PRESS
Press Release
TiE Boston Announces Shortlist for the Regional Women Pitch Competition!
First Place Winner will represent Boston at the TiE Women Global Pitch Competition at TiE Global Summit in Singapore to compete for up to $50K of equity-free money and $100K investments.
Boston, August 9, 2023: TiE Boston is proud to announce the six women founders chosen to advance to Boston Regional Finals of the 2023 TiE Global Women Pitch Competition! These founders will pitch to a panel of three influential judges from the New England startup ecosystem on August 30th , 2023. There was considerable diversity to be seen in the applications this year that were a fair representation of of health tech, biotech, consumer, and enterprise tech among other sectors that form the vibrant entrepreneurship ecosystem in New England. Sangeeta Moorjani, Chair of TiE Boston Women and Board Member said, “Once again, this year’s applications reminded us that the ecosystem is thriving with an incredible group of women founders who have game-changing solutions for a diverse set of stakeholders. Arriving at the shortlist from all the amazing applications, was a tough task! I’d like to thank all the applicants and the screening committee for their commitment to promoting entrepreneurship for the common good.” Yash Shah, TiE Boston President said, “Congratulations to the Founders! I am delighted to see Boston serve as home to so many women founders. Our mission is to inspire and nurture women entrepreneurs and the TiE Global Pitch Competition helps us to deliver on that. I invite women founders to explore our programs and join us in our mission of fostering entrepreneurship.” Congratulations to the six shortlisted female founders: Joanne Mercaldi, Co-Founder of Bloom Leila Daneshmandi, Co-Founder and COO of Encapsulate Dr Ruchi Chauhan, Co-Founder and COO of NonExomics Inc Lori Sylvia, Founder and CEO of Rally Nathalya Mamane, Founder and CTO of RT MicroDx Andrea Crewe, Founder and CEO of Vitaliti The First Place Winner will represent TiE Boston at the TiE Women Global Pitch Competition in Singapore and compete for $50K of equity-free money and $1m in investments! TiE Boston remains committed to helping female entrepreneurs by increasing visibility, providing mentorship, and creating pathways to access funding for their ventures. For more information about TiE Boston, visit https://www.tieboston.org/.
Press Release
TiE Global Angels, led by TiE Boston, Invests $1.395M as part of a $20M Investment Round in Sealonix, Inc., a Surgical Sealant Product Company
Boston, June 07, 2023: TiE Global Angels, led by TiE Boston Angels chapter with participation from TiE Angels Silicon Valley and TiE SoCal Angels, invests $1.395M in a $20M Series A financing round in Sealonix, Inc. The round was led by Excelestar Ventures with participation from AMED Ventures, Sparta Group, Iyengar Capital, and J2 Ventures.
Sealonix is using its biomaterials expertise to develop next-generation hemostatic sealants for surgical use. The initial product that Sealonix is developing is a sealant patch providing rapid hemostasis for abdominopelvic and orthopedic procedures. The PramStat patch is designed to bio-absorb within a week following implantation. The proceeds from this round will be used to grow the development team and execute clinical trials.
Amar Sawhney, Sealonix CEO, commented, “The PramStat patch builds on many years of research done by this experienced team, and now will move rapidly into clinical development. This capital will allow us to complete clinical development and pursue FDA approval. We look forward to bringing the most advanced device and method to control surgical bleeding to surgeons.”
“We are very excited to invest in Sealonix, Inc. to allow the company to develop this much-needed product and support its commercialization. TiE seeks to leverage its network to invest, help and support companies like Sealonix to make them successful”, commented Alok Prasad, TiE Boston Angels Chairman and TiE Global Angels Leadership Team Member.
TiE Boston Angels meet every two months to review fundraising pitches from companies. The leadership team comprises the Chair, Alok Prasad and members Venky Venkataramani, Satish Bhat, Joe Falcao, Yash Shah, and Myank Jain, who are charter members of TiE Boston. The group collaborates on global deals with Angels across the TiE community. To join this group of Angels, one needs to be a TiE Boston charter member.
About TiE Boston Angels: TiE Boston Angels is a group of accredited investors who provide funding and support for early-stage companies. Beyond funding, they leverage the TiE global network to help companies succeed. More information about TiE Boston Angels can be found at https://www.tieboston.org/angels
About TiE Global Angels: TiE Global Angels was founded on two pillars: mentoring and investment for diverse entrepreneurs. Each TiE chapter fosters development within its local ecosystem by giving both time and money to help new companies learn, grow, and ultimately achieve success. Through this process, TiE chapters create a self-sustaining virtuous cycle that supports local economies and encourages creativity and risk-taking by each new generation of entrepreneurs. More information about TiE Global Angels can be found at https://tie.org/programs/tg-angels/.
About Sealonix, Inc: Sealonix, Inc. is a privately held company based in Bedford, MA focused on the development and commercialization of hemostatic sealants using its proprietary biomaterials. The company, founded in January 2023, is the latest by serial entrepreneur Amar Sawhney who also founded Confluent Surgical, Ocular Therapeutix, Augmenix,, Instylla, and Rejoni among others. More information about Sealonix can be found at http://www.sealonix.com.
Press Release - Immediate
TiE Boston Announces ScaleUp Cohort 9
Cohort of Fourteen Pioneering and Innovative Startups is tackling some of the most pressing challenges in the modern workplace.
BOSTON, MA, February 24, 2023 - TiE Boston is thrilled to announce the commencement of Cohort 9 from TiE ScaleUp, their equity-free Seed to Series A accelerator based in Boston. Fourteen outstanding startups, judiciously shortlisted from a pool of applicants, will join the program.
