MassChallenge and ~1,700 members of the Boston startup community gathered to celebrate entrepreneurship at the fifth-annual MassChallenge Awards Ceremony. The event featured pitches from the Top 26 startups, and speeches from Governor Deval Patrick, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt, ALS Ice Bucket Challenge Co-Creator Nancy Frates, and WGBH and Public Radio Internationals Innovation Hub Host Kara Miller.
Since 2010, the 617 startups accelerated by MassChallenge have raised $706 million in funding, generated $404 million in revenue and created 4,800 jobs.
At the Awards Ceremony, MassChallenge honored Governor Deval Patrick by creating the Deval L. Patrick Commonwealth Innovation Award to be granted every five years to the individual who most empowers the innovation economy. Governor Patrick was also announced as the first recipient of the award for his contributions to the innovation community in Massachusetts and beyond.
"Massachusetts is home to one of the largest and most diverse innovation economies in the world, and MassChallenge entrepreneurs are central to that, said Governor Patrick. I thank MassChallenge for this very special honor and congratulate them on the immense success they have had."
$100K Diamond Winners
$50K Gold Winners
In-Kind Silver Winners
SIDECAR PRIZE WINNERS
For the 2014 program, MassChallenge partners provided five additional prizes totaling $775,000. These grants were awarded to teams excelling in areas of interest to the partner organizations as outlined below.
CASIS-Boeing Prize for Technology in Space ($600,000 total precise allocation to be determined based on proposals):
Henry Prize for Social Impact ($50,000 total):
$30,000
$10,000
$10,000
Microsoft Prize for Civic Engagement & Leadership ($50,000 total):
$30,000
$20,000
MassIT Government Innovation Competition ($50,000 total):
$25,000
$25,000
Perkins Prize for Assistive Technology ($25,000):
$25,000
MassChallenge 2014
The MassChallenge Awards Ceremony capped an active, fifth year of the organization. In April, a record 1,657 startups from 50 countries and 40 US states applied to participate in the program. Over 350 judges selected the 128 highest-impact, highest-potential startups, which were invited to participate as finalists in the four-month accelerator program.
The MassChallenge finalists are some of the most inspiring, hardest-working people Ive ever met, said MassChallenge Founder and CEO John Harthorne. The drive of these entrepreneurs and the incredible support of the community continues to amaze me, and is yet more evidence that Boston has one of the greatest startup communities in the world.
In June, MassChallenge committed to scale its accelerator program to ten new cities by 2019, beginning with MassChallenge UK in London. MassChallenge launched MassChallenge Israel in 2013, and has partnerships with Colombia, Russia, Mexico and Switzerland. Delegations from these countries and others attended the first annual Global Bridge Summit at MassChallenge on Oct 28 to connect, discuss opportunities and challenges facing entrepreneurial ecosystems in their communities, and to help advise MassChallenge on expansion activities.
Applications for MassChallenge Boston, MassChallenge Israel and MassChallenge UK open in February 2015. Entrepreneurs can pre-register for 2015 programs at masschallenge.org.
About MassChallenge
MassChallenge is the worlds largest startup accelerator and the first to support high-impact, early-stage entrepreneurs with no strings attached. Over $1 million in cash prizes is awarded to winning startups, with zero equity taken. Additional benefits for startups include world-class mentorship and training, free office space, access to funding, legal advice, media attention, and over $10 million in in-kind support. MassChallenge is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. All proceeds support the startup accelerator and MassChallenge does not take equity or place any restrictions on any of the participating startups. To learn more about MassChallenge, visit: http://masschallenge.org/
MassChallenge top partners include: The Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Fidelity Investments, The Deshpande Foundation, Richard and Susan Smith Family Foundation, Jamestown, The Boston Foundation, Verizon, CASIS, iNNpulsa Colombia, Skolkovo Foundation, American Airlines, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bose, Henkel, Mass Tech Collaborative, Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, Microsoft, Pfizer, Thomson Reuters, Turnstone, WGBH Boston, and Zapopan.
