From resilient food production and logistics to improving access to nutritious meals, the inaugural cohort is focused on deploying solutions to strengthen Boston’s food and health landscape.
BOSTON, June 25, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Yes/Boston, an initiative intended to accelerate innovation at the intersection of food systems and health, today announced its inaugural cohort of 12 innovators. Chosen from 131 applicants by the World Economic Forum’s UpLink platform with support from local startup accelerator MassChallenge, this first cohort features solutions aimed at strengthening Boston’s food and health landscape and will work with Boston’s public, private and community collaborators to deploy solutions that help improve health outcomes, strengthen food-system resilience and expand economic opportunity.
Through a program led locally by MassChallenge, the innovators will receive hands-on support, matching founders with experts, and will bring together healthcare systems, community organizations, public sector stakeholders, and corporate collaborators positioned to help them develop, deploy and grow.
Yes/Boston launched in February 2026 under the leadership of the World Economic Forum, in collaboration with Amazon Web Services, Citi, and Deloitte* and is led locally by MassChallenge in collaboration with the City of Boston, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and more than thirty local organizations.
The initiative unites public, private, nonprofit and community leaders to harness the region’s robust innovation ecosystem, with a focus on improving health outcomes and creating more resilient and sustainable food systems – areas where Boston combines global research leadership with real-world deployment. The initiative is designed to help Boston become a leading testbed for food-as-health innovation while generating lessons that can be replicated in cities around the world. The Challenge called for startups that could deliver a measurable impact in Boston within four areas: food production; food logistics; nutritious food and meals; and food and health information access and navigation.
“The most important problems aren’t addressed by good intentions or new technology alone. They get solved when the right founders have access to the right infrastructure of support: the customers who need their solutions, the operators who can deploy them, and the networks that open doors that would otherwise take years to build. The founders in this cohort are not working on the margins of the food system. They are reimagining it to contribute to a healthier Boston and a new economic engine,” said MassChallenge CEO Cait Brumme.
“The work already underway in Boston to build more resilient food systems and improve health outcomes is exciting, and this first cohort is a powerful example of what is possible when innovation meets purpose,” said Rebecca Chasen, New England Managing Partner at Deloitte LLP. “Yes/Boston exists to help amplify, accelerate, and scale that progress – and just as importantly, to convene the ecosystem of supporters to help these founders succeed.”
The 12 innovator solutions selected for Boston are:
- BioBlends
- EatLove
- EatWell Meal Kits
- Family Dinner
- FoodCopia
- Gyre Energy
- Health in Her HUE
- Matriark Foods
- Morrissey Market
- Mothership Materials
- RevivBio
- ThriveLink
“The future of food will be shaped by entrepreneurs who can turn bold ideas into scalable businesses with measurable impact. This cohort showcases the strength of Boston’s innovation ecosystem, and we’re excited to help these founders accelerate solutions that strengthen food access, improve nutrition, and build more resilient communities,” said John Dutton, Head of UpLink, World Economic Forum.
“The challenges of food access, chronic disease, and community resilience are too complex for any one sector to solve alone,” said Jeff Merritt, Head of the Centre for Urban Transformation at the World Economic Forum. “The innovators selected through Yes/Boston represent the kind of bold thinking needed to create lasting impact. By rallying businesses, healthcare institutions, investors, and city leaders around these solutions, Boston is demonstrating how cities can harness cross-sector collaboration to build healthier, more resilient communities and local economies.”
The cohort reflects the strength of the innovation pipeline. Selected from 131 applications, the final cohort includes startups headquartered in Boston, across the United States and internationally.
As part of the program managed by MassChallenge, the top innovators will receive access to tailored local support. This includes advisory support from the Food and Nutrition Innovation Institute at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University and other Boston-area research, nonprofit and policy institutions. As startups in the UpLink program, they’ll benefit from the visibility, resources, and expertise of the World Economic Forum’s UpLink global innovation ecosystem to help accelerate scale and impact.
Yes/Boston is part of the World Economic Forum’s Yes/Cities initiative, which helps cities leverage innovation ecosystems to address local challenges while generating scalable models for broader adoption. By connecting entrepreneurs, public-sector leaders, investors and community organizations, Yes/Cities helps accelerate the deployment of solutions that improve quality of life and strengthen urban resilience.
The model is already demonstrating results in San Francisco, where the focus is on sustainability and economic revitalization. Since launching, the program has helped catalyze new investment, partnerships and deployments across the city, including:
- More than $60 million has been invested in the city and many of these Top Innovators, and the momentum continues to build.
- Solutions are already being integrated into the local infrastructure – from privacy-first thermal sensors deployed in major downtown towers to a new wave of curbside EV charging stations.
- Several other innovators from the cohort are rapidly expanding their presence with local hires and new deployments that are directly helping to spur San Francisco’s economy.
About MassChallenge
MassChallenge is a global institution that backs startups building solutions to complex, systems-critical challenges, working where complexity is high and the path to market is hardest. Founded in Massachusetts, MassChallenge connects startups with partners, programs, and capital designed to accelerate commercialization and real-world impact. Since 2009, MassChallenge has supported more than 5,000 startups that have raised over $29B in funding and created more than 90,000 jobs. Learn more at masschallenge.org.
About Yes/Cities
Yes/Cities is a global initiative led by the World Economic Forum, Deloitte and others that brings together governments, innovators, investors, and leading companies to unlock economic opportunity and improve quality of life. It provides a pathway for world-leading companies to invest in innovation ecosystems across the globe – driving local growth, improving quality of life, forging new cross-sector collaborations, and seeding solutions to pressing global challenges. For further information, click here.
*Please see www.deloitte.com/us/about for a detailed description of their legal structure.
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SOURCE MassChallenge