Each of these Boston-based ventures has already developed notable customer or industry traction, raised capital or bootstrapped effectively, and expanded upon their brilliant core teams. On the cusp of rapid scaling, these founders and leaders are now ready to take full advantage of the world-class resources of the TiE ScaleUp accelerator: access to coaching from veteran mentors, an advanced scaling curriculum taught by industry experts, and a community of alumni, investors, and entrepreneurs through the esteemed TiE Boston and TiE Global community.
“With market headwinds putting early-stage startups under increased pressure and scrutiny, it’s more important than ever to rally around daring founders and provide them with the guidance and support they need to succeed,” said TiE Boston President, Yash Shah. “Our ScaleUp mentors have all built through prior market corrections, and are uniquely positioned to share their wisdom with these exceptional entrepreneurs.”
Cohort 9 also marks the first time in the program’s history that 60% the companies in the program are female-founded or co-founded. “I am overjoyed to see so many woman-led startups in this cohort,” said Past President Anu Chitrapu, who led TiE Boston in launching the TiE Women’s Pitch Competition during her tenure. “There’s no shortage of dynamic women entrepreneurs, and TiE Boston is committed to taking woman-led ventures in Boston to the next level!”
As an equity-free, premiere program, ScaleUp has long relied on the generosity, curiosity, and enthusiasm of TiE Boston Charter Members to help deliver the unique value of a later-stage accelerator to entrepreneurs and to make an outsized impact on the Boston startup ecosystem. Cohort 9 was recruited from the leading Seed and Series A companies in Massachusetts. Many of these companies work at the intersection of multiple sectors, with 11 sectors represented in total. The distribution of primary industries within this cohort, as seen below, reflects the industries and sectors in the local ecosystem:
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35% Healthcare (incl. Medical Devices, Diagnostics)
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15% Hardware + Robotics
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10% E-commerce + MarTech
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10% EdTech
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10% SaaS
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5% Cleantech + Energy
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5% CPG
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5% Fintech
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5% Logistics + Supply Chain
TiE ScaleUp is grateful for program sponsors, in particular Arent Fox Schiff, who contributed generously towards the longevity of the program. TiE Boston's community of mentors and TiE ScaleUp alumni have ensured that the ScaleUp network continues to remain strong and vibrant. Cohort 9 will launch on February 26, 2023; please join us in welcoming these fourteen companies to the TiE ScaleUp and TiE Boston communities.
It is our distinct pleasure to introduce the Cohort 9 startups:
14Bis Supply Tracking provides asset accountability across systems and industries so nothing gets lost or forged. 14bis helps industrial logistics and supply chain customers increase readiness by providing access to verified data insights so that they can find parts and ensure lifecycle serviceability
Aahana’s Naturals is a natural food company creating delicious, healthy, vegan, and gluten-free convenient foods. Aahana’s globally inspired lentil bowls are made with sprouted lentils, contain 15 grams of plant protein, and are non-GMO, Kosher, and shelf-stable.
Biosens8 uses a platform technology to engineer novel quantitative, real-time, and portable biosensors. BioSens8 is developing continuous and non-invasive monitors which will give unprecedented insight into the body's health.
Duckietown offers a pedagogical ecosystem for teaching and learning robot autonomy, enacting a new vision for education: effective, accessible, and tailored to every skill level.
Full Code Medical is realistic medical simulation app for medical students and practitioners worldwide, with over 1 million downloads and a 4.8-star App Store rating.
GenH is a next-generation clean energy technology company. GenH 's technologies are highly productive and achieve economic parity with existing fossil fuel systems without subsidies.
Impact Biosystems is on a mission to prevent MSK injuries and revolutionize athletic recovery and performance with our novel muscle scanner, Pact Sense.
Parrots, Inc is a health-tech company that has created Polly, a SaaS platform that is hardware-agnostic and harnesses AI/ML to provide real-time voice, cognitive assistance, and telecare to people with neurological disorders.
Patient First.AI is building the first ever digital health card that the patients carry as they would their bank card, which seamlessly connects them with their physician, pharmacy and diagnostic labs records in one simple, connected place.
Rally uses data and analytics to show employers how to recruit today’s talent through social media and digital marketing, so they can ditch ineffective job boards.
Rivet is a fan management platform that helps creators discover their top fans, activate them with exclusive content and perks, and build strong, monetizable fan communities through direct, personalized outreach.
SafeBVM is bringing manual ventilation closer to a mechanical ventilator. safeBVM is a medical device startup working on the problem of inadvertent hyperventilation by healthcare providers during the procedure of manual ventilation.
Surgicure Technologies is dedicated to building the most effective medical instruments, developed for and by medical professionals.
Surround Insurance is a next-generation insurance agency that helps high-information consumers protect their future with the smartest advice and perfectly matched insurance products designed for modern life.
About TiE Boston
TiE Boston connects tomorrow's founders with today's entrepreneurs, executives and venture capitalists. Founded in 1997, TiE Boston champions inclusion in innovation by blending the fundamentals of entrepreneurship with traditional Indian values that place importance on community, mentorship, and long-term relationships.
TiE Boston is one of the region's largest and oldest organizations supporting the Massachusetts entrepreneurial ecosystem, focused on supporting entrepreneurs throughout their lifecycle — from ideation to creation, through growth, wealth creation and ultimately, support of future founders.
