Introducing Techstars Boston’s Class of 2020

Jan 23, 2020

Editor’s Note: Due to global circumstances, Demo Day information indicated in this blog post may be inaccurate. As definitive demo day dates and information are determined, updated info will reflect on the main program page

We are excited to introduce the 10 companies joining Techstars Boston in 2020 – the first class of the  second decade of Techstars Boston! We’ve selected a diverse group of companies uniquely positioned to take advantage of all the Boston entrepreneurial ecosystem has to offer, and look forward to everything the next three months has in store for these 10 companies.

Every year of our program at Techstars Boston has its own characteristics and takeaways.  For this year’s program, we have a global mix of founders and team members. But, for the first time since Techstars Boston’s inception in 2009, all of our 10 companies call the Greater Boston area home. 

There are other milestones too. Four of our companies are led by women CEOs, two have flipped the ratio and are majority women, and all boast inclusive rosters of employees. We’re also excited that the team and community supporting the 2020 program includes many Techstars Boston alumni, including a former associate, employee, and a handful of alumni founders. 

For this year’s class announcement, we wanted to shake things up. Instead of presenting a list of companies, I and the Techstars Boston team wanted to focus on how each of the participating startups represents four dominant tech sectors in Boston: Healthcare, Consumer, FinTech, and Deep Tech. Even better, in each sector, there are Techstars Boston and Techstars alumni companies who tread the path to provide advice and encouragement.

Every year, the class is selected thanks to mentors, community members, and alumni who are introducing us to amazing founding teams to support. This year we want to thank specifically Adam Blake & Max Faingezicht, Melissa Withers, Raj Aggarwal & Henry Cipolla, Mike Fenn, Will Sanchez, Jesse Bardo, Jeffrey Beir,  Kara O’Keefe, Max Blumenthal, Ty Harris & Matt Wielbut.

Healthcare

Boston is home to some of the best hospitals in the world, so it’s no wonder there is an enormous health tech ecosystem populating the city. Boston continues leading the industry, attracting $1 billion of venture capital health tech investment. Entrepreneurs and students interested in accelerating the life sciences and improving healthcare around the world flock to Boston. Our 2020 class includes three healthtech companies – one focused on accelerating drug discovery, another on accelerating access to care, and third on ensuring the transparency and predictability of clinical compensation. They can draw on the experience of Techstars alumni Careport and Ovia Health.

Kumuda

Kumuda’s powerful search platform expands  the small molecule druggable target space – predicting and identifying which proteins and pathways a molecule might work on – to efficiently push discovery efforts towards successful first-in-class drugs acting on novel targets in the clinic. This is how we will eventually be able to keep discovery ahead of drug resistance.  

Precavida

Precavida is a health tech marketplace with a personalized navigator that connects patients and healthcare services for timely, quality and affordable healthcare in Brazil and Latin America.

Statera

Statera is ushering in transparency, predictability, and simplicity to clinical compensation models.

Consumer

Boston’s strength in consumer tech might be one of our best-kept secrets. Beyond the large brands we all know like Reebok, Bose, TripAdvisor and now Wayfair, Techstars Boston counts Pill Pack and Rocket Book among its alumni. But, let’s not make this a series of name drops, let’s introduce the consumer startups in Techstars’ 2020 class.

Cobu

Living in apartment buildings can be a very isolating experience; Cobu makes it easy for residents to connect with their neighbors and neighborhood, turning apartments into homes. By creating a strong sense of community, Cobu helps leading building owners to increase resident satisfaction and retention.

S/O/S

S/O/S introduces a network of interactive retail machines that deliver essential feminine care and beauty products from today’s top brands. The machines feature a large, engaging touchscreen and serve as a visually rich advertising platform. S/O/S delivers an innovative retail experience that women can finally trust and enjoy.

FinTech

FinTech refers to innovation as meant to transform the financial services and insurance industries. Our city is no stranger to innovation in financial services, from the first mutual fund to the Ethereum blockchain. Techstars Boston alumni like OwnUp and Openly come from the financial services and insurance markets respectively, which is good for our 2020 teams who address consumer finance and commercial insurance.

Worthright

Worthright helps seniors live the life they want to live after they retire.

Wunderite

Wunderite is building next-generation software for independent insurance agencies.

Deep Tech

Boston has a reputation for solving challenging, thorny problems like hard or deep tech – we work at the cutting edge in both software and hardware solving problems with and in artificial intelligence and machine learning, robotics, space, and materials. The 2020 class certainly has a collection of startups that are utilizing complex technology in creative and/or ingenious ways. From retrieving and repurposing rare minerals from waste, to using machine learning to help creatives understand visual design that resonates with consumers, to providing a compliance and audit trail so we can all rest more assured when an enterprise uses artificial intelligence to make a decision about us.

Cortex

Cortex’s enterprise SaaS platform is designed for brands to understand their visuals in order to make better creative decisions.

Monitaur

Monitaur provides auditability, transparency and governance for companies using machine learning software.

Phoenix Tailings

Phoenix Tailings provides an innovative carbon-free environmental solution by giving new life to metals mined out of industrial waste.

And just like that, another group of entrepreneurs joins Techstars’ worldwide network and the team members who can guide and mentor them along the way. The next three months are going to be full of hard work, but there is no doubt that these teams are ready to rise to the challenge. They all represent the best of Boston tech, and the Techstars Boston team is proud to assist them in their journeys.

Jen & Clement