This story is part of a new BostInno series, Inno on the Road, that explores innovation communities around New England. Last week, we explored Portland, Maine. This week we’re headed to Western Massachusetts, and after that, we head north to New Hampshire.
After some initial success recruiting companies to grow in Western Massachusetts, a local innovation center is announcing the first round of startups to take part in its new accelerator program.
Founders in Western Massachusetts have spoken to BostInno in the past about challenges scaling in the region, including a limited talent pool, lack of networking opportunities and distance from investors.
But not everyone is content with that narrative.
At the Berkshire Innovation Center (BIC), they’re focused on fueling the growth of new firms and new jobs prioritized by the Bay State, as well as the region's rural economy.
One of the ways the innovation center plans to do this is through its newly launched BIC Stage 2 Accelerator, a program for early-stage tech startups that are building a physical product and moving toward the manufacturing phase.
Ben Sosne, executive director of the Berkshire Innovation Center, said the BIC has already successfully supported several companies outside of a formal program. This includes Dive Technologies, a company that leveraged BIC resources to build an autonomous underwater vehicle. Dive Technologies was acquired by Anduril Industries in 2022. Sam Russo, the company’s co-founder and chief operating officer, is a Pittsfield native and will serve as the accelerator’s entrepreneur in residence.
“Now it’s like, this worked really kind of organically without much structure. How do we improve it by adding some structure and getting a cohort that all starts at the same time and works together,” Sosne said.
The Berkshire Innovation Center opened its doors in 2020 to serve regional manufacturers and STEM businesses. It’s outfitted with R&D equipment, state-of-the-art lab and training facilities, and gives businesses the benefit of connecting with the BIC's research partners or bringing on local students for internship and apprenticeship programs.
The center was initially funded by a $9.7 million capital grant in May 2014, awarded by the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center to Pittsfield to build a 20,000-square-foot innovation center in the city’s William Stanley Business Park, the former site of General Electric.
The startups selected for the Pittsfield-based innovation center’s first accelerator will participate in a 35-week program from September 2023 to May 2024.
By the end of the program, its participants should have reached a manufacturing-ready stage, found market validation with pre-orders or pilot, developed a leadership team, built a funding strategy and formed a growth plan.
Startups in the accelerator will have workspace at the BIC, access to its labs, advanced equipment, digital media studio and internal team of subject matter experts. The companies can also participate in the BIC Manufacturing Academy and other BIC programming.
Meet the six companies in the first accelerator cohort:
eSki: This blind-owned company is working to bring to market the first electric-powered personal watercraft. eSki was founded by Jack Duffy-Protentis, a 2021 graduate from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
Fibrocor Therapeutics: A biotech specializing in early-stage treatments for fibrotic diseases. Fibrocor has partnered with research institutes in Toronto, Canada, and gathered and extensively studied diseased fibrotic tissue samples from multiple organ systems. The company says it has curated a pipeline of drug candidates to address these debilitating conditions.
MacFarlane Medical: This startup is developing a wearable insulin delivery device that it says can leverage proprietary technology to deliver insulin in a faster, more comfortable, and less resource-dependent way than existing options.
Noble Carbon: Noble Carbon aims to change the way electricity grids are managed using its proprietary smart circuit breaker technology. The startup says its solution allows it to provide a resolution of demand data that was previously unavailable to utilities and grid managers.
PathogenX: This startup develops, manufactures and distributes its proprietary technology designed to transform the process of medical waste management. PathogenX’s onsite device transforms medical waste into a solid block that can be disposed of in the trash.
SQE.io: SQE wants to help its customers secure their data, transactions or communications via quantum security, which the company says statistically cannot be hacked by quantum computing. Its quantum secure, decentralized blockchain-based platform is for industrial, commercial and general public use.
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