A gathering of CEOs and local and state leaders assembled in the Innovation Works lobby on Technology Drive this month to celebrate the strength of its portfolio and announce new companies and hiring.
IW invested in its 100th company last year and attracted more than $100M in follow-on investment from private and other sources in 2007. Since its inception in late 1999, IW has invested more than $35M and its portfolio companies have gone on to raise $425M in follow-on financing.
“Pittsburgh was once a flyover for executives from other cities,” noted Rich Lunak, president and CEO of IW. “No more. Fifty-five out-of-town VC firms have invested in local companies in the last three years.” The phone is ringing as well as executives from cities like Cincinnati, Cleveland and St. Louis call to learn more about IW’s successful model for tech-based economic development.
While jobs and the economy may be lagging locally and elsewhere, the region's venture capital sector is the fastest growing in the state. “Jobs are created by entrepreneurs who take risks, work late at night and get up every day and make it happen,” said Dennis Yablonsky, secretary of the Pa. Dept. of Community and Economic Development.
Yablonsky also announced that the state has helped to lure an IT company to Pittsburgh and another will expand operations here, creating 152 jobs thanks to state grants and loans of $907,200.
Technology consultant TechAssist of Washington, D.C., plans to move its national operations center to 11,000 sf at the National City Bank Building, Downtown. The move will create 96 positions in engineering, sales and marketing and administration.
Credit/debit card manager CardWorks considered moving to New Jersey but instead was coaxed by the state to stay and expand 57,500 sf in Station Square's Commerce Court. CardWorks will hire an additional 56 people in the next three years.
Another IW company and Pop City 2008 Tech Company to Watch, Knopp Neurosciences, received $10 M in a series B funding round from out-of-town investors Saturn Management of Boston. The money will help with clinical trials as the firm grows its staff from 14 to 18.
Writer: Deb Smit
Source: Dennis Yablonsky, DCED, Rich Lunak and Terri Glueck, Innovation Works