2020 Best Tech Startups in Cambridge
The Tech Tribune staff has compiled the very best tech startups in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In doing our research, we considered several factors including but not limited to:
- Revenue potential
- Leadership team
- Brand/product traction
- Competitive landscape
Additionally, all companies must be independent (unacquired), privately owned, at most 10 years old, and have received at least one round of funding in order to qualify.
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1. Cambridge Mobile Telematics
Founded: 2010
Also honored in:
“Cambridge Mobile Telematics (CMT) pioneered telematics for usage-based and behavior-based programs making roads and drivers safer around the world. Founded in 2010 by two MIT professors, CMT’s accomplished team of expert scientists and experienced entrepreneurs developed DriveWell, an advanced mobile-sensing and big data platform delivering an end-to-end smartphone telematics solution. DriveWell provides valuable feedback to users, helping them to improve driving performance and become more aware of unsafe behaviors.
DriveWell is the first telematics platform in the industry to provide both traditional vehicle-centric, usage-based-insurance (UBI) and driver-centric, behavior-based insurance (BBI) solutions. Through the DriveWell program, CMT’s partners can easily measure mileage, time of day, roadways and risky driving behaviors – giving them a complete picture of every trip and allowing them to segment high-risk vs low-risk customers easily.”
2. NuoDB
Founded: 2010
Also honored in:
“NuoDB addresses a seemingly impossible problem: Build a database suitable for mission-critical workloads – maintaining both SQL capabilities and full ACID compliance – while simultaneously delivering global access, on-demand scalability, and cloud- or container-based deployment.
In short, become the only database that can maintain transactional consistency and integrity at global scale.”
3. nference
Founded: 2013
“Powered by its artificial intelligence software platform, nferX, nference’s mission is to synthesize the exponentially growing biomedical knowledge. nferX uses state-of-the-art neural networks (shallow and deep learning models) for real-time, automated extraction of knowledge from the commercial, scientific and regulatory body of literature. The platform enables a diverse set of applications ranging from R&D to commercial strategy and operations in the life sciences ecosystem. The long-term goal of the nferX platform is to become the connecting fabric of the various silos of information that exist across health care. Founded by Murali Aravamudan and Venky Soundararajan, Ph.D., nference is led by a multidisciplinary team of serial entrepreneurs from the tech and biotech worlds and PhDs in Biology/Genomics from MIT and Harvard Medical School. The investors in nference are Matrix Partners, Matrix Capital Management and Mayo Clinic Ventures.”
4. MineralTree
Founded: 2010
“MineralTree provides the easiest to use Accounts Payable (AP) and Payment Automation solutions for finance professionals. MineralTree streamlines AP, giving customers unparalleled visibility and significant cost savings in an affordable, integrated platform that is guaranteed secure. For more information visit www.mineraltree.com.”
5. Tamr
Founded: 2012
Also honored in:
“With a co-founding team led by Andy Palmer (founding CEO of Vertica) and Mike Stonebraker (Turing Award winner) and backed by investors including NEA, Google Ventures, and GE Ventures, Tamr is transforming how companies get value from their data. Tamr is the enterprise-scale data unification company trusted by industry leaders like GE, Toyota, Thomson Reuters, and GSK. The company’s patented software platform uses machine learning supplemented by human expertise to unify and prepare data across myriad silos to deliver previously unavailable business-changing insights.”
6. Sense
Founded: 2013
Also honored in:
“Sense’s mission is to make all homes intelligent by keeping people informed about what’s happening in their homes, and helping to make them safer, more efficient, and more reliable.
Sense was born from the simple idea that people should know what’s happening in their homes. We track calories, footsteps, mpg — yet we know so little about the place where we spend so much time. Energy efficiency and home automation begin with information. We built the Sense home energy monitor to provide people with information about their homes in the simplest, most useful way possible.”
7. TriNetX
Founded: 2013
“TriNetX is the global health research network that optimizes clinical research and enables discoveries through the creation of real-world evidence. TriNetX combines real-time access to longitudinal clinical data with state-of-the-art analytics to answer complex research questions at the speed of thought.”
8. 24M Technologies
Founded: 2010
Also honored in: 2019 Best Tech Startups in Cambridge
“24M is solving the grand challenge of energy storage with the invention of a semisolid lithium-ion battery cell, a revolutionary technology for the architects of our energy future.
24M answers the world’s need for affordable energy storage by enabling a new, cost-effective version of the lithium-ion battery – powered by semisolid lithium-ion technology. By upending the design of the battery cell, as well as how the batteries are made, the company solves the critical, twenty-five-year-old challenge associated with the world’s preferred form of energy storage: reducing its high cost while maintaining its strengths.”
9. Hydrow
Founded: 2017
“Hydrow is the Live Outdoor Reality (LOR)™ rower. With workouts led by world-class athletes, including some training for the U.S. National Rowing team, Hydrow delivers a live on-river rowing experience at-home that engages two times more of the body’s muscles than biking or running. Now more than ever, people’s over-scheduled, stressful lives leave little time for meaningful exercise and the soul-enriching opportunity to spend time outdoors. Hydrow’s innovative LOR technology brings balance and peace, while simultaneously delivering a challenging workout that burns up to 400 calories per 20 minute session.”
10. CollegeVine
Founded: 2013
“If you’re like one of the 10,000+ students we’ve worked with, you probably have a long list of questions about the college admissions process and are unsure where to find the right answers.
We know that college is a high-stakes decision for most families, which is why we’re working to provide students with the most helpful information to navigate high school and college admissions.”