The Engine Report 2019 & 2020

The past two years have shown us just how widespread and systematic the challenges we face are, and why the time to tackle them is now.

Core to our mission is helping incredible founders, ideas, and companies scale. To create lasting impact for the world, we must reach everyone.

Katie Rae CEO & Managing Partner, The Engine

The Engine was spun out of MIT in 2016 with the purpose of supporting startups poised to create a material positive impact on society and the environment. Our 2019 & 2020 Report looks back on the progress our portfolio has made tackling climate change, developing breakthroughs for human health, and creating advanced systems and infrastructure. It also details the initiatives we’ve created to help founders and the broader Tough Tech ecosystem thrive.

The two years since our last report have been defined by a pandemic that has only served to sharpen our collective sense of urgency to discover and commercialize Tough Tech companies. These years serve as a reminder of why we must continue to create the frameworks to support those who are solving massive problems through the convergence of science and technology.

The Engine Team

Download the report

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

A blueprint for peace and prosperity.

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) were established in 2015 as a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future. They have since been adopted by all UN Member States.

These 17 SDGs recognize that achieving a better and more sustainable future for all requires an integrated approach to solving a diverse set of issues together. The Engine and the companies in our portfolio mirror this approach.

Mapping The Engine’s portfolio across the UN Sustainable Development Goals:

Our portfolio companies
The Engine

	No Poverty	Reduced Inequalities	Zero Hunger	Sustainable Cities & Communities	Good Health & Well-being	Responible Consumption & Production	Quality Education	Climate Action	Gender Equality	Life Below Water	Clean Water & Sanitation	Life on Land	Affordable & Clean Energy	Peace, Justice & Strong Institutions	Decent Work & Economic Growth	Partnerships for the Goals	Industry, Innovation & Infrastructure
Boston Metal	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	Yes
Cambridge Electronics	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes
Commonwealth Fusion Systems	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Form Energy	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes
Lilac Solutions	No	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes
Quaise	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes
Syzygy Plasmonics	No	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	Yes
Via Separations	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes
Biobot Analytics	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	No
Cellino	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
E25Bio	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Kytopen	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes
Lucy Therapeutics	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Mori	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Seaspire Skincare	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No	No
Suono Bio	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Vaxess Technologies	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Analytical Space	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes
C2Sense	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes
HyperLight	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	Yes
Celestial.ai	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes
ISEE	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes
Radix Labs	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes
RISE Robotics	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes
Sync Computing	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes
The Routing Company	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes
WoHo	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes
Zapata Computing	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes

	No Poverty	Reduced Inequalities	Zero Hunger	Sustainable Cities & Communities	Good Health & Well-being	Responible Consumption & Production	Quality Education	Climate Action	Gender Equality	Life Below Water	Clean Water & Sanitation	Life on Land	Affordable & Clean Energy	Peace, Justice & Strong Institutions	Decent Work & Economic Growth	Partnerships for the Goals	Industry, Innovation & Infrastructure
Fostering Entrepreneurship in Science & Technology
Blueprint	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No
Provocations	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes
Tough Tech Summit	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Marketing & Thought Leadership	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No
Tough Tech Publications	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Regional Development
Space & Infrastructure	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Talent	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	Yes
Encouraging Commercialization of Tough Tech
The Engine Network	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No
Government & Policy	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
The Engine Fund	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
The Engine Founders Programming	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	No
Capital Stack	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No

The Engine Initiatives

It’s our job to make it easier for Tough Tech to change the world.

The thriving and exciting young companies launched by The Engine are thrilling endorsements of its founding insight: that many promising ‘tough’ technologies need steady, long-term support to bridge the gap between idea and societal impact. Each new founder, collaboration, idea and investment helps bring our dream of an ‘innovation orchard’ to life – and brings the world closer to the kinds of breakthroughs our society needs the most.

L. Rafael Reif MIT President

Fostering Entrepreneurship Within Science & Technology

Initiatives

Blueprint
The Engine Provocations
Tough Tech Summit
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Thought Leadership

The Engine’s investments are driven by a mandate, not a particular vertical. I’m constantly using the interdisciplinary nature of the community to our benefit.

