Catalyst

Catalyst

Invests in Massachusetts cleantech concepts through Catalyst, supporting teams from concept to prototype with expert review.

⚠ This may reflect a past cycle — verify the current call on the funder's site.

Catalyst is a Massachusetts Clean Energy Center grant program co-administered with MassVentures that funds early-stage cleantech companies, nonprofit research institutions, and student-led teams at Technology Readiness Levels 2 through 4 — the concept-through-lab-validation stage. Awards reach up to $75,000 per recipient. Since the program's inception, MassCEC and MassVentures have distributed more than $13 million to 215 awardees, who have collectively raised more than $852 million in follow-on capital and filed 455 patent applications. The Spring 2026 round closed on 13 March 2026.

Eligible applicants must be Massachusetts-based. For-profit companies must have no more than four full-time employees at the time of application to qualify under the early-stage definition. Nonprofit research institutions and student-led teams with a faculty principal investigator are also eligible. Technology Readiness Level must be 2–4 at application; projected future TRL does not satisfy this requirement. All clean energy technology areas are in scope. Applications are submitted through the MassVentures portal, not MassCEC directly. All finalists receive pitch coaching and business mentoring from MassVentures regardless of whether they receive a cash award.

The Catalyst track is the most accessible of the MassCEC innovation portfolio for pre-revenue teams. The combination of small team size requirement and TRL floor means the ideal applicant is a technically credible founding team with a demonstrated proof of concept but no commercial customers yet. Winning proposals typically show a clear path from lab validation to a pilot and document why Massachusetts is the right base for that next step. Student teams affiliated with Massachusetts universities have a dedicated pathway via the faculty PI route.