Venture Capital Flowing
According to Silicon Valley technology blog TechCrunch, Hayward companies have raised nearly $490 million in venture funding in the last three years—more than in Portland, Oregon, and San Antonio, Texas, cities with twice and three the population, respectively.
The Hayward industrial zone that is home to these companies is capitalizing on its proximity as the center of the San Francisco Bay Area metropolitan area, its highly competitive freeway, rail, maritime and air shipping and transportation infrastructure and its comparatively affordable real estate prices and leasing rates.
“In recent years,” reports TechCrunch, “the majority of Hayward’s venture funding has gone to biotechnology companies, like Arcus Biosciences, a developer of cancer therapies that raised a $70 million round in September, and MicuRx, which develops antibodies to treat drug-resistant infections.”
“Hayward is also making inroads as an energy startup hub,” TechCrunch adds, noting Primus Power, a provider of utility-scale battery storage, is located in the city, as is Alphabet Energy, which is developing technology to convert waste heat to energy.
And it is not just venture capital investment that is flowing into Hayward. In the last five months along, as The Stack has reported, the City Council has approved nearly a half-billion dollars in new mixed-use residential and retail development for downtown, showing that real estate investors, too, are increasingly looking to Hayward.
