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.
Advanced Manufacturing
The O.H.I.O. Fund has launched Ohio 4.0, a statewide campaign framing the state’s manufacturing roots as its greatest asset in the age of physical AI. The initiative argues Ohio is positioned to lead the nation's next economic era as supply chains reshore.
Startups + VC
Cleveland-based Auxilium Health closed an oversubscribed $3.4 million seed round to move its Aer biomaterial platform toward FDA clearance and first-in-human studies, aiming to prevent infection by stopping bacteria from attaching in the first place.
Startups + VC
The new Battelle and Ohio State spinout is commercializing a wearable, closed-loop sleeve that reads muscle signals to help patients regain grip control. Led by a veteran medtech entrepreneur, the startup is scaling up operations ahead of planned mid-2027 clinical trials.
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.
Startups + VC
Spun out of Ohio's veteran venture studio, this new independent, for-profit firm aims to bridge the coastal funding gap by targeting enterprise AI, deep tech, and life sciences. Backed by a strong Central Ohio network, the team delivers critical talent, customers, and execution strategy.
Healthcare
Creative Destruction Lab is partnering with University Hospitals and Case Western to launch CDL-Cleveland. By embedding a global tech accelerator directly into an active health system, local leaders aim to solve the grueling adoption gap and boost Northeast Ohio's startup density.
Healthcare
A mulit-city expansion marks the regional execution of Hikma’s $1B onshore strategy, positioning the Ohio Discovery Corridor as a primary firewall against critical U.S. drug shortages while reinforcing the Midwest's rise in advanced biopharma manufacturing.
Capital + Deals
The major medtech exit highlights a massive win for Northeast Ohio’s biomedical sector. By absorbing the homegrown leader in non-opioid pain therapies, the global healthcare giant secures an FDA-cleared, temporary device that alters how physicians treat chronic pain.
Startups + VC
More than half of Central Ohio’s 55 venture deals in 2025 involved Rev1-backed companies. Led by growth in AI, software, and life sciences, the regional ecosystem continues to secure meaningful exits and concentrate activity around anchor institutions like Rev1.