Silicon Beach

This article is about an area of tech startups in Los Angeles. For a similar area in Brighton, England, see Brighton § Commerce and industry. For the company, see Silicon Beach Software.

Silicon Beach is the Westside region of the Los Angeles metropolitan area that is home to more than 500 technology companies, including startups. It is particularly applied to the coastal strip from Los Angeles International Airport north to the Santa Monica Mountains,^[1] but the term may be applied loosely or colloquially to most anywhere in the Los Angeles Basin. Startups seeded here include Snapchat^[2] and Tinder. Major technology companies that opened offices in the region including Google, Yahoo!, YouTube, BuzzFeed, Facebook, Salesforce, AOL, Electronic Arts, Sony, EdgeCast Networks, MySpace, Amazon.com, Apple, Inc., and Netflix.^[3] By some 2012 metrics, the region was the second or third-most prominent technology hub in the world.^[4][5] In the first six months of 2013, 94 new start-ups in Silicon Beach raised over $500 million in funding, and there were nine acquisitions.^[6]

The area offers relatively easy access to LAX (Los Angeles International Airport), the biggest and most connected airport in western North America.^[7]

As in the San Francisco Bay Area, the influx of technology companies has boosted home and office rents and real estate prices in Playa Vista, Playa Del Rey, Westchester, Santa Monica, and Venice, already high previously due to beachfront location. The effects are also spilling over into Marina del Rey and Hermosa Beach.^[8]

Start-up pockets have also emerged in nearby Culver City, West L.A., and El Segundo.^[9] Other pockets include Downtown Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, Hollywood, Glendale, and the San Fernando Valley.^[10][11] The tendency of companies to congregate in these centrally-located, high income areas has raised concerns^[12] about the feasibility of racial minorities joining the workforce, as they tend to live in further outlying areas.^[13]

Silicon Beach is also home to start-up incubators and accelerators, such as Amplify.LA, Science, Disney Accelerator, TechStars, and Cedars Sinai.^[14]

The Los Angeles metro area was home to 88,000 engineers in 2021, the highest number of any metro area in the United States.^[15][16] Higher education institutions in Los Angeles County graduate 6,600 engineering majors a year, the highest of any county in the United States.^[17]

Higher education institutions headquartered in Silicon Beach include Loyola Marymount University and Otis College of Art and Design.^[18] Other higher education institutions in the nearby Southern California region or with satellite campuses in/nearby Silicon Beach include: Pepperdine University, Santa Monica College, Art Center College of Design, California Institute of Technology, University of California Los Angeles, University of Southern California, Occidental College, Cal State L. A., Cal State Northridge, Cal State Long Beach, Cal State Dominguez Hills, Cal Poly Pomona, and the Claremont Colleges.

