The Twin Cities sit near the headwaters of the Mississippi, and Medtronic's founding there in a garage in 1949 effectively started the modern medical-device industry — a lineage the region's device companies still draw on directly. The University of Minnesota anchors the research side of a metro that also holds an unusually high concentration of Fortune 500 headquarters relative to its population.
Region Stats
Total firms
56
VC / investors
17
Companies
36
Schools
3
Known For
Medical Devices
Fortune 500
Venture
Twin Cities