Rev1 at The Peninsula nears 90 members as AI cluster grows

Rev1 at The Peninsula, the downtown Columbus innovation hub Rev1 Ventures opened earlier this year, has grown to nearly 90 members, with three new artificial intelligence (AI) companies joining its Scaleup Suites.

Spearfish, Symmitri and jakib.ai have signed on as residents, joining RWX in the space's second-floor suites designed for companies ready to scale. The additions bring the number of occupied Scaleup Suites to four of six, a pace that has outrun Rev1's own expectations.

"The suites were intentionally built for high-growth software companies, so the concentration of AI companies isn't a surprise," says Julia Dewey, Chief Partnerships Officer at Rev1 Ventures. "What has been organic is the pace: one founder knows another, who knows another. We expected the suites to fill quickly, but having four rented and occupied by August exceeded our expectations."

AI is not confined to the new arrivals. According to Dewey, more than 70 percent of the space's nearly 90 members have some AI component or focus, a share that has held steady since the hub opened five months ago. Rather than a distinct category of company, she described AI as a capability that now runs through most of the industries represented at The Peninsula, including healthcare, insurance technology, logistics and life sciences.

"That's held steady since we opened five months ago," Dewey said. "It's less a shift than a consistent signal of where software is headed."

The three newest residents are led by founders with existing ties to Columbus. Ray Bohac, founder and chief executive officer of Spearfish, pointed to the concentration of experienced operators and AI-focused capital in one building as the draw. "Proven founders and AI-centric capital in one building, running into each other by chance, sharpening each other constantly," Bohac said. "Rev1 has fused seasoned operators with the energy of AI investment into a single hyper-focused place, and the spontaneous connections that come out of it are impossible to replicate anywhere else."

Jonathan Poma, founder and chief executive officer of Symmitri, said the appeal was less about the physical space than how deliberately it was built for interaction between companies. "We're building alongside other companies at a similar stage upstairs, and downstairs there is always something happening in the founder lounge or event space that pulls you back into the broader Rev1 community," Poma said.

Andy Jenks, co-founder of jakib.ai, framed the decision around talent density rather than raw scale. "When exceptional people are brought together and put shoulder to shoulder, even across different companies, it can create magic," Jenks said. "That's what we were looking for in Columbus, and it's exactly what we found at The Peninsula."

Dewey noted that even before officially moving into their suites, the new scaleups had begun tapping into Rev1's broader network, from access to interns to introductions within its investor base. Andrea O'Carroll, Managing Director of Venture Platform at Rev1 Ventures, says the timeline for outcomes to surface is in line with expectations.

"Given how new the space still is, we'd expect the more concrete outcomes to really start showing up over the next six to twelve months as things settle in," O'Carroll said.

Rev1 at The Peninsula's first floor holds 14,500 square feet of shared workspace, including a founder lounge, event space and meeting rooms, while the second floor houses the Scaleup Suites alongside the Rev1 Capital team. The hub is supported by the City of Columbus and Downtown Columbus, Inc., and is positioned as part of the region's broader push to attract and retain high-growth technology companies downtown.

With two suites still open, Dewey said Rev1 expects the space to reach full capacity by the end of the year or early next.

Tom Walker, chief executive officer of Rev1 Ventures, said the goal behind the space was to create the kind of proximity that accelerates a founder's trajectory. "When ambitious companies share a space with experienced operators, investors, and mentors, ideas move faster, partnerships form more naturally, and founders gain access to the kinds of relationships that can change the trajectory of a business," Walker said. "That's the environment we're intentionally creating here and why we're seeing such high demand so quickly."