Pittsburgh’s venture capital landscape finished strong in 2025, with local startups raising more than a billion dollars combined.

Companies secured $279.8 million across 24 deals in Q4, according to the latest Venture Monitor report from PitchBook and the National Venture Capital Association. That made 2025 the strongest year for Pittsburgh VC flow since 2019, and experts in the scene don’t believe it’s just a post-pandemic bounce-back in the market, but rather proof Pittsburgh’s startup ecosystem is working.

“I think [2025] reflected longer-term momentum in the ecosystem,” Ani Kapuria, a Venture Partner at Pittsburgh-based firm BlueTree VC, told Technical.ly. “Pittsburgh continues to benefit from real strengths in AI, healthcare, robotics and deep tech, driven by institutions like [Carnegie Mellon University] and UPMC.” 

Once again, longstanding trends Pittsburgh saw throughout the year held true in the final quarter. AI companies continued to dominate local deal flow and investors favored later-stage startups with large deals.

A majority of the top 10 deals came from companies that rely on AI for their innovations, with several in Series B or later: 

  • Peptilogics, a biotech company that uses machine learning to accelerate drug discovery, raised $78 million.
  • Efficient Computer, a startup that builds energy-efficient hardware for advanced and AI-driven computing, raised $53.7 million. 
  • Procurement intelligence company Green Cabbage, which uses AI tools to help companies analyze purchasing data and make smarter spending decisions, raised $50 million. 
  • Data analytics firm BlastPoint, which uses AI-powered tools, raised $14.2 million. 
  • Mine Vision Systems, a startup that uses computer vision for mining operations, raised $12.5 million. 
  • NovoLINC, a startup creating materials that keep AI chips from overheating in data centers, raised $10.4 million. 

Pittsburgh follows national trends — but sets a high bar

Pittsburgh’s trends reflect what’s going on nationally. 

US VC deal value generally rebounded in 2025, according to Nizar Tarhuni, executive vice president of research and market intelligence at PitchBook, and it was mainly driven by two forces: AI and megadeals. Sound familiar? 

These two factors may be benefiting Pittsburgh more than other cities. For example, Pittsburgh closed more than twice the capital per capita compared to Philadelphia in 2025. 

The Pittsburgh region is now one of the country’s best at supporting fast-growth entrepreneurs, according to a new report by the Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center featuring analysis by Heartland Forward. 

More experienced teams and repeat entrepreneurs are leading to larger, more confident rounds, Kapuria from BlueTree said.

In total, Pittsburgh companies raised $1.48 billion across 83 deals in 2025, according to the Venture Monitor report. That’s a jump from the roughly $889 million raised across 73 deals last year.

The scale and concentration of this level of investment point to something that must be structurally working about Pittsburgh’s startup ecosystem, according to Sean Luther, executive director of the nonprofit organization InnovatePGH that works to accelerate Pittsburgh as an innovation hub.

“The numbers reflect decades of technology development across Pittsburgh’s universities and private sector,” he said, “paired with a deliberately designed entrepreneur support ecosystem that helps companies scale.” 

Startups to watch for a spending spree

Probably to no surprise, AI startups raised serious capital in 2025. 

Five AI companies accounted for nearly 80% of total local investment during the year, according to InnovatePGH. Here’s the breakdown in order of highest to lowest, based on PitchBook data.

  • AI healthtech company Abridge raised about $565 million across two deals, ending the year with a $5.3 billion valuation.   
  • Skild AI, a startup developing a general-purpose model for any type of robot to complete a wide variety of tasks, raised $500 million. 
  • Agility Robotics, which uses AI in commercially deployed humanoid robots, raised $400 million at a $2.15 billion valuation.
  • A startup developing AI-driven robotics systems for infrastructure inspections, Gecko Robotics, raised about $121 million. The company is now one of the top active US VC-backed tech unicorns, according to the latest Venture Monitor report, with more than a 95% chance of going public, alongside companies like OpenAI. 
  • Biotech firm Peptilogics raised about $81 million across its recent Q4 deal and a grant it secured earlier in the year. 

You may have noticed these raises exceed the total $1.48 billion raised in Pittsburgh during 2025. That’s probably because Skild AI is chronically not counted in Pittsburgh’s total numbers, despite touting a local HQ. 

Pittsburgh has roughly 30 growth-stage companies valued at $100 million and above, Luther from InnovatePGH said. Investors are keeping an eye on the continued valuation growth of those companies, along with possible exit paths for the region’s unicorns. 

As Pittsburgh attracts attention as a competitive global innovation market, especially in sectors like AI, life sciences, robotics and digital health — look at Skild AI’s recent $1.4 billion raise — local investors only account for a fraction of the total, according to Luther. 

“The majority of growth capital in Pittsburgh’s unicorns still comes from coastal and out-of-region funds,” Luther said. “When equity ownership is concentrated outside the region, it can partially dampen the flywheel effect that typically follows major exits.” 

What are investors looking for in 2026? 

In the coming year, investors are focused on the fundamentals, according to Kapuria.

That means clear revenue traction, a path to profitability and teams that understand how they’ll scale over the next 12 to 18 months. Practical use cases for AI are a plus, too, he said.

“For Pittsburgh startups, there’s a real advantage in showing applied use of AI or deep tech,” Kapuria said. “The work is to tie it to real customers, proprietary data or strategic partnerships.”

In 2026, there may also be more funding opportunities in Pittsburgh, according to Luther. His organization is anticipating new, locally developed private capital systems to support local companies as they scale.

But, resources will still be limited for emerging entrepreneurs, according to Kapuria.

“I think early-stage capital is still tight, particularly outside of core sectors,” Kapuria said, “which means founders need to be more creative and capital-efficient.”