Columbus AI Week, a three-day event dedicated to exploring and advancing artificial intelligence in the Greater Columbus area, kicked off yesterday with attendees from across the region. Organizers call it the ‘open-sourced, un-conference’ on all things AI.

Columbus-based Doohickey AI has raised $500,000 from Drive Capital to build a conversational, low-code platform powered by generative Al to help companies quickly and seamlessly integrate technology systems. 

Power to Hydrogen, a leader in advanced electrolysis technologies for the production of green hydrogen, has raised over $18 million in a Series A funding round led by Rev1 Ventures and Worthington Enterprises. The funding will support Power to Hydrogen's global expansion through R&D, manufacturing, sales, and marketing.

Columbus-based HubiFi, an advanced financial intelligence and revenue recognition solution, has raised $2.5 million in seed funding to build a foundational team with a focus on product and engineering and add to the team with CPA and accounting expertise.

The 4th annual Healthcare Capital Markets and Innovation Summit (HCMIS) took place in downtown Columbus, Ohio, June 5-6. Over 300 healthcare leaders, innovators, dealmakers, and adjacent professionals attended the event hosted by Lawrence, Evans & Co., LLC.

Three former employees of renowned augmented reality (AR) company Magic Leap have raised $2 million to build their own AR business with headquarters in Ohio. Founded in 2021, Trace builds location-based branded AR experiences and counts among its customers Qualcomm, Telefónica, T-Mobile, and Lenovo. The company is led by “boomerang” founder Greg Tran, who spent time in Miami and San Francisco before returning to Columbus. Tran talked with OhioTechNews.com about what they’re building, why Ohio, and how they managed to land funding from a wide range of investors.

Nationwide Children’s Hospital generated $48.6 million of income from licensing technology in 2023, up from $29 million a year earlier. Total revenue from royalties, equity stakes, and other payments in licensing deals over the past nine years surpassed $253 million, according to research by Columbus Inno.

Columbus, Ohio is booming. Ohio’s capital city is the fastest growing in the country, emerging as a leader in tech with the arrival of titans such as Intel, Google, Microsoft, Meta, and many more on the horizon. If you’re looking to establish yourself in Columbus, a community brimming with opportunity, you’ll want to explore Oakwood Management Company. With more than 60 apartment communities spread across Central Ohio, you’ll find the perfect place to call home.

AT&T has opened a new Connected Learning Center inside the Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Ohio in Columbus’ Hilltop Neighborhood to help bridge the digital divide. The dedicated learning center in the J. Ashburn Jr. Clubhouse provides high-speed AT&T Fiber internet, Wi-Fi, and Dell computers to kids who encounter barriers to online participation.

Westerville-based AssetWatch, a provider of AI-powered monitoring solutions to help manufacturers avoid downtime, has raised a $38 million Series B round to accelerate product innovation and scale-up of the business.

Columbus is setting the pace for tech and IT sustainability, outlining basic principles in what’s known as the Green IT Playbook to establish the world’s first “Green IT Zone.” The vision is simple for the Columbus Region to become the nation’s first Green IT Zone, an area defined by a broad coalition of organizations committing to a shared vision of sustainability in their technology and IT operations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and accelerate positive community impact.

COSI Science Festival attendees got a better idea of how the internet works thanks to a unique first-hand experience with Google. The tech company brought its new “Where the Internet Lives” exhibit to the festival on May 4 in Columbus, explaining the role of data centers in processing, storing, and protecting vast amounts of information.

Three former employees of renowned augmented reality (AR) company Magic Leap have raised $2 million to build their own AR business in Columbus. Greg Tran, Martin Smith, and Sean Couture unveiled their company, Trace, by announcing an oversubscribed $2 million pre-seed, co-led by Rev1 Ventures and Impellent Ventures.

In Ohio, construction is well underway on Intel’s newest U.S. site in more than 40 years, the company said while sharing an update of progress at its 10 biggest projects around the world. Around the world throughout 2023, Intel used 145,000 tons of steel and poured more than 2 million cubic yards of concrete—32X more than for New York’s Empire State Building—to construct and expand its new facilities.

Columbus-based RWX has raised a $7 million seed round and launched Mint, a Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) platform. RWX was founded by Tommy Graves and Dan Manges, who was the CTO of Root, a technology-powered car insurance carrier, which he co-founded in 2015 and took public in 2020 via an IPO. Graves was a senior engineering manager at Root.

Columbus-based Drive Capital has announced a strategic investment of at least $750 million in future fund commitments while also selling a minority stake in its management company. Drive says the commitment by Collective Global and Collective Global Asset Owners will advance its ability to invest in world-class technology companies across its target market in the “Driveway”, a $12 trillion region in North America between the Hudson River and the Rocky Mountains.

In just six years, Women in Analytics has gone from an Ohio State University student’s idea to a national organization supporting a community of about 8,000 data enthusiasts. And its flagship DataConnect conference is now drawing attendees from around the world to Columbus.

With a string of major fundraising announcements, product developments, and new facility debuts, Columbus is shaping into a force in the biotechnology space. In fact, it’s among the nation’s fastest-growing biotech hubs, says Eddie Pauline, president and CEO of Ohio Life Sciences, a trade group for biotech, pharmaceutical, gene therapy, and academic organizations.

Redi Health, a Columbus-based provider of digital pharma support to patients with chronic health conditions, has raised $14 million in a Series B round. Redi bridges the gap between consumer technology and clinical health and support, engaging patients with medication reminders, symptom management, diet and nutrition advice, weight and activity tracking, and health literacy and education.

The Ohio State University’s annual R&D expenditures reached an all-time record of $1.449 billion last year, the university disclosed in its annual report of resources available to perform cutting-edge science and creative expression research. The total represents a 6% increase over FY 2022.