City Council
Four startups partner with city government.
Next year, local startups plan to search rivers with underwater robots and find heat loss in buildings for the city. Four startups in the city's PGH Lab program will each get $25,000 for a six-to-nine-month contract. Other projects aim to expand the city's AI use and create 3D maps. A program manager said adding the stipend last year increased applicants by 78%.
Written by Amy Whipple
In 2026, four local new businesses will receive stipends of $25,000 from the city that they will use to search rivers, find heat loss, expand AI use, and create 3D maps for the city.
The activity is part of PGH Lab’s 11.0 cohort of new businesses.
“This year, we are very technology forward,” Andrew Hayhurst, the lab’s senior manager of innovation, said during the city council’s Dec. 10 committee meeting. The city government program connects local startups with the local government in what Hayhurst described as a low-risk way to test innovative solutions.
The upcoming cohort includes these companies and their projects:
• Aquatonomy plans to search rivers with their autonomous underwater robots;
• Pittsburgh Drone Services has proposed locating heat loss in buildings, including houses in lower-economic neighborhoods, so that they can be re-insulated;
• Orange Peel Collaborative intends to collaborate with the city’s artificial intelligence (AI) working group “to think about how we can demystify AI with employees of the city, and how we can expand the use of AI,” said Hayhurst; and
• Vridian, which was also part of the former cohort with a different project. This year it aims to create 3D maps from real-time data which will inform where the city might expand services to residents.
Each company receives a $25,000 stipend for a six-to-nine-month contract.
The PGH Lab program has partnered with more than 50 startups since its 2016 launch. Last year was the first time the program offered the stipend. Hayhurst said that change has resulted in a 78% increase in program applicants.
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