In 2024, over 182 unique Pittsburgh companies attracted $1.89 billion in investments

While the total dollars invested are down from last year’s total of $3.12 billion, the number of unique companies increased by 33.8%. Corporate investments for 2024 came in at about $377.5 million, down from just under $2.2 billion last year. But venture capital investments increased significantly, from $644 million in 2023 to $999 million in 2024 — the highest year for VC investment yet.

Top deals last year included Aurora, Skild AI, Krystal Biotech and Abridge.

Pittsburgh offers a robust pipeline of opportunities

The number of deals nationally in 2024 was 15,260 — up from 12,749 in 2023. Pittsburgh followed that trend, seeing 205 deals in 2024, up from 166 in 2023. The unique number of companies funded in Pittsburgh also increased from 136 in 2023 to 182 in 2024. This was likely a result of both new entrants to the market, as evidenced by the increase in the region’s seed and accelerator deals, and the return of growing companies to the market after stepping back from fundraising efforts in recent years amid unfavorable market conditions. 

Health care and AI brought the most funding to Pittsburgh last year, due to a number of large corporate and venture deals

A majority of the money invested in Pittsburgh’s tech economy in 2024 came from deals in life sciences and healthcare. Fundraises in those sectors made up 49.3% of the total dollars invested in the region last year. The sector split of unique companies funded was more even, with only 36.8% of the total number of deals coming from the life sciences sector, 33.5% coming from the software sector and 25.8% coming from the hardware sector.

The shift toward life sciences and healthcare deals in 2024 can be attributed to Pittsburgh’s AI boom and how it has unlocked innovation in the region’s life sciences talent base. Five of the top 10 deals last year were for companies focused on AI innovation, including Aurora, Skild AI, Abridge and Green Cabbage.

The chart below estimates the annual supply of uncommitted funds at VC firms in the Pittsburgh region. This analysis considers the timing of new fund closings and assumes that a firm will commit 25% of a new fund’s capital during each of the first four years post-closing. If a fund is managed by partners located outside of the Pittsburgh region, the amount of the fund’s capital that is “located” in Pittsburgh is determined by multiplying by the percentage of the fund’s partners who are located in the region.

Over the past few years, several new funds have emerged, including Blue Tree Capital Group, Black Tech Nation Ventures, Reinforced Ventures and Riverfront Ventures.

Despite this activity, the estimated supply of local VC funding remains very low. 2024, in particular, was a challenging year for new funds across the United States. According to the PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor, only 30 firms raised at least $500 million in new commitments during 2024, and only four of those were emerging firms. Notably, the total amount of funding raised by investment firms last year was just barely above pre-pandemic totals, at $76.1 billion in 2024 and $73.0 billion in 2019.^[1]

A healthy local funding ecosystem streamlines the fundraising process for local startups and helps retain more of the financial rewards of successful exits in the Pittsburgh region.

^[1] PitchBook-NVCA Q4 2024 Venture Monitor

Exits attract global tech firms to the region

Last year, the Pittsburgh tech ecosystem had 21 exits, with a combined disclosed value of over $440 million. It should be noted that the total exit value is much lower than the previous year because only two of the 21 exits disclosed deal sizes.

Each successful exit strengthens the regional tech ecosystem. The investors realize a positive return and are more likely to invest in the region again. Other investors learn of these successes and come to consider Pittsburgh a more attractive investment destination. The founders and employees receive windfall gains and may become angel investors or mentors and be financially well positioned to pursue new ventures.

As global firms acquire local startups, it’s often the catalyst for larger firms to establish permanent offices in Pittsburgh. Aptiv, Bosch, Meta, IBM, Microsoft, NetApp, Smith & Nephew and Proofpoint are all examples of large tech firms with a significant and growing local presence as a result of startup acquisitions.

Representative deals

Pittsburgh competes with high-population centers, with particular strength in AI

Pittsburgh ranked 24th in population but 16th in the amount of venture dollars invested per million residents in 2024. The region ranked 25th in the total number of venture deals per million residents in 2024.

Focusing on the AI and autonomous vehicles industries, the charts below show that Pittsburgh punches significantly above its weight, ranking 16th in the number of venture deals in those industries and 8th in venture funding per million residents for 2024. 

In the past decade, local research universities attracted over $13 billion in research funding

The University of Pittsburgh consistently ranks among the top recipients of National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding, and the school’s total research budget surpassed $1.2 billion in 2024. Carnegie Mellon University’s research budget across the Software Engineering Institute, Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing Institute and other grants totaled $517 million in 2024. Duquesne University also opened a College of Osteopathic Medicine in the summer of 2024. Throughout several economic cycles and fluctuations, Pittsburgh’s non-dilutive research budgets have progressively grown, increasing by 79% over the past decade. These grants fund innovation without diluting founders or investors.