In the Pittsburgh startup community most roads lead back to Innovation Works, and 2011 was no different.
The state-supported, nonprofit seed-stage investor put money into 80 companies last year and worked with 189 companies for business assistance or other financial resources, the group revealed in its annual report released Wednesday.
In 2011, the group invested $4.9 million and those recipients went on to bring an additional $218 million in follow-on funding. Evidence of the group’s investment savvy, which is seen by many other investors as a vetting or seal of approval, 72 percent of all venture deals in the region in 2011 went to Innovation Works portfolio companies.
For more read the story at the Pittsburgh Business Times.
Pittsburgh has one less technology economic development group with news Wednesday that The Technology Collaborative (TTC) is dissolving and some programs will be moving over to Innovation Works.
The group, which started in 1999 from the merger of the Pittsburgh Digital Greenhouse and the Pittsburgh Robotics Foundry, focused investment and business assistance on companies in the robotics and embedded systems areas.
The group received funding from the state through the Department of Community and Economic Development. Since 2005, the DCED through the Ben Franklin Technology Development Authority has invested in the TTC’s Technology Commercialization Initiative, which has invested $14 million in 55 companies.
For more of the story in the Pittsburgh Business Times, click here.
