in 2013). The average size of an A round in Switzerland ($21 million) is greater than anywhere else in the world, including the United States (Table 2).

Table 1 Top 10 A rounds in 2014 for innovative startups (as of Dec. 15). Human Longevity (San Diego) raised $70 million in March but was not spun out of university.
Figure 1: Number of startups by country in 2014.
figure 1

Source: BCIQ: BioCentury Online Intelligence.

Table 2 Total and average A round amounts by country in 2014.