Press

An operating system for the biology lab

09.25.2019Nature Nature on portfolio company, Radix: The two-year-old start-up in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has developed a computer language that can be used to encode a customer’s biology experiments, a compiler that translates that code into a machine-readable language, and a set of drivers that enables instructions to be understood and executed by the customer’s equipment. Radix’s technology aims to free biologists from worrying about the details of the machines in their laboratories and how they execute an experiment. This enables — among other things — the rapid redesign of experiments without needing to manually reprogram (or even physically reposition) the equipment involved.

Form Energy wins BostInno 50 On Fire award

09.23.2019BostInno Congratulations to Form Energy on BostInno’s 50 On Fire award! Your efforts to enable a 100% renewable energy future are cementing Boston as a global hub for innovation!

The Tech Innovations We Need to Happen if We’re Going to Survive Climate Change

09.18.2019TIME Commonwealth Fusion Systems’ new superconducting materials to build a fusion power plant has the potential to revolutionize electricity, writes TIME.

Vaxess Technologies wins 2019 Xconomy Award

09.13.2019Xconomy Congratulations to Vaxess Technologies for taking home the 2019 Xconomy award in the “Innovation at the Intersection” category! According to Xconomy, the award celebrates the "innovations that happen at the intersection of different disciplines," and the "organizations that are most successfully mining that borderland." The Engine portfolio companies Cellino and Kytopen were finalists in the “Innovation at the Intersection” and the “Big Idea” categories.

The Engine expands, responding to a rapid growth of ‘Tough Tech’

08.27.2019Boston Globe The Engine is putting “tough tech” in the spotlight as it prepares to convert an old Polaroid building in Cambridge into labs and offices for startups with potentially game-changing technologies for the energy, biotech, and manufacturing fields.

E25Bio raises $2.3 million to enable detection of dangerous infectious diseases

08.26.2019E25Bio Pioneering rapid diagnostic technology that can detect mosquito-borne illnesses in minutes instead of weeks

Form Energy closes $40M Series B round to enable the transition to 100% renewable grid

08.22.2019Form Energy Form Energy is developing and commercializing ultra-low-cost, long-duration energy storage systems that can be located in any market and scaled to match existing energy generation infrastructure globally.

How nanoparticles that harvest light could curb climate emissions

08.19.2019MIT Technology Review Syzygy Plasmonics has raised nearly $6 million to produce a cleaner form of hydrogen, using a novel type of photocatalyst.

Syzygy raises $5.8m to develop transformative platform for clean chemical manufacturing

08.19.2019Syzygy Syzygy is advancing a new photocatalytic chemical reactor powered by light from renewable electricity instead of heat from burning fuel. Syzygy’s photocatalytic reactor holds promise to revolutionize the industrial gas, chemical, and energy industries by significantly reducing the cost and carbon emissions in the production process for a wide range of major chemicals such as fuel, fertilizer, and plastic.

Cambridge Crops raises $4 million in seed funding to combat food waste

08.9.2019Cambridge Crops Over one third of the food produced in the world is wasted. Cambridge Crops is pioneering silk-powered technology that is applied to food to slow the exchange of gases that cause decay.

Axios Pro Rata: Commonwealth Fusion Systems

06.28.2019Axios The BFD: Commonwealth Fusion Systems, a Cambridge, Mass.-based startup focused on commercializing fusion energy, raised $115 million in Series A funding.

Vaxess closes Series A

06.28.2019Fortune Vaxess Technologies, a Cambridge, Mass.-based biotechnology company focused on silk-powered MIMIX smart release patch, closed its $8.2 million Series A round. The Engine led the round.

Cambridge fusion energy startup completes $115 million funding round

06.28.2019Boston Globe CFS, which was founded by MIT scientists, said the funding will allow it demonstrate its high-temperature superconductor magnets by 2021 and a full power plant prototype by 2025.

Vaxess lays out path to the clinic for its silk-derived, drug-dispersing patch

06.27.2019Boston Business Journal Vaxess Technologies chats with Boston Business Journal about its Series A and the partnerships ahead of the first clinical trials for its silk-derived, drug dispersing patch, MIMIX.

Vaxess Technologies Closes Final Tranche of $8.2 Million Series A and Appoints Dr. Purnanand Sarma to the Board

06.27.2019Vaxess Vaxess Technologies, a biotechnology company redefining drug delivery with the silk-powered MIMIX smart release patch, today announced it has closed the final tranche of an $8.2 million Series A round. Led by The Engine, the venture capital firm launched by MIT in 2016 to invest in early-stage Tough Tech companies, the round includes participation from Bioinnovation Capital. To date, Vaxess has raised more than $22 million in both grant and equity funding, including backing from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.

