Congratulations go out to our friends at ModCloth, who have secured the biggest raise in the Pittsburgh area so far in 2010 for the amount of $19.8 million.

CEO Eric Koger has spoken to AlphaLab participants on several occasions: sharing his experiences in starting the company as well as technical and business strategies that helped make them a leading online clothing destination.

You can find more information about the investment as well as Eric’s comments in the Pittsburgh Business Times article online.

ModCloth is an Innovation Works portfolio company and arguably the fastest growing startup in Pittsburgh – increasing its headcount by five times in two years to 138. The company sells retro and vintage clothing from independent designers.

Congratulations again to Eric, Susan, and the entire ModCloth team!

When I told my friends in the Bay Area that we were moving from Palo Alto to Pittsburgh, many of them asked me about the tech scene in Pittsburgh. I tried to describe to them what I knew then about the city and the potential it had to become a tech region. Seven years later, that potential has become more evident and I am even more excited about the future of Pittsburgh, especially in technology. Sean Ammirati, CEO of mSpoke (an Innovation Works portfolio company) and an AlphaLab advisor, does a great job of describing why we love Pittsburgh in a post today on Center Networks. And he was able to make the case without even once referring to the Steelers, Penguins, or the fact that Pittsburgh is a great sports town.

Congrats to SMaSh, an Innovation Works portfolio company and South Side neighbor to AlphaLab, for its recent round of investment led by Mark Cuban.  The company has developed a platform for developing mobile applications on top of the SMS protocol which allows for greater capabilities in areas of search, transactions while taking advantage of text messaging’s widespread adoption. It’s been great working with Eric and Chanu (Smash’s co-founders) as they have built their technology and initial applications and I’m excited about the continued growth of the company, especially with the investment and involvement of Mark Cuban.