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THE
FOUNDER
FILES

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Welcome to The Founder Files—a dynamic directory of startups founded by students, graduates, faculty, researchers, or postdocs of MIT and/or Harvard. Use the filters to sort startups by industry or country. To add your startup, please complete this form. This platform is designed to increase visibility for exceptional ventures and connect them with a global network of investors, partners, service providers, and future team members. 

VISION

Find your next investment opportunity, partnership, career path, or source of inspiration here.

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THE  FOUNDER  FILES

Welcome to The Founder Files—a dynamic directory of founders who are students/graduates/professors of MIT and Harvard and their startups. Explore a diverse range of innovative companies and discover the stories behind their creation.

 

Use the filters to sort startups by Industry or Country, and click "Read the Interview" to dive into exclusive interviews with each founder.

If you want to be featured on The Founder Files, kindly complete this form.

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Agxes

Harvesting Data, Nurturing Loans

SaaS (Software as a Service), Financial Services, Sustainability / Environmental, Agriculture, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Analytics

Agxes' mission is to democratize access to agricultural credit. They leverage advanced data analytics and a machine learning-powered risk engine to help credit institutions extend affordable financing to small and medium-sized agricultural enterprises (SMEs). Their solution improves operational capacity by increasing processing efficiency tenfold, reducing defaults, and standardizing workflows. Agxes is currently piloting with two partners in Mexico to refine their value proposition for broader impact.

Founders:

Victoria Tostado, Benedetta Magni

Stage: 

Country:

Mexico, United States

Year Founded:

2023

Affiliation:

MIT

Amplified Industries, Inc.

Your Oilfield Revolution Starts Here

Artificial Intelligence (AI), Analytics, SaaS (Software as a Service), Internet of Things (IoT), Energy, Logistics & Supply Chain, Sustainability / Environmental

Amplified Industries democratizes Industry 4.0 innovation with easy-to-use IoT hardware and software built on novel signal processing and physics expertise—starting with legacy oil and gas assets. Their turnkey solution improves production by 5–10%, reduces electricity and maintenance costs by up to 50%, and eliminates spills. Unlike expensive, outdated SCADA systems with poor UX, Amplified delivers accessible, affordable automation for small-to-medium operators. With nearly 1 million U.S. wells—80% classified as marginal—they are redefining industrial automation from this overlooked beachhead.

Founders:

Sebastien Mannai, Charles-Henri Clerget, Eric Zhang, Louis Creteur







Stage: 

Country:

United States

Year Founded:

2018

Affiliation:

MIT

Applied AI

The World's Most Boring AI Company

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

AppliedAI is an enterprise technology company based in the UAE. Founded in 2021 in London by Arya H. Bolurfrushan, it moved its headquarters to Abu Dhabi in 2022 and has since grown to over 100 staff across engineering, product, quality, and support. Spread across the US, Germany, UAE, and APAC, AppliedAI has successfully raised over $40 million from institutional investors such as G42 of Abu Dhabi, Bessemer Venture Partners, Plug and Play, ARM Holdings of Dubai, McKinsey, Metalab, and Palantir Technologies, among others. AppliedAI is focused on improving the productivity and quality of decisions and reviews in the healthcare, insurance, financial services, life sciences, and government sectors. With its Knowledge Work AI Platform—Opus (Opus.com)—it enables companies to save money and increase the quality of critical back-office services outsourced from manual Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) companies. Opus performs these critical back-office services end-to-end with AI workflows and uses human expert reviewers at all critical nodes to ensure that every step and judgment is expertly verified. This allows the deployment of Opus in high-stakes environments.

AppliedAI believes that the AI + Human Expert combination is necessary for an optimal balance of cost, productivity, and trust. Built around the belief that the traditional FTE model will shift to a gig economy “Human Expert Cloud,” Opus is building a unique marketplace for a decentralized workforce of freelance human knowledge workers to offer their services, even for time-critical and sensitive tasks.

Founders:

Arya H. Bolurfrushan

Stage: 

Country:

United Arab Emirates

Year Founded:

Affiliation:

Harvard

Bolt Insight Limited

AI-Automated Research

AdTech, Analytics, Artificial Intelligence (AI), SaaS (Software as a Service)

Bolt Insight is a cutting-edge research platform transforming consumer understanding through AI-powered qualitative research at scale. At the heart of this innovation is BoltChatAI, a trained AI moderator and researcher designed to automate every step of the research process. From recruiting target audiences and facilitating dynamic conversations to analyzing responses and delivering actionable insights, BoltChatAI streamlines the entire workflow with speed and precision.

By leveraging advanced technologies such as voice-to-voice research, social listening, predictive analytics, and text-to-visual creation tools, Bolt Insight empowers brands to co-create solutions with their consumers while identifying trends and opportunities in real time. Trusted by global leaders such as Unilever, Danone, and L’Oréal, the platform enables businesses to transition from outdated survey-based methods to agile, automated research. This approach accelerates innovation cycles from months to mere days, making Bolt Insight an essential partner for forward-thinking, consumer-centric brands.