A Boston startup developing a nuclear fusion reactor just got a roughly $50 million boost

06.27.2019TechCrunch Portfolio company Commonwealth Fusion Systems raises $115 Million and closes Series A round to commercialize fusion energy

Kytopen raises $3.6 million

05.28.2019Fortune Kytopen, a technology startup accelerating the discovery and manufacturing of gene-modified cell therapies, today announced it has raised $3.6 million in seed financing from investors including The Engine.

Zapata Computing raises $21 million

04.30.2019Forbes Zapata Computing raises $21 million to bring quantum computing to enterprise applications.

Fusion power start-ups go small in effort to bring commercial reactors to life

04.27.2019NBC News Mach NBC News Mach interviews Commonwealth Fusion Systems. For decades, the quest for nuclear fusion energy has been driven by giant government-led projects — with giant price tags to match. Just as spaceflight companies such as SpaceX and Blue Origin have built upon NASA technology, a handful of fusion startups are building on government-funded fusion research, with the goal of firing up the first commercial fusion power plant as early as the 2020s.

AI Weekly: AI’s many challenges must be thoughtfully addressed

03.17.2019VentureBeat Education will play a foundational role in shaping the next two decades in computing and AI research, says The Engine’s Katie Rae.

Via Separations raises $4.8M round

03.15.2019Xconomy Via Separations, a startup developing energy-efficient filtration technology, has raised $4.8 million in a Series A funding round

3 women-led Boston venture capital firms to know

03.12.2019Built in Boston What’s one misconception about women VCs that Rae wants to clear up? “That there’s no women VCs,” she said in an interview with Built In Boston. “There are many women VCs, especially in the deep science space. Putting a spotlight on the incredible work they are doing will be instrumental.”

Fast Company’s World’s Most Innovative Companies of 2019 — Analytical Space

02.20.2019Fast Company Congratulations to our portfolio company, Analytical Space - recognized by Fast Company as one of the World’s Most Innovative Companies of 2019! Analytical Space is transforming the future of space and communications.

Why this venture capitalist Is tackling ‘Tough Tech’

01.10.2019Fortune Magazine “Venture capitalist Katie Rae is trying to prove that “tough tech” is worth the tough work.”

The Engine invests in Boston Metal

01.9.2019Fortune “A critical piece to achieving a carbon-free world is the decarbonization of steel production,” said Katie Rae, managing partner and CEO of The Engine. “Boston Metal has spent years developing its groundbreaking technology and is incredibly close to bringing it to market.”

Forbes 30 Under 30 (2019): Marinna Madrid, Nabiha Saklayen, Stan Wang

11.11.2018Forbes Stan Wang, a physician-scientist, and two physicists, Nabiha Saklayen and Marinna Madrid, teamed up in 2017 to start Cellino, which uses lasers to modify stem cells in order to make it far more efficient to create the types of cells that are needed for new, innovative cell therapies.

Google partners with Zapata on open-source quantum computing effort

07.19.2018Xconomy, MIT Technology Review Zapata is one of the first users of Google’s new open-source software framework for quantum computing.

Venture investors are changing term sheets to include provisions on ICOs

07.17.2018Fortune At Fortune Brainstorm Tech, The Engine Katie Rae discussed investment trends and the future of tough tech.

Cambridge startup launches satellite from Int’l Space Station

07.16.2018Boston Business Journal Building the “Cisco of space.”

Analytical Space deploys its first satellite, Radix, from the International Space Station

07.13.2018Analytical Space Congratulations to the team at Analytical Space on the successful launch of their first satellite from the International Space Station.

MIT Technology Review’s 35 Innovators Under 35

06.27.2018MIT Technology Review Congratulations to portfolio company founders Shreya Dave (Via Separations), Nabiha Saklayen (Cellino Biotech), and William Woodford (Form Energy) — named as world’s top “Innovators Under 35” by MIT Technology Review. From gene editing to energy, their innovations are poised to change our world.

Quantum software startup Zapata Computing launches out of Harvard

05.17.2018BusinessWire Zapata Computing "Advance breakthroughs in computational power for applications on quantum computers.”