The TiE Boston community encompasses students, founders, experienced entrepreneurs, angel investors, and venture capitalists. Its programs foster trusted, long-term relationships between its participants — span education, mentoring, networking, and funding.
Dean Walsh is the TiE ScaleUp program manager. He can be reached at dean@tieboston.org. For other queries, write to us at info@boston.tie.org with questions.
For more information about TiE Boston, visit https://www.tieboston.org/
IN THE NEWS
TiE Boston Elects Yash Shah as Its 13th President
March 09, 2022
Boston, MA
TiE Boston, one of the region’s largest organizations supporting the Massachusetts entrepreneurial ecosystem and connecting entrepreneurs, executives, and venture capitalists, has elected Yash Shah as its 13th president.
Mr. Shah, whose two-year term starts on July 1, 2022, replaces current TiE Boston President, Anu Chitrapu, whose two-year term term ends on June 30, 2022.
Mr. Shah is a serial entrepreneur, angel investor, product advisor and business executive with over 25 years of IT and software industry experience. His also on the advisory boards of several software startups around the world.
“I am honored at the opportunity to build on the incredible work done by TiE Boston founders, past presidents, and charter members. Passion for entrepreneurship runs deep in me, as demonstrated by my 22-year association with TiE Boston and starting multiple ventures of my own,” said Mr. Shah, founder of Jeavio and founder and managing partner of Indus Ventures. “As President of TiE Boston, I will look to drive higher focus on entrepreneurship and charter member engagement, with a goal to build out a robust end-to-end ecosystem to support early, emerging, and established entrepreneurs.”
As a dynamic and successful entrepreneur, Mr. Shah co-founded Jeavio, a venture services firm and plays a critical leadership role in its vision and strategy. He is also the Chief Technology Officer of SevOne, which was recently sold to IBM. In addition, he is a Founding Member of TiE Boston Foundation, an active member of TiE Boston Angels, and a TiE ScaleUp Mentor.
“I am excited about the election of Yash Shah as the next President of TiE Boston,” said current TiE Boston President Ms. Chitrapu. “His vast entrepreneurial and investment experience promises substantive impact on our programs and the entrepreneurial ecosystem.”
This article appeared on March 10, 2022 in India New England News.
About TiE Boston
TiE Boston connects tomorrow's founders with today's entrepreneurs, executives and venture capitalists. Founded in 1997 by entrepreneurs who immigrated from the Indus region, TiE Boston champions inclusion in innovation by blending the fundamentals of entrepreneurship with traditional Indian values that place importance on community, mentorship, and long-term relationships. In 2022, TiE Boston is delighted to celebrate its 25th Year.
TiE Boston is one of the region's largest and oldest organizations supporting the Massachusetts entrepreneurial ecosystem, focused on supporting entrepreneurs throughout their lifecycle — from ideation to creation, through growth, wealth creation and ultimately, support of future founders.
The TiE Boston community encompasses students, founders, experienced entrepreneurs, angel investors, and venture capitalists. Its programs foster trusted, long-term relationships between its participants — span education, mentoring, networking, and funding.
For more information about TiE Boston, visit https://www.tieboston.org/
PRESS RELEASE
TiE Boston Announces Cohort 8 of TiE ScaleUp
15 companies will participate in “New England's 1st and Only "Seed+ to Series A" Accelerator.”
February 14, 2022
Boston, MA
TiE ScaleUp is thrilled to announce the roster of fifteen leading-edge startups that will join us for our eighth cohort!
Each of these ventures has already developed notable customer or industry traction, raised significant capital, and expanded upon their brilliant core teams. On the cusp of rapid scaling, these founders and leaders are now ready to take full advantage of the world-class resources of the ScaleUp program and TiE Boston community: access to veteran mentors, an advanced scaling curriculum taught by industry experts, facilitated connections to compatible investors, and inroads to TiE’s esteemed global professional network.
As an equity-free, premiere program, ScaleUp has long relied on the generosity, curiosity, and enthusiasm of TiE Boston Charter Members to help deliver the unique value of a later-stage accelerator to entrepreneurs and to make an outsized impact on the Boston startup ecosystem. This track record of success resulted in ScaleUp being awarded a “Pathways to Scale” grant from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the Innovation Institute at the MassTech Collaborative in July 2021. Cohort 8 will be the first cycle of ScaleUp to benefit from this funding.
“TiE ScaleUp, with its unique focus on accelerating startups from the seed stage through Series-A funding, is exactly the type of program we envisioned supporting through Pathways to Scale,” said Pat Larkin, Director of the Innovation Institute at MassTech. “The startups in this new cohort represent a diverse cross-section of our
tech and innovation ecosystem. We wish the startups all the best and are excited to watch their progress.”
Cohort 8 was recruited from the leading seed+ and Series A companies in Massachusetts via a rigorous selection process. The distribution of industries within this cohort, as seen below, reflects the industries and sectors in the local ecosystem:
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26% Healthcare
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19% AI
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11% Enterprise Software
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11% Medical Devices
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7% E-Commerce
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4% CPG (Food and Beverage)
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4% EdTech
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4% Life Sciences
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4% Sports Technology
TiE Boston President, Anu Chitrapu, shared, “I am super excited to welcome TiE ScaleUp's Cohort 8 to TiE Boston during our 25th Year. We are dedicating Cohort 8 in memory of our Charter Member, Neeraj Chandra. His leadership and vision is what has shaped the program and made it what it is today.”
TiE ScaleUp would like to thank generous sponsors Arent Fox, Wolf & Company, and Jeavio, our community of mentors, and our alumni for keeping the ScaleUp network strong and vibrant. The program will kick off on February 24. Please join us in welcoming Cohort 8 to TiE ScaleUp.
