As MassChallenge, a Boston-based $1 million global start-up competition and accelerator designed to catalyze the success of high-growth, high-impact new businesses, closes in on the October graduation of its 2011 class, we’d be remiss not to highlight the achievements of the class of 2010.
According to a recent press release, in the last 12 months, the 111 Finalists from the first-ever MassChallenge accelerator program have raised over $90 Million in outside funding and have created nearly 500 new jobs. These start-ups represent all industries and levels of development within the early-stage spectrum and with several hundred promising young start-ups in the mix, MassChallenge organizers expect a significant acceleration of growth and job creation over the next 24 months.
Although terms weren’t disclosed, Ksplice, a 2010 MassChallenge winner, was acquired by Oracle last month , marking the first exit of a MassChallenge-supported start-up.
There are a number of fantastic incubator programs in the Boston area, but it’s worth noting that MassChallenge-supported start-ups are extremely satisfied customers. Following the 2010 program, MassChallenge asked the 111 finalists how likely they were to recommend MassChallenge to other start-ups on a scale of 0-10. Nearly 80% answered 9 or 10, and less than 1% answered 6 or lower, resulting in a “net promoter score” of 87.3%!
The MassChallenge competition is open to anyone in the world, with any new start-up, in any industry. There were 733 entrants from 24 countries in 2011.
This post was authored by Ryan Sansom.