List of technology companies based in Silicon Beach

Company	Year founded	Industry	Valuation
Abstract	2020	Govtech
AdColony	2011	Adtech	Acquired by Opera for $350 million[19]
Age of Learning	2007	Education
Bitium	2012	Cloud Computing	Acquired by Google for an unknown amount[20]
Branded Online	2010	Ecommerce & Online Marketing Agency
Cornerstone OnDemand	1992	Cloud
Distillery	2008	Mobile Application Development, UX/UI
Dollar Shave Club	2011	Consumer packaged goods	Acquired by Unilever for $1 billion[21]
Eaze	2014	Cannabis
Enplug	2012	Software	$2.5 million[22][23]
Fair	2016	Automotive, Fintech
Falcon Computing Solutions	2014	High Performance Computing, FPGA acceleration - tools and solutions
Flexport	2013	Digital Freight Forwarding
FloQast	2013	Accounting Software
Flustr	2019	Consumer Tech, Entertainment
Fullscreen	2011	Digital Media
Gnarbox	2014	Consumer electronics
GOAT	2015	e-commerce, Fashion (sneakers)
Headspace	2010	Health
HelenHealth (ZB Technologies, Inc.)	2016	Digital Health
The Honest Company	2012	e-commerce
Honey	2012	Cashback website, online coupons	Acquired by PayPal in 2020 for $4 billion[24][25][26]
Hulu	2007	Television Streaming Services	$15.8 billion[27]
Hyperloop One	2014	Transportation
LegalZoom	1999	Legal
Libermans Co	2021	Investments	$400 million[28]
MatchCraft	1998	Digital Marketing Platform Technology & Services
Metropolis Technologies	2017	Parking and artificial intelligence company
MuteSix	2014	Performance Marketing Agency
Nasty Gal	2006	Retail	Unknown - Chapter 11[29]
Oculus VR	2012	Virtual reality	Acquired by Facebook, Inc. in 2014 for $2 billion[30]
Onestop Internet	2004	Full Service Ecommerce Agency
Ring	2012	Home Security Devices	Acquired by Amazon for $1 billion[31]
Riot Games	2006	Video Games
Science 37	2014	Medical technology
Scopely	2011	Video Games	$1.7 billion[32]
ServiceTitan	2012	Software technology platform	$8.3 billion[33]
Snail Games	2000	Video Games
Snap Inc.	2011	Social media	$23 billion[34]
Swagbucks	2007	Digital Rewards & Cash Back
Tala	2011	Fintech
Thrive Market	2013	e-commerce
TI Health	2010	Data and Analytics, Healthcare Digital Marketing
TigerConnect	2010	Messaging, Text Analytics, Communications Infrastructure	$625 million[35]
Tinder	2012	Social Media
TrueCar	2005	Automotive websites	$1.65 billion[36]
Wag	2014	Pets
WebJoint[37]	2014	Cannabis
Whisper	2012	Social media
Wpromote	2001	Digital Marketing Agency
.xyz	2014	Internet Domain Registry
ZestFinance	2009	Fintech
ZipRecruiter	2010	Hiring

Other uses

• 1983: PC Magazine reported that "some people are starting to call" Boca Raton, Florida—where IBM had developed its Personal Computer, and other technology companies had facilities—"Silicon Beach, in deference to the great valley of the West".^[38]
• 1984: Silicon Beach Software was formed in San Diego, California.^[39]
• 2008: Silicon Beach Australia was used^[40] to describe the country's tech industry, including startup hubs in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Perth.^[41]

