MassVentures Launches New Center to Support Academic Inventors and Entrepreneurs
MassVentures Academic Spinouts Center Will Support Companies Driving Innovation and Developing New Technologies at Research Institutions in the State
BOSTON (January 9, 2025) - Today, MassVentures announced the launch of the rebranded Massachusetts Academic Spinouts Center (MASC), formerly known as the Mass Tech Transfer Center, to accelerate academic spinout company formation and success. MASC will engage with the entrepreneurial ecosystem and Massachusetts’ world-class academic institutions and research labs to help inventors, researchers, and entrepreneurs to bring their innovations to market.
Academic spinouts are companies formed to commercialize inventions and technologies developed as the result of research at universities, academic medical centers and nonprofit labs. They are frequently founded by a faculty or staff member or a student affiliated with the university. Massachusetts higher education institutions and academic research hospitals invest more than $8 billion annually in research, and the state’s standing as the highest rated state in the nation for education makes it a leader in academic spinouts, with groundbreaking companies such as Moderna, Akamai, CRISPR Therapeutics, and E-Ink evolving from academic institutions in Massachusetts.
“Our academic research institutions are at the forefront of innovation and discovery,” said Economic Development Secretary Yvonne Hao. “We are excited for MassVentures to transform the Massachusetts Academic Spinouts Center into a powerful engine for growth in our innovation sector, driving advancements across multiple disciplines from AI to biotech while expanding economic activity statewide.”
“MassVentures has been an active venture investor in academic spinouts, which represent over 80 percent of our current portfolio,” said MassVentures President and CEO Charlie Hipwood. “We have supported academic founders of early-stage ventures with grant programs and are excited to continue this important work through the Massachusetts Academic Spinout Center.”
Since 2010, Massachusetts academic institutions have formed more than one thousand spinouts, including many supported by MassVentures, such as Ascend Elements, JetCool Technologies, Aclarity, AeroShield, Eden Geopower, Ginkgo Bioworks, and Emvolon. Through the MASC, MassVentures will launch initiatives to engage with institutions, investors, and service providers to strengthen Massachusetts’ leadership in forming, funding, and growing academic spinouts, and programs to assess and report spinout activity and performance at academic institutions across the state.
MASC will work closely with the Massachusetts Association of Technology Transfer Offices (MATTO), an independent association administered by MassVentures whose members comprise the tech transfer offices at nonprofit research institutions in Massachusetts. Currently, 34 institutions belong to MATTO, including universities like UMass, MIT, and Harvard; health care systems and hospitals like Beth Israel Lahey Health and Massachusetts General Hospital; and nonprofits like the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the MITRE Corporation. MATTO's mission is to promote efficient, effective transfer of knowledge and technology from academic institutions to companies that develop and bring novel products to market for the public good.
“I’m excited to bring my experience in tech transfer and startups to this important initiative,” said MassVentures Vice President and Director of MASC Myron Kassaraba. “Activating more and better spinouts across all of the state’s research institutions represents an opportunity for greater participation by inventors as founders to build lasting companies and bring their discoveries to market.”
"Having worked with hundreds of students and faculty who want to start a company based on their research, our team at Pillar VC has seen firsthand that matching incredible talent with capital and resources can help build extraordinary companies," said Jamie Goldstein, founding partner at Pillar VC. "State government efforts to further support university spinoffs will only help contribute to Massachusetts' thriving economy. Pillar VC looks forward to collaborating with MASC on accelerating academic spinout formation from local research institutions, and helping these ventures grow and succeed right here in the Bay State."
“The path to commercial success for academic stage discoveries is very often through a spinout,” said Irene Abrams, Vice President Technology Development & New Ventures at Boston Children’s Hospital. “The vibrant innovation ecosystem in Massachusetts has nourished many a Boston Children’s Hospital spinout. I’ve seen our spinouts find their first homes in local incubators, secure funding from local venture capital, partner with the biopharma companies based here to develop novel therapeutics and be acquired by pharma, often local, when they reach the clinical/commercial stage including some Children’s such as Moderna, Affinivax, Morphic Therapeutics, Casgevy. The state’s focus on supporting academic spinouts will surely lead to even greater success.”
The Legislature created the Mass Tech Transfer Center in 2003 and it was based at the University of Massachusetts until 2022, when it transferred operations to MassVentures.
Since 2020, 85 percent of the companies MassVentures has invested in have been academic spinouts. Those academic spinouts have raised approximately $2 billion in private capital and received more than $500 million in federal non-dilutive capital, and have created or retained more than 350 jobs in Massachusetts. MassVentures also supports the translation of academic research into viable businesses and jobs by managing grant programs such as the Acorn, Catalyst, and START programs, and running accelerator programs such as the Founders School and the Commercialization Accelerator.
About MassVentures
MassVentures, the state’s quasi-public venture capital agency, helps early-stage deep tech companies grow in Massachusetts. Founded in 1978, MassVentures offers capital investments, grants, business guidance, and a network of partners to help businesses succeed. MassVentures has funded more than 400 companies, created over 10,000 jobs, and leveraged over $5 billion in private capital. In addition to financial resources, MassVentures also provides strategic direction, operational support, and enhances the success of their portfolio companies. For more information visit www.mass-ventures.com.
###