MassChallenge revealed on Wednesday morning the top 26 startups of its 2015 class that will move onto the final round of judging for a chance to share about $1.5 million in awards. The startups range in categories from high tech concepts—like football-sized, underwater drones—to social impact concepts, like a B2B marketplace that helps businesses manage wasted food.
The 26 startups, which represent eight states and four countries, will pitch for the final time at the MassChallenge 2015 Award Ceremonies on Oct. 28 at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, where judges will select 10 to 20 to win equity-free, non-dilutive grants of $50,000 or $100,000 each, coming out to $1 million total.
CASIS and Boeing will also hand out about $500,000 to MassChallenge startups for research projects on the International Space Station.
"These top 26 startups are poised to make a tremendous impact across a variety of industries – from transportation to healthcare to robotics."
“Our entrepreneurs had a game-changing summer and I’m very proud of all of the 2015 finalists,” MassChallenge founder and CEO John Harthorne said in a statement. “These top 26 startups are poised to make a tremendous impact across a variety of industries – from transportation to healthcare to robotics. Each of these startups has great potential, and I look forward to celebrating their achievements with the community at the Awards Ceremony.”
MassChallenge's judges this year are Josh Boger, founder of Vertex Pharmaceuticals; Desh Deshpande, founder of Deshpande Foundation; Sandra Fenwick, president and CEO of Boston Children's Hospital; and Gail Goodman, CEO of Constant Contact. The startup accelerator said there are a few other judges expected, but they were not named in the announcement.
In addition to the awards section, the ceremony's featured speakers will include Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh and Chobani founder and CEO Hamdi Ulukaya. There will also be a showcase of MassChallenge's 128 startups from this year.
MassChallenge said in its announcement that its 835 alumni startups, including the 218 from this year's classes in Boston and London, have raised more than $1.1 billion in funding, generated more than $520 million in revenue and created more than 6,500 jobs.
Here are the top 26 MassChallenge startups for the class of 2015 (descriptions provided by MassChallenge):
General
Ajiri Tea — Pennsylvania — Ajiri aims to create a sustainable cycle of employment and education. And, of course, a delicious cup of Kenyan Coffee and Tea.
danger!awesome — Massachusetts — Design and fabrication makerspace producing short-run manufacturing, customization, prototyping, collateral, and event swag for B2B and B2C.
Orange Photonics, Inc. — New Hampshire — Orange Photonics LightLab is an affordable, fast marijuana potency analyzer. An essential tool for the $10 billion legal marijuana industry.
RubyRide — Arizona — RideRuby Structured Transportation: People experience proximity by ease of access, not distance. We create proximity by improving access.
Six Foods — Massachusetts — Six Foods is normalizing insects as a sustainable food. Try Chirps, a cricket chip that has more protein per serving than an egg.
TVision Insights — Massachusetts — At TVision Insights, we leverage state of art computer vision technology to redefine TV rating for new generation TV
Unshrinkit — Massachusetts — Finally, the emergency sweater saver is here. Unshrinkit helps unshrink wool clothing that accidentally shrunk in the washer or dryer.
Energy / Clean Tech
AquaFresco — Massachusetts — AquaFresco is developing the next generation close-loop laundry technology that regenerates 95% of wastewater.
Hyliion — Massachusetts — Hyliion is creating an add-on hybrid module for tractor trailers that will reduce fuel consumption by 30% with a payback of under a year.
Healthcare / Life Sciences
Biorasis, Inc. — Connecticut — Biorasis is developing a biosensor that will vastly improve the quality of life of diabetics and restore their active lifestyle.
Cogentis Therapeutics — Maryland — Cogentis Therapeutics is working on a novel and potential disease-modifying peptide therapeutic for Alzheimer's, FTD, and Parkinson's.
LaunchPad Medical — Massachusetts — LaunchPad Medical brings to you Tetranite, the world's first synthetic bone adhesive to stabilize metal hardware and repair fractured bone.
Recon Therapeutics — Massachusetts — Recon Therapeutics has developed a new drug delivery technology that simplifies reconstitution of a lyophilized drug with solvent at the POC.
Virtudent — Massachusetts — Virtudent - bringing high quality dental care right to your office.
High Tech
BovControl — Brazil —Empowering livestock ranchers with reliable herd information that improves efficiency and boost profitability.
Hydroswarm — Massachusetts — Teams of small, autonomous, underwater robots + cheap sensors + modern mesh networks = a revolution in maritime commerce and security.
Lumii — Massachusetts — Glasses-free 3D that works. Lumii light field displays: intuitive depth in the native format of your brain.
Pavlok — Massachusetts — Current fitness bands track the steps you take---but they don't change your behavior. Pavlok CHANGES behavior-and measurably forms habits.
Nix86 — Massachusetts — Restaurants and Suppliers rely on fax-phones-email to manage 1B orders a year; Nix86's B2B cloud solution modernizes it all with ease.
SidelineSwap — New York — SidelineSwap is a marketplace where people connect to buy, sell, and trade sporting goods.
Social Impact
Estrenon — Mexico — Estrenon pioneers the "reuse clothing movement" in Latin America through dignifying stores that empower the people to improve their lives.
Obz Design — Massachusetts — Obz Design is changing global healthcare: better anemia diagnostics today, 600 million healthier children tomorrow!
Sanitation and Health Rights in India (SHRI) — Massachusetts — SHRI fights alongside communities to end outdoor defecation in an ongoing struggle for health equity and social and economic justice.
Spoiler Alert —Massachusetts — Spoiler Alert is a B2B marketplace and reporting tool to help businesses manage wasted food, improve margins, and fight food insecurity.
World Tech Makers — Colombia — World Tech Makers is the first on-site and immersive coding bootcamp in Latin America. We teach anyone how to code from scratch in 12 weeks.
XactSense — Rhode Island — XactSense builds LIDAR scanning UAVs for the $270B geospatial industry our scanning robots make the next generation of 3D maps in minutes.
