MIT Solve

Solve runs open innovation challenges that call for solutions to specific global problems. Anyone, anywhere can apply. A network of judges and MIT faculty evaluates the submissions, and selected 'Solver' teams enter the portfolio. This inverted model — broadcasting a challenge rather than relying on warm introductions — accounts for the 190-country application footprint and over 28,200 total submissions.

No. MIT Solve is an initiative of MIT that connects early-stage social enterprises to a marketplace of funders, including corporations, foundations, and philanthropists. It does not manage a single pooled investment vehicle. The $85 million in funding it has mobilized represents grants, prize awards, and direct investments that flow from partners to individual Solver teams, not from a Solve-managed fund.

There is no investment committee in the conventional sense. Executive Director Hala Hanna leads the platform, and challenge-specific selection committees — drawn from MIT faculty, partner organizations, and domain experts — choose which teams enter the portfolio. The decentralized structure means each funding partner retains its own decision authority over the capital it deploys.

Solve concentrates on the earliest stages — seed and start-up — deliberately entering before traditional impact funds or development finance institutions typically engage. The thesis is that by derisking teams with MIT resources and small initial grants, Solve increases the probability that portfolio companies will attract follow-on capital from larger funders.

Solve is an initiative of MIT, not a legally separate entity. A steering committee of senior MIT leaders — including Eric Grimson, Maria Yang, and former president L. Rafael Reif — governs its direction. This structure gives Solver teams access to faculty advisors, MIT labs, and the Institute's brand, but also means Solve's strategy must align with MIT's educational and public-service mission.

Solve does not publish a formal exclusion list. However, its challenge themes — climate resilience, education, health, economic inclusion — reveal a deliberate focus on social and environmental impact sectors. It has not run challenges in defense technology, consumer social media, or traditional financial services, and no portfolio companies are known in those categories.

Solve's model is almost entirely direct: funding flows from partners to individual Solver teams as grants, prize money, or direct program-related investments. The platform does not currently operate a fund-of-funds program nor does it make LP commitments to external venture capital firms.