Ventures | MITdesignX - MITdesignX

DesignX Summer 2019 DesignX 2020

Head in the Clouds

Redefining Parisian rooftops

Real time lip-reading technology to assist deaf and hard-of-hearing people to communicate in noisy environments.

Creating beauty and value from Olive wood waste

The Mākit Project

innovative educational project-based learning programs that build impactful mentorship relationships for children from disadvantaged communities

Live Large in Small Space

Turn-key services for home maintenance.

Assuring water quantity and quality for households in Palestine and other developing countries.

Enabling low income workers in India to make insightful seasonal migration decisions for employment, housing and transportation.

Decoding human behavior in physical spaces to enable customer knowledge

A business-to-consumer company that will help homeowners save their architectural histories using digital fabrication.

A marketplace digitalization of informal economies operating in low income environments

Creating a world where every building makes us healthier

Zilper Trenchless

A novel machine for installing pipelines in urban environments without digging trenches.

A social enterprise that matches empty nesters with graduate students to provide housing and social solutions.

Software algorithms to turn simple pictures into intelligent 3D models for design and renovation.

Technology to identify, design and develop neighborhood-scale housing with the efficiencies of larger development.

LearningBeautiful

Creating Montessori-inspired toys for young children to learn computer science-without using computers.

A space utilization analytics company helping managers of physical space maximize the utility of their assets through automated monitoring.

Biobot Analytics

Measuring the concentration of drugs that are excreted in urine and collected in sewers and mapping this data to empower communities to tackle the opioid epidemic in real time.

Transforming public buses into vehicles of urban exploration by employing audio-augmented reality on smartphones.

Capturing and converting aerial imagery into digital CAD plans for site surveys and construction monitoring.

Revolutionary new financing model for homeownership that allows a greater cross section of society to engage in the housing market.

Connecting infrastructure providers with people living in informal communities in the developing world.

Software to help commercial real estate investors, brokers, and lenders make data-driven investment decisions based on planning and environmental trends and forecasts.

Empowering creative communities in cities by transforming vacant and underutilized buildings into collective and collaborative artist studios and gallery space.

Next generation all-weather boot sold direct-to-consumer.

Real-time diagnostic "smart tattoo" for human skin to monitor levels of blood analytes like glucose, sodium, potassium, albumin, and others such as those found on a basic blood panel.

Physical and digital interface to influence and record your dreams.

Public space infrastructure for disaster resilience and response.

Early childhood learning environment furniture in rural and developing parts of India.

AI-enabled adaptive environment for improving yields in indoor agriculture.

MIT Accelerating Innovation in Design, Cities, and the Built Environemnt

Head in the Clouds Redefining Parisian rooftops

LipifAI Real time lip-reading technology to assist deaf and hard-of-hearing people to communicate in noisy environments.

Oud Creating beauty and value from Olive wood waste

The Mākit Project innovative educational project-based learning programs that build impactful mentorship relationships for children from disadvantaged communities

TULU Live Large in Small Space

QuiX Turn-key services for home maintenance.

WATAsolution Assuring water quantity and quality for households in Palestine and other developing countries.

Bandhu’ Enabling low income workers in India to make insightful seasonal migration decisions for employment, housing and transportation.

PlaceInt Decoding human behavior in physical spaces to enable customer knowledge

Ogee! A business-to-consumer company that will help homeowners save their architectural histories using digital fabrication.

Quipu A marketplace digitalization of informal economies operating in low income environments

Spatio Metrics Creating a world where every building makes us healthier

Zilper Trenchless A novel machine for installing pipelines in urban environments without digging trenches.

Nesterly A social enterprise that matches empty nesters with graduate students to provide housing and social solutions.

HostaLabs Software algorithms to turn simple pictures into intelligent 3D models for design and renovation.

Placeful Technology to identify, design and develop neighborhood-scale housing with the efficiencies of larger development.

LearningBeautiful Creating Montessori-inspired toys for young children to learn computer science-without using computers.