Shreya Dave CEO & Co-Founder, Via Separations

Regional Development

Initiatives

Space & Infrastructure
The Engine Expansion
Talent

As COVID-19 hit, we had just closed our first round of funding. The entire team at The Engine worked with us at that moment to help us pivot to monitoring the pandemic. They stepped in and helped us grow from a team of five people to a team of 30-plus.

Mariana Matus CEO & Co-Founder, Biobot Analytics

Encouraging Commercialization of Tough Tech

Initiatives

The Engine Network
Government & Policy
The Engine Fund
The Tough Tech Capital Stack

As our lead investor in the seed round, The Engine was instrumental in breaking down apprehensions from other investors in joining our cause. That was a pivotal moment that enabled the company to take its first steps away from the lab and into the commercial journey ahead.

Carlos Araque CEO & Co-Founder, Quaise

The Engine Portfolio Company Highlights

This is what Tough Tech looks like.

The Engine provides infinitely more than investment. You have a group of companies that are vibrating at the same wavelength, aligned to the same macro trends and same goals. We are working together in a way — we have the same greater purpose.

Tadeu Carneiro CEO, Boston Metal

Climate change
Human health
Advanced systems & infrastructure

Decarbonizing every industrial process.

Via Separations’ graphene oxide membrane platform can help industries like pulp & paper, chemical manufacturing, semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, and food & beverage eliminate thermal separation.

We're going to touch every product that a person uses in their day — eliminating thermal separations enables a higher quality of life for the globe.

Shreya Dave CEO & Co-Founder, Via Separations

Industrial thermal separations for 12% of all U.S. energy consumption (roughly the same amount of energy as all the gasoline used for transportation in the U.S.)

Green steel with zero greenhouse gas emissions.

Boston Metal’s unique steel making process can help decarbonize a sector that contributes nearly 8% of all global CO2 emissions.

Every bridge, every building — everything we build — all the appliances you have at home — everything needs steel.

Tadeu Carneiro CEO, Boston Metal

Zero-emissions production of steel and alloys at competitive prices.

Zero water waste.
Zero reagents used in processing.
Modular and scalable steel production is less expensive than traditional blast furnaces.

Creating safe, unlimited, carbon-free fusion power for the grid in 10-15 years.

Commonwealth Fusion Systems is using revolutionary new materials and technologies to develop a fusion machine that is smaller, easier to build, and easier to deploy than any other system under development.

Fusion is clean energy to power the planet and combat climate change:

Inexhaustible fuel supply
Zero carbon
No threat of meltdown
Dispatchable
Non long-lived waste

Imagine the world in 2050. Our vision is for 10,000 zero carbon ARC fusion power plants delivering electricity to the grid globally, meeting 20% of humanity’s demand.

Bob Mumgaard CEO & Co-Founder, Commonwealth Fusion Systems

The Engine portfolio companies in Climate Change:: Boston Metal; Cambridge Electronics; Commonwealth Fusion Systems; Form Energy; Lilac Solutions; Quaise; Syzygy Plasmonics; VEIR; Via Separations

Automating personalized medicine to cure our toughest diseases.

Cellino automates the engineering of induced stem cells using label-free imaging and high-speed laser editing. This approach allows thousands of patient samples to be processed in parallel in a single facility.

What happens if cells go awry and stop doing their important jobs? Patients develop diseases such as Parkinson’s, chronic heart disease diabetes, or even blindness. Cellino is working on cell-based therapies to prevent and reverse these debilitating diseases.

Nabiha Saklayen CEO & Co-Founder, Cellino

Cellino’s Unique Multidisciplinary Approach

Manufacturing tissues with single-cell precision

A Venn Diagram showing where stem cell biology, machine learning, and laser physics overlap.

Making vaccines radically more effective and accessible via a shelf-stable patch.

Vaxess Technologies is producing patch-based therapies that are shelf-stable, easily administered, and proven to be more effective than those administered traditionally. MIMIX™ smart-release therapies can be used across a range of different products, from small molecules to vaccines.

The company is working on a long term solution to addressing COVID as it transitions from a pandemic to an endemic concern. We believe there will be a need for a regular seasonal vaccination. Our approach to addressing this is to combine a seasonal flu vaccine and COVID vaccine in a single, shelf-stable dose.

