It’s time to meet this year’s Blazers.
Each year, we put together a list of 50 impressive innovators for the BostInno Fire Awards.
The honorees were selected based on nominations you sent in and companies were selected based on their recent success in raising funds, launching new products, bringing in new customers, growing their Boston footprint and supporting the local community and innovation ecosystem.
The BostInno editorial team, alongside a group of industry judges, selects a single winner, or Blazer, in each category. This year, we’re naming Blazers in nine categories.
We’re excited to introduce the 2022 BostInno Fire Blazer winners:
Cleantech: SES
This Woburn company edged out the competition in the cleantech category. SES develops and manufactures lithium-metal rechargeable batteries for electric vehicles. You might have heard of SES when it recently released the world’s largest Li-Metal battery. In February, SES began trading on the New York Stock Exchange. The company said in its nomination that it holds $450 million of cash on its balance sheet, which includes investments from industry giants Honda, Hyundai and GM.
Consumer Goods: Metalenz
This startup, which only emerged from stealth in 2021, certainly made an impact on our judges this year—probably because Metalenz already has more than 20 patents for innovations that simplify and improve optical devices and enable advanced sensing with its metasurface technology. Its work is built on research from the Capasso Lab at Harvard University. The Boston-based company said its optics will be in millions of consumer devices by the end of this year.
Ecosystem Supporters: Harvard Innovation Labs
This ecosystem supporter is known for helping hundreds of startups launch and grow each year. As the Harvard Innovation Labs enters its second decade, the organization saw a 33% increase in the total number of ventures (more than 900!) it supported in the 2021-2022 academic year compared to the year before. To support these ventures, the university innovation center said it hosted virtual and in-person programming, set up mentorship meetings with hundreds of advisors and industry experts and held a wide range of workshops. The i-lab also recently introduced a new structure to provide students with more tailored support and includes a new focus on students just exploring the idea of starting or joining a startup.
Fintech: Insurify
Insurify has had recent success growing its team and its capital. The Cambridge company operates an AI-powered insurance comparison platform. Insurify opened its first international office in Bulgaria at the end of 2020 and created its own in-house sales and service center. Its team grew from 67 to 160 employees. To cap off its growth, Insurify raised a $100 million Series B round in 2021.
Life Sciences: PepGen
It’s tough to stand out in Boston’s booming biotech scene, but PepGen has notched quite a few big achievements over the past year. Some of this Cambridge biotech’s big moves include a $112.5 million Series B round in August 2021, the launch of human trials for its lead drug candidate, multiple additions to its leadership team and, at the start of 2022, going public — one of the few biotech IPOs this year.
Medtech and Healthtech: IntelyCare
In this category, IntelyCare was the clear winner. Our judges agreed nearly unanimously that this Quincy-based tech company deserved the top spot among its competition. IntelyCare is empowering health care workers to build their own schedule and find work-life balance. It also helps health care facilities have more control over how they manage their full time and float pool staff. The company said its year-over-year revenue tripled in 2021. Earlier this year IntelyCare hit unicorn status with a $115 million fundraise.
Robotics: Berkshire Grey
This more well-known industry figure beat out some up-and-coming stars in the robotics category. Berkshire Grey made the 2022 Fire Awards list just over a year after it started trading on Nasdaq. Since October 2021, the Bedford-based has secured $68 million in new orders, added six new partnerships to its technology alliance program and expanded its relationship with customer FedEx, which includes an agreement to develop a new solution to help improve the safety and efficiency of FedEx package handling operations globally. To keep up with demand, Berkshire Grey is rolling out new tech solutions for automating warehouse processes like picking, inducting, packing, sorting and mobility.
Software Companies — Earlier-stage (Series B and earlier): NewStore
Boston-based NewStore may be an earlier-stage company, but it’s already working with big retail businesses, like Burton Snowboards, UNTUCKit, and Vince, to help them manage things like mobile point-of-sale, order management, inventory management and store fulfillment. The company said that year-over-year, its revenue has increased 400% and its customer base has tripled. Last summer, NewStore raised a $45 million Series B-1 funding round. And at the start of this year, NewStore launched NewStore Consumer Apps to allow brands to build and deploy their own mobile shopping apps.
Software Companies — Later stage (Series C and later): Mirakl
Mirakl’s major growth in 2021 made it a company to watch for our judges this year and beyond. Those milestones include hitting over $100 million in annual recurring revenue and $555 million in Series E funding. The most recent funding round, led by Silver Lake, put the company’s valuation at over $3.5 billion – that’s a 230% increase in one year. Mirakl plans to continue to invest and scale its Boston HQ team with its new capital.
