What's special about this year's MassChallenge cohort of startups?
That 51 percent of the companies selected have at least one female founder.
MassChallenge, a startup accelerator based in Boston, announced their cohort Wednesday. It includes 128 early-stage startups that will gain access to thousands of square feet of work space, expert mentorship and corporate partners. In October, the MassChallenge Boston awards cap off the program by awarding shares of more than $1.5 million in equity-free prizes.
MassChallenge selects the group from a pool of 1,600 applicants around the world. This year, the majority of the startups were from the general, retail, or consumer goods industry, followed by high tech and healthcare and life sciences.
68 companies based in Massachusetts are included in this year’s cohort, a bunch of them listed below:
Abridge News - A news service that gets people out of their echo chambers and makes it easy for them to understand a wide spectrum of opinions on important stories.
Project Alianza - Fills the rural education gap in Nicaragua by building, developing, and staffing robust primary schools on privately-owned coffee farms.
befree, LLC - The creators of zipOns pants, a stylish and functional way for people with disabilities or in the recovery/rehab process to not sacrifice fashion.
Biofire - A company that is building the future of firearms to prevent gun violence using fingerprint scanning technology.
BioTrak Therapeutics - A digital behavioral therapy program for headache & migraine sufferers which improves quality of life through headache reduction.
Collettey’s Cookies - Born with down syndrome, Collette could not find a paying job – so she opened her own homemade cookie company and is employing people with disabilities.
DetraPel - The makers of nanotechnology protective coatings that protect any materials from any liquid.
Proventus - Providing affordable loans to financially marginalized farmers through an innovative lending platform and risk assessment system.
Rootastes - Creates experiential lunch programs as a perk for the employees of fast-growing and culture-centric companies.
The 1854 Cycling Company - A premium electric bicycle & apparel brand that creates living wage jobs targeted towards formerly incarcerated women.
The full list can be found here.
