Deals like those are still rare. But local entrepreneurs and big investors are scouting the Midwest for start-up investments that range up to tens of millions of dollars, far more than local angel and venture investors. And they are beginning to attract venture capital from Silicon Valley for follow-on rounds of funding.

The rationale for investing in the Midwest combines cost and opportunity. A top-flight software engineer who is paid $100,000 a year in the Midwest might well command $200,000 or more in the Bay Area. The Midwest, the optimists say, also has ample tech talent, with excellent engineers coming out of major state and private universities in the region.

But they also point to technology shifts. As technology transforms nontech industries like health care, agriculture, transportation, finance and manufacturing, the Midwest investors argue that being close to customers will be more important than being close to the wellspring of technology.

“The value will come from marrying industry knowledge with technology,” said Mr. Olsen of Drive Capital. “There’s an arrogance in Silicon Valley that we don’t need industry expertise. That’s going to be less and less true in the future.”

But broadening the geography of innovation-fueled economic growth will require capital. Today, three-quarters of all venture capital invested in America goes to California, New York and Massachusetts, the National Venture Capital Association estimated. Ohio gets less than 1 percent and the 12-state Midwest region less than 10 percent in total, according to figures compiled by the State Science and Technology Institute.

“There are two Americas,” Mr. Case said. “One with an abundance of capital and opportunity — in Silicon Valley and pockets around the nation. But not in the other America, and that other America is most of the country.”