Pittsburgh tech startups focused on brain research, inclusive dating and safer sidewalks win UpPrize cash awards

By Evan Robinson-Johnson / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Three tech startups won a combined $300,000 from this year’s UpPrize Social Innovation Challenge, a competition that provides non-dilutive funding to a variety of Pittsburgh innovators.

Astria Biosciences, which is developing a blood test for brain aneurysms, won first with $125,000. PathVu, which maps sidewalks for accessibility, took second with $100,000. Inclusive dating app Bindr snagged third with $75,000. All three praised this year’s competitive pool of candidates and said they look forward to using the cash to grow.

“I didn't really realize that UpPrize existed until quite recently. So we just thought we'd give it a shot,” said Aditya Mittal, a University of Pittsburgh medical student and chief operations officer of Astria Biosciences.

“Whenever you are pitching something in health tech or biotech, a lot of the time, as soon as I say FDA, people kind of just stop listening. But this crowd was a little bit more receptive to the real, life saving impact of a blood test for brain aneurysms.”

Most of the funding will support a prospective clinical study with patients who have had aneurysms — a key step that will position Astria for regulatory clearance down the line, Mr. Mittal said. He said they plan to work with the Food and Drug Administration to design the study.

The UpPrize win adds to Astria’s $275,000 award last year from the National Science Foundation. The team is just five people, all in neurosurgery at UPMC, except for Mr. Mittal who is in his last year at Pitt. He’s planning to join their ranks after a neurosurgery residency, and looking for a program that’s “supportive of innovation and entrepreneurship.”

Mr. Mittal said he’s also inspired by last year’s UpPrize winner, Korion Health founder Anna Li, who is also getting her medical degree at Pitt, andwho went on to win the $1 million Hult Prize competition this year for her at-home stethoscope startup.

“Anna’s a close friend, and she’s been killing it recently. So I’m just trying to be like her, honestly,” he said.

UpPrize is run by Innovation Works and funded by the BNY Mellon Foundation of Southwestern Pennsylvania. This was its seventh year. Awardees were honored Thursday at a reception at the August Wilson African American Culture Center.

Bindr founder and CEO Mary Richardson said she was “so nervous” heading into the competition, which included semifinalists Fine Art Miracles, Galen Health, Grasp Robotics, Kloopify, Lessonbank, Peoples Energy Analytics and velo.ai.

“But after I finally did go in and talk to people, I'm like, ‘Okay, these are our people. They want us here,’” Ms. Richardson said. “We are more accepted here than any place that we've been before with Bindr, and I was able to go up and pitch with such confidence.”

Ms. Richardson called the award a “win for the LGBTQ community” and said that acceptance here is especially important as they build an app that fosters a more open and fluid dating experience.

Co-founder Brandon Teller said he was proud to “bring positive news to the LGBTQ community… Because unfortunately, being in Pennsylvania, there's a lot of bad news that comes out of people getting hurt and stuff.”

Mr. Teller said the funding will help Bindr grow to half a million daily users, generating revenue that will help Bindr give back to the LGBTQ community through chest binders and other resources. The founders also hope to create the first incubator for queer founders, starting in Pittsburgh.

PathVu is also hoping to use the funding right here in Pittsburgh. Eric Sinagra and his team have spent the past decade developing a mapping service that would make sidewalks and other urban infrastructure easier for people with disabilities to navigate.

“So for a wheelchair user, for example, it tells them if there's curb ramps and if there's an accessible route. For somebody who's visually impaired, it alerts them to potential hazards and things like that,” Mr. Sinagra said. “Our goal is to continue development and deploy that in the Pittsburgh area… tentatively by summer of 2025.”

Mr. Sinagra said the “small but mighty team” includes his brother, a software developer who uses a wheelchair, and a cofounder focused on data analysis who also uses a wheelchair.

Long term, they can imagine the service being bought and integrated into a mainstream app like Google Maps. “That's kind of the big goal,” Mr. Sinagra said. For now, they’re focused on helping cities and engineering firms conduct sidewalk assessments and transition plans to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

All three companies have an early fan in Kim Eckel, who won the UpPrize in 2020 and credits the program with helping her get Footbridge for Families to a national audience.

“Were it not for the UpPrize award, I would have never gotten past the ‘idea’ stage,” she said.

The exposure was as helpful as the funding, she said. Ms. Eckel previously managed strategic initiatives for Allegheny County’s child welfare system. This past fall, she presented her model for rapid, flexible financial support for families in crisis to the White House.

“It was kind of jaw dropping just to be rubbing shoulders with so many of my heroes,” she said. “Now I'm talking with all sorts of people across the country. We want to become a national nonprofit. And again, it's relationships. It's being able to share the word about what you're doing.”