Bitsence A space utilization analytics company helping managers of physical space maximize the utility of their assets through automated monitoring.

Biobot Analytics Measuring the concentration of drugs that are excreted in urine and collected in sewers and mapping this data to empower communities to tackle the opioid epidemic in real time.

Alight Transforming public buses into vehicles of urban exploration by employing audio-augmented reality on smartphones.

Airworks Capturing and converting aerial imagery into digital CAD plans for site surveys and construction monitoring.

Frolic Revolutionary new financing model for homeownership that allows a greater cross section of society to engage in the housing market.

Kawsay Connecting infrastructure providers with people living in informal communities in the developing world.

predictRE Software to help commercial real estate investors, brokers, and lenders make data-driven investment decisions based on planning and environmental trends and forecasts.

Spaceus Empowering creative communities in cities by transforming vacant and underutilized buildings into collective and collaborative artist studios and gallery space.

Season Three Next generation all-weather boot sold direct-to-consumer.

SkinPixel Real-time diagnostic "smart tattoo" for human skin to monitor levels of blood analytes like glucose, sodium, potassium, albumin, and others such as those found on a basic blood panel.

Dormio Physical and digital interface to influence and record your dreams.

PREPHub Public space infrastructure for disaster resilience and response.

Credi Early childhood learning environment furniture in rural and developing parts of India.

Adaviv AI-enabled adaptive environment for improving yields in indoor agriculture.

2020 Cohort now in session Stay tuned for updates from our newest startups.

Pitch and Demo Night postponed to September 2020 Due to the current global situation, our pitch and demo night will be held in the Fall. In the meantime our cohort is hard at work on their ventures. Stay tuned!

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news 02.04.2020

AirWorks named one of Boston’s “50 Startups to Watch in 2020”

AirWorks, alum of the 2018 MITdesignX cohort, is listed among Built In Boston’s 50 Startups to watch this year. Read the list here: https://tinyurl.com/s8yxjsq

news 02.04.2020

Biobot Analytics listed on New York Times’ 2019 “Good Tech Awards”

MITdesignX 2017 alum, Biobot Analytics, has been listed on the New York Times’ 2019 “Good Tech Awards”, in recognition of their work tackling the opioid crisis. Read more.

news 02.04.2020

SpaceUs discusses the future of artists spaces with Fast Company

A wonderful feature on SpaceUs, an MITdesignX 2018 alum, and the future of artist spaces. Read more.

news 02.04.2020

Season Three founders discuss brand building with Forbes

Season Three, graduates of the MITdesignX 2018 cohort, are interviewed about their unique branding strategy. Read more.

news 12.03.2019

MITdesignX alum Lipifai featured on list of upcoming assistive tech in Israel

Lipifai, an alum of MITdesignX cohort 2019, is featured on a list of burgeoning, Israeli-based assistive tech. Read more.

news 07.29.2019

MITdesignX Faculty Director’s firm designs new marine city in China

Professor Dennis Frenchman and his firm, Tekuma Frenchman, win competition to reimagine the waterfront in Shenzhen, China. Read more at MIT NEWS

news 07.24.2019

Nesterly CEO interviewed by NPR to discuss housing crisis

Nesterly (MITdesignX cohort 2017) CEO Noelle Marcus discusses the global housing crisis through the lens of renters and senior homeowners.

news 06.28.2019

Zilper Trenchless highlighted in The Buzz

A member of the 2019 MITdesignX cohort, Zilper Trenchless is highlighted in The Buzz. Read more about their history and their future here.

news 06.07.2019

MITdesignX highlighted as source for design entrepreneurs in Architect Magazine

MITdesignX’s curriculum is highlighted in this May Architect Magazine’s survey of entrepreneurs in the building industry. Read more.

news 05.24.2019

Nesterly featured in Wall Street Journal article on innovations in urban senior living

news 04.10.2019

Zilper Trenchless wins prizes at Rice University Business Plan Competition

MITdesignX 2019 venture Zilper Trenchless wins multiple cash prizes at the annual Rice Business Plan Competition. In total, they won $435,000. Read more.

