Pittsburgh’s RealLIST Startups: So far, these founders say 2022 has treated them well

For the past six years, Technical.ly has kicked off each new year by highlighting the young companies making a splash in the cities we cover. We call these our RealLIST Startups. This past January, we added Pittsburgh to that check-in list, looking at local startups that got our attention for milestones like funding raised, products launched, successful clinical trials, new headquarters or big hiring plans.

Among Pittsburgh’s inaugural RealLIST Startups, several managed more than one of those feats in the time since we crowned them. With 2022 more than halfway gone, here’s a look at how those young companies we dubbed “most promising” have fared in the past eight months.

10. Parcel Health

Parcel Health came on Technical.ly’s radar after it joined AlphaLab Health’s second cohort. The company’s specialty is creating sustainable packaging for medication in the hopes of addressing the negative environmental impact of the millions of plastic bottles used every year by offering a biodegradable and compostable option.

Since the new year, cofounder and CEO Melinda Su En Lee told us the company has launched a new and improved version of the Phill Box, its alternative to pill bottles, which includes improved water resistance and material strength. It’s now available in over 18 pharmacies in 10 states and has concluded its pilot program successfully, which means its products are now available to be purchased by any US-based pharmacy.

9. Mindstate Design Labs

Mindstate Design Labs was one of two startups from Pittsburgh that participated in Y Combinator’s summer 2021 cohort. The startup was founded in 2020 and focuses on developing psychedelic drugs to treat mental health conditions with a history of limited treatment options.

In February, the company raised $11.5 million in seed funding alongside plans to launch clinical trials for its first product by mid-2023. Technical.ly wasn’t able to get in touch with cofounder and CEO Dillan DiNardo for details on what’s been new since then. Mindstate’s website appears to be down.

8. Mach9 Robotics

Mach9 Robotics was cofounded in 2021 by grads of Carnegie Mellon University and University of Pittsburgh. The summer 2021 Y Combinator alum focuses on developing hardware and software made to  sense underground environments remotely for mapping purposes.

In response to the collapse of the Fern Hollow Bridge, back in February, Mach9 launched the Pittsburgh Bridge Initiative, using its integrated hardware and mapping technology to understand the surface and underground structure of the city’s 450 bridges. The company also recently hired a director of perception: Ashton Fagg, who previously developed perception systems for Pittsburgh’s Aurora and Uber Advanced Technologies Group. Cofounder Alexander Baikovitz did not reply to a request for comment about additional news.

7. Kloopify

Sustainability platform maker Kloopify launched in 2020 to address global supply chain problems. It’s an alum of Ascender incubator as well as PGHLab’s seventh cohort.

It’s currently in the process of raising $1.5 million in funding and has acquired a new lead investor. Daniela Osio, Kloopify’s founder and CEO, told Technical.ly that in the next six months, the startup plans to double its size.

6. Bloomfield Robotics

Bloomfield Robotics has made a few of big moves since landing on our RealLIST. In June, for instance, the agtech startup won the top spot at Akamai Technologies’ Future of Life Online Challenge. The win brought Bloomfield $1 million worth of products and services through the internationally facing Akamai, and CEO Mark DeSantis told us at the time that the honor would enable “continued development of our service offering as well as preparation of a significant increase in our customer base for next year.”

In the past eight months, DeSantis told Technical.ly recently, the company — which uses AI and custom imaging hardware to address challenges related to specialty crop growth — has indeed gained more customers and new partnerships in countries such as France, Italy, Japan and Peru.

“Our farmers are telling us that they’re using this [and] it works and it’s making a difference for them,” the repeat founder said. “And that’s probably our biggest accomplishment is when you get to a point where your customers are telling you that you’re making a difference for them. That’s why we exist.”

As of September, Bloomfield has also gone from a coworking space to a place of its own in Lawrenceville for its 17 full-timers. Public records also show that the company is fundraising, though DeSantis declined to comment on its progress.

5. CoPilot

The fitness-focused company made its way onto the RealLIST Startups list after it snagged more than $9 million in early-stage investments. At the time of its most recent raise in January, CoPilot’s leaders told us the funding allowed them to hire for executive, technical and administrative roles.

Since then, it’s continued to add to its staff, and CoPilot’s app connecting users to one-on-one coaching is now available on iOS and Android. The app now includes habit tracking, to help users reach attainable long-term goals. The company ended August by launching gamification features to break up the tediousness often associated with exercise, and according to the founder and CEO Matt Spettel, 81% of CoPilot’s clients are sticking with their new exercise routines after six months, in comparison to the industry average of 20%.

