Meet 10 of the 125 startups competing for the MassChallenge prize
The Boston-based nonprofit, MassChallenge bills itself as “the world’s largest startup competition”. The current accelerator started on June 27th and runs through the end of September. Final judging takes place in October and 10-20 winners will split $1 million in awards.
MassChallenge is a very special kind of accelerator program, as it is both an independent non-profit and does not take equity. The competition is open to anyone in the world, with any new startup, in any industry. Stay tuned for our full story on the making of MassChallenge and our interview with its founder and CEO John Harthorne this weekend.
“Based in the heart of Boston’s Innovation District, MassChallenge is helping ensure that Boston continues to deliver revolutionary results for the benefit of the local ecosystem, the country and the rest of the world.”
- Thomas M. Menino, Mayor of Boston
Chosen out of 733 applications from 24 countries, MassChallenge’s second class of startups is composed of 125 teams that share 27,000 square feet of a beautiful office space on the Boston waterfront. We’ve tracked down 10 of the most interesting startups that will present at next Tuesday’s Startup Showcase in Boston. Meet them here:
1. Artaic
Artaic creates custom tile mosaics using robotic manufacturing and computer aided design systems. Artaic aims to revolutionize the design and fabrication of the ancient mosaic art form through ‘mass customization’. While traditional mosaic building is an exacting, time-consuming process, Artaic’s patent-pending robotic precision manufacturing and computer aided design systems drive the production of large-scale and high volume mosaics with speed, ease, flexibility and value. The team has commissioned projects from the largest Legal Seafood restaurant in Boston as well as a 330 square foot custom mosaic for the MIT Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research. Much as custom print technology revolutionized the carpet industry 30 years ago, Artaic now plans to revolutionize the $76 billion global tile industry.
Check out this custom backlit mosaic below and watch this video to see it in action. And cheers to Artaic for their good taste in music. The Pimps of Joytime rule.
View the full article on thenextweb.com