FDA approvals, acquisitions, a nod to the United Nations and a Time100 honor. Here’s what some innovative members of the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship community have been up to this year.
Biobot Analytics
The wastewater analytics company co-founded by Mariana Matus, PhD ’18, was named one of Time’s Most Influential Companies of 2022. Biobot Analytics started in 2017 with the idea of sampling, testing and to analyze municipal wastewater. In May, Biobot Analytics joined the US Centers for Disease Control’s National Wastewater Surveillance System, which tracks COVID-19 in wastewater. In September, the company announced it was relaunching a branch of its platform that helps municipalities measure opioids in wastewater.
Congolese clothes
Congo Clothing donates 10% of its profits to improve the skills of victims of rape and other violent sexual abuse through a partnership with Panzi Hospital in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Co-founded by Milain Fayulu, SM ’22, Congo Clothing was mentioned in a United Nations white paper on conflict-related sexual violence for “respectfully using its platform to speak out about CRSV in a matter that reduces stigma and promotes empowerment initiatives and livelihood support for survivors.
Iterative scopes
Iterative Scopes uses machine learning and computational detection tools to help doctors detect signs of colon cancer. Founded by Jonathan Ng, SB ’12, the company closed a $150 million Series B funding round this year and received FDA clearance for its AI-assisted SKOUT tool for detecting polyps colorectal.
Mori
Formerly Cambridge Crops, Mori is a food technology company that uses a water-based coating made from silk protein to preserve food longer. Adam Behrens, PhD ’15, founded the company in 2018 with a mission to reduce food waste. In 2022, Mori closed a $50 million Series B funding round. It’s also a portfolio company at The Engine, a tough tech venture capital firm founded by MIT.
Simplified
Andrea Ippolito, SM ’12, started SimpliFed in 2019 to democratize access to baby feeding services and provide telehealth support for people breastfeeding their babies. Ippolito raised $6 million in a seed round in 2022. In an interview, she said she was juggling her own pumping logistics for her second daughter while working on the seed round.
Solstice Energy Technologies
Solstice connects communities with developers who build solar gardens and onboard and manage solar power customers through a digital platform. Sandhya Murali, MBA ’15, and Steph Speirs, MBA ’17, are among the founders. Solstice was acquired by MyPower Corp. in October 2022.
Peak
The analytics startup was acquired by Bain in February. Founded by Juan Pablo Garcia, SM ’17, Spike provides machine learning solutions to businesses across a variety of industries. The acquisition of Chile-based Spike will help Bain’s innovation efforts in South America, the company said in a press release.
Traflo
Khalid David, MBA ’19, grew up in a construction family, so he was familiar with the difficulties of getting everyone involved in a project on the same page. To solve this problem, in 2014 David created Tracflo, a real-time cost tracking platform. By the end of 2022, Tracflo had processed over $17 million in change orders on 318 projects.
VideaHealth
VideaHealth’s AI technology is designed to help dentists more accurately detect and diagnose cavities. The company, founded by Florian Hillen, SM ’18, raised $20 million in Series A funding in 2022; in May, VideaHealth’s cavity detection algorithm received FDA clearance.
To learn more about these alumni and startups, read the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship’s 2022 Annual Report.