References

1. Machalinski, Anne (May 22, 2019). "Los Angeles Tech Scene Expands Beyond Silicon Beach". Barrons. Retrieved July 23, 2019.
2. Hernandez, Daniel (August 23, 2019). "Snapchat's Disappearing Act Leaves Venice Beach Searching for Its Future". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved August 24, 2019.
3. "Google, Netflix, Amazon, and Apple are planning on becoming millionaires of a different kind". January 16, 2019.
4. "Startup Genome Ranks The World's Top Startup Ecosystems: Silicon Valley, Tel Aviv & L.A. Lead The Way". TechCrunch. November 20, 2012.
5. "Silicon Beach emerges as a tech hotbed". USA Today. July 15, 2012.
6. "Over $500M Raised by 92 LA Startups in the First Half of 2013".
7. Sharp, Sonja (August 21, 2019). "'I'm not even 30, and I'm flying my own jet' — Silicon Beach elites take a seat in the cockpit". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 21, 2019.
8. Logan, Tim (January 2, 2015) "Buoyed by Silicon Beach, Westchester enjoys a housing surge" Los Angeles Times
9. Khouri, Andrew (January 15, 2016). "Bixby Land's $49-million office building sale a sign 'it's not the old El Segundo'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved January 16, 2016.
10. Chang, Andrea (March 7, 2015). "Tech scene takes hold in revitalized downtown L.A." Los Angeles Times.
11. Ungerleider, Neal (October 31, 2014). "Why A Subway-Building Binge Could Transform L.A.'s Tech Culture". Fast Company. Retrieved December 28, 2015.
12. "Why Tech Degrees Are Not Putting More Blacks and Hispanics Into Tech Jobs".
13. Haya El Nasser (April 29, 2015). "Job sprawl hurting minorities and the poor in suburbia". america.aljazeera.com. Retrieved August 21, 2019.
14. "A list of top LA accelerators and incubators". May 17, 2013.
15. "America's Engineering Hubs: The Cities With The Greatest Capacity For Innovation". Forbes. July 13, 2013.
16. "May 2021 Metropolitan and Nonmetropolitan Area Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA".
17. "Engineering". datausa.io. Archived from the original on June 7, 2023. Retrieved June 26, 2023.
18. Staff (June 2018). "Silicon Beach: The Next Wave". LMU Magazine. Loyola Marymount University. Archived from the original on August 13, 2015.
19. Gagliordi, Natalie. "Opera Software acquires AdColony for up to $350 million". ZDNet. Retrieved January 8, 2019.
20. "Google Cloud acquires cloud identity management company Bitium". TechCrunch. September 26, 2017. Retrieved January 8, 2019.
21. Primack, Dan (July 19, 2016). "Unilever Buys Dollar Shave Club for $1 Billion". Fortune.
22. Lawler, Ryan (April 17, 2014). "Digital Display Startup Enplug Raises $2.5 Million Seed Round". TechCrunch. AOL. Retrieved May 21, 2014.
23. Smith, Samantha. "LA Startup Goes from 0 to 100mph In Three Months". Forbes. Retrieved May 22, 2014.
24. "PayPal Completes Acquisition of Honey" (Press release). PR Newswire. January 6, 2020.
25. Taulli, Tom. "Why PayPal Paid $4 Billion For Honey Science". Forbes. Retrieved January 28, 2020.
26. Peters, Jay (November 20, 2019). "PayPal acquires the company behind the Honey deal-finding extension for $4 billion". The Verge. Retrieved February 25, 2020.
27. Curry, David (May 24, 2023). "Hulu Revenue and Usage Statistics (2023)". Business of Apps.
28. Heller, Nathan (July 25, 2022). "Is Selling Shares in Yourself the Way of the Future?". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved November 4, 2024.
29. Sherman, Lauren (May 26, 2017). "Can Nasty Gal Be Saved?". BoF.
30. "Honey's Billionaire Founder Buys $60 Million Bel Air Mega-Mansion". March 11, 2020.
31. Green, Dennis. "Amazon's $1 billion acquisition of the doorbell-camera startup Ring is the company doing what it does best — and it should terrify every other retailer". Business Insider. Retrieved January 8, 2019.
32. Spangler, Todd (October 29, 2019). "Scopely Valued at $1.7 Billion After $200 Million Round, With Mobile Game Company's Sights Set on M&A". Variety. Retrieved May 29, 2020.
33. "ServiceTitan, Software Provider For Tradespeople, Reaches $8.3 Billion Valuation". Forbes. March 26, 2021. Retrieved September 16, 2022.
34. "SNAP Key Statistics | Snap Inc. Class A Common Stock Stock - Yahoo Finance". finance.yahoo.com. Retrieved March 20, 2017.
35. "Funderbeam". www.funderbeam.com. Archived from the original on October 26, 2016.
36. "TrueCar, Inc. Common Stock (TRUE)". NASDAQ.com.
37. "These Young Founders Give Cannabis Brands The Opportunity To Market Directly To Consumers". Forbes. September 27, 2018. Retrieved February 28, 2020.
38. Porter, Martin (November 1983). "The Talk of Boca". PC Magazine. p. 162. Retrieved October 22, 2013.
39. Hill, Ryan (February 4, 2016) [www.triton.news/2016/02/813/ "San Diego is bringing back Silicon Beach"] [The Triton]
40. LeMay, Renai (July 28, 2008). "Silicon Beach Australia". ZDNet. Retrieved May 30, 2013.
41. Kohler, Alan (November 21, 2012). "Australia's "Silicon Beach" is no Entrepreneurs Paradise". The Drum. ABC.

33.9764°N 118.4512°W / 33.9764; -118.4512