Cohort 8
Aurie exists to support their users' independence through the development of elevated medical products, so they can live their lives more fully on their own terms.
Breathe BioMedical is a development-stage diagnostics company using metabolomics and machine learning to identify disease in the areas of oncology and neurology.
FanUp is the best way to enjoy fantasy sports, together. We create immersive social experiences for fans; with fun, easy, and visual content - blending pop-culture with your favorite teams, players and brands - that cater to casual fans and a younger demographic.
Gentreo is an online estate planning platform that makes estate planning affordable and accessible to all. Through Gentreo, users of all service tiers can create state-specific documents, and securely store and share their documents.
Hilltop Bio -- a veterinary biotech -- has developed novel, room temperature, regenerative therapies for inflammatory diseases such as equine asthma and canine osteoarthritis.
Leuko Labs is an MIT spinout developing PointCheckTM, the world's first medical device that can monitor white blood cells non-invasively. By enabling more frequent at-home monitoring, Leuko aims to improve clinical outcomes for more than 2M cancer chemotherapy patients.
Knudge helps busy people take action and follow through on their tasks to meet their financial goals.
Naya Studio is a workflow + collaboration platform for anything product design. Naya is democratizing design.
Nivi is a conversational marketplace for health serving India, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa. Through WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger people can use askNivi, our automated chatbot, to learn about various health topics, get recommendations for health services and products, and get referrals to trusted service providers.
Noted Analytics is a guided selling platform that helps sales teams capture, collaborate, and close more sales opportunities.
nuvu helps businesses grow through innovative, faster and more effective solutions using Artificial Intelligence and Cloud technology.
Rahoo was created to give parents and caregivers a company they can rely on for helping babies and toddlers achieve developmental wellness. Rahoo does this by developing medically supported children's products and educational programming for parents.
Readlee is revolutionizing literacy outcomes through the power of speech AI." Reading aloud improves memory, vocabulary, comprehension, and fluency better than reading silently.
Waku is a healthy beverage brand where we make prebiotic herbal teas that support a healthy gut. We put a modern twist on an ancient tea, using a centuries-old Ecuadorian recipe, the finest natural ingredients, zero sugar, and prebiotics to maximize the gut-health benefits.
WatchRx has created a smartwatch + AI-driven SaaS solution that helps seniors stay healthy, live independently and decrease avoidable hospitalizations. Using our remote patient monitoring (RPM), chronic care management (CCM) platform, physicians can improve patient outcomes, lower healthcare costs, and grow their revenue.
About TiE Boston
TiE Boston connects tomorrow's founders with today's entrepreneurs, executives and venture capitalists. Founded in 1997 by entrepreneurs who immigrated from the Indus region, TiE Boston champions inclusion in innovation by blending the fundamentals of entrepreneurship with traditional Indian values that place importance on community, mentorship, and long-term relationships. In 2022, TiE Boston is delighted to celebrate its 25th Year.
TiE Boston is one of the region's largest and oldest organizations supporting the Massachusetts entrepreneurial ecosystem, focused on supporting entrepreneurs throughout their lifecycle — from ideation to creation, through growth, wealth creation and ultimately, support of future founders.
The TiE Boston community encompasses students, founders, experienced entrepreneurs, angel investors, and venture capitalists. Its programs foster trusted, long-term relationships between its participants — span education, mentoring, networking, and funding.
Dean Walsh is the TiE ScaleUp program manager. He can be reached at dean@tieboston.org. For other queries, write to us at info@boston.tie.org with questions.
For more information about TiE Boston, visit https://www.tieboston.org/
PRESS RELEASE
TiE Boston Welcomes Two New Board Members
BOSTON, January 13, 2022 - TiE Boston is excited to announce the addition of two new members: Anupendra Sharma and Kiran Uppuluri. With extensive leadership experience, they bring unique expertise to assist TiE Boston’s vision of fostering entrepreneurship in the Boston, NE area. In their roles, they will join the 12-Member Board to provide governance over strategic planning and responsibly steward the organization’s goals over a two-year term.
“I am excited to welcome Anupendra and Kiran to the TiE Boston Board,” said TiE Boston President Anu Chitrapu. “They are both successful professionals who have contributed to the success and growth of TiE Boston and I look forward to working closely with them. I also want to thank Thara Pillai and Swapan Jha for their contributions over the last two years. Both of them will continue to support our mission as charter members.”
Other TiE Boston Board members include Thomas Arul, Shirish Nimgaonkar, Geeta Sreedhar, Venkat Maroju, Zenobia Moochala, Sangeeta Moorjani, and Darshana Zaveri, along with officers Emily Ladd-Kravitz (Secretary) and Asha Dixit (Treasurer) and Anu Chitrapu (President) .
“It is my honor to serve on the TiE Boston Board alongside stellar men and women leaders. I have always admired TiE's commitment to entrepreneurship and I look forward to contributing to this amazing community.”, said Kiran Uppuluri on being appointed to the Board.
Anupendra Sharma added, “While I've been involved in operational matters at TiE, working on strategic initiatives alongside a very accomplished group of Board Members, as well as Anu and her team, will be an entirely new and exciting experience.”
Get to Know the New Board Members:
Anupendra Sharma is Founder & CEO of Axlmed, a digital health company working on improving our understanding of disease. He has a background in venture capital, investment banking and corporate finance. Anupendra was Senior Investment Partner at Siemens Venture Capital for nearly 12 years investing in the US and China, and worked in Mergers & Acquisitions at JPMorgan, Citigroup and Siemens.
