MassChallenge announces 26 finalists in its start-up competition

By Chris Reidy, Globe Staff

MassChallenge Inc., the Boston-based nonprofit offering more than $1 million in prizes to promising start-ups, announced 26 finalists in its 2012 start-up competition Friday.

According to MassChallenge, it received 1,237 applications for this year’s competition from start-ups in 35 countries and 36 states in the US. From this initial group, 125 companies were selected for another look. Now this group has been winnowed to 26 finalists.

The finalists include Akrivis Technologies LLC, a Cambridge company looking to speed up cancer detection, and Black Island Wind Turbines, which claims its wind turbines are the toughest on the planet. Its chief executive, Pat Quinlan, is a former associate director of the University of Massachusetts Wind Energy Center, according to the company’s website.

Akrivis and Black Island Wind Turbines will be among the final 26 teams that will pitch their startups to the last round of judges who will identify 10 to 20 winning start-ups; the winners are scheduled to be announced at the MassChallenge Awards