2021 was a strange and difficult year, a pandemic sequel which saw the Covid virus mutate and bring with it more changes to the world as we knew it. Boston's innovators found ways to persevere through that challenge, pivot themselves to succeed despite it, and in some cases make our new world a better place. Here were five of the biggest innovation stories reported by BostInno this past year.
Boston's plant-based food industry booms
The explosive growth of food tech company Motif FoodWorks was one of Boston's biggest innovation stories in 2021. The plant-based meat-maker raised an eye-popping $226 million Series B, which it quickly followed up with the official launch of its HEMAMI protein and the development of a new facility in central Massachusetts. Motif's growth comes as several other local startups are making inroads in the plant-based and food tech sector, which is growing in importance amid expanding consciousness about the effects of meat production on climate and the environment. Boston Meats, spun out of Harvard, is also having success in developing plant-based meat.
A year marked by clean energy change
In the clean and green tech sector, 2021 was a tumultuous but exciting year. Stephen Pike departed the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, a key funder of clean energy startups, after five years in charge. Massachusetts also continued to expand its ambitious offshore wind goals, at the same time as New England continued to wrestle with staffing up and training for what is supposed to be the next burgeoning industry. New technologies are coming to the forefront too, through companies like Vanguard Renewables, which is working on creating energy through organic waste, and gained momentum and a new CEO this year.
Innovation in academia
It's no surprise that Harvard and MIT continued to play a huge role in Boston's innovation scene in 2021, with institutions like the Harvard Innovation Labs churning out hundreds of new startups and maintaining a strong community of alumni. But there's much more to it: take Roadgnar, a startup formed out of Worcester Polytechnic Institute, which used the university's connections and entrepreneurial programs to create a company aimed at building a smarter way to fix roads and other infrastructure. Another example: The UMass professor part of a team working on cutting-edge technology to treat opioid disorders with smartwatch sensors.
Micromobility had quite a year
Amid a complicated legal and policy landscape, scooters came back to Boston in 2021, in the form of a pilot between a company called Wheels and UMass Boston, which saw students, staff and visitors zip around the campus on the company's bike-scooter hybrids starting in the fall. Boston is playing a big role behind the scenes of the nationwide micromobility revolution, too: The city is home to Zoba, automation software for scooter and bikeshare providers which uses machine learning to help them make decisions about where to place and collect their vehicles. The company, founded by a set of local brothers, just raised a Series A round this year and is poised to expand even further.
Healthcare goes home
More healthcare moving into the home was a change that was underway, but it's been accelerated wildly by the pandemic. Perhaps the most telling example in recent months was the acquisition of Current Health by Best Buy, as the electronics giant sought to expand its healthcare offerings by snatching up an up-and-coming startup founded by a Scottish former medical student. CarePort health, another at-home healthcare software firm, was also acquired for more than $1 billion in 2021. And another example of the phenomenon was Inno on Fire award winner 4G Clinical, which pivoted to helping clinical trial participants do so from home.
