Introduction

Gene Keselman, Managing Director

​

MIT’S VENTURE STUDIO

MIT’S VENTURE STUDIO

Proto Ventures builds & launches new startups that leverage MIT tech & people to solve the world’s biggest problems.

venture studio

[noun]

Creates and incubates startups in-house.�Example: Flagship Pioneering, creator of Moderna

OUR MISSION:

SOLVE ‘HOLY GRAIL’ PROBLEMS WITH MIT TECH

While MIT has launched many ventures from its research, many opportunities to address global challenges with MIT inventions, ideas, and talent remain hidden below the surface.

WHY?

• Reliance on serendipity
• Researchers lack time and trustworthy commercialization partners
• Nobody is working upstream to deliberately uncover venture opportunities that haven’t even taken shape yet.

WHAT WE DO:�IN-HOUSE VENTURE BUILDING

• We hire venture builders to embed in MIT labs
• Identify new venture opportunities, and build the best ones into actual ventures
• Foster a culture of translational research
• Increase tech transfer to tackle humankind’s greatest challenges

THE PROTO VENTURES KEYS TO SUCCESS

HOW IT WORKS:�DEFINING A CHANNEL

The Proto Ventures process starts with defining a channel: an unrecognized opportunity around problems and technology spaces.

The channel is selected in collaboration with a sponsor.

Channels launched to date:

• AI + Healthcare
• Clean Energy & Fusion
• Geothermal Energy

HOW IT WORKS:�VENTURE BUILDERS

MIT hires a Venture Builder who embeds within MIT labs for two years and proactively works to create ventures.

The Venture Builder has deep scientific knowledge and entrepreneurial experience.

The Venture Builder:

• connects labs that might not have talked to each other
• engages researchers who might not have thought of translation
• ultimately, creates ventures that might not have been created otherwise

​

​

HOW IT WORKS:�THE PROCESS

Define

Discover

Explore

Build

Launch

CHANNEL

OPPORTUNITY AREAS

TEAM PROJECTS

PROTO VENTURES

STARTUP

Sponsor & Managing Director

Venture Builder + Fellows

Venture Builder + Fellows

PV Team

Founding Team

Deliverables

• A new channel is defined through sponsorship
• Faculty leadership ensures a home department for the channel

• New PV channel created
• Funding allocated
• Venture Builder(s) hired

Deliverables

• Conduct tech scouting in home department
• Conduct market needs survey in topic area (clean energy)
• Incorporate expert feedback (Channel Forum)

• List of promising opportunity areas
• Preliminary database of tech capabilities in home dept., market needs & venture ideas
• Top 3-5 opportunity areas selected

Deliverables

• PV team members each explore 1-2 opportunity areas
• Targeted exploration of technologies & market
• Team formation (potential cofounders, advisors)

• 3-5 team projects, each with a team, a pitch deck and supporting business materials, and a technical reason to believe

Deliverables

• 1 or more proto ventures ready for incorporation and external investment
• VC term sheet (pre-seed) or other committed source of funding (e.g. ARPA-E grant)

Deliverables

• Commercial incorporation
• Founders go full time
• Receive first external funding
• Pass off to The Engine / Greentown Labs / other

-

• Newly formed startup(s) go on to change the world!

Launch Channel

Select Team Projects

Select Proto Ventures

Launch Startups

1

2

3

4

• Technical de-risking
• Market de-risking
• Vision for first product
• Business plan & go-to-market strategy
• Fundraising

CURRENTLY TACKLING:

A partnership with the MIT Plasma Science & Fusion Center

Build successful businesses that accelerate the energy transition in top sectors of the economy, with a focus on:

• Power grid
• Fusion
• Hydrogen
• Emerging consumers (data centers, electric vehicles)

​

GEOTHERMAL

A partnership with Project Innerspace

Build successful businesses that tip geothermal energy over the edge into mainstream, with a focus on:

• Deep drilling technology
• High-temperature electronics
• Surface equipment technology

CLEAN ENERGY & FUSION

STARTUPS WE’VE LAUNCHED SO FAR

Healthcare & AI Channel

TOCI.IO

NOLLA

AI platform to turn patient narrative into clinical records

Skin safety assessment directly on your phone. #3 top app in Norway.

