Venture Development

Center

Welcome to the University of Massachusetts’ incubator in Boston.
Empowering global entrepreneurs with vital, timely resources and mentorship to turn their innovative ideas into successful companies, regardless of their university.

Local Startups

With business mentorship, connections and resources including offices, laboratories, and equipment get the support you need when you need it.

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Global Entrepreneurs

Now you can move to or remain in Boston after you graduate to launch your company through the Massachusetts GEIR program.

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Faculty

Mission critical instruments, equipment and expertise now available through the Massachusetts Innovation Voucher Program.

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Students

We’ll help you find an internship, receive mentoring, or obtain a scholarship to start your career in an innovative, fast growing company.

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About Us

The Venture Development Center at UMass Boston is an incubator for early-stage technology and life science startups. Our member companies are dedicated to bringing high impact products to market and being a part of a flourishing entrepreneurial community. We also offer programming for the UMass Boston community about product commercialization and entrepreneurship.

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Entrepreneurs in Residence

Ashwin Lokapally

GIWOTECH | Co-Founder

 

Ashwin is a fundamental biologist with extensive experience in various model organisms. Ashwin received his PhD in developmental neurobiology from Germany before moving to the Whitehead Institute – MIT as a postdoc. He is currently a postdoc at Northeastern University

Jose Tomas Dominguez

Atacama | Co-Founder

 

Jose Tomas Dominguez, is an experienced developer of industrial deep tech robotics and manufacturing applications; he took two startups to market and mentored several more in this process.

Paloma Gonzalez-Rojas

Atacama | Co-Founder – CEO

 

Paloma Gonzalez-Rojas, is a Machine Learning expert developer, applied to Material Science at Atacama. Her doctoral work at MIT included extensive study of machine learning tools for data science, prediction, and sequence decision-making.

Francesco Bertacchi

WURQ, INC | Software Lead

 

Francesco Bertacchi, is a Software Engineer working at Harvard School of Engineering. Francesco seeks the most robust solutions to real problems. To achieve this goal, he has challenged himself by working for multiple companies while studying.

Ciaran Dunn

Circe Bioscience | Co-Founder

 

Ciaran Dunn, co-founder and VP of Engineering is a hydrogen specialist and engineer with professional experience spanning the energy and aerospace industries. He has worked at multiple early-stage startups and has rigor and strategy to his approach.

Floris Engelhardt

KANO THERAPEUTICS, LLC | Co-Founder

 

Floris is the Co-Founder and CEO of Kano Therapeutics. With today’s exploding Biotech market, the need for agile biomanufacturing processes that enable fast scale-up is becoming commonplace and Kano builds the critically needed bio-infrastructure for future therapeutics. Her scientific work focuses on biotechnological single-stranded DNA production and nucleic acid nanostructures for gene and cell therapy.

Jonas Bylander

Atlantic Quantum | Co-Founder

 

In his research group, he developed superconducting quantum electronic devices for quantum computing and simulation, with the ultimate aim to demonstrate a computational advantage over a classical computer.

Kavitha Madhuri

DirectShifts | Co-Founder

 

Dr. Thumuluru Kavitha Madhuri, a distinguished Gynaecological Oncology specialist at Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust, excels as a Senior Fellow and Divisional Research Lead. With an MD and extensive expertise, Dr. Madhuri plays a crucial role in coordinating clinical care, teaching, and consulting for Sysmex Corporation and AstraZeneca, securing notable awards and grant income. Beyond her professional commitments, she enjoys moments with her son, engages in diverse activities, and is dedicated to advancing women’s health with a strong academic background in Gynaecological Oncology.

Milad Moshfeghian

Circe Bioscience | COO

 

Milad Moshfeghian, co-founder and COO, is a chemical manufacturing veteran. He has spent over a decade in the industry during which time he stabilized and expanded processes and built out the product portfolio of a large ingredient manufacturer. He is committed to staving off climate change one carbon-negative chocolate bar at a time.

Yi Ling Tan

PEEK | Co-Founder

 

Yi Ling hold CFA, with over 12 years of experience in Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong as a corporate finance professional, in both investor and financial advisor capacities. Yi Ling was appointed as the youngest Senior Vice President in the Investment Division of Khazanah (sovereign wealth fund of Malaysia) after successfully leading a 60-pax strong team to restructure Malaysia’s national carrier, Malaysia Airlines. This project involved restructuring of over USD3.5 billion liabilities and resetting the airline’s cost structure, paving the way for its post-COVID recovery and ultimately preserving 12,000 jobs.

Krispian Lawrence

PEEK | Co-Founder

 

Krispian Lawrence is the co-founder of Ducere Technologies, a company that transcends the boundaries of impossible experiences. He is a tinkerer and design geek. Along with his partner Anirudh Sharma, they founded Ducere Technologies Pvt Ltd in Hyderabad. They design, develop, and market their innovation Le Chal. Before co-founding PEEK, Krispian had a significant impact through his works. He believes in a holistic process, one that is interactive, open, and multi-disciplinary in every facet. He continuously focuses on process excellence, be it product development, R&D, design planning and execution, documentation, technical aspects, or manufacturing.

Ye (Alvin) Tian

BlockCarbon | Co-Founder

 

Ye (Alvin) Tian is the co-founder of BlockCarbon, a remote sensing and AI technology-driven marketplace selling Asia-based carbon credits to the global market. He is a graduate of the Harvard Kennedy School (Class of ’21). Before co-founding BlockCarbon, Alvin had extensive experiences in M&A, energy trading, and corporate investment. He worked with Royal Dutch Shell and was a core deal maker in Shell’s largest merger deal with BG Group in 2015. BlockCarbon was a semi-finalist in the 2023 Harvard President’s Innovation Challenge (PIC), an invitation to Harvard students and select alumni to propel their ideas forward.

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