Anupendra co-founded several organizations to mentor innovators and entrepreneurs, including the Startup Leadership Program, which has educated nearly 4,000 entrepreneurs in 13 countries who have raised $3.4 billion; MALSI Day, which is an annual celebration of university research in the Commonwealth, the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership at BITS Pilani, and co-created the Healthcare Innovation & Commercialization course at Harvard Medical School that has educated nearly 1,000 MDs and PhDs about the process from ideation to spinoff.
Anupendra holds an MBA from Cornell, MS in Accounting & Finance from Manchester Business School, Masters in Economics and Bachelors in Instrumentation Engineering from BITS Pilani and is an ACMA from the UK.
Kiran Uppuluri is Founder and CEO verteXD. Kiran helps businesses reimagine business strategy, customer journey mapping and experience design with a relentless focus on human- centeredness and an intrinsic design thinking approach. Before founding verteXD, Kiran was in an executive leadership role at Citizens Bank where she led a team that created & owned the Customer Experience strategy and roadmap for multi- channel customer experiences; and before that with fidelity investments in various senior roles spanning marketing, product management and customer strategy & experience. Prior to that, Kiran spent several years in management consulting with Deloitte, in their Strategy & Operations practice.
She was recently the Chairperson for the highly successful TiECON East 2021. She serves as a business mentor at MIT VMS and as an industry mentor at the national level for NSF I-Corps. She is also a Design Thinking educator at DesignxRI. Kiran was named in the Top 10 CEOs of 2021 by Industry Era Women Leaders. She was also recently honored with the 2021 TiE Boston President’s Choice Award, for her dedication and contribution to the TiE Community during this past year.
Kiran holds an MBA from University of Maryland Smith School of Business, M.S. from Clemson University and a B. Tech from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur.
About TiE Boston
TiE Boston connects tomorrow's founders with today's entrepreneurs, executives and venture capitalists. Founded in 1997 by entrepreneurs who immigrated from the Indus region, TiE Boston champions inclusion in innovation by blending the fundamentals of entrepreneurship with traditional Indian values that place importance on community, mentorship, and long-term relationships.
TiE Boston is one of the region's largest and oldest organizations supporting the Massachusetts entrepreneurial ecosystem, focused on supporting entrepreneurs throughout their lifecycle — from ideation to creation, through growth, wealth creation and ultimately, support of future founders.
The TiE Boston community encompasses students, founders, experienced entrepreneurs, angel investors, and venture capitalists. Its programs foster trusted, long-term relationships between its participants — span education, mentoring, networking, and funding.
Reach us by email at info@boston.tie.org with questions. TiE Boston’s Interim Executive Director, Rowena Kay Mascarenhas, oversees the strategic planning, operations and programs, while Archish Mittal manages memberships and partnerships, Dean Walsh manages the ScaleUp program, and Vivek Soni manages the TiE Angels program.
For more information about TiE Boston, visit https://www.tieboston.org/.
TiE Boston Selects Winner in it’s 2021 Women Pitch Competition!
TiE Boston announces winners of the highly anticipated TiE Boston Women Pitch Competition:
First Place: Amrita Saigal, Founder and CEO of Kudos
Second Place: Alicia Tulsee, Founder and CEO of Moxie Apparel
Third Place: Bryanne Leeming, Founder and CEO of Unruly Studios
Social Entrepreneurship Prize: Shriya Srinivasan, Founder Project Prana
Sep 16, 2021
Boston, MA
During an exciting and action packed evening, TiE Boston Women Pitch Competition gave the floor to seven female founders/co-founders to pitch for a chance to compete for $100K equity free money. For the winner, Amrita Saigal Founder and CEO of Kudos, TiE Boston’s competition will prove as just one stop in the road map to compete in the TiE Women Global Pitch Competition at GITEX Technology Week in Dubai.
The event opened with remarks from Keynote Speaker Desh Despande, Life Member - MIT Corporation at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Deshpande encouraged the Founders to stay optimistic, dig into the capabilities that will serve you the rest of your life.
Each Founder/Co-Founder took the floor to deliver a concise pitch, attempting to appeal to Judges Nilanjana Bhowmik, Co Founder & General Partner Converge, Darshana Zaveri, Managing Partner, Catalyst Health Ventures, and Rama Ramakrishnan, Professor of the Practice at MIT Sloan School of Management and serial entrepreneur. The semi- finalists fielded tough questions to paint a full picture of their startups. From dollar opportunity to exit strategies the Founders/Co-Founders were put in the hot seat for Q&A after every pitch to ensure the judges were capable of making a calculated and informed decision in selecting the winner.
This year’s winner, Amrita Saigal Founder and CEO of Kudos touts the first disposable, plant based baby diapers with 100% cotton liners to hit the market and has been featured in Forbes, TechCrunch, and Red Tricycle. "I am honored to be selected for this award and I am deeply grateful to TIE for their support of women entrepreneurs. Every presentation was exceptional and I look forward to following the entrepreneurial journeys of other founders as well. The Kudos team promises to put this prize money to good use as we expand our vision to bring genuine advances in sustainability to baby diapers,” said Saigal.
