Pittsburgh’s reputation as a thriving tech hub  is bolstered by the arrival of ZOOM

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is a city at the forefront of cutting-edge technology and despite the current pandemic, continues to welcome businesses drawn to the region’s burgeoning tech scene. Cloud-based video communications leader ZOOM, which is now said to be worth approximately £49 billion and reaching over 300 million daily users, selected Pittsburgh to open one of two new research and development centres in the U.S. The centre is expected to open in late 2020 and will join a robust ecosystem of companies in cloud-based and SaaS technologies on the rise in the city. 

Creating hundreds of jobs in the software industry, Zoom will join some of the world’s biggest tech industry giants that have also set up offices in Pittsburgh over the last decade, including Google, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook and Uber. Pittsburgh engineers were instrumental in the early testing of Uber’s driverless cars in the city and prior to that launching the popular language-learning platform, Duolingo, that is now valued at $1.5 billion. This historic reputation with cutting-edge research in robotics, AI and biotech from the city’s research institutes and innovative start-ups, combined with a drive in demand from global tech companies choosing to expand in Pittsburgh with resident experts in their field, endorses Pittsburgh’s reputation as a leading destination for attracting and producing cutting edge technology. Nicknamed ‘Robotics Row’, the development of downtown neighbourhoods, comprising of the Strip District and Lower Lawrenceville both with industrials pasts, has seen a high influx of robotics and other tech companies take over repurposed warehouses and industrial spaces over the past few years. Examples include Astrobotic, Bossa Nova Robotics, Argo AI, Caterpillar and Smith & Nephew; the latter a British company that acquired Bluebelt Technologies when it was a local venture.

Despite the ongoing uncertainty for many businesses during the pandemic, Pittsburgh remains an attractive business destination for many to invest, both in business terms and personally with its unique typography offering companies and their employees an attractive cost of living, over 165 green parks and wide open spaces with 456 miles of hiking and biking trails, and an abundance of fresh air. The Information Technology sector in particular has risen to the top of Pittsburgh Region Business Investment Scorecard as a regional economic driver for the past two years with a 51 percent increase in recorded deals since 2018 YoY. This snapshot of all publicly announced economic development activity in the region –prepared by the Allegheny Conference and its Pittsburgh Regional Alliance affiliate – help to market Pittsburgh for business investment and is a powerful economic indicator of growth in the region’s key sectors.

Recognising the economic development opportunities in the region, San Diego-based software company Mindera Software also announced plans this week to open an office in the Pittsburgh Innovation District, Oakland. Home to the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University, in addition to the UPMC health network, Oakland is where innovation in all sectors is thriving.