Monthly report

New businesses in California: February 2026

2,406 new businesses were formed in California in February 2026, down 99% from January and up 67% from February 2025.

New businesses
2,406
February 2026
Month over month
-99%
vs 261,153
Year over year
+67%
vs 1,439
Most common type
LLC
62% of formations

New California businesses per month

0200,000400,000Feb 2024: 1,196Feb 24Mar 2024: 1,361Apr 2024: 1,401May 2024: 1,493Jun 2024: 1,253Jul 2024: 1,326Aug 2024: 1,393Sep 2024: 1,268Oct 2024: 1,378Nov 2024: 1,074Dec 2024: 1,146Jan 2025: 395,7352025Feb 2025: 1,439Mar 2025: 1,929Apr 2025: 1,935May 2025: 1,916Jun 2025: 1,819Jul 2025: 1,928Aug 2025: 1,998Sep 2025: 2,020Oct 2025: 2,034Nov 2025: 1,584Dec 2025: 1,924Jan 2026: 261,1532026Feb 2026: 2,406

By entity type

  • LLCs1,480 · 62%
  • Corporations606 · 25%
  • Other167 · 7%
  • Nonprofits142 · 6%
  • Limited partnerships8 · 0%
  • LLPs3 · 0%

Top cities in February 2026

Industries (where known)

  • Professional & Technical Services38 · 22%
  • Real Estate27 · 15%
  • Finance & Insurance25 · 14%
  • Administrative & Support Services15 · 9%
  • Health Care & Social Assistance12 · 7%
  • Manufacturing10 · 6%
  • Construction9 · 5%
  • Retail Trade9 · 5%
  • Information7 · 4%
  • Arts, Entertainment & Recreation6 · 3%

Want the businesses, not just the count?

The 2,406 businesses counted above are available as a file: name, address, entity type, formation month and, where the state publishes it, the registered agent.

New Business Monthly

$199 a month

One file every month with the businesses newly registered across 12 states since the file before (more than 170,000 in the latest one). Cancel any time.

New Business File

$1,499 one time

Every business formed in the last 12 months across 15 states: more than 2.2 million records, one CSV per state, with 2 monthly updates included.

The formation date in the files is the year and month. Most records have no email address or EIN.

Get the list of 2,406 new California businesses from February 2026

See the exact count and price as you filter by county, city, ZIP, entity type and formation date. Download a CSV right away and get monthly refreshes. Verified businesses can pay 20% today and the rest over 6 months with Pay-in-6™, building business credit as they pay.

Just formed a business in California?

Before a lender reads your application, its verification system checks your state filing, your exact legal name and your domain against each other. Your business credit history only starts once an account reports it, so it's worth getting both right early.

Run the same checks free with our affiliated company, Peak Discounters. No account, no card, under a minute.

Methodology

Counts are businesses registered with the state of California whose formation (registration) date falls in February 2026 and that appear on the state register in ListRiver's data as of October 12, 2026. Businesses already dissolved are not counted, so older months can drift slightly as records change. City and county refer to the business address on file. More in the methodology.

Cite this report: ListRiver, “New businesses in California: February 2026”, https://listriver.com/reports/new-businesses/california/2026-02. Journalists and researchers are welcome to use these figures with a link.

Put this chart on your website

Free to use on any site, and it updates itself every month. Copy this code and paste it into your page. Preview the chart.