The Engine was spun out of MIT in 2016, with the purpose of supporting startups poised to create a material positive impact on society and the environment.
The Engine was MIT's response to a challenge MIT leaders had heard from many brilliant faculty members and alumni entrepreneurs: that finding the sustained support to develop complex Tough Tech ideas was nearly impossible.
We do this in a few key ways that leverage our proximity to the world renowned research institutions in our backyard: promoting entrepreneurship within science and technology, commercializing Tough Tech, and fostering regional economic development.
Core to each of those tenets is helping incredible founders, ideas, and companies scale. Scaling the access to opportunities and the entrepreneurial community working across Tough Tech; scaling the diversity of backgrounds, viewpoints, and approaches to solving our biggest challenges; scaling the jobs added to our region and the infrastructure that those working on the toughest problems have access to; and scaling the benefits to our community. To create lasting impact for the world, we must reach everyone.