The world’s first quantum software superstore—or so it hopes—is here

05.17.2018MIT Tech Review Zapata could end up with a bird’s-eye view of how various applications perform on a wide range of quantum computers, giving it a big advantage in the market.

‘Tough tech’ jobs address the world’s biggest problems: Engine CEO

03.9.2018Squawk Box CNBC "We are shooting for creating very large companies"

Investing in tech that’s worth the wait

03.8.2018MIT Tech Review Innovations in fields like energy and transportation often take time—and extra support—to develop. The Engine at MIT is helping them make the leap from the lab to the marketplace.

The second coming of ultrasound

01.22.2018Wired “We’ve done small molecules, we’ve done biologics, we’ve tried DNA, naked RNA, we’ve even tried Crispr,” he says. “As superficial as it may sound, it all just works.” Carl Schoellhammer, Founder SuonoBio

MIT launches new venture for world-changing entrepreneurs

11.22.2017MIT News The Engine will provide funding, space, and expertise—powering a network of innovation networks.

Profile: Brent Keller, cofounder, Via Separations

11.14.2017Forbes Keller is cofounder and CTO of Via Separations, which develops membrane materials for separation processes.

Want to reduce carbon emissions? This startup plans to use renewable energy to replace fossil fuels

10.19.2017Inc Not to go all old-school Star Trek on you, but entrepreneurs often go where no man (or woman) has ever gone before. Case in point: Baseload Renewables, a startup with an incredibly ambitious goal: Use renewable energy to replace fossil fuels as baseload electric power.

Serial battery entrepreneur’s new venture tackles clean energy’s biggest problem

10.4.2017MIT Technology Review MIT’s Yet-Ming Chiang has launched a flow battery startup aimed at making renewable energy competitive with fossil fuels.

Forget old batteries. Here comes the energy storage revolution

09.28.2017Wired Energy demands from developing countries are going to grow by about 10 per cent between now and 2040, according to the US Energy Information Administration. By that year, they will be using 65 per cent of the world’s total energy supply.

Discover the future of science at The Under 30 Summit in Boston

09.28.2017Forbes Working in a lab is all well and good. But what happens when you need to raise money? We sit down with some of the hottest young entrepreneurs in biotechnology and health tech.

Meet 3 Boston women helping close the gender gap in startup investing

09.27.2017BuiltIn Boston Katie Rae is CEO and managing partner at The Engine, a venture fund and incubator that focuses on “tough tech” — think technologies like robotics, materials science and energy that typically have a hard time finding VC funding.

MIT’s “Innovation Orchard” is investing $200 million in tough tech startups

09.22.2017Futurism MIT's The Engine has announced plans to invest $200 million into seven startup companies. These companies focus on "tough tech" areas, including aerospace, biotech, renewable energy, and genetic engineering.

Top VC deals this week: Electric scooters, Slack, and a Chinese self-driving car firm

09.22.2017CNBC The Engine, a venture firm founded at MIT, announced that its debut fund has expanded to a total of $200 million.

The Engine accelerates to $200m

09.21.2017Global University Venturing The Engine, a US-based program initiated by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) aimed at complex technologies, has raised $200m for its first fund.

Tech roundup: MIT’s The Engine reveals first 7 investments, HubSpot makes third AI acquisition and more

09.20.2017BuiltIn Boston MIT's startup accelerator The Engine announced the first seven companies in its program this week, launching its unique investing experiment in “tough tech,” or physical technologies, often with a software component.

World renowned MIT’s ‘The Engine’ raises $200M to fund “Tough Tech”

09.20.2017BW Disrupt If you think that too many VCs these days are playing it safe and only looking to back sure bets rather than moonshots and more ambitious ventures, take a look over at what’s going on in Boston.

MIT’s The Engine, now with $200M, makes first bets: 3 takeaways

09.20.2017Xconomy Now the real work begins for The Engine, MIT’s ambitious venture fund and incubator. The organization announced its first batch of seven investments on Tuesday, and revealed that it has raised $200 million, with plans to back 40 to 50 so-called “tough-tech” companies over the next few years.

MIT’s The Engine fund announces first investments in seven startups in aerospace, advanced materials, biotech, more, updates first fund from $150M to $200M

09.20.2017Techmeme The Engine, founded by MIT in 2016 to focus on tough tech innovations, today announced its first-ever investments in seven startups developing breakthrough scientific and technological innovations poised for transformative impact.

Finally, a driverless car with some common sense

09.20.2017MIT Technology Review Boston’s notoriously unfriendly drivers and chaotic roads may be the perfect testing ground for a fundamentally different kind of self-driving car.