Founders:

Hakan Yurdakul, Kerem Turgay

Stage: 

Country:

United Kingdom

Year Founded:

Affiliation:

Harvard

Cashflowy.ai INC.

Bookkeeping but BETTER

Financial Services, SaaS (Software as a Service)

Cashflowy is an AI-powered bookkeeping, client invoicing, cash-flow management, and automated tax preparation software designed for small service-based businesses, including coaches, consultants, freelancers, influencers, therapists, practitioners, and solopreneurs. Cashflowy eliminates the need for a bookkeeper or tax professional, saving users thousands of dollars per year. It enables business owners to understand their financials and manage all aspects of their business finances in under one hour per month. The platform also features an AI bookkeeper that allows users to ask questions 24/7 using natural language, including generating reports on demand. Accurate answers and reports are delivered within seconds. Unlike competitors that offer complex software designed for larger businesses—with hundreds of unnecessary features that often require hiring a human bookkeeper—Cashflowy is built specifically for solopreneurs. It provides a faster, better, and more cost-effective solution.

Founders:

Heidi DeCoux, Niraj Kumar

Stage: 

Country:

United States

Year Founded:

Affiliation:

MIT

Cube Properties Inc.

The evolution of the American motel.

Travel & Tourism, Manufacturing, Construction, Hardware, Real Estate

CUBE is rearchitecting the outdated U.S. roadside hotel market with a sleek, modular alternative: jet-black, 80-room “cube hotels” designed for modern roadtrippers. Built using volumetric modular construction, CUBE offers minimalist Japanese-Scandinavian interiors, zen gardens, coworking spaces, and tech-enabled features like contactless check-in. Priced at $115/night, they deliver premium comfort at an affordable rate. Targeting millennial and Gen Z travelers who reject outdated brands like Motel 6 or Super 8, CUBE is building a nationwide hotel franchise tailored for the next generation of American roadtrippers.

Founders:

Nicholas Curcio, Menno Hilberts

Stage: 

Prototype or MVP developed, Raised Funding from Accelerators or Grants, Raised Funding from Angels or Pre-Seed, Featured in Notable Media or Awards, Featured on 'Building with Founders' by Anthony Craigwell

Country:

United States

Year Founded:

2023

Affiliation:

MIT

Cytex, Inc.

AI Driven Cyber Risk, Compliance, and GRC Unified Platform

Cybersecurity, SaaS (Software as a Service), Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Cytex is revolutionizing how organizations address the growing complexity of cybersecurity threats by providing a full-spectrum, AI-powered platform that integrates network operations, access management, third-party risk assessment, and compliance management into a single, cohesive solution. Their unified resilience approach not only saves time and costs but also delivers persistent protection for today’s ever-evolving digital landscapes.

Founders:

Andrew Surwilo, Taimur Aslam

Stage: 

Product launched in market, Generating revenue

Country:

United States, United Arab Emirates

Year Founded:

2022

Affiliation:

MIT

Davinci wearables

Empowering Active Women Through Wearable AI.

SaaS (Software as a Service), Sports, Fitness, Biotech / Life Sciences

Davinci is a wearable health and wellness platform for active females, offering a proprietary liner, a user-friendly app that syncs data with 3rd-party tools (e.g., smart rings, bands, watches), and tailored sport-specific recommendations for peak performance.

Founders:

Christy Fernandez-Cull, Edward Betancourt, Belen Fraile

Stage: 

Prototype or MVP developed

Country:

United States

Year Founded:

2022

Affiliation:

MIT

DiffraQTion

See Further, Understand Deeper

Robotics, Defense, Hard Tech, Medical Devices, Biotech / Life Sciences

This startup is developing the next generation of super-resolution microscopes and telescopes to enable breakthrough discoveries in biology, pharmaceuticals, and space. Their affordable add-ons to widefield, confocal, and super-resolution systems increase magnification and temporal resolution without harming samples. Originating from partnerships with DARPA and NASA, their technology is intended for space observatories like the Habitable Worlds Observatory and adapted for biological imaging. They pursue quantum-limit modal imaging to passively capture sub-Rayleigh features using spatial mode sorting where conventional methods fail.

Founders:

Johannes Galatsanos, Saikat Guha

Stage: 

Prototype or MVP developed, Raised funding from accelerators or grants, Operating in one country, Have enterprise or institutional clients

Country:

United States

Year Founded:

2023

Affiliation:

MIT

Dyle

Get Dyle'd In

e-Commerce, SaaS (Software as a Service), Sales Enablement, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Cybersecurity

Dyle helps companies manage their SMB customers by leveraging product usage insights and generating sales opportunities to improve Net Revenue Retention and reduce churn. They enable Account Managers to scale portfolio management 5x, making it feasible to manage over 200 SMB accounts—each typically worth $10K ARR. Dyle addresses the challenge of high churn and low retention among SMBs by automating opportunity generation and follow-up through an AI agent, allowing AMs to focus on closing rather than chasing.

Founders:

Oisín O'Sullivan, Eugene Sokolov

Stage: 

Country:

United States

Year Founded:

2024

Affiliation:

MIT & Harvard

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