Where Sustainability and Ingenuity Meet
It’s no surprise that technology is one of the biggest and fastest-growing industry sectors in Wake County – after all, the Research Triangle is home to household names like Epic Games, IBM, Red Hat, and Lenovo (just to name a few). Propelled by nearly 4,000 local tech giants, the region’s booming tech scene offers the all-too-rare combination of innovative culture mixed with affordability. There are a number of driving factors behind the prosperity and overarching strength of Wake County’s tech industry, including growth in regional corporate headquarters and tech centers, successful startups (including a handful of unicorns), and collaborative partnerships between industry and our multiple top-tier research universities.
#4
Metro with the Highest Number of Tech Jobs
Coworking Cafe (2025)
#5
Best Large Metro for Women in Tech
CoworkingCafe (2025)
#2
City for Cybersecurity Jobs
Upwind (2024)
Driven By Top Talent
Our tech scene’s strength is also driven by top talent. In fact, Wake County and the Research Triangle region boast one of the largest concentrations of tech talent in the nation across fields like analytics, mobile apps, open source, healthcare IT, cloud computing, and cybersecurity. Between 2018 and 2023, Wake County’s tech job concentration surpassed the national average of 7% by 18.3%.
Financial Technology
Financial Technology, or “Fintech” can encompass a broad variety of solutions, services, and sub-sectors ranging from mobile banking to artificial intelligence. The recent increase in demand for more efficient and mobile financial services along with the integration of technology into traditional business processes has led to the rapid emergence of financial technology in Wake County, the U.S., and across the globe.
The Triangle’s Regional FinTech Ecosystem
The Research Triangle’s close proximity to major financial markets offers a unique value proposition to the local Fintech sector. With close proximity to Charlotte, North Carolina, a major hub for banking and other major metros such a New York which has a major concentration of financial services, the Research Triangle is strategically positioned to become a key player in Fintech.
Disruptive Fintech startups and tech companies, like SAS and RedHat, are innovating in software development, data analytics, AI, and more. Local financial institutions are investing in internal R&D, startups, and partnerships with large tech companies to take advantage of this new division of financial services. Graduates from NC State, Duke University, University of North Carolina, and Wake Tech Community College are helping develop a pipeline of career-ready, highly educated talent that has the aptitude for Fintech services and solutions.
The local Fintech ecosystem is quickly emerging due to a number of factors, but mainly due to growth, strength in IT/tech, talent from local colleges and universities, and proximity to other financial services hubs.
Understanding Financial Technology
In an effort to better understand and promote the financial technology (Fintech) ecosystem, Wake County Economic Development partnered with RTI International to perform an industry analysis of the sector. The goals of the study were to:
- Define the Fintech sector and develop a structural framework of the ecosystem
- Develop a database of existing Fintech companies in the region
- Identify the Triangle’s assets, strengths, and opportunities for growth within the sector
- Communicate the Triangle’s competitive advantage in Financial Technology
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