An annual report from Innovation Works, Pennsylvania's most active early-stage investor, found that investments from the firm in 2023 led to the creation of 1,154 new jobs.
In 2023, the firm invested $7.38 million in 60 companies, 20 of which were new. In addition to the creation of the new jobs, the investments led to the direct retention of 1,945 jobs. Over the past 15 years, the firm has created over 20,000 jobs in the Pittsburgh region. Innovation Works CEO Ven Raju called the investments from the firm a "significant bump up from previous years."
"Consequently, we saw an uptick in terms of jobs created and retained, as well as the number of companies we were able to assist and some of the outcomes as a result of that," Raju said.
Raju noted that the overall Pittsburgh region saw a high fundraising year in 2023, raising a total of $3.12 billion. These investments were due in large part to the fields of autonomous vehicles and artificial intelligence, the latter of which especially saw an increasing investment push around the world.
"Clearly there are national and international tailwinds behind autonomy, robotics, as well as artificial intelligence," Raju said. "I'm hopeful that we will as a region be able to capitalize on these tailwinds, in light of the fact that these are clusters that the region has built over the last 40 years."
Raju noted that Pittsburgh is ranked as a top five regional cluster for AI and a top three cluster for robotics talent. The city has continued to see money flow into the region, for example, with generative AI company Abridge raising a $150 million Series C round earlier this year. This week, Skild AI, a new firm, closed a $300 million Series A round backed in part by Jeff Bezos.
However, Raju said that investor habits could change as the technology develops.
"With these types of trends it tends to be frothy initially, there is kind of outsized investments in the near term and the mid term and then you start to see calibration as investors figure out exactly where the value lies," Raju said. "There's initial enthusiasm, significant investment, and then I think over time there's a better understanding of where the value lies in which sectors, in which applications, and then you'll see more concentrated capital."
But Raju remains optimistic. He said that the Pittsburgh sector is in "a much better position than" 10 years ago and that "success breeds success."
