RealLIST Startups 2024: Meet Pittsburgh’s most promising early-stage tech companies

After weeks of deliberation, the moment has finally arrived: We’re revealing our 2024 RealLIST Startups. Some are here thanks to suggestions from other founders, and some crossed on our radar when we covered their previous moves. Either way, these promising young startups are on this list because they’re poised to make a splash in the Pittsburgh tech sector and beyond.

You might recognize some of the honorees from pitch competitions, while for others, this could be the first you’re hearing of them. What makes them fit the bill?

It’s in the RealLIST name: These are startups we at Technical.ly deem to be “real,” aka serious contenders.

We’ve published this list in various markets for the past eight years, highlighting companies that have impressive products, goals, founders or funders. 2024 marks the third year of the Pittsburgh roster — here are the 2022 and 2023 editions.

Startups that made this RealLIST met the following criteria:

• Founded no longer than three years ago (though we know founding dates can be kinda BS)
• Make most of their revenue from selling a product (so, no agencies)
• Haven’t undergone a significant exit event, such as an acquisition or IPO

Here are your top 2024 honorees:

10. Noteful

This edtech company makes an app that offers daily practice in note reading, ear training and music theory, helping users understand how to translate scores into tunes and get better at listening and playing along. The startup was founded in 2022 and is currently in Carnegie Mellon University’s Project Olympus program, as well as the 2024 cohort of the PGH Labs accelerator program.

9. Velo.AI 

Vehicles may have gotten safer through the decades, but cyclists still operate in a perilous world. Velo.AI’s leadership hopes that Copilot — aka the company’s AI-powered bike light, not Microsoft’s new AI companion — can make biking safer. The technology records video for data collection while alerting bikers about potential risks and hazards. Since the company’s founding in 2022, it has participated in the 2023 Robotics Factory cohort and a host of pitch competitions, including the 2023 AI & Robotics Venture Fair.

8. BlockSpan

BlockSpan is a Squirrel Hill-based company focused on delivering easy-to-implement API solutions for the blockchain. Last year it raised $1.4 million in pre-seed funding, and is also backed by Innovation Works as a part of a $1.4 million pre-seed round. It was cofounded in 2022 by Jon Pastor, an entrepreneur with years of experience leading successful companies including such as RealPage and Rent Jungle.

7. MoneyStack

MoneyStack is a financial counseling platform for mental health therapy, especially as it relates to gambling addiction. One its most notable features is its founder, CEO Alex DeMarco — he’s a former New York Times director of engineering. He began focusing on the startup full-time in 2021, and participated in the 2023 NYC Techstars Economic Mobility Accelerator.

6. D. Sole

Sole makes a noninvasive wearable designed to diagnose and evaluate peripheral neuropathy (numbness of the hands or feet) in diabetes patients. If the name sounds familiar, it’s probably because the company participated in a whole bunch of pitch competitions in the past year, including the McGinnis Venture Competition 2023, where it won first place. Additionally, the founders have participated in the AlphaLab Health and LifeX accelerators.

5. Korion Health

From being underinsured to being more likely to experience negative health outcomes, marginalized populations face plenty of disparities in healthcare. That’s why Korion Health’s cofounders developed a electronic stethoscope with the goal of empowering users to perform heart and lung screenings in the comfort of their own homes. Founded in 2022, it has participated in respected startup-boosting programs, including accelerators run by Ascender, Blast Furnace and LifeX. Outside of Pittsburgh, the company has caught the eye of StartUp Shell, a Maryland-based student-run startup incubator, and StartOut, a JPMorgan-supported initiative for LGBTQ entrepreneurs. It rounded last yearwith a $75,000 prize for placing in the 2023 UpPrize Social Innovation Challenge.

4. Lovelace AI

Lovelace AI’s founder and CEO, Andrew Moore, aims to support missions in national security, disaster relief and other areas where advanced computer science can help keep people safe. Named for Ada Lovelace, the world’s first computer programmer, the company offers solutions that assist with relief from natural disasters or international conflicts.

While the company only emerged from stealth mode in 2023, Moore has been a staple in the region for decades. Previously, he served as the dean of Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Computer Science, and worked as the general manager and VP for the AI division of Google Cloud — in 2006, he led the Big Tech company’s first Pittsburgh office.

3. Voaige

If you have a labor project that needs to be finished and you’re shorthanded, Voaige can lend a hand — or more specifically, it can lend AI-powered robotic arms. Founded in 2021, this runner-up from last year’s RealLIST Startups last year secured an investment for an undisclosed amount from venture fund Boost VC, saw Tier 1 automotive manufacturers order its product, and increased its team to include five full-time engineers. The company has participated in its share of well-known pitch competitions, such as the 2023 AI & Robotics Venture Fair, and is in the inaugural cohort of the Robotics Factory accelerator from Innovation Works.

2. Sustainible

This company, another former RealLIST Startups runner-up, provides companies in their infancy with an input/output-powered platform that evaluates the sustainability and feasibility of a given business model. When companies aren’t eligible for certain grants and partnerships that can help them grow, the platform can help them figure out how to improve. Last year, Sustainible received $75,000 when founder Talpha Harris won in the Economic Justice Category of the 2023 UpPrize Social Innovation Challenge.

1. Stack AV

In 2022, much to the shock of the Pittsburgh tech sector, Argo AI shut its doors. What was left of the autonomous vehicle company was absorbed into Ford and VW, two of its biggest investors. Yet this wasn’t the end for Argo AI founders Bryan Salesky and Peter Rander, however. Last summer,  the duo launched Stack AV, an AI-powered autonomous trucking company. Still in its infancy, Stack AV has the backing of SoftBank, which has supported tech giants such as WeWork and Gopuff with billions in venture capital.

---

2024 RealLIST Startups honorable mentions (in no particular order)

• Edulis Therapeutics — This medtech startup is developing a wearable device for diabetes patients. In 2023 the company won second place in the McGinnis Venture Competition.
• Astrata — This UPMC-spinout produces a natural language processing-based quality measurement tool for the healthcare industry.
• Aquatonomy — This Innovation Works-backed startup uses AI-grounded analytical tools to provide underwater visual intelligence for structures in unstructured environments, and is an inaugural Robotics Factory cohort member.
• Lotus Fertility Insurance — This 2023 UpPrize Social Innovation Challenge finalist is behind a supplemental plan designed to bridge the gap between primary insurance and out-of-pocket expenses.
• Grasp Robotics — This company is producing stronger artificial muscles for prosthetic hands with the goal to help create versions that can better serve their users.
• Leaficent — This startup is developing technology to reduce energy costs by using  low cost cameras and sensors to track the growth of plants.
• Carbon Compost — This East Liberty-based sustainability startup aiming to make it easier for people to manage food waste in cost-effective ways. In September of last year, it joined the Venture for America accelerator program.
• Ilant Health — This obesity and weight management platform offers its users destigmatized solutions with regard to obesity treatment. In 2023, the company raised $3 million in its first-ever funding round.
• Sensible Photonics — This startup is trying to deliver a more reliable and safe energy infrastructure through predictive low-cost fiber optic sensing, and it is participating in AlphaLab Gear’s 2024 accelerator.
• Lead-In Record Co. — This company is on a mission to be a reliable and accessible record manufacturer for independent artists, and is also a 2024 cohort member of the AlphaLab Gear accelerator.

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.