Westborough High-Tech Start Up Gets State Grant

WESTBOROUGH, MA—This week, the Baker-Polito Administration awarded $3.4 million to 20 innovative, early-stage, high-growth companies in Massachusetts, including Worcester. These awards, a collaboration between the MassVentures START program and the MassCEC, will help grow employment opportunities, promote manufacturing and commercialization, and stimulate innovation across the Commonwealth. Today's funding will support companies located across the Commonwealth spanning the technology sector, from robotics to clean energy to defense, according to the announcement.

Among the recipients of the START stage I program was Metamagnetics, Westborough, is commercializing Autotune Filter technology, a new approach to electromagnetic interference mitigation in communications systems ranging from 4G LTE and public safety networks to tactical datalinks and satellite communications. Metamagnetics’ solution helps reduce size, weight, and cost while improving resiliency and interoperability of wireless communications systems.

“We are delighted to continue building on the success of our previous partnership with MassVentures that allowed us to transition our self-biased circulator technology into production with thousands of units shipped this year,” said Dr. Anton Geiler, president of Metamagnetics, in a statement.

"Massachusetts continues to lead the nation as a great place for companies to grow to scale," said Housing and Economic Development Secretary Jay Ash in a statement. "These awards allow start-up companies to leverage substantial federal dollars to pursue critical, cutting-edge research, moving from concept to commercialized products. We are happy to support programs like this, as well as our M2I2 Initiative, to help innovators bridge the gap from what is possible to real, tangible results."

The START program in a span of seven years has awarded nearly $19 million to 74 Massachusetts Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II projects and helped winning companies raise additional capital of $278 million.

For 2018, MassVentures and the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC) have again partnered to increase the scope and capacity of the MassVentures START Program. MassCEC has committed up to $400,000 to START in 2018. The MassVentures and MassCEC cooperative endeavor is the result of the success of the expansion of START eligibility to recipients of US Department of Energy SBIR grants.
MassVentures' Jerry Bird joined Marlborough Mayor Arthur Vigeant, Mass Clean Energy Center leadership, and members of the Marlborough Economic Development Corporation at Intrinsix Corp., a former START winner in Marlborough to announce the 2018 START winners.

"It was my pleasure to welcome the winning companies to Marlborough for this exciting announcement,"
said Vigeant in a statement.

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