Michael Schrader CEO & Co-Founder, Vaxess Technologies

The MIMIX smart-release patch painlessly delivers therapies that mimic infections to produce a powerful and durable immune response.

The Vaxess Technologies MIMIX microneedle patch and applicator.

A natural coating that reduces food spoilage and packaging waste.

Mori is pioneering a natural water-based coating that preserves the freshness of food. It’s tasteless and invisible, and can be applied to everything from fresh-cut produce to proteins like meat and fish. The coating dramatically extends shelf life by slowing the exchange of gases that cause decay.

Natural coating slows the spoilage of produce and protein by 25%-100% without the need for single-use packaging.

Seamlessly integrates with existing supply chain processes.

We produce enough food to feed the world — the ability to extend shelf life, and ensure a resilient food supply chain, can help us all have access to food that is healthy and safe.

Adam Behrens CEO & Co-Founder, Mori

The Engine portfolio companies in Human Health:: Biobot Analytics; Cellino; E25Bio; Kytopen; Lucy Therapeutics; Mori; Seaspire Skincare; Suono Bio; Vaxess Technologies

Redefining the possibilities of the world’s communication infrastructure with ultra-high-speed, low-power circuits.

HyperLight has developed chip-scale electro-optic modulators, the first of their kind anywhere in the world. These chips will make the connections between data centers, industries, offices, and homes faster and more capable.

The demand for data is not slowing down. It’s accelerating, and we expect that demand to keep growing, driven by the rapid evolution of AI and other data-intensive platforms.

Mian Zhang CEO & Co-Founder, HyperLight

Reducing data center power consumption by up to 30% by harnessing the superior properties of lithium niobate

Quantum software to solve our most complex problems.

The team at Zapata Computing writes algorithms that harness the power of quantum computing to help predict and simulate some of the universe’s most complex interactions, such as the behavior of molecules at an atomic level. When used in tandem with quantum hardware, these algorithms have practical industrial applications, like the optimization of supply chains and travel routes, or the prediction of drug efficacy before compounds are even synthesized in the lab.

I deeply believe that quantum software will affect all of humanity. Many of the big problems that we need to solve require the type of predictive modeling quantum computing excels at — things like climate change, global pandemic response, anything that involves massive models.

Christopher Savoie CEO & Co-Founder, Zapata Computing

497 peer-reviewed quantum information publications
Problem types:
- Optimization
- AI/ML
- Chemistry
- Simulation & Modeling
Industries
- Aerospace & Automotive
- Biopharma
- Finance & Investing
- Logistics
- Materials
- Oil & Gas

Changing how we design and construct our world.

WoHo is transforming the way spaces are conceived and created. The company integrates architectural design, engineering, and construction into a single, streamlined platform to quickly build resilient, sustainable, high-rise buildings.

WoHo is building the new generation of intelligent, safe, and sustainable spaces. We are raising the standards and expectations for how buildings are created. WoHo is changing how we design and construct our world — so that everyone wins.

Israel Ruiz CEO & Co-Founder, WoHo

Reducing
construction costs 20%+
Shrinking
delivery time by 50%
Reducing ecological footprint of buildings by 70%

The Engine portfolio companies in Advanced Systems & Infrastructure:: Analytical Space; C2Sense; Celestial.ai; HyperLight; ISEE; Radix Labs; RISE Robotics; Sync Computing; The Routing Company; WoHo; Zapata Computing

Building long duration energy storage systems that will enable a 100% renewable grid. Utility-scale renewable energy storage can only deliver power for up to 4 hours. Creating safe, unlimited, carbon-free fusion power for the grid in 10-15 years. Energy production is responsible for 25% of all GHG emissions. Decarbonizing every industrial process. Industrial thermal separations account for 12% of all U.S. energy consumption. Green steel with zero greenhouse gas emissions. Manufacturing steel produces approximately 8% of global CO2 emissions.

