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.
Startups + VC
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.
Artificial Intelligence
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.
Spotlights
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.
Startups + VC
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.
Startups + VC
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.
Workforce + Education
Marietta College has opened the Center for Appalachian Innovation, a state-supported hub focused on research, collaboration, and capacity-building across Appalachian Ohio.
Artificial Intelligence
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.
Artificial Intelligence
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.
Startups + VC
Columbus-based Healthy Roster has acquired concussion tech leader Sway Medical, uniting two sports medicine innovators into one digital platform for injury documentation and athlete wellness—backed by New York’s Level Equity.
Startups + VC
Cleveland-based Neuronoff raised $4.5M to bring its Injectrode—an injectable, minimally invasive chronic pain treatment—to market by 2026, offering a drug-free, surgery-free alternative to traditional neuromodulation therapies.