Massachusetts Technology Development Corporation

The START Expansion

Boston, MA

Venture Challenge

Federal Share: $1,000,688
Local Match: $7,021,102

The mission of Massachusetts Technology Development Corporation (d/b/a MassVentures) is to support the early-stage ecosystem across Massachusetts by providing technical assistance and filling capital gaps with seed stage equity investments and seed stage grants. MassVentures is uniquely positioned to support early stage entrepreneurs with over 40 years of Venture Development Organization (VDO) success across more than 150 venture investments and eight years of SBIR Targeted Technologies (“START”) success over 74 grantees. The MassVentures START program is a grant program for Massachusetts based companies that have received SBIR/STTR phase II grants. MassVentures provides technical assistance and nondilutive capital to help convert research to new jobs and businesses. The START program addresses the underfunded “tough tech” gap across the Commonwealth. These SBIR/STTR funded companies are often based in research centers outside of Boston/Cambridge and are largely ignored by early stage venture capitalist and angel investors.