Alumni Companies

In its 20 years, the MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition has helped launch over 120 companies that have achieved market cap and exit value in excess of $12.5 Billion. Below you will find the most up-to-date list of $100K alumni companies.

Notable Alumni Companies

Akamai

Akamai
1998 Runner-up, MIT $50K Competition

Akamai is the leader in Web Application Acceleration and performance management, streaming media services and content delivery. Co-founder Jonathan Seelig remains engaged in the $100K today. In 2009, Seelig served as mentor and Finale judge of the Business Plan Contest.

2008 Annual Revenue: $790.9 Million

Visit Akamai’s Website

directhit1Direct Hit
1998 Winner, MIT $50K Competition

Direct Hit Technologies, Inc. was a Boston-based search engine company that provided search engine services to major web portals and operated a public search engine at directhit.com. Founded in April 1998 by Gary Culliss and Mike Cassidy, the Direct Hit search engine utilized the anonymous searching activity of millions of web searchers to rank web sites based on a number of patented algorithms, such as how long searchers spent viewing each web page and where a site was ranked in the original search results list. The Direct Hit search engine technology was invented by Gary Culliss.
Direct Hit filed to go public in December, 1999 and was acquired by Ask Jeeves in January, 2000 for more than $500 million.

Direct Hit Technologies, Inc. was a Boston-based search engine company that provided search engine services to major web portals and operated a public search engine at directhit.com. Founded in April 1998 by Gary Culliss and 2-times competition’s winner Mike Cassidy, the Direct Hit search engine utilized the anonymous searching activity of millions of web searchers to rank web sites based on a number of patented algorithms, such as how long searchers spent viewing each web page and where a site was ranked in the original search results list. The Direct Hit search engine technology was invented by Gary Culliss.

Direct Hit filed to go public in December, 1999 and was acquired by Ask Jeeves in January, 2000 for more than $500 million.

HarmonixHarmonix

Harmonix is the brilliant company behind the award-winning video game hits Guitar Hero and Rock Band. Alex Rigopulos and current CTO Eran Egozy founded Harmonix in 1995; both were working in the computer music group at the MIT Media Lab. They began by creating interactive music attractions for Disney’s Epcot Center and other theme parks; these exhibits allowed visitors to improvise music by simply waving their hands in the air. Harmonix’s first product, The Axe, was PC software that turned a joystick or mouse into a musical instrument with which anyone could improvise instrumental solos in real time.

MTV Networks (subsidiary of Viacom) acquired Harmonix for $175 Million in 2006.

Visit the Harmonix Website

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Alumni Companies by Year (* indicates Grand Prize Winner)

2009

AuthorsGlobe
Cambridge Eyenovations
Dinube
FenSiZu
Global Cycle Solutions
Ksplice*
Levant Power
MeterLive
MobaSola
NetVirta
Novophage
YouTea!

2008

Catalyzed Combustion Technologies
Click Diagnostics
Covalent Solar
Cyberanalytix
Diagnostics For All*
Flodesign
Intact Labs
MyFaktory
Poll Everywhere
SocialSense
Ubitrack

2007

Bagazo*
C-3 Bioenergy
Immunexcite
Promethean Power
Robopsy*
Saafwater

2006

Avanti Metals
Centro Migrante*
Kalpataru, LLC
One World Medical
Seeding Labs
SteriCoat (now Semprus BioSciences)*
Terrafugia

2005

Balico*
Nanocell Power
Vacuum Excavation
Visible Measures

2004

Active Joint Brace*
Harmony Line
Liquid Piston, Inc.

2003

Brontes Technologies (acquired by 3M in 2006 for $95 Million)
Neuro Bionics
Smart Cells*

2002

Ancora Pharmaceuticals*
Fish Logic
Green Fuel

2001

Angstrom Medica* (acquired by Pioneer Surgical Technology in October 2007)
Iptyx Corp.
Pantarei

2000

Centrata (acquired by Lontra in 2006)
Eye Gen, Inc.*
Mazu Networks

1999

Crosskate
Glucazyme
Moleculare Ware*

1998

Carsoft
Direct Hit* (acquired by Ask Jeeves for $517 Million)
Silicon Spice (acquired by Broadcom for $1.2 Billion)
Volunteer Community Connections*
WeddingBell

1997

Eastern Delta Corp.
Imagen, Inc.*
Virtual Ink

1996

C-Bridge Internet Solutions (acquired by Excelon for $64 Million)
InterSense
Webline Communications* (acquired by Cisco for $325 Million)

1995

Firefly Networks (acquired by Microsoft for $40 Million)
NetGenesis (acquired by SPSS for $44 Million)
SensAble Devices (now SensAble Technologies)*

1994

SterWave*

1993

Novus PillowPak*

1992

Digicon*

1991

Stylus Innovation* (acquired by Artisoft in 1996 for $13 million)

1990

ZZ High Yield*

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We would like to thank MIT Professor Ed Roberts and the Kauffman Foundation for their assistance in compiling $100K alumni data.  A February 2009 report titled Entrepreneurial Impact: The Role of MIT, co-authored by  Professor Roberts and the Kauffman Foundation, reveals even more impressive statistics on the success of the $100K over the past 20 years.  Check out the report now.

If you are an alumni company of the MIT $100K, we would love to hear from you. We always welcome success stories, updates, and links/resources relevant to your company. Also, if you are interested in speaking at $100K track mixers or events, or would like to judge the $100K, please let us know. Contact us today!