A handful of Boston-area startups are among the finalists vying for $1 million in prize money as part of MassChallenge's 2021 early stage competition.
The companies are among 45 startups chosen out of a group of 229, from the group's accelerators in Boston, Rhode Island, Austin and Houston, to move along to the final round of the competition,
The Boston companies chosen are unsurprisingly dominated by healthcare and life sciences startups, but there are also companies from the high tech, robotics and clean energy sectors represented.
Among the firms are BillBuds, a platform which helps renters set up and manage their utilities from a single dashboard, and Southie Autonomy, which develops no-code software for anyone to deploy robot arms.
The other Massachusetts companies making the finals are Acoustica Bio, Akttyva Therapeutics, iQ3 Connect, SheFly Apparel, Phimentum, Rentable, Transcera and Yengii Biosciences.
"This select group reflects the diversity of our cohort across sector, geography, business model and founder, reinforcing our belief that MassChallenge’s non-equity accelerator provides critical on-ramps for founders that fit and break traditional molds," said Cait Brumme, senior vice president of MassChallenge Early Stage, in a statement.
The winners will be announced at an Oct. 28 awards ceremony.
