Virginia's startup surge saw more than 10,000 created in two years

More than 10,000 high-growth and high-wage startup companies were created in Virginia in 2022 and 2023, according to a new report from Richmond-based Chmura Economics & Analytics .

Why it matters: To be considered for the report, the new companies had to pay above-average wages for the state and forecast above-average employment growth.

The big picture: Chmura conducted the research on behalf of Virginia Innovation Partnership Corp ., a state-affiliated nonprofit that supports startups.

Zoom in: Gov. Youngkin made it a day-one goal to have 10,000 startups launch in Virginia in the first two years of his administration. The report found he exceeded that goal, with the state seeing 10,337 launch in that time.

• That's a 66% increase over the average in the first two years of any administration in the past 15 years, per the report .
• Gov. Terry McAuliffe held the previous record at 6,684 startups.

The high-growth and high-wage startups were created across all nine regions defined by GO Virginia , the state's economic development group.

• Southwest Virginia's Region 1 saw the smallest increase, at 5%, Virginia Business reported .
• Southside Virginia's Region 3 had the highest increase, at 41%.

Worth noting: Chmura also found the Virginia climbed to its highest ranking in a decade for venture capital investments, a critical source for getting young companies off the ground.

• The state ranked eighth in the nation last year for its $2.5 billion in VC investments in Virginia-based firms.