MIT-founded The Engine announces investments, $200 mln fund

09.20.2017peHUB MIT-backed The Engine announced its first batch of seven investments and revealed that it has closed on $200 million for its first fund, 33 percent more than the $150 million it said it initially raised.

The Engine selects its first seven startups to fund

09.20.2017The Tech The Engine, an incubator and science and technology start-up accelerator founded last year by MIT, released Tuesday the names of the first seven companies it will invest in. The startups work in a broad range of fields, from biotechnology to renewable energy.

Data Sheet—in Toys R Us story, blame debt over Amazon

09.20.2017Fortune Venture capitalists are just another kind of investor and, generally speaking, they’re investing in startups where the future return looks pretty good. That potentially leaves out the development of a lot of important technologies from the view of our society, however.

The Bloomberg Baystate business hour: The Fed + The Engine

09.20.2017Bloomberg Radio Bloomberg Boston Bureau Chief Tom Moroney and Radio News Anchor Anne Mostue are joined by top names from local business and finance to medicine and politics, along with Bloomberg reporters covering the latest stories in and around Boston. The C-Suite: Katie Rae, President and CEO of MIT’s The Engine Accelerator on raising $200 million from investors and using the fund to finance its first seven companies.

MIT’s The Engine raises $200M to fund ‘tough tech’

09.19.2017Yahoo If you think that too many VCs these days are playing it safe and only looking to back sure bets rather than moonshots and more ambitious ventures, take a look over at what's going on in Boston.

With $200 Million, MIT’s The Engine Makes Its First Investments In ‘Tough Tech’

09.19.2017WBUR The MIT-powered investment fund and venture firm The Engine is up and running, with its first seven investments in startups ranging from aerospace to genetic engineering.

MIT’s The Engine raises $200M to fund ‘tough tech’

09.19.2017TechCrunch If you think that too many VCs these days are playing it safe and only looking to back sure bets rather than moonshots and more ambitious ventures, take a look over at what’s going on in Boston.

Developing a Tough, Time-Consuming Technology? This Investor Is Interested

09.19.2017MIT Technology Review There’s often a disconnect between the pace at which professional investors want to recoup their money and the long lead time that technology companies in sectors like biotechnology and energy need to generate consistent revenue.

MIT’s $200M Venture Fund Invests In 7 Startups In Energy, Space And Smell

09.19.2017Forbes MIT’s big money venture fund for “tough tech” has opened its doors — and has announced its initial seven investments in areas ranging from alternative energy to space communications.

This New System Helps Bioengineering Happen 10,000 Times Faster

09.19.2017Fast Company When researchers genetically engineer bacteria or yeast to solve a problem–creating bacteria that can eat plastic trash or make biofuel or insulin, or yeast that can make milk and cheese in a lab without a cow–one of the first steps can be the hardest: getting new DNA into a cell.

A company that wants to use ultrasounds to deliver drugs just raised money from MIT’s new $200 million venture fund

09.19.2017Business Insider A company that's come up with a way to deliver drugs using ultrasounds just became the first biotech to get funding from MIT's new $200 million* venture fund.

7 startups given MIT funds for tech ideas

09.19.2017Boston Herald Seven startups scored investments from an MIT initiative meant to secure funding for “breakthrough ideas” to develop technology in areas such as artificial intelligence, renewable energy and data obtained from outer space.

MIT’s new investing Engine raises $200 million

09.19.2017Boston Globe When the founders of Analytical Space first visited venture capitalists in an attempt to raise money for their project aimed at improving satellite communication, they ran into a common obstacle for startups taking on complicated technological issues.

MIT’s The Engine names first investments, grows fund

09.19.2017Boston Business Journal MIT's The Engine on Tuesday announced the first seven companies in its program, kicking off an ambitious experiment in patient investing.

MIT Reveals the First 7 ‘Hard Tech’ Startups in The Engine’s $200M Fund

09.19.2017BostInno MIT’s grand experiment in high-tech startup investing has officially begun.

MIT Venture Fund Backs Startups in Biotech, Renewable Energy

09.19.2017Bloomberg A venture fund started by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology called The Engine has financed its first seven companies after raising $200 million from investors.

MIT’s The Engine drives tech startups to market

09.19.2017American Business Journal A venture capital fund backed by MIT has raised $200 million to support start-up technologies that can be a tough sell to investors — projects that traditional VC firms consider too risky because they take too long to bring to market.

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