The Engine: Elevating Tough Tech and Its Founders
Originally established at and still closely connected with MIT, The Engine can be described as an initiative born of a mission to help the breakthrough technologies discovered each day in academic and government research labs. The Engine empowers and enables said technologies to be translated into successful commercial products and technologies that influence positive change on a global scale.
Targeting "tough tech" companies, The Engine acts in three roles to support the advancement of budding innovative businesses, the first being an essentially ordinary venture capital fund. What sets The Engine apart from most others in this space is its unusually long fund life of eighteen years. Patient capital acknowledges the time it takes most tough tech products to reach their intended market finally.
With their second role being a host of infrastructure, the Engine manages facilities containing a variety of labs and spaces equipped to fulfill the research and development needs of early-stage startups, including office co-working spaces, wet labs, bio labs, chem labs, and maker spaces offering the use of expensive, otherwise inaccessible equipment. By hosting these facilities, they allow founders to develop their technology freely while scaling their business and pinpointing the exact investments they should make as they strike out on their own.
Their third and final role is to facilitate and constitute a network of experts and professionals with the knowledge and capabilities to provide the unique support needed by tough tech companies as they nurture their technology and grow their businesses. From government to academia to the corporate world, The Engine recruits contacts, pilots collaborations, and coordinates technology transfers that accelerate the success of their founders and raise the tide for the entire tough tech ecosystem.
These days, terms such as "deep tech," "frontier tech," and the Engine's preferred "tough tech" are increasingly commonplace. Yet, their definitions are rarely explicitly defined, likely due to their ever-evolving nature. In a general sense, the Engine qualifies tough tech as any breakthrough technology addressing one of many vital issues facing humanity. Still, for the purpose of investment, they focus on three primary categories: climate change, advanced systems, and human health and infrastructure.
The choice to diverge from more general investment terms with the usage of "tough" reflects how The Engine's philosophy differs from other investors in the space. Where many decide to bring in business experts to take over the commercialization and business development aspects founders are inexperienced in, the Engine believes that the founders they invest in have all the capabilities necessary to grow and run their businesses themselves. The Engine does not shy away from passing on a potentially impactful or lucrative opportunity if the founder behind it does not seem to have a genuine commitment to or passion for their technology. In parallel, if the founder does not seem to have the vision in store for their technology. The Engine recognizes these as critical ingredients to success when pursuing the long and often arduous transition of tough tech from the lab to the market.
Still, The Engine effortlessly matches the motivation for progress and success they expect from their founders, engaging often and enthusiastically with companies to help them address challenges as they occur, summoning experts amongst themselves or their vast ecosystem as needed to provide exclusive guidance focused on achieving founder's goals, both technological and commercial. And while their enthusiasm for tough tech is apparent enough in their comprehensive support services, they go even further by regularly hosting events aimed at convening, strengthening, and expanding the community. This includes a Tough Tech Summit held each year, which focuses on gathering companies to provide opportunities for collaboration and networking, and Business Development Days, in which corporate and government stakeholders are invited to meet with The Engine's entire portfolio of companies and survey their technology.
With government interest rapidly growing in reducing carbon emissions and electrifying automobiles, the Engine today is particularly hopeful about the potential of RISE® Technology to revolutionize heavy machinery and infrastructure overall. Predicting significant change on the horizon regarding climate change and mobility, The Engine works closely with the RISE® team today as we continue our endeavors in both the public and private sectors to expand our technology's reach and impact.
