No. 38

Baltimore-ColumbiaTowson, MD

Under Armour founder Kevin Plank reportedly committed more than $300 million to a $5.5 billion public-private waterfront development at Port Covington, which will house the company’s new headquarters, along with an innovation center and over a million square feet of office space. It’s been nicknamed Cyber Town, a nod to the area’s cybersecurity industry, which gets a boost from its proximity to the nation’s capital. The scene is fueled by incubators like Betamore, Bwtech@ UMBC, and Emerging Technology Centers, which has aided more than 500 companies since 1999. Johns Hopkins provides a strong biotech pipeline—a spinout, Dracen Pharmaceuticals, raised a $40.5 million seed round this year to develop drugs discovered in the university’s lab. Another plus: In a recent study, Maryland ranked first of any state in the per-capita business ownership rate for women and people of color.