The Impact Catalyst program is a seed-stage, non-dilutive funding program designed for early-stage life science startups. It addresses funding gaps in underinvested areas aligned with disease burden and accelerates innovation in hard-to-commercialize areas across Massachusetts. Through a milestone-based investment model, the program is designed to reduce risk around innovation and drive long-term impact in areas of significant unmet need and public health impact.
The application period for Cycle 1 will run from March 16 – June 12, 2026 at 1 p.m. EST.
The Impact Catalyst program aims to accelerate early-stage, high-risk translational research in underinvested life sciences areas, driving innovation and patient impact. Key goals include:
This program prioritizes high-risk translational research in areas historically lacking investment proportional to disease burden, where innovation has the potential to transform patient outcomes. Focus areas include, but are not limited to:
Program Advantages:
Milestone-Based Grant Allocation:
Two application cycles per year, providing multiple opportunities for startups to submit applications and access funding.
Applicants must:
Required Documents:
Applicants must first create an account in our application portal and submit an application.
Historically, MLSC-supported startups have gone on to raise more than $1.3 billion, contributing to Massachusetts’ public health outcomes and economic growth. Most of these investments have focused on fields with significant unmet need and important public health impact, many of which faced persistent funding gaps and are often hard to commercialize. The Impact Catalyst program is critical to sustaining this momentum by supporting early, high-risk innovations that face challenges in attracting private investment, while positioning them for future commercialization. In doing so, the program strengthens the Commonwealth’s life sciences ecosystem, attracts investor interest to critical areas, and catalyzes long-term impact in fields with substantial unmet need and societal impact.
If you have any questions regarding the application process, email: impactcatalyst@masslifesciences.com.
Olaris is a precision diagnostics company that is on a mission to revolutionize how diseases are diagnosed and treated. By leveraging their CEREBRO platform (Comprehensive Early Responsive Evaluation of Biomarkers Related to Outcomes), which combines metabolomics and machine learning, they are able to harness the power of the body’s own communication system to discover and develop their pipeline of myOLARIS precision diagnostics.
