Stem Lives in Columbus
With close proximity to several Fortune 500 companies, and a local government and foundation community investing in the future—Columbus is working overtime to become a leader in smart city technology and increasing mobility and connectivity.
AWS
Root
JPMorgan Chase
covermymeds
Nationwide
Path Robotics
Top Companies have thousands of employees in Columbus
16 Fortune 1000 Headquarters
22K College grads/yr8
“Columbus is maturing into a full-fledged midwestern tech hub.”
—Dice.com
:Talent
Columbus is a Top 10 metro for millennial concentration, the only metro with this distinction in the eastern half of the country. 26.1% of students in Ohio graduate with degrees in STEM.7
4,100 degrees in computer and electrical engineering in the last 5 years.8
Twice as many engineering grads within 200 miles as San Francisco
Top City for Tech Workers
—SmartAsset
:Cost
Columbus’s strong appeal to growing tech companies is demonstrated in its affordability and investment infrastructure.
Columbus received $40M Smart City grant to build out Technology and infrastructure11
No. 1 Rising City in U.S. for Startups
—Forbes
:Quality of Life
With major local and state attractions, Columbus is an energetic blend of arts and culture.
Best Big City in the Midwest
—Money
:Connection
As the region’s grows, flights are added to top destinations to accommodate business employees. Columbus’s proximity to major markets allows travelers to make same-day business meeting trips to New York, D.C., and Chicago.
71 direct flights to 40 cities.10
Average commute from downtown to airport: 15 min.8
Less than two hours to Chicago, N.Y., D.C., Boston.
A Best U.S. City to Live in Right Now
—Travel and Leisure
:Local VC Funding
:Strategic Sectors
The Columbus region has 16 Fortune 1000 HQs and a diverse economy where no major industry sector holds more than 18% of employment.8
Transportation Tech
- 650K cars produced annually, $2.7B output
- Home to Honda’s North American and R&D headquarters
- Transportation Research Center—the largest U.S. proving ground
E-Commerce
- Columbus is an ideal location for distribution
and fulfillment operations. - Unmatched market access to U.S. consumers; within
1-day drive of 150M people8 - Major hub for FedEx, UPS, DHL, and Amazon
Finance/ insurance
- JPMorgan Chase’s 2nd-largest center, with over 20K employees, and
a global tech center - Fintech and insurtech hub with high-growth companies: Upstart, Beam, Homeside, Root
Retail Brands and Tech
- Global brand HQs include Abercrombie, Express, DSW, and Big Lots
- Ranks above NYC and L.A. for concentration of apparel firm HQs
- Test market of the U.S.
Bio-Med and Health Services
- Battelle global HQ
- OSU Wexner Medical Center—20 institutes, 1,000+ active studies
- Gene therapy leader
- Innovating tech (Updox, Olive)
Advanced Computing
- 50 data centers including AWS, Google Cloud, and FB
- No tangible personal property tax in Ohio
- Tax exemptions for qualifying data centers are available.
:Expanding Here
AWS
3 cloud campus sites; billions invested in region; directly employs 150, hundreds more indirectly
Rapidly expanding its data center infrastructure; directly employs 75 and is expanding rapidly
Data center campus under construction; will employ 50, with plans for additional growth
CoverMyMeds
Downtown HQ campus under construction; 800 employees, plans to add hundreds more
Amgen
Biomanufacturing plant under construction, employing 400 people
Intel
$20B investment and 3,000 jobs
Nexient
HQ in Bay Area; recently selected Columbus for a new hub; currently hiring 200
Veeva
Based in Bay Area with one of its largest offices in Columbus; continues to expand in Columbus
Sarepta
Building center of excellence for R&D and clinical-scale mfg.; will employ 100
hims & hers
Selected the Columbus region as its East Coast hub; will employ around 500 people
Beam
Employs 50
Homegrown VC-funded
Bold Penguin
Employs 65
Homegrown VC-funded
Updox
Headquartered in the Columbus region with approximately 130 employees
Homegrown VC-funded
Honda
Expanding to build $3.5B EV battery plant. $700M investment; 2,200 jobs
Sources
1 2020 Scoring Tech Talent, cbre.us; 2 C2ER, coli.org; 3 Statista.com; 4 Cushman and Wakefield Columbus Industrial MarketBeat Report Q1 2020; 5 Zillow.com; 6 Statisticalatlas.com; 7 Nsf.gov; 8 Roblox Columbus Region Overview; 9 The Columbus Region, columbusregion.com; 10 flycolumbus.com; 11 U.S. Dept. of Transportation transportation.gov/smartcity/winner; 12 Bizjournals.com; 13 FRED Economic Data, fred.stlouisfed.org; 14 US Census; 15 US Bureau of Economic Analysis; Real GDP; 16 One Columbus; 17 Brookings 2019; 18 Colliers; 19 Ohio State University; 20 Pitchbook