Inland Empire Innovation Ecosystem 2021
The Inland Empire Innovation Ecosystem 2021 Highlights Infographic is a data supplement produced by the Center for Social Innovation (CSI) at UC Riverside and Blended Impact. This infographic serves to highlight accomplishments and innovation ecosystem data from 2021.
In April 2021, Blended Impact partnered with UCR’s Center for Social Innovation on a comprehensive report of the Inland Empire innovation ecosystem. The report analyzed the history of Riverside and San Bernardino counties, key emerging industries, and included a comprehensive directory of the innovation-focused initiatives and incubators/accelerators through 2020. Similarly, the Cal State San Bernardino Inland Empire Center for Entrepreneurship released the State of the Entrepreneurship report in December 2021 to bring the voice of over 10,000 local entrepreneurs in the Inland Empire to those who need to hear it most - local and state policymakers, community organizations, lenders, and other resource providers.
Both of these reports can be seen here:
- Center for Social Innovation (CSI) at UC Riverside State of Innovation in the Inland Empire, April 2021
- Cal State San Bernardino Inland Empire Center for Entrepreneurship State of Entrepreneurship Report, December 2021
This infographic data supplement is intended to complement both reports and add updated data from 2021. Specifically, the data sources focuses on:
- identifying funding availability and velocity for innovation-related ventures in the region per Crunchbase and KingsCrowd
- measuring innovation-related job postings and talent availability in the region via Burning Glass and IPEDs
- benchmarking the Inland Empire according to five components of the Innovation Index as classified by Stats America, a composite index funded by the Federal Economic Development Administration, and
- synthesizing local, national, and statewide activities and priorities into an actionable oriented format.
Our goals were to share notable company activity to illustrate the growth and impact of investments in R&D and the companies scaling them over time on the region, highlight new developments, initiatives, and opportunities for entrepreneurs in the region to pursue more “opportunity entrepreneurship” compared to “necessity entrepreneurship”, and build a stronger and more connected innovation ecosystem both locally and across Southern California.