Lucihub founder and CEO Amer Tadayon has started several businesses in California and Arizona. Those states never invested in his companies, but Nevada did.

Thanks to a growing startup ecosystem, increasing venture capital availability and favorable investing regulations, Tadayon called Las Vegas “one of the best places I’ve ever been to be an entrepreneur.”

“You’re not just a number here,” Tadayon said. “You go to one of these competitions, you see a lot of very talented people, and there’s a genuine interest in connecting all these people.”

The data proves it. The total valuation of Las Vegas-area startups increased from $1.9 billion in 2014 to $19 billion in 2024, reflecting increased investor confidence, according to a June report by UNLV’s Lincy Institute. From 2020 to 2023, Las Vegas ranked fifth in the nation for total startup investment growth, according to the same report.

Experts say that’s largely because investment in Nevada startups has skyrocketed. The state’s “Nevada certified investor” classification, established in 2023, allows non-U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission-accredited investors to put money into Nevada-based companies, and nearly every incubator and venture capital source in the Las Vegas area has emerged in the past decade.

Entrepreneurs come to the valley, attracted by a low cost of living compared to Silicon Valley, and are often pleasantly surprised by the support they find, said Jeff Saling, executive director of local business incubator and accelerator StartUpNV.

“There’s this moment that I see in almost all of the folks who come here, and they almost all use these four words: ‘I had no idea,’” Saling said.

Startups still encounter challenges in Las Vegas — the city doesn’t yet have the same pool of software and engineering talent as more mature entrepreneurship hubs, Saling said.

The numbers indicate that the issue may be improving. CompTIA’s 2025 State of the Tech Workforce report predicted 4.7 percent tech hiring growth this year in the Las Vegas area, the highest among U.S. cities. On the whole, Saling said, Las Vegas’s opportunity is only growing.

Microcosm of broader trends

Saling said people often assume StartUpNV — being Nevada-based — funds primarily gaming and hospitality companies. It’s a common misconception, he added.

Instead, Las Vegas’s most successful startups, and the ones that attract the most investment, are mostly those finding new ways to leverage artificial intelligence to solve enterprise problems. Companies focusing on artificial intelligence, software-as-a-service and business-to-business sales are in vogue both nationwide and in Las Vegas, Saling said, since they’re often venture-scalable.

In 2023, Saling identified one company that matched industry trends: Lucihub, Tadayon’s Las Vegas-based hybrid video production platform nicknamed the “Canva for video.”

Using a combination of AI tools and human editors, Lucihub allows companies to produce professional-quality videos quickly, affordably and without specialized expertise. Enterprise users utilize Lucihub’s “creative copilot” pre-production platform to generate a script, shot list and voiceovers. Then, they upload their footage — often shot on phones — to Lucihub’s production cloud, where human editors produce a final cut within 72 hours.

The company’s goal, Tadayon said, is to increase video production efficiency using AI tools while preserving human creativity.

“You know your brand and your story better than anyone else ever will,” Tadayon said.

In line with current trends, it utilizes AI to solve business needs. Tadayon said it doesn’t cater to consumers because its price point isn’t competitive for them and the product is designed specifically for enterprise applications.

Tadayon founded Lucihub in 2022 and has since grown the company to $400,000 in annual recurring revenue, with a goal of $1 million in 2025, according to its pitch deck.

Lucihub raised $2 million from several sources, including StartUpNV and Battle Born Venture, Nevada’s state venture capital program. The company is currently raising another $2 million, with additional funding from the two Nevada-based sources.

StartUpNV’s 1864 Fund recently announced a $500,000 investment in Lucihub as part of the $2 million funding round. The fund, established in 2021, represents another new and growing funding pool for Nevada entrepreneurs.

After years of steady ecosystem growth, groundbreaking news emerged in October 2024, when AI GPU cloud platform TensorWave secured $43 million in SAFE (Simple Agreement for Future Equity) funding for startups. The sum represented the largest SAFE funding round in Nevada startup history, thanks in part to funding from StartUpNV.

TensorWave co-founder and President Piotr Tomasik said when he was running another company 10 years ago, it was difficult to convince talent to move from Silicon Valley to Las Vegas. Today, he said, that’s changed.

“I’ve been a part of startups in Las Vegas for the last, I don’t know, 15 years,” Tomasik said. “It’s definitely hitting a nice little crescendo.”

A local touch

Karsten Heise, senior director of strategic programs and innovation for Nevada’s Governor’s Office of Economic Development, attributed some — but not all — of Las Vegas’s startup growth to GOED’s 2011 founding. The office has since worked to diversify the state’s economy, including by strengthening infrastructure for entrepreneurs and startups.

“We didn’t have in place, say, a decade ago, entrepreneur support organizations like StartUpNV, for example, that ran accelerators,” Heise said. “Now you have that in place, and you have more than just one.”

Battle Born Growth Escalator, Nevada’s state-administered, federally-funded venture capital program, matches a portion of funding startups raise from venture capital firms — up to $750,000 for Lucihub — a significant boon for the state’s entrepreneurs, according to Saling.

GOED spearheads several initiatives promoting small business development, such as by supporting Las Vegas accelerator Zero Labs, with the goal of bolstering Nevada’s high-tech sector.

The convergence of highly-skilled workers moving to Nevada and increased venture capital availability has contributed to the state’s rapid startup ecosystem growth, according to Kyle Ferguson, chief program officer of the Battle Born Growth Venture Capital Fund.

“We’re seeing a match where there’s money available for good ideas to start in Las Vegas and other parts of Nevada,” Ferguson said. “Over the last 10 to 15 years we’ve seen that diversification, not only in companies coming, but also types of investors that are coming to the area.”

Nevada isn’t only following national trends, Ferguson added. The state is seeing an influx of medical device manufacturing and battery technology. In November, GOED and UNLV partnered with a global venture firm to create the Electrify Nevada Accelerator to support Nevada startups in battery technology and sustainable energy.

As the office establishes new programs and partnerships, its goal remains to support innovation and remove barriers for Nevada entrepreneurs to raise capital, Heise and Ferguson said.

‘Build your company in Nevada’

Las Vegas and Reno are quickly emerging as future tech hubs, largely due to relatively affordable housing costs, a growing talent pool, significant funding opportunities, strong government support and the state’s lack of corporate income tax.

With a deluge of optimistic reports from UNLV, StartUpNV, GOED and others, Nevada must attract startups that actually create jobs and build the local economy, Ferguson said.

“We want to see battery manufacturers; we want to see people that are buying buildings, that are hiring people, that are going to really plant their feet in Las Vegas and in the state,” Ferguson said.

To increase the ecosystem’s sustainability, Ferguson and Heise said, GOED aims to attract out-of-state investment in Nevada’s companies in order to attract businesses to the state, increase activity in the deep tech sector and enhance collaboration among venture capital.

“Build your company in Nevada,” Heise said. “You can license a technology from a federal lab in Ohio or in New Mexico, but build your company in Nevada. It’s business friendly. Capital is here for you.”

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