According to data released today by PricewaterhouseCoopers, the National Venture Capital Association and Thomson Financial, VC investment in New Mexico is up an astonishing 375% from a decade ago, the number of start-ups up 600 percent. Equally as impressive is Pittsburgh, where VC investment is up 513 percent and the number of start-ups is up 267 percent.

Whoa.

As Mark Heesen, president of the NVCA, notes, New Mexico and Pittsburgh are clearly becoming hotbeds of innovation. “For regions that don’t have a large, indigenous venture investor base, it is important to give outside VCs a reason to visit,” he said in a statement. “These unexpected regions are making venture capitalists stand up and take notice.”

They sure are. New Mexico had three start-ups a decade ago. Now it has 21. 21! With new companies springing up willy-nilly like that, how’s a VC not to stand up and take notice?