Producing chemicals using light to reduce 1GT of CO2 emissions by 2040. Making the chemicals that power our world emits massive amounts of CO2. Lithium extraction with a 99% smaller footprint, 90% less water usage, and 80% fewer GHG emissions. The world currently cannot meet the predicted 30X increase in demand for lithium to electrify the transportation sector. Novel gallium nitride semiconductor technology for more efficient 5G mobile devices, data centers, and electric vehicles. Sectors like 5G communications and data centers have pushed the potential of silicon to its limits. Developing millimeter wave drilling systems to unlock supercritical geothermal energy everywhere in the world. The world cannot transition away from fossil fuels with current technologies.

Automating personalized medicine to cure our toughest diseases. Diseases like diabetes, heart disease, and Parkinson’s claim nearly 750,000 lives per year in the U.S. alone. A natural coating that reduces food spoilage and packaging waste. About a third of the food produced globally is wasted. Making vaccines radically more effective and accessible via a shelf-stable patch. Often, vaccination does not provide a person with sufficient protection from disease, or the vaccine is challenging to transport, prepare and administer to people who need them, or both. Proactively identifying public health problems through sewage analysis. Many public health problems are identified only after they have spread too far.

Developing affordable, simple, and scalable disease detection tools for everyone in the world. Current testing paradigms for pandemics like COVID-19 and mosquito borne diseases are slow, inconvenient, and prone to error. Improving patients’ lives through automated cell engineering. Engineered cells hold the potential to save lives and cure some of our toughest diseases, but manufacturing them is currently a slow, laborious, and expensive process. Using a unique mitochondrial-based approach to discover new ways to treat diseases of the brain. Treatments for our most insidious neurodegenerative diseases remain elusive, even after decades of research. Pioneering a new category of multifunctional materials with extensive implications for human health and environmental safety. There is an urgent need for new products that are safe and effective at maintaining skin health in the face of environmental stressors.

Delivering drugs to the gastrointestinal tract more efficiently and effectively using a novel platform technology. Ulcerative colitis impacts almost 1M patients in the U.S. alone. Poor treatment options lead to exorbitant medication spending in excess of $10B annually. Connecting space to earth 24/7 to help us better understand and protect our world. Remote sensing satellites lack basic connectivity in orbit. We need real time imagery from space to keep the planet safe and prosperous. Changing how we design and construct our world. The housing industry is in crisis with scarcity of labor, higher prices, fragmented supply chains, and high demand. Redefining the possibilities of the world’s communication infrastructure with ultra-high-speed, low-power circuits. The data centers in and out of which all the world’s digital information flows are quickly reaching limits of speed and energy consumption.

Quantum software to solve our most complex problems. Classical computers lack the power to solve the most important problems in science and industry. Miniaturized, mobile sensing solutions for a healthier and safer world. The knowledge unlocked by invisible chemical compounds remains under-recognized, under-utilized, and under-leveraged. Creating the most impactful AI computing solutions for the benefit of humanity. AI is driving an unprecedented demand for computation right at the time that the physics of digital semiconductors is failing to continue to support Moore’s law. Powering autonomous machines that thrive alongside humans, seamlessly and safely in any environment. Autonomous vehicles cannot fully predict unexpected behavior, resulting in increased risk and slow rollouts of new technologies.

Making complex lab work radically simple by uniting scientists and lab machinery through software. Today’s biology lab is inefficient and prone to human error. Accelerating the electrification of heavy machinery with solid-state hydraulics. Heavy machinery consumes 14B gallons of diesel, resulting in 154M tons of CO2 emitted annually in the United States. Optimizing the resources at the heart of every cloud computation. The $300B global cloud computing industry is massively inefficient, contributing to tens of billions of dollars of wasted time and electricity a year. Access to affordable and convenient transportation for all. The inefficiency of public transportation drives adoption of expensive ride sharing services, leading to more traffic congestion and more time on the road for all.

The Engine Report 2019 & 2020

We hope you can join us.

Download the report Contact Us

The Engine ecosystem — and the Boston Tough Tech ecosystem at large — is full of founders and talent going through the same sort of thought processes and the experiences of building companies. You can find people that have gone through the same stage that you’re at right now as an entrepreneur, whatever that stage is.

Bob Mumgaard CEO & Co-Founder, Commonwealth Fusion Systems