news 04.10.2019

MET Fund launched to support MITdesignX

Seed fund will support venture-design education and entrepreneurship in the School of Architecture and Planning. Read more.

news 03.27.2019

Zilper Trenchless inducted into Imagine H2O’s 10th annual accelerator

MITdesignX 2019 venture Zilper Trenchless has been accepted into Imagine H20 2019’s cohort. They also received the Audience Choice Award at Imagine H2O Demo Day.

news 03.21.2019

Storefronts go from empty to artistic

Spaceus, MITdesignX 2018 alums, are among those featured in this article on transforming empty storefronts in Massachusetts.

news 03.19.2019

Rethinking What Makes a Great Roommate

MITdesignX venture Nesterly (Cohort 2017) is featured in this AARP article:

news 03.07.2019

Israeli and Palestinian architects and planners seek common ground on innovation, entrepreneurship

press 02.01.2019

Cohort 2018 team AirWorks raises $2.3M seed round

press 12.04.2018

MITdesignX Selects New Cohort: Nine multi-disciplinary teams join MIT’s design entrepreneurship accelerator

press 07.31.2018

This MIT Startup, AirWorks, Aims To Be The Top Aerial Data Analytics Service For Construction Firms

press 07.19.2018

Seniors have too much house. Millennials have none. And a business model is born.

MITdesignX Cohort 2017 start-up nesterly featured in the Globe and Mail:

press 06.25.2018

Scientists can track the spread of opioids in sewers. But do cities want to know what lies below?

Biobot helps cities transform sewage into actionable public health data to tackle the opioid crisis.

press 04.21.2018

Inside MIT’s Future Factory

Cohort 2018 startup Dormio featured on 60 Minutes:

