“We are incredibly grateful to our judges and partners for helping us to identify the startups that will drive global impact, said MassChallenge Founder and President Akhil Nigam. We look forward to working with the MassChallenge community and this incredible group of entrepreneurs as they strive to achieve their goals of growth and innovation.
The 128 startups represent a wide range of industries. Thirty-two percent are in high tech, twenty-nine percent are healthcare and life sciences, seventeen percent are social impact, fourteen percent are general, retail and consumer goods, and eight percent are cleantech and energy.
The MassChallenge finalists also come from all over the world. The startups have headquarters in eleven countries and seventeen states.
The 2014 accelerator will include high-profile speakers and expert mentors, such as Paul English, Diane Hessan, Colin Angle, Bob Caspe and many more. The program culminates on October 29th at the MassChallenge Awards Ceremony where this year winners will receive over $1.75 million in cash awards.
MassChallenge recently announced partnerships with The Boston Foundation, Jamestown, Henkel, Altus Dental, First Republic Bank, Sanofi, Robert Bosch Venture Capital, and WGBH. Additionally, WGBH President Jon Abbott will join the MassChallenge Board of Advisors.
WGBH is excited to partner with MassChallenge and support our regions dynamic and growing startup community, said Abbott. We are proud of our own innovative tradition that created new genres of American television entertainment, and we look forward to working alongside many of the most creative entrepreneurs in the world.
MassChallenge judging is a massive community effort. Over 400 globally-renowned experts volunteered their time as MassChallenge judges to review applications, providing more than 600,000 words of written feedback to entrepreneurs during an estimated 4,000 hours of evaluation.
MassChallenges network of over 489 alumni startups have raised over $550 million in funding and created over 4,000 jobs to date in a diverse range of industries.
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 annually 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 of in-kind support. MassChallenge is a 501(c)3 nonprofit. All proceeds support the startups via the accelerator program. MassChallenge does not take equity or place any restrictions on participating startups. To learn more about MassChallenge, visit: https://masschallenge.org/
MassChallenge top partners include: Jamestown, Fidelity Investments, Verizon, the Richard and Susan Smith Family Foundation, CASIS, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, The Deshpande Foundation, Microsoft, American Airlines, iNNpulsa Colombia, Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, Mass Tech Collaborative, Pfizer, Henkel, Turnstone, WGBH Boston, and Zapopan.