Startups + VC
Backed by JobsOhio and Rev1 Ventures, the Dayton startup is scaling its FHE silicon from prototype to production. This technology solves a massive bottleneck for the AI era: enabling high-speed computation on data while it remains fully encrypted, ensuring privacy against future quantum threats.
Artificial Intelligence
Fifth Third Bank is bridging the gap to Silicon Valley, partnering with Brex to apply AI-native finance to $5.6 billion in commercial spend. The deal replaces legacy friction with intelligent automation, allowing businesses to kill the spreadsheet and scale globally with confidence.
Startups + VC
A major AI exit for Northwest Ohio as a local voice pioneer joins a global industry leader. By combining listening tools with diagnostic imaging, this deal creates the first comprehensive clinical engine to automate patient records, proving specialized Midwest tech can scale and succeed.
The state’s tech ecosystem is rapidly maturing, driven by massive three-year revenue gains from Keyfactor, CHAMP Titles, and TradingView. These rankings confirm that Ohio software firms have moved well beyond startup mode to successfully compete on the national stage.
RWX’s new container image builder attacks one of the slowest parts of shipping software: turning code into Docker images. By rethinking builds from first principles inside CI, the team says it can slash wait times and unlock faster, AI-driven development. And it’s being built in Ohio, not SF or NYC.
Ohio has launched “Eva,” a first-of-its-kind AI assistant that gives election officials instant, verified guidance on Ohio’s voting rules. Available to all 88 counties, the tool is designed to speed up routine decisions and strengthen consistency across the state.
Cleveland-based MorelandConnect has launched FOUNDATION, an AI platform for mid-market companies that unifies business data, delivers instant insights through chat, and enables secure, scalable automation—helping organizations adopt and deploy AI in weeks, not months.
The University of Cincinnati is launching Bearcats AI Ready!, a campus-wide initiative embedding artificial intelligence across teaching, research, and operations to move the university from “AI-fluent” to fully “AI-ready.”
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Seven new partnerships are set to bridge the gap between local labs and federal deployment. We break down the winners uniting Ohio’s universities with private industry to solve high-stakes challenges in space, defense, and autonomy—aiming for $70M in future funding and 64 new high-tech jobs.
The cloud infrastructure leader selected Clark County's Springfield for a 50-megawatt facility housing 24,000 AMD GPUs. This strategic move deepens the state's digital footprint, providing the critical high-performance compute power required to fuel the next generation of AI innovation.
Merging physics theory with shipping code requires a rare dual mindset. MorelandConnect Chief AI Architect Caden Kacmarynski explains why AI and quantum computing are converging tracks for the region. He details how a physics-first approach helps industries prepare for a hybrid future.
Viewing AI as a mere optimization tool is the "horseless carriage" syndrome. Right Brain Labs CEO Srini Koushik argues the technology represents a civilizational shift in agency and details the urgent need for leaders to move beyond basic literacy toward true AI fluency.
The state’s tech ecosystem is rapidly maturing, driven by massive three-year revenue gains from Keyfactor, CHAMP Titles, and TradingView. These rankings confirm that Ohio software firms have moved well beyond startup mode to successfully compete on the national stage.
RWX’s new container image builder attacks one of the slowest parts of shipping software: turning code into Docker images. By rethinking builds from first principles inside CI, the team says it can slash wait times and unlock faster, AI-driven development. And it’s being built in Ohio, not SF or NYC.
Ohio leaders across business, government, health care, and education packed the sold-out Ohio AI Summit in Columbus to see how AI is already reshaping daily work—from automating routine tasks to deploying real-world AI agents—and why starting small now matters for the future.
Historically, much of the venture capital used to fund Ohio-originated innovation has flowed from outside our borders, writes Jon Cross in an op-ed for OTN.
Marietta College has opened the Center for Appalachian Innovation, a state-supported hub focused on research, collaboration, and capacity-building across Appalachian Ohio.
Ohio has launched “Eva,” a first-of-its-kind AI assistant that gives election officials instant, verified guidance on Ohio’s voting rules. Available to all 88 counties, the tool is designed to speed up routine decisions and strengthen consistency across the state.
VisioCell won the University of Toledo’s Tech419 Pitch Competition, a 12-week program that honed five tech entrepreneurs’ storytelling skills through intensive deck reviews, feedback sessions, and mock judging panels.
Cleveland-based MorelandConnect has launched FOUNDATION, an AI platform for mid-market companies that unifies business data, delivers instant insights through chat, and enables secure, scalable automation—helping organizations adopt and deploy AI in weeks, not months.
