Boston, MA – MassChallenge, the global network for innovators, tonight awarded 17 equity-free cash prizes to the top startups in its 2020 Boston early-stage accelerator. The announcement – made during the 2020 MassChallenge U.S. Virtual Awards Ceremony – caps the non-profit’s first virtual accelerator and the eleventh Boston-based program. 

“Congratulations to the latest cohort of MassChallenge award recipients, each having shown resilience in the face of this year’s unique challenges due to the pandemic, and a commitment to innovation in their respective sectors,” said Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker. “As the Commonwealth looks to economic recovery, as well as the continued fight against COVID-19, MassChallenge continues to be a partner in supporting entrepreneurs, encouraging creativity and driving innovation leadership.”

“I am incredibly proud of our startups and the community that supported them during this year’s accelerator. As we embarked on our first virtual program, we knew we had to work smarter to create meaningful engagements on all sides of the table,” said Cait Brumme, Managing Director of MassChallenge Boston. “And because of that support, our startups thrived: while building their companies, our cohort raised $68M in funding, generate $20M in revenue, and created 504 jobs.”
 
In June, MassChallenge Boston welcomed 100 startups from 12 countries and 20 states to its first-ever virtual accelerator. The MassChallenge program connects startups with the resources, partnerships, and communities that help them launch, grow, and scale their businesses. Specifically, startups benefitted from bi-weekly sessions with top speakers like Niraj Shah (CEO, Wayfair), Brian Halligan (CEO, HubSpot), Kirk Arnold (EiR, General Catalyst), Deb Benton (Willow Growth Partners), more than 100 hours of tailored workshops, direct access to over 200 mentors, and access to MassChallenge’s global corporate partner network.

To close out the 2020 cohort, MassChallenge Boston and its partners awarded $500,000 in prizes to top startups during the MassChallenge U.S. Virtual Awards on October 22, 2020. MassChallenge Boston partners FM Global, Innospark Ventures, and The Quin presented sidecar awards worth $120,000 during the event; additional equity-free cash prizes will be awarded through the end of 2020. 

The MassChallenge U.S. Virtual Awards brought together more than 2,000 viewers for a livestreamed event to celebrate the transformative power of entrepreneurship. In total, MassChallenge and its partners awarded more than one million in cash and investment prizes to 34 startups from this year’s Austin, Boston, Houston, and Rhode Island accelerators. The event was hosted by Chris Denson of Innovation Crush, and featured a fireside chat between Arianna Huffington (Founder and CEO, Thrive Global) and Linda Pizzuti Henry (Managing Director, Boston Globe).   

MASSCHALLENGE BOSTON PRIZE WINNERS 

Diamond Award – $100,000

Teratonix (Pittsburgh, PA): Teratonix provides the highest efficiency RF harvesting solution to generate electricity from cellular and Wi-Fi for batteryfree IoT, Wearables, and Medical devices.

Platinum Awards – $75,000

Presso (Atlanta, GA): Presso is a robot that can clean, disinfect, and press clothes in just under FIVE minutes.

VERI Nano, Inc. (Boston, MA): Veri Nano is an innovative bionanotechnology company with novel encapsulation and antimicrobial nanotechnologies for human and animal health.

Gold Awards – Up to $50,000

Fractal (Cambridge, MA): Fractal brings the power of a workstation to any Internet-connected device.

FreightFlows (Boston, MA): FreightFlows provides predictive analytics for global trade.

IndustrialML, Inc.  (Somerville, MA): IndustrialML makes factories smarter with machine learning, combining process monitoring and real-time analytics to keep production lines running.

Kura AR (San Fransisco, CA): Kura AR are making people’s lives more productive and better connected by solving the bottleneck to AR adoption with the worlds’ best AR glasses.

Loo Works (Accra, Ghana): Loo Works manufactures sustainable components from solid waste materials to create container-based toilet solutions in Ghana.

myBiometry (Boston, MA): myBiometry is a platform to monitor and manage patients with chronic disease using biomarker data and ML to identify patients at risk of treatment failure.

