The Engine

The Engine

Venture capital for Tough Tech startups

About The Engine

Simplify's Rating
Why The Engine is rated
A-
Rated B on Competitive Edge
Rated A on Growth Potential
Rated A on Differentiation

Industries

Robotics & Automation

Venture Capital

Energy

Biotechnology

Company Size

11-50

Company Stage

Grant

Total Funding

$3.9B

Headquarters

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Founded

2016

Overview

Engine.xyz focuses on helping Tough Tech companies, which are those developing breakthrough technologies that can significantly impact the world. The company provides essential support to founders of these innovative startups by offering long-term capital, expert knowledge, valuable network connections, and access to specialized equipment and laboratories. Engine.xyz operates in the venture capital sector, specifically targeting areas that are often underfunded, such as advanced materials, energy, robotics, and biotechnology. Unlike many other venture capital firms, Engine.xyz emphasizes not just financial investment but also hands-on support throughout the growth phases of early-stage companies. The goal of Engine.xyz is to bridge the gap between discovery and commercialization, ensuring that transformative technologies reach the market successfully.

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Simplify's Take

What believers are saying

  • Collaboration with Activate enhances the pipeline of well-prepared entrepreneurs.
  • $8M funding for Droplet Biosciences highlights potential in cancer diagnostics.
  • NSF's $9.5M funding expands The Engine's support infrastructure for Tough Tech startups.

What critics are saying

  • Increased competition from programs like SOSV’s Hax and IndieBio.
  • Partnership with Waymaker Group may lead to operational complexity.
  • Collaboration with Activate may create dependency on external programs.

What makes The Engine unique

  • The Engine prioritizes breakthrough ideas over early profit, fostering innovation.
  • MIT's backing provides The Engine with credibility and extensive resources.
  • The Engine requires less equity, allowing founders to retain more control.

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Funding

Total Funding

$3874.7M

Above

Industry Average

Funded Over

0 Rounds

Benefits

A mission-driven work environment and team, and the opportunity to work with world-class Tough Tech founders

Competitive compensation based on experience

Health, Dental, Vision Insurance

401k matching

Company News

Engine Ventures
Mar 24th, 2025
Axoft | Engine Ventures

Building implantable electronics as soft as the brain to amplify brain-machine communication.

TechCrunch
Dec 13th, 2024
Activate And The Engine Accelerator Team Up To Train Scientists To Become Founders

The road from scientist to founder is well trodden, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. Those pitfalls are why, over the last decade, several programs have sprung up to help smooth the path for technical founders.Now, two prominent programs, Activate and The Engine Accelerator, have decided they can give founders an even bigger advantage if they team up.“It felt like the closer we could get, the more work we could do together, the more we can feed into each other’s programs, and ultimately, see more throughput from these proto-founders to entrepreneurs,” Emily Knight, CEO of The Engine Accelerator, told TechCrunch.The two programs are complementary in many ways. The Engine works with scientists and engineers who are just beginning to explore commercializing their research, hence their status as “proto-founders.” Activate steps in when founders have refined their ideas further and offers them two-year fellowships to get them ready for fundraising.A significant number of the proto-founders who completed the recent Blueprint program run by The Engine ended up being awarded an Activate fellowship. “It’s not a universal truth, but what we see is Blueprint participants are better prepared for Activate,” Cyrus Wadia, CEO of Activate, told TechCrunch. “My team was kind of like, can we get more of that?”The partnership remains in its earliest phases. No money has changed hands, and it’s not at the point where the two are considering merging

VC Tavern
Nov 9th, 2024
Droplet Biosciences Secures $8M for Cancer Diagnostics

Droplet Biosciences, a Cambridge-based biotech firm, secured $8M in Seed funding led by The Engine, an MIT-affiliated VC. The funding will advance their cancer diagnostics technology, which uses lymphatic fluid for early detection of cancer. This approach aims to improve outcomes by detecting residual disease in head and neck cancer patients post-surgery. The investment will help establish proof of concept for their innovative platform.

ETF Database
Jun 6th, 2024
3 Years Later, VOTE Continues Changing Passive Investing

In October 2023, TCW acquired the entire ETF business and infrastructure from Engine No. 1.

TechCrunch
May 6th, 2024
How To Choose A Deep Tech Startup Program

Plenty of founders have a difficult decision to make early in their journey: where to set up shop.For deep tech founders, the decision is complicated by the fact that they typically need more from their space. Some might need lab benches, others might require massive amounts of electricity, and still others might need room for large equipment. It’s not as easy as signing up for a desk at a nearby co-working space.In the past, deep tech founders often had to go it alone; there wasn’t much in the way of assistance as they migrated out of their academic labs and into the startup world. Today, though, there are a wealth of options, including The Engine Accelerator, SOSV’s Hax and IndieBio programs, and the Regional Innovation Engines that were recently announced by the National Science Foundation.Founders no longer have to do it all themselves. Rather, the challenge is figuring out which startup program will be the best fit.Emily Knight, president of The Engine Accelerator, spoke at TechCrunch Early Stage in Boston about how founders should evaluate their options.The first thing they should look for is an organization that has “patient resources and patient capital,” she said. Given that deep tech tends to take a long time to de-risk and bring to market, the timelines tend to be longer.After that, “early startups needed to ask the question, if the technology works, and let’s assume it does, what else do we have to think about?” Knight said

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