If you only skim our headlines, you’d think every state exists as a bunch of disconnected moments: a new fund, another conference, new startups in AI raise funds or perhaps move to another region, a workshop, more data centers, innovation spun out of another university.
If you looked at the state of Ohio this year, you’d quickly notice that the Buckeye State isn’t short on activity.
The open question is whether that activity compounds into durable advantages and economic impact: capital that stays, talent that sticks, infrastructure that creates second-order jobs, and an ecosystem that doesn’t seek permission from elsewhere.
In this Year in Review for Ohio, we’ve identified the five themes that came up repeatedly across our coverage of the state, grounded in what each says about the activity in the state about the potential for economic growth and Ohio's next chapter.
1. Capital that stays and the infrastructure to attract it
Ohio has no shortage of good companies. The recurring tension here (as it is elsewhere) is whether the state keeps ownership and upside, or exports it.
Our story on The O.H.I.O. Fund was not just another “new VC fund launched” headline. It’s about a structure designed to keep reinvesting locally, across generations, rather than recycling wins into someone else’s balance sheet. We talked about the founding team, their logic, and the kind of skepticism they had to push through in the early pitch years. “I guess I’m a little pissed off,” founding partner Mike Venerable said in the video we shared from their launch podcast. “This is the moment. What else am I going to do that’s this compelling, this impactful anywhere else?” Together, the team is trying to solve a very specific Midwest problem: total funding exists, but it too often shows up late, or from outside the state, after the hard part is done.
Our story on the Ohio VC Fest in Cleveland described it as “a concentrated marketplace for Midwest deal-making and founder-investor matchmaking,” according to the organizers. That matters because local events are one of the few levers we have to create “density” without pretending to be San Francisco. Not identical.
Data Centers are popping up everywhere across the region, and the state of Ohio is no different. The Conesville story is a reminder that artificial intelligence is now an infrastructure story as much as is about software innovation. The Aligned Data Centers’ planned campus is on a 197-acre site next to the former AEP Conesville Power Plant, and was therefore pitched as redevelopment of existing infrastructure for new purposes.
The question in all these cases is how much of the value described here becomes local jobs, supplier networks, and new businesses?
2. Community as a growth lever
We found a few Ohio locals building community this year. It’s a Midwest theme, but Ohioans seemed to revel in it, if our stories are any guide.
In “Founders win when community comes first”, our contributor Kate Hursh-Wogenstahl of Cintrifuse framed events as an operating system. During a period unusually dense with founder-focused events she emphasised that these moments aren’t just so we all feel good. It’s to help change outcomes: faster trust, faster intros, faster second meetings.
In an interview about Black Tech Week with Derrick Maultsby, Jr., Managing Associate at Ohio legal firm Frost Brown Todd, he expressed the view that the practical center of gravity for idea-stage founders is access to legal/accounting/operator support, plus the compounding effect of bringing national networks into Cincinnati: “We get to interact directly with underrepresented founders and show them there are folks who see them, support them, and want to help them succeed.”
Education and our talent pipelines are a recurring theme in the region. Another Cintrifuse story pushed the idea of growing founders at home: in other words if you want more tech startups, treat students as part of product development now, not statistics later. The story highlighted the University of Cincinnati’s co-op model and the 1819 Innovation Hub as mechanisms for applied work, not just abstract academic research.
3. Universities & public sector as force multipliers
A consistent throughline in our Ohio stories this year was the fact that universities and public sector players are more than just partners in the Buckeye state.
Our City-as-a-Lab story describes how University of Cincinnati, Cintrifuse programs, investment, and a city pilot worked alongside a state-level grant to create a real-world environment so tech startups can hopefully prove customer experience, reliability, and ROI faster.
The story about the University of Toledo’s hydrogen workforce initiative was less about a single event and more about a coordinated attempt to build capacity in northwest Ohio by aligning academic programs, workforce development, and industry leaders around clean energy needs.
Meanwhile at The Ohio State University, Voyager’s VISTA space park plan - “the nation’s first science park dedicated to in-space research and innovation” was described as a physical platform for in-space research and innovation to explicitly serve industry, academia, and government collaborators.
4. Ohio’s AI story: infrastructure and software
The push to build data centers across the Midwest, all while we collectively utilize AI tools at an exponentially increasing rate, means there are the physical and software layers to all our artificial intelligence stories in the region. Ohio's startup ecosystem is no different.
The story of Cincinnati startup Kernel is about building with teams spread across the Midwest and San Francisco, building the infrastructure layer for AI agents on the open web so that cloud browsers behave like real users, for automation at scale. Can a dual-HQ approach be a market strategy? It makes sense, with access to coastal networks all while hiring, building, and iterating in the state of Ohio.
The data center build out is best evident through the story of the Conesville Industrial Park transformation.
These two stories demonstrate how software innovation and the infrastructure that makes modern AI economically feasible are both happening in our region.
Meanwhile, Lighthouse Avionics selection into GENIUS NY - “the in-residence accelerator for uncrewed systems that the organizers describe as the largest of its kind in the world ” - and the program’s direct investment structure shows how sometimes, accessing programs elsewhere can benefit innovation right here.
5. Ohio isn’t about startups vs industry. It’s both.
Our Ohio stories kept landing in the overlap zone where small businesses, manufacturing, and startups are forced into the same future.
The Stellantis/Niron story is a reminder that the Midwest’s industrial base is crucial to its future. The piece reports automotive giant Stellantis’ plan to invest $13B over four years across multiple states, including Ohio, with stated job and output impacts. It’s a story about industry leaders reshaping supplier networks, workforce demand, and incentives for adjacent tech startups (including those from Minnesota!)
The Arvo Tech story of a new CEO appointment also highlighted that Ohio software firms can build for the core economy: bookkeeping, tax planning, credits - tools that change outcomes for small businesses, not just new startups.
And finally, our story about a fashion innovation hub for Columbus startups, with 43,000 sq ft of space and a strategic partnership between CCAD and the Columbus Fashion Alliance was a reminder that there are Midwest towns that can shape global fashion.
How our 2025 Ohio coverage adds up
If these stories deliver one certainty, it is that Ohio's future is building. The through theme in the state is the sheer variety of activity. From venture capital mechanisms with the O.H.I.O. Fund to community infrastructure, university-driven commercialization and industrial-scale context
What we’ll keep watching for in 2026 is whether this all adds up to a state which can deliver more deals close in-state, students that become founders and early employees without leaving, that infrastructure bets in data centers, energy, space research can produce local second-order companies and perhaps most importantly for a state with multiple large urban centers: Do Columbus, Cincinnati, Cleveland - as well as the rest of the state - behave like one tech ecosystem when it matters?
That’ll be the real test for the next chapter of Ohio’s startup ecosystem. But it is a state that seems to be pushing in areas where others wait. 2026 will be interesting, no doubt.
To finish and complete the Ohio story for the year, here are the fundraising stories we shared on our pages. 2026 looks bright for Ohio.
Propel raises $3 milluon for skilled trades hiring
Splash Financial raised a $70 million Series C
DNA Nanobots built on Life Sciences skills in the state with their $3.5 million raise
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