Second place winner was Alicia Tulsee, founder and CEO, Moxie Apparel, a company that is disrupting the $12B medical apparel market as the first D2C brand for nurses. “The comradery felt in the TiE community is a strong one. Amrita, Bryanne and I connected on Linkedin with each other during the event having never met. We made plans right then and there to get together, before the winners were announced! What a delight it was to learn that the three of us were the First, Second, and Third Place winners,” said Tulsee. “As fellow women founders and disruptors, the respect and appreciation we felt for each other was recognized immediately. Being part of a community like Tie Boston that makes these kinds of connections and relationships possible makes all the difference in our journey!”
Third place winner, Bryanne Leeming, founder and CEO of Unruly Studios empowers students to learn critical STEM skills through active, social recess-style play! "We're honored to place in this competition and excited for how it will support our mission to break down barriers in K-12 computer science education," said Leeming. "This competition has also been such a valuable experience for meeting other women entrepreneurs on similar journeys in Boston who I now count as friends!"
A special prize, for social entrepreneurship, was given to Shriya Srinivasan, for her ground breaking work at Project Prana, a nonprofit dedicated to deploying accessible healthcare, beginning with the iSAVE, a tool to double ventilation capacity. "Starting and scaling a venture in the heat of a crisis has certainly been a challenging task. Having the support and recognition of an organization like TiE is a great source of encouragement,” said Srinivasan.
The resounding message from seasoned speakers like Geeta Aiyer and Desh Deshpande was: we need to change and women are the ones who are going to get us there. Be part of the change, be the visionary who leads positive change. Change can happen fast. Things that look terrible today, might look better tomorrow. Stay optimistic.
In closing, a special thank you from TiE Boston President, Anu Chitrapu was given to the TiE Boston Women Pitch Competition sponsors: Subu Kota, Anil Shah, Satish Jha, and Geeta Aiyer.
"Women play a pivotal role in the TiE Boston ecosystem. They comprise 50% of our Board and represent every aspect of the entrepreneurial ecosystem including entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, executives and service providers,” said Anu Chitrapu, President of TiE Boston.
Closing remarks were given by TiE Boston Charter Members Geeta Aiyer, Anil Shah, Satish Jha, who emphasized the importance of women in power in the workplace, perfecting the pitch and trailblazing uncharted paths.
Congratulations and sincere thank you to the following female founders who competed in the TiE Boston Women Pitch Competition:
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Dr. Marcie R. Black, Co-Founder and CEO of Advanced Silicon Group
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Bryanne Leeming, Founder and CEO of Unruly Studios
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Amrita Saigal, Founder and CEO of Kudos
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Alicia Tulsee, Founder and CEO of Moxie Apparel
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Dr. Theresa Dankovich, Co-Founder and CTO of Folia Materials
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Avani Sarkar, Founder and CEO of Modi Toys
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Dr. Shriya Srinivasan, Founder of Project Prana
About TiE Boston
TiE Boston connects tomorrow's founders with today's entrepreneurs, executives and venture capitalists. Founded in 1997 by entrepreneurs who immigrated from the Indus region, TiE Boston champions inclusion in innovation by blending the fundamentals of entrepreneurship with traditional Indian values that place importance on community, mentorship, and long-term relationships.
TiE Boston is one of the region's largest and oldest organizations supporting the Massachusetts entrepreneurial ecosystem, focused on supporting entrepreneurs throughout their lifecycle — from ideation to creation, through growth, wealth creation and ultimately, support of future founders.
The TiE Boston community encompasses students, founders, experienced entrepreneurs, angel investors, and venture capitalists. Its programs foster trusted, long-term relationships between its participants — span education, mentoring, networking, and funding.
For more information about TiE Boston, visit https://www.tieboston.org/.
TiE Boston Announces Semi-Finalists for the Women Pitch Competition!
First Place Winner will represent Boston at the TiE Women Global Pitch Competition at GITEX Technology Week in Dubai and compete for $100K of equity-free money!
Sep 3, 2021
Boston, MA
TiE Boston is proud to announce the seven women founders chosen to advance to the semi-finals of the TiE Boston Women Pitch Competition! The semi-finalists will pitch to a panel of three influential judges in the New England startup ecosystem virtually, on September 15th from 4:30 - 6:30. Judges are Nilanjana Bhowmik, Co Founder & General Partner Converge, Darshana Zaveri, Managing Partner, Catalyst Health Ventures, and Rama Ramakrishnan, Professor of the Practice at MIT Sloan School of Management and serial entrepreneur. Keynote speaker Desh Despande will kick off the competition. Members of the community are encouraged to tune in and support the founders! Prize money will be awarded to the top three companies!
“Congratulations to our semi-finalists! It was not an easy task for our review team to pick 7 companies from all the amazing applications we received. I am personally thrilled to see Boston serve as home to so many women founders. Women play a pivotal role in the TiE Boston ecosystem. They comprise 50% of our Board and represent every aspect of the entrepreneurial ecosystem including entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, executives and service providers. TiE Boston is committed to take women-led entrepreneurship in Boston to the next level. I invite women founders to explore our programs and join us in our mission of fostering entrepreneurship.” - TiE Boston President Anu Chitrapu
Congratulations to the following female founders:
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Dr. Marcie R. Black, Co-Founder and CEO of Advanced Silicon Group
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Bryanne Leeming, Founder and CEO of Unruly Studios
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Amrita Saigal, Founder and CEO of Kudos
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Alicia Tulsee, Founder and CEO of Moxie Apparel
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Dr. Theresa Dankovich, Co-Founder and CTO of Folia Materials
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Avani Sarkar, Founder and CEO of Modi Toys
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Dr. Shriya Srinivasan, Founder of Project Prana,
The First Place Winner will represent TiE Boston at the TiE Women Global Pitch Competition at GITEX Technology Week in Dubai and compete for $100K of equity-free money! Airfare and hotel are fully paid for the Boston Finalist!
