Ratmir Timashev has long wanted to see Columbus become "a high-tech mecca". When the Timashev Family Foundation made a record-setting $110 million donation to Ohio State University in 2023, establishing a new on-campus center and interdisciplinary program focused on software innovation was one way to make that dream possible.
Three years later, Ratmir Timashev and his wife, Angela, were among the university and state leaders invited to break ground on the new Timashev Technology Tower at a ceremony Oct. 20.
The Timashev Technology Tower is a planned 103,000-square-foot, eight-story building that will one day house community-led and university-born startups, as well as industry partners. The building, expected to open in September 2028, will be Ohio
State's latest expansion on the west campus Innovation District.
OSU Interim Provost Trevor Brown said at the groundbreaking ceremony that the new tower will be "a place where technology and life sciences will converge."
While Ohio State Wexner Medical Center's new 26-story, $2 billion hospital tower is a symbol of the university's medical expertise, Ohio State President Ravi Bellamkonda said the new technology space will be a physical representation of Ohio State's commitment to entrepreneurship.
"This place matters in creating an ecosystem for innovation," Bellamkonda said.
Tyler Allchin, managing director of healthcare at JobsOhio, said the technology tower will help meet two big needs in central Ohio. For one, it will dramatically increase the amount of wet lab space available to companies looking to do hands-on life science research that might require biological substances or physical specimens.
Allchin said that he too often sees innovative ideas conceived in Ohio ultimately leave the state to grow because of lack of wet labs available.
The second need that will be met through the Timashev Technology Tower will be more space for growing industries. Companies, whether they're homegrown or moving to Columbus, want to be able "to access the power of Ohio State," Allchin said.
"The potential for Ohio State to build start-ups and attract industry is enormous," he said.
Keeping innovation in Ohio is part of the reason Timashev wants to invest in Ohio State.
Timshev came to Ohio State from Russia as a graduate student in 1992 and earned his master’s degree in chemical physics at Ohio State in 1996. He went on to build software and computer businesses in Columbus. Timashev's companies — Aelita Software and Veeam — were leaders in the tech world before they were acquired by Quest Software and Insight Partners, respectively.
"I didn't have to go to Silicon Valley to grow what I wanted to build," he said.
Instead, Timashev wants Columbus to be the next Silicon Valley.
Timashev's record-breaking gift was split up into three buckets, the entrepreneur said at the ceremony.
Some of that money was set aside to launch the Center for Software Innovation and an interdisciplinary academic program between the College of Engineering and the Fisher College of Business, as well as fund professors teaching software innovation, student scholarships and internships.
Another portion of the gift was set aside for the technology tower, which will also house the Center for Software Innovation.
The rest of the funds will now go toward another new Ohio State venture: BuildX, a university program with the aim of producing 100 investable student startups annually by 2030.
This academic year, the university will identify 20 startups for the inaugural BuildX program. Students will then participate in a summer accelerator program beginning in 2027. BuildX is not a club or a class project, Bellamkonda said. Rather, it's an academic entrepreneurship program, complete with three new courses specifically designed to support it.
Students will also be eligible to earn credentials through BuildX, and Ohio State has established a $1 million donor fund to back the student startups.
Student startups will be housed in a central campus location, but Bellamkonda said the hope is for startups that mature to one day live inside the Timashev Technology Tower.
Timashev applauded Ohio State's ambitious plans, and said the university's momentum is growing under Bellamkonda's leadership. While the Timashev Technology Tower will certainly support that growth, the entrepreneur said it is just a vessel.
"Buildings don't create innovation," he said. "People do."
Higher education reporter Sheridan Hendrix can be reached at shendrix@dispatch.com and on Signal at @sheridan.120. You can follow her on Instagram at @sheridanwrites.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State breaks ground on new Timashev Technology Tower for startups
