InnovatePGH Launches ASTRI to Streamline Investment into the Pittsburgh Region
ASTRI (Access to Startups, Tech, Research and Investment) provides the first portal into Pittsburgh’s innovation ecosystem.
ASTRI, an online portal available to the public, combines a database of startups and world-class research engines to streamline the process for corporations, investors, and companies to understand and invest in the breadth of innovation happening in Southwestern Pennsylvania. The platform is a tool to navigate the region’s innovation ecosystem, accelerate connections, and has national and global implications for investment into the Pittsburgh region. ASTRI will equip anyone interested in doing business in the region with a clear and comprehensive picture of the startup, scale-up, and investment activities that comprise the Pittsburgh innovation economy.
Built in partnership between InnovatePGH and Dealroom, ASTRI brings startups in the Pittsburgh region into sharper focus, using Dealroom’s technology to automatically pull data into company profiles. InnovatePGH curates the platform to ensure a robust database of what is happening on the ground within Pittsburgh’s innovation ecosystem. Founders are invited to create profiles on ASTRI to participate in the ongoing curation and accuracy of the database as well as to understand what other companies in the region are doing.
The platform aims to create a simplified approach to investments. Kit Needham, Director at Project Olympus and Assistant Dean for Entrepreneurship Initiatives at Carnegie Mellon University, notes that “In the startup world, fundraising can be difficult and time-consuming. That is especially true in a smaller market. This tool provides investors with valuable information on the startups in our region, and provides startups with a way to find investors in their company’s sector. Startups can also use this tool to see what other companies have been funded in similar domains. Overall, the primary benefit of this tool is improving the access to quality information on our region’s startup and investment landscape, which is extremely valuable for accelerating our ecosystem.”
ASTRI will also attempt to define the Pittsburgh region’s innovation-driven business landscape for the first time using data created and shaped within the platform. Jason Griess, Ecosystem Director at InnovatePGH, says “One of the aspects of ASTRI I’m most excited about is its ability to help us find and tell interesting stories about founders and startups in our ecosystem. It enables us to put faces to the numbers in our database, and I’m looking forward to working with our partners to tell those stories in creative ways.”
Sean Luther, Executive Director of InnovatePGH, says that "ASTRI is an impactful addition to InnovatePGH's ongoing effort to improve Pittsburgh's pipeline of high-growth entrepreneurs and aggressively position the region as a global innovation hub. As a result of a more virtual, more geographically distributed tech economy in the post-pandemic environment, ASTRI creates an opportunity to jumpstart connections between researchers, startups, funders, and corporate investors and improve the visibility of Pittsburgh's innovation leaders."
Mark Thomas, President of the Pittsburgh Regional Alliance says that, “For too long, the innovation and creativity in Pittsburgh has been a best kept secret. This platform changes this. ASTRI now gives investors, corporations, and potential ecosystem entrants an easy-to-understand snapshot of our dynamic startup activity. This not only accelerates our conversations with organizations interested in investing in one of the world’s top emerging innovation hubs, but more importantly, increases the visibility and audience of our startup community. We commend InnovatePGH for leading this effort and continuing to add promotional tools to support entrepreneurship in Pittsburgh.”
Phase 1 of ASTRI, available now, showcases a comprehensive database of the Pittsburgh region’s startup ecosystem, including startups, scale-ups, investors, nonprofits, and universities driving the formation and growth of new technology businesses. In the coming months, ASTRI will continue to evolve and grow. InnovatePGH is working with academic partners in the Pittsburgh Innovation District on Phase 2, which will provide a similar look into groundbreaking research produced by Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh.
ASTRI is supported by a multi-year commitment from the Hillman Foundation to InnovatePGH.
Anyone can explore ASTRI now at astripgh.com.