ReelData, Inc. (Halifax, Nova Scotia): ReelData develops artificial intelligence and computer vision technology for the Aquaculture industry in order to help feed BILLIONS sustainably.

TANG app (Cambridge, MA): The TANG app allows Filipinos abroad to send airtime and money home and the receiver in the Philippines to pay bills and p2p.

SIDECAR AWARDS PRESENTED TO MC BOSTON STARTUPS

FM Global Resilience Prize  

Paper Crane  – $25,000 Award – (Boston, MA): Paper Crane shows great potential in rapid deep data analysis, aiming to empower organizations such as insurance companies, to do more with their data, faster.

Airgility – $10,000 Award – (College Park, MD): Airgility’s ability to develop artificial intelligence that is hardware agnostic could increase the safety of those that work on elevated surfaces or inside confined spaces. 

Innospark Artificial Intelligence Prize 

Articulate Labs – $25,000 Award – (Dallas, TX): Articulate Labs makes mobile, adaptive devices to help knee osteoarthritis and knee replacement patients rehabilitate on the go during everyday activity. 

Starling Medical – $25,000 Award – (Houston, TX): Starling Medical is developing a tech-enabled urinary catheter for patients with neurogenic bladder dysfunction. 

The Quin Impact Awards 

CauseEDU – $25,000 Award – (Quincy, MA): CauseEDU helps students and their families to better understand the true cost of college & develop sound strategies to pay for it. 

Out of the Box – $10,000 Award – (Cambridge, MA): Out of the Box is a mobile, modular classroom-in-a-box with accompanying software for quality preschool learning to take place anywhere 

ABOUT THE 2020 MASSCHALLENGE U.S. EARLY STAGE COHORTS

This year, the U.S. programs in Austin, Boston, Houston, and Rhode Island welcomed a total of 244 early-stage startups. Selected from thousands of applicants, the 2020 cohorts represent the best and brightest ideas tackling some of the world’s most massive challenges including affordable housing, Alzheimer’s disease, climate change, waste management and sanitation, and more. In total, the cohort represents 18 countries, 34 U.S. states and 5 industries: 36% High Tech, 32% Healthcare/ Life Sciences, 18% General/Retail, 7% Energy/Clean Tech, and 6% Social Impact; and 57% cohort has at least one female founder.

MASSCHALLENGE PARTNERS

Agrosuper, Altus Dental, Amica Insurance, Analog Devices, Austin Technology Incubator, Autodesk, Babson College, BAE Systems, Boston University, Brandeis University, Brex, Carta, Central Houston, City of Houston, Cydan Development, Defense Innovation Unit, Dell for Entrepreneurs, Delta Dental, Department of Defense, Downtown Redevelopment Authority, Duane Morris LLP, First Republic Bank, FM Global, Foley Hoag LLP, Hasbro, Henkel, IOwnIt, ISS National Laboratory, J.P. Morgan, Juice Consulting, KPMG LLP, MassCEC, McKinsey & Company, MITRE, Mitsubishi Corporation (Americas), Mitsubishi Electric, Mitsui & Co., Office of Economic Adjustment/DIA, Oracle for Startups, PwC, Raytheon, Reliant, an NRG Company, Rhode Island Commerce Corporation, Sanofi, SOMPO, Stadia Ventures, Texas Foundation for Innovative Communities, The Boston Foundation, TMAC, University of Texas at Austin, UPS, Upstream, US Air Force, WeWork, Winstead 

ABOUT MASSCHALLENGE 

MassChallenge is the global network for innovators. Headquartered in the United States with seven locations worldwide, MassChallenge equips bold entrepreneurs to disrupt the status quo and to create meaningful change. Since launching in 2009, more than 2,400 MassChallenge alumni have raised more than $6.2B in funding, generated more than $3B in revenue, and created more than 157,000 total jobs. Learn more about MassChallenge at masschallenge.org.