“We’re so excited about everything that has happened over the past six months,” Rachel Wadsley, the company’s comms lead, told Technical.ly in an email. “Despite the economic downturn, CoPilot has already doubled its amount of paying clients since raising its Series A funding earlier this year.”

4. Koop Technologies

Koop, the local company that makes an insurance platform serving autonomous tech companies, raised $2.5 million in 2021. Since then? We haven’t seen many big announcements from the company, though it said it March it was officially launching its Singularity Platform insurance product. It also gained Andrew Roth as its new director of insurance this past April.

When cofounder and Chief Commercial Officer Kamron Khodjaev participated in a Technical.ly-hosted roundtable discussion with other RealLIST founders in February, he shared that although Pittsburgh is a good place to grow a business, the city needs to do a better job of marketing itself to talent and be more connected to other tech hubs.

“I travel a lot as part of our commercialization strategy,” Khodjaev said then. “We are thought leaders and attend a bunch of conferences for robotics, autonomous vehicles, etc. And they all happen elsewhere.”

3.CytoAgents

The life sciences company and AlphaLab Health alum had successfully completed Phase I clinical trials for GP1681, a drug which treats diseases and conditions related to Cytokine Release Syndrome, back in 2021. Around the same time it also raised $6 million in seed money and made plans to use it to fund its Phase II trials.

CEO Teresa Whalen didn’t reply to a request for comment on more recent news, but in September, the company appointed a new chief medical officer in Dr. Arthur P. Bertolin, who was formerly the CMO of Innovation Pharmaceuticals.

2. Agot AI

The food service tech startup was founded in 2020 and impressed the local tech industry with one of the largest raises that year — $10 million. It gained attention for its Kitchen Awareness platform that collects data from in-store, online and drive-through orders.

In February, Agot delivered a $2 million seed funding extension and new food industry partnerships, including with Yum! Brands.

“We are seeking to improve order accuracy and drive improvements in operations and customer experience in our pilot deployments,” CEO Evan DeSantola said of Agot’s 2022 goals at the time. Next steps: scaling deployments of the Kitchen Awareness platform. DeSantola didn’t reply to a request for comment more recently.

1. Metafy

Back in January, we predicted that Metafy would have the most standout year of all these promising startups — and indeed, soon after we published the RealLIST Startups, founder Josh Fabian announced a $25 million Series A. The plan at the time was to hire up, doubling the video game coaching company’s team over 2022 to reach up to 70 employees. A cool $1 million of the raise would also be reserved for a new Metafy Community Fund.

Yet for all that quick growth in its less than two years of existence, “I’m terrified we’re going too slow,” Fabian told us at the time.

Fabian didn’t respond to Technical.ly’s request for comment about what Metafy has been up to since then. But some more recent updates include the May acquisition of GamerzClass and the CEO being named one of Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business 2022 — “for connecting gamers with pros in a way that everyone wins.” You can catch him speaking at TechCrunch’s Disrupt conference in October.

Honorable mentions

• sovaSage — This medtech company uses computer vision and machine learning to improve therapy for patients with sleep apnea being treated by home care providers. Since January, the startup has raised $4 million.
• Emergence Dental — This medical research company develops regenerative products using metallic magnesium alloys for dentistry. No big announcements have been made this calendar year.
• Dashcam for your Bike — Previously called Robot Armin, this startup makes an app that provides bicyclists with video evidence in the event that they’re involved in a crash. Since the RealLIST, the startup is wrapping up its stint as a part of PGH Lab and is participating in Ascender’s 2022-2023 cohort. Its app now has a direct-to-311 connection for Pittsburgh residents which allows users to directly report hazards to 311.
• Pralent — This virtual community platform for events and networking that has been used for events such as Carnegie Mellon University’s annual McGinnis Venture Competition. No big announcements have been made this calendar year.
• Finish Robotics — This early stage company seeking to fill the gaps left by labor shortages by developing autonomous robots that can paint tall spaces and finish other elementary tasks. This past April, the startup’s FinishBots painted more than 100,000 square feet at RIDC Westmoreland Innovation Center as part of a pilot project.
• Sustainible — This PGH Lab alum evaluates the sustainability and feasibility of a given business model. In April, the startup announced a partnership with Honeycomb Credit offering biz advice and crowdfunded loan opportunities so small local businesses can better understand their strengths and weaknesses ahead of taking on capital.

Atiya Irvin-Mitchell is a 2022-2024 corps member for Report for America, an initiative of The Groundtruth Project that pairs young journalists with local newsrooms. This position is supported by the Heinz Endowments.