A dozen startups came ready for a showdown at Techstars Boston's Demo Day.
The companies completed Techstars Boston's three-month accelerator program and pitched their ideas to the Greater Boston startup community yesterday. The event was held at the House of Blues and streamed online, with about 300 attendees registered for each option.
Here’s a recap of the event.
The news:
Twelve startups from the U.S., Canada and Australia took part in this year’s Techstars Boston's accelerator.
At the end of the event, Techstars Boston announced the launch of a crypto accelerator in collaboration with Boston-based blockchain company Algorand. The program will be managed by Kerty Levy. She said there “couldn’t be a better time to launch this accelerator.”
“Everyone I know who is already playing in web3, building on blockchain, trading crypto is doubling down and everyone who is not is super curious and saying what the heck is going on,” Levy said.
Applications are now open for the next Techstars Boston accelerator and the new crypto accelerator. Both programs kick off in January.
The numbers:
Greg Raiz, managing director of Techstars Boston, said 184 companies have completed this accelerator since its founding in 2009.
These startups have generated more than $82 billion in market value, Raiz said.
The companies in this program were divided into three thematic areas, Raiz said. These are “companies that save lives,” such as medtech and biotech; “companies that save the planet,” like plant-based food startups and cleantech; and “wicked awesome,” which includes industries that Boston is known for, like B2B and SaaS startups.
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Meet the four Boston-based companies (and one honorable mention) that completed this year’s Techstars Boston program:
Candle Finance: This startup has built an investment app that allows users to build a portfolio of stocks and crypto, which Candle trades on a user’s behalf to keep it balanced. Candle takes a cut of the returns during the rebalancing. Users can share their portfolio on social media and invite people to collaborate on it, similar to a Google Document.
Co-founders Gary Tokman and Liam Butler-Lawrence have experience in software and finance at TrueMotion, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and DraftKings.
Markit Social: Founded by Tufts University students, Markit Social helps event creators capture and grow their audience through text messaging.
“The problem with traditional platforms is that they are terrible at reaching and retaining an audience,” said CEO and co-founder Jonathan Chang. “With our radically different approach to your relationship with attendees, Markit is changing the way people host events.”
All attendees need to do is register for an event on Markit with their name and phone number. They receive all communications about this event via text and promotions about future events.
Chang said Markit has 10,000 users and 33 event partners who are retaining about 47% of users after 30 days.
High Time Foods: This Boston-based company is tackling plant-based foods — but with a twist. Rather than the traditional premade burgers or chicken nuggets, High Time Foods’ first product is a plant-based minced chicken that is shelf-stable and preservative-free.
The product is manufactured in New England, and most of the ingredients are sourced from the U.S.
“It has no sodium, no cholesterol, no preservatives and it has the same amount of protein as conventional chicken, and yes…tastes like chicken,” said co-founder Aakash Shah.
Last week BostInno covered the launch of High Time Foods’ product as a protein option in a downtown Boloco location.
VivorCare: Hil Moss is a cancer survivor and patient advocate. She founded VivorCare to be the first virtual survivorship clinic for survivors of critical illnesses, such as cancer.
“For decades in health care we have been focused on finding cures for terminal illness. The cure for cancer has always been the dream. But we did not stop to think about what would happen when people lived,” Moss said.
Survivors of cancer are at higher risk for many conditions, Moss said, including PTSD, diabetes and chronic pain. She described survivors as a “high risk” and “high cost” population for the health care system.
VivorCare uses a virtual platform to help survivors manage their care, mental health, oncology rehabilitation and community.
Honorable mention: Corventive Health Technologies has developed SaaS technology to identify patients with undiagnosed heart disease. While the company is based in Philadelphia, CEO Ben Stephen said the company is in the process of moving to Boston.