news 05.11.2017

How Startup Accelerator DesignX Turns Architecture Students into Entrepreneurs

2020 Cohort

Daisha Martin

Manny Velazco

Takanori Kakishita

Carolyn Yang

Natasha Sadikin

Twitter

Website

Kloe Ng

Yu Qian Ang

Head in the Clouds

Tim Cousin

Olivier Faber

Eytan Levi

Jeremy Bilotti

David Rosenwasser

Daniel Acheampong

Michael Stradley

Maria Esteban Casanas

Nicholas Kelly

Anson Stewart

Thomas White

Osamu Kumasaka

Kelly Leilani Main

Website

Vardhan Mehta

Dries Carmeliet

Alex Berke

Thomas Sanchez

2019 Cohort

Karthikeyan Raman

Rushil Palavajjhala

Dharmaraj Solanki

Jacob Kohn

Website

Twitter

Facebook

Linkedin

Chaoyun Wu

Wenzhe Peng

Ricardo Alvarez

Fabio Duarte

Penny Zheng

Bill Cai

Zhoutong Wang

Web

Darren Bennett

Web

Instagram

Mercedes Bidart

Gonzalo Ortega

Juan Cristobal Constain

Jonathan Laguna

Francisco Susmel

Website

Twitter

Instagram

Sonal Singh

Jim Peraino

Chandra Christmas-Rouse

Dasjon Jordan

Stefan Dienstag

Rhett James

Website

Twitter

Daniel Zillante

Robert Zillante

Rahul Agarwal

Luis Alayon

2018 Cohort

Web

Twitter

Facebook

Instagram

Yael Shemer

Yishai Lehavi

Web

Candy Yang

David Wang

Scott Middleton

Web

Twitter

David Morczinek

Adam Kersnowski

Norhan Bayomi

Mia Petkova

Shaurya Agarwal

Maxim Doubenski

Tamara Knox

Joshua Morrison

Web

Alexander Wiegering

Andrew Brose

Sofia Garcia

Mario Giampieri

Web

Michael Pearce

Web

Instagram

Twitter

Stephanie Lee

Ellen Shakespear

Web

Instagram

Jared Johnson

Adam Klein

Web

Nikita Obidin

Nicholas Barry

Web

Adam Haar Horowitz

Pedro Reynolds-Cuéllar

Ishaan Grover

Web

Miho Mazereeuw

Saeko Nomura Baird

Aditya Barve

David Moses

Web

Twitter

Ian Seiferling

Thomas Matarazzo

Julian Ortiz

Mohammad Vazifeh

2017 Cohort

Web

Twitter

Instagram

Facebook

Noelle Marcus

Web

Rachelle Villalon

Jose Pacheco

Daniel Fink

David Birge

Elise Selinger

Web

Instagram

Kimberly Smith

Yonatan Cohen

Website

Cagri Zaman

Ainsley Sutherland

Web

Nissia Sabri

Ammar El Seed

Arianna Salazar

Web

Twitter

Mariana Matus

Newsha Ghaeli

Credi

Riddhi Shah

Vishesh Khetawat

2020

T-Space Improving transit stations through revolutionary retail

p(art)ner Matching developers with diverse artists and managing public art requirements

Out of the Box Mobile, modular classroom-in-a-box for learning anywhere

Head in the Clouds Redefining Parisian rooftops

Goodstuff Marketplace for sharing personal products in urban communities

Elements Design learning in a box

ECHOLocator Digital platform to improve housing and mobility choices of lower…

Buy-In Database and platform to improve government buy-out process of flood…

acelab Preconstruction intelligence for architects and manufacturers

Swarm Mobility Enhancing the sustainability, safety, and harmony of urban streets with…

2019

LipifAI Real time lip-reading technology to assist deaf and hard-of-hearing people…

Oud Creating beauty and value from Olive wood waste

The Mākit Project innovative educational project-based learning programs that build impactful mentorship relationships…

Bandhu’ Enabling low income workers in India to make insightful seasonal…

DomusAI An AI-powered system that generates customizable interior designs, cost estimation,…

PlaceInt Decoding human behavior in physical spaces to enable customer knowledge

Ogee! A business-to-consumer company that will help homeowners save their architectural…

Quipu A marketplace digitalization of informal economies operating in low income…

Spatio Metrics Creating a world where every building makes us healthier

Roux Supporting economic growth by connecting customers to minority owned businesses…

Stakd A flat-pack pre-fab house that can be rapidly deployed after…

Zilper Trenchless A novel machine for installing pipelines in urban environments without…

2018

TULU Live Large in Small Space

QuiX Turn-key services for home maintenance.

WATAsolution Assuring water quantity and quality for households in Palestine and…

Alight Transforming public buses into vehicles of urban exploration by employing…

Airworks Capturing and converting aerial imagery into digital CAD plans for…

Frolic Revolutionary new financing model for homeownership that allows a greater…

Kawsay Connecting infrastructure providers with people living in informal communities in…

predictRE Software to help commercial real estate investors, brokers, and lenders…

Spaceus Empowering creative communities in cities by transforming vacant and underutilized…

Season Three Next generation all-weather boot sold direct-to-consumer.

SkinPixel Real-time diagnostic "smart tattoo" for human skin to monitor levels…

Dormio Physical and digital interface to influence and record your dreams.

PREPHub Public space infrastructure for disaster resilience and response.

Adaviv AI-enabled adaptive environment for improving yields in indoor agriculture.

2017

Nesterly A social enterprise that matches empty nesters with graduate students…

HostaLabs Software algorithms to turn simple pictures into intelligent 3D models…

Placeful Technology to identify, design and develop neighborhood-scale housing with the…

LearningBeautiful Creating Montessori-inspired toys for young children to learn computer science-without…

Mediate Wearable devices for people with visual impairment.

Bitsence A space utilization analytics company helping managers of physical space…

Biobot Analytics Measuring the concentration of drugs that are excreted in urine…

Credi Early childhood learning environment furniture in rural and developing parts…

2020

2019

2018

2017

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