Columbus
The Columbus digital commerce consultancy spent four years scaling inside COhatch's Polaris and Westerville locations. Now roughly 225 people strong and a two-time Inc. 5000 honoree, Aries has taken its own suite at Easton Town Center, steps from the retail clients it serves.
Startups + VC
Alex “Fro” Frommeyer’s Columbus startup is betting that fixed employer allowances, employee-owned plans, and local care-navigation tools can give small businesses an alternative to escalating health-plan renewals.
Research
A new NSF-backed consortium will develop a shared testbed to determine where entanglement-enabled measurement can outperform conventional tools, with Ohio State researchers targeting applications in biomolecular science, radiation detection, and advanced manufacturing.
Statewide Roundups
More than 200 people registered for the first Ohio Tech Night: SF, bringing founders, investors, and operators together as Ohio State expands its Bay Area presence and companies like Upstart and Path Robotics show how the two ecosystems are already increasingly connected.
Energy
The funding will expand year-round electric-bill aid, raise grants to as much as $500 and broaden eligibility for qualifying AEP Ohio customers. The initiative connects Ohio’s fast-growing data-center footprint with direct support for households facing utility-payment challenges.
Corprorate Innovation
The shift from BuckID swipes to QR-code boarding gives eligible Buckeyes one less card to carry and offers a local example of how mobile identity tools are expanding beyond campus buildings into the systems that connect students and workers to the city.
Healthcare
Backed by Ohio State’s medical, cancer and pharmacy assets, the new effort will pair AI with clinical and genomic data to speed the path from research to patents, startup formation and clinical trials—an added push for Central Ohio’s life-sciences sector.
Startups + VC
Columbus-built “physical AI” is moving from pilot to production in U.S. Navy shipyards, as HII signs a multi-year, performance-based automation deal worth up to $900 million — including a long-term, $600 million allocation that will be engineered out of Central Ohio.
Startups + VC
Generative AI solved the code-creation problem, but legacy CI/CD systems are choking on the output. As autonomous agents take over the developer stack, serial founders Dan Manges and Tommy Graves are scaling the infrastructure needed to validate AI-generated code at machine speed.
Healthcare
Ohio’s healthcare innovators are confronting a persistent reality: promising technology only creates value when it works for clinicians and patients. That means designing around real workflows, adoption barriers and the people at the center of care.
Artificial Intelligence
AI25, presented by Ohio Tech News and OhioX, recognizes leaders turning artificial intelligence into real-world impact across Ohio, from startups and classrooms to hospitals, public agencies, manufacturing floors, and the capital backing what comes next.
Statewide Roundups
Billions are landing in advanced manufacturing, life sciences, aerospace and AI infrastructure. Companies are moving headquarters here, founders are raising big rounds here, and a state now ranked No. 1 for business is building the workforce to match. Capital, deals and jobs from recent weeks.