Register here to watch the TiE Boston Women Pitch Competition. Congratulations to our semi-finalists and best of luck!
About TiE Boston
TiE Boston connects tomorrow's founders with today's entrepreneurs, executives and venture capitalists. Founded in 1997 by entrepreneurs who immigrated from the Indus region, TiE Boston champions inclusion in innovation by blending the fundamentals of entrepreneurship with traditional Indian values that place importance on community, mentorship, and long-term relationships.
TiE Boston is one of the region's largest and oldest organizations supporting the Massachusetts entrepreneurial ecosystem, focused on supporting entrepreneurs throughout their lifecycle — from ideation to creation, through growth, wealth creation and ultimately, support of future founders.
The TiE Boston community encompasses students, founders, experienced entrepreneurs, angel investors, and venture capitalists. Its programs foster trusted, long-term relationships between its participants — span education, mentoring, networking, and funding.
For more information about TiE Boston, visit https://www.tieboston.org/.
TiE Boston ScaleUp Wins “Pathways to Scale” Grant Award from Innovation Institute at MassTech Collaborative
TiE Boston ScaleUp was awarded the grant from the Baker-Polito administration to support diverse emerging founders of scaling companies in Massachusetts develop as leaders and grow their business.
Aug 3, 2021
Boston, MA
TiE Boston's TiE ScaleUp, New England’s 1st and Only “Seed + to Series A" Accelerator Program, was announced as a recipient of the “Pathways to Scale'' grant from the Innovation Institute at MassTech Collaborative. The grant will help TiE ScaleUp continue to develop and launch programs and deploy seasoned mentors to support companies in the later stages of the entrepreneurial journey.
Lt. Governor Karyn Polito joined executives from the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative to announce the $700,722 in grants from the ‘Pathways to Scale’ program, an effort from the Commonwealth to boost tech and innovation companies emerging from the startup phase and poised for growth. The four grants will help build or expand mentorship programs statewide that support ‘scaling companies’ and aim to increase the survival rate of innovative, high-growth companies across Massachusetts.
The four awards include three grants to the UMass Lowell Research Institute, MassChallenge, and TiE Boston, as well as a planning grant for a project led by the Economic Development Council of Western Massachusetts.
Neeraj Chandra, Chair of the TiE ScaleUp TaskForce stated “This grant win is a very motivating endorsement of the unique value the TIE ScaleUp program delivers to the entrepreneurs and innovation economy in Massachusetts. It will really help us to grow the scope and further enhance the contents of the program.”
“Massachusetts has become a hub of innovation for start-up tech companies, and we want to do more to help these organizations thrive here in the Commonwealth,” said Governor Charlie Baker. “Providing these companies with mentorship opportunities will jump-start their growth and bring them even closer to their long-term goals.”
Through the work of the Innovation Institute at MassTech, the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative has supported entrepreneur mentor programs statewide focused on the acceleration of early-stage startups. Evidence from the Innovation Institute’s work and its sponsored research report with MIT’s Industrial Performance Center titled “Growing Innovative Companies to Scale,” indicates that more work needs to be done to support high-growth companies in the post-acceleration stages. The “presence of business networks, mentors, and role models” with experience launching and scaling companies was identified as a critical ingredient for Massachusetts companies looking to professionalize operations and grow headcount, revenue, or market capitalization.
“TiE members represent every aspect of Boston’s entrepreneurial ecosystem,” said Anu Chitrapu, President of TiE Boston. “ScaleUp leverages this immense combined power to turbo-charge new startups and help them find success. This grant will help us harness the combined power of our membership to support more entrepreneurs and accelerate their path to success!”
The event, hosted at UMass Lowell’s Northstar Campus in Lincoln, featured welcoming remarks from UMass Lowell Vice Chancellor for Research, Dr. Julie Chen and a roundtable of executives from the four grantees. Also in attendance were several local companies that will benefit from the grants.
The Innovation Institute has shepherded numerous programs that bolster the growth of innovative companies statewide, including targeted investments in research and development infrastructure, workforce development programs that fund internships at startups and boosting diverse talent in the state, and programs that boost emerging sectors in the Commonwealth.
For companies interested in learning more about the TiE ScaleUp Program, visit www.tiescaleup.org. To learn more about TiE Boston, visit www.tieboston.org. For companies interested in learning more about The Innovation Institute at the MassTech Collaborative, visit https://masstech.org/. Additional Source: Massachusetts Technology Collaborative Press Release
About TiE ScaleUp
A program of TiE Boston, TiE ScaleUp works with emerging “high-growth potential” companies to overcome typical barriers to growth by helping them optimize their business plan, strategic positioning, operations, sales and competitive advantage. The ScaleUp program, which began in 2015, now proudly counts 93 dynamic start-ups among its alumni.
About TiE Boston
TiE Boston connects tomorrow's founders with today's entrepreneurs, executives and venture capitalists. Founded in 1997 by entrepreneurs who immigrated from the Indus region, TiE Boston champions inclusion in innovation by blending the fundamentals of entrepreneurship with traditional Indian values that place importance on community, mentorship, and long-term relationships.
TiE Boston is one of the region's largest and oldest organizations supporting the Massachusetts entrepreneurial ecosystem, focused on supporting entrepreneurs throughout their lifecycle — from ideation to creation, through growth, wealth creation and ultimately, support of future founders.
The TiE Boston community encompasses students, founders, experienced entrepreneurs, angel investors, and venture capitalists. Its programs foster trusted, long-term relationships between its participants — span education, mentoring, networking, and funding.
For more information about TiE Boston, visit https://www.tieboston.org/.
TiE Boston announces 7th Cohort in TiE ScaleUp
15 companies selected to participate in New England's 1st and Only "Seed+ to Series A" Accelerator
Mar 10, 2021
Boston, MA
A program of TiE Boston, TiE ScaleUp works with emerging, "high-growth potential" companies to overcome typical barriers to growth by helping them optimize their business plan, strategic positioning, operations, sales and competitive advantage.
“While the past year has been difficult for startups, it also presented new, untapped opportunities,” said Anu Chitrapu, President, TiE Boston. “Many of the companies participating in Cohort 7 used these opportunities to their advantage and refined their business plans in light of a new normal. Now they are ready to scale and are uniquely positioned to take advantage of all that ScaleUp has to offer.”
Cohort 7 was recruited from the leading seed companies in Massachusetts via a rigorous selection process. The distribution of industries within this cohort, as seen below, reflects the industries and sectors in the local ecosystem:
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37% Enterprise Software
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31% Healthcare/Life Sciences
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11% Clean Tech
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11% E-Commerce
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6% Ed-Tech
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4% Food & Lifestyle
TiE Boston Executive Director, Simone LaPray, shared, “In the last cohort, we transitioned from our usual in-person structure to a virtual format. We changed sessions during the pandemic to help the companies where they needed help most. We are very thankful for our mentors, faculty, subject matter experts and corporate partners of TiE ScaleUp for rallying around our companies during that time. That momentum has shaped the program for 2021 and we are excited to welcome the companies to the 7th Cohort of TiE ScaleUp.”
“The most impactful differentiator of TIE ScaleUp program is the unique mentorship it provides to the companies in the cohort. For Cohort 7, we have codified the best practices of mentoring from the past cohorts and evolved “The ScaleUp Way” of mentoring. We are confident that this innovation will deliver an ever increasing value, in a consistent way, to Cohort 7 Companies and beyond.” said Neeraj Chandra, Chair of the ScaleUp Taskforce.
TiE ScaleUp stands with these founders to help them grow their businesses rapidly during these challenging times.
COHORT 7
Blue Green - Blue Green Analytics® is the visual-first, web and mobile analytics software by Blue Green. Our patent-pending algorithms identify high-growth opportunities at the intersection of visitor interaction and results.
Effexoft - a customer centric Supply Chain Solutions company that covers order to cash processes. It's core product, Effecta, extends the Salesforce platform with procurement, logistics, manufacturing, inventory and order management capabilities.
Emtropy - reinventing customer service through AI powered interaction intelligence
Erbi-Bio - develops, manufactures, and sells small-scale, high performance cell culture systems used in biopharma R & D and manufacture.
Folia Materials - patented, penny-unit cost nanosilver coating for paper used in anti-viral 3-ply face masks, microwave food packaging, $0.20 CPG water purifier in S Asia.
Givz - converts discounts into donations, adding a tangible value of purpose to every sale while increasing revenue and user engagement.
Hibersense - enabling smart & healthy homes through sensors, HVAC control & dampers ensuring comfort, efficiency, & indoor air quality.
IndianRaga - IndianRaga is building Raga Labs, the world's largest online school for teaching and performance of Indian music, using technology, fun practice tracks and performance videos to ensure better and faster learning and retention.
Monsoon Kitchens - purveyor of homestyle, natural and boldly flavored Indian products for foodservice and retail markets.
Moxie Scrubs - the first direct-to-consumer medical apparel brand inspired by and focused on serving nurses. Moxie Scrubs is on a mission to Enhance, Inspire, and Empower the MOXIE in every nurse!
myautoIQ - a deep tech SaaS company, changing the way US car dealers find, acquire, and engage car buyers through artificial intelligence.
QSM Diagnostics - helps veterinarians diagnose and monitor infections in 2 minutes using electrochemistry to measure bacterial communication.
reviving mind - develop valuable, lasting changes to your mental health through the evidence-based and multi-disciplinary 360° Mental Health Therapy program that integrates Group Therapy + Health and Wellness Coaching.
Senscio Systems - delivering AI orchestrated, integrated, proactive chronic care virtually in the home to populations with multiple chronic conditions.
Soltrix Solutions - providing a cloud management and governance solution to mitigate the costly waste attributed to the lack of visibility and controls in managing virtual machines. Our solution provides companies an average ROI of 200% within the first year of adoption.
TiE ScaleUp Cohort 7 Corporate Partners
McCarter & English, Wolf and Company, Jeavio, Tanna Insurance
About TiE Boston
TiE Boston connects tomorrow's founders with today's entrepreneurs, executives and venture capitalists. Founded in 1997 by entrepreneurs who immigrated from the Indus region, TiE Boston champions inclusion in innovation by blending the fundamentals of entrepreneurship with traditional Indian values that place importance on community, mentorship, and long-term relationships.
TiE Boston is one of the region's largest and oldest organizations supporting the Massachusetts entrepreneurial ecosystem, focused on supporting entrepreneurs throughout their lifecycle — from ideation to creation, through growth, wealth creation and ultimately, support of future founders.
The TiE Boston community encompasses students, founders, experienced entrepreneurs, angel investors, and venture capitalists. Its programs foster trusted, long-term relationships between its participants — span education, mentoring, networking, and funding.
For more information about TiE Boston, visit https://www.tieboston.org/.