Pittsburgh’s technology sector continues its impressive ascent, with significant growth reported in the past year. Innovation Works, the largest seed-stage investor in Southwestern Pennsylvania, provided crucial support to 60 local startups, resulting in $7.38 million in investments and the creation of 1,154 new jobs. These positive developments were detailed in Innovation Works’ 2023 community impact report.
“We’re thrilled about this year’s report because it highlights significant growth,” stated Jane Joseph, director of communications and community development for Innovation Works. “It highlighted growth from 2022 to 2023, not only in the amount we invested into local companies — from $4.9 million to $7.38 million — but also in the revenue that our portfolio companies generated.” The financial performance of these companies surged, with portfolio companies generating $501 million in revenue in 2022, rising to $850 million in 2023. The report also documented the commercialization of 73 new products and the awarding of 47 patents and software copyrights. “That grit and determination really inspires me,” Joseph added, “It inspires us and drives us for what we do as an organization.”
Last year, Innovation Works launched the Robotics Factory at Tech Forge in Lawrenceville. The Robotics Factory is part of a $63 million grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration within the Build Back Better Regional Challenge awarded to the Southwestern Pennsylvania New Economy Collaborative. The Robotics Factory focuses on creating, accelerating, and scaling robotics startups within the Pittsburgh region.
Several of Innovation Works’ portfolio companies experienced substantial growth over the past year. CellX Technologies secured $6 million in seed-stage funding. This funding supports a collaboration with a clinic-stage BioPharma company to enable autonomous manufacturing for clinical trials. BlastPoint, another company in their portfolio, raised $8.91 million last year. Based in East Liberty, BlastPoint leverages AI to predict human behavior, helping large enterprises better understand their customers.
BlastPoint’s growth has been notable, expanding from 12 employees to over 40 in the past year. Co-founders Alison Alvarez and Tomer Borenstein, while graduate students at Carnegie Mellon University, pitched the initial concept of BlastPoint to Innovation Works. The team also participated in the Alpha Lab Accelerator program offered by IW, becoming finalists for the 2017 Forbes Fund UpPrize. “Innovation Works has been with us the whole time,” said Alvarez. “They’ve repeatedly invested in us and helped us with coaching and introductions. Fundraising in Pittsburgh has its challenges, but our investors have always been there for us.”
Unlike more trendy AI, which is usually built on large language models, BlastPoint uses a different AI approach. “All the data we use to train our systems, we have permission to have that,” Alvarez explained. “From a compliance and risk management standpoint, we work with industries that have national security importance—the electric grid, the financial system. Having fairly robust AI that’s not going to give you surprises has been really good for us.” BlastPoint’s work focuses on analyzing human decision-making, particularly in messaging, outreach, and program adoption. They collaborate with utility companies like Duquesne Light Co., aiding customers with billing and payments and helping those who need financial assistance. The technology aims to help connect eligible customers with the assistance programs available to them, ensuring they can keep their power on. Moreover, its technology is built to be accessible to clients.
“We’re AI for people who are not data scientists,” Alvarez added.” It’s designed for people who are like, ‘All right, I feel pretty good about a couple of Excel formulas.’ That’s the level of expertise required to use our system.”
Both Innovation Works and BlastPoint highlight Pittsburgh’s livability and talent pool as ideal for tech startups. Alvarez said, “From a business standpoint, one of our biggest customers is Duquesne Light. They have been a really great R&D partner for when ‘we see a problem, let’s work together to fix it.’” Joseph noted, “The community is so supportive. A lot of our mentors are founders themselves. They want to come back and share their best practices, their lessons learned with these (new) founders so they can make better choices and build stronger companies.”