+

STARTUPS WE’VE LAUNCHED SO FAR

Fusion & Clean Energy Channel

VERTICALS HORIZONS

HYPERION TRANSPORT SYSTEMS

AMERICAN FUSION INSTRUMENTS

Power Supply Units that unleash the full potential of AI data centers with vertical GaN transistors

Energy-efficient satellite propulsion with superconducting magnets

Instrumentation for fusion power plants with neutron diagnostics

+

APPLICABLE BEYOND MIT

Proto Ventures is a venture-building arm within a research institution — a repeatable blueprint that any R&D institution can use to accelerate tech translation.

​

❝

I ​see MIT Proto Ventures as a translation engine inside MIT, uniquely positioned to connect research breakthroughs with commercialization opportunities. Its dedicated Venture Builders reach across silos to drive collaboration and could meaningfully accelerate outcomes for new MIT initiatives like The Climate Project.

— EMILY KNIGHT, CEO, THE ENGINE

THANK YOU

Web: https://protoventures.mit.edu

Email: protoventures@mit.edu

CASE STUDY:

VERTICAL HORIZONS

CONFIDENTIAL

For whom: Data centers

Why: Data centers face significant challenges with heat dissipation & energy consumption from servers. More efficient power devices (inverters, rectifiers, etc.) could unlock efficiency gains in data center design, cooling infrastructure, and energy use.

MIT tech: Gallium nitride superjunction power devices (Palacios Group): engineered substrate enables CMOS compatibility, and vertical architecture enables higher breakdown voltages.

Traction: Closed Seed round January 2025. First substrates produced at MIT Lincoln Lab. Proto Ventures enabled a LOI for a pilot with a data center company. Finalist in MIT $100K and Climate & Energy Prize.

Launched Q3 ‘24

See Teaser deck

CASE STUDY:

AMERICAN FUSION INSTRUMENTS

CONFIDENTIAL

What: Instrumentation for fusion power plants

Why: Fusion devices require sophisticated sensors for performance verification, plasma control, and more. The skills required to build fusion reactors are orthogonal to the skills required to develop these diagnostic capabilities, presenting a market niche in the emerging fusion industry.

Tech: Unique expertise in neutron diagnostics at MIT PSFC developed during PhD studies for SPARC tokamak

Traction:

• Company incorporated
• First contract completed with major fusion client
• Second contract under way

Shon Mackie (and John Ball)

SUCCESS UPON LAUNCH

What does a successful venture graduating from Proto Ventures look like?

TECH

MARKET

MARKETING

CORPORATE & FINANCIAL

TEAM

TRL 4-6: Technology validated in a relevant lab environment. Engineering & scaleup risks remain, but scientific risk is largely retired.

Key technical risks identified, and technical roadmap drafted

Licensing option with Technology Licensing Office likely (if applicable)

Conduct tech scouting in home department

Conduct market needs survey in topic area (clean energy)

Incorporate expert feedback (Channel Forum)

PV team members each explore 1-2 opportunity areas

Targeted exploration of technologies & market

Team formation (potential cofounders, advisors)

Commercial incorporation

Founders go full time

Receive first external funding

Pass off to The Engine / Greentown Labs / other

Technical de-risking

Market de-risking

Vision for first product

Business plan & go-to-market strategy

Fundraising

CASE STUDY:

HEALTHCARE & AI (2019-20)

A partnership with the Jameel Clinic for Machine Learning in Health (J-CLINIC):

• 314 business ideas screened
• 12 MIT communities newly connected
• 2 ventures launched:
• TOCI: AI platform to turn patient narrative into clinical records
• Medicall: Teledermatology service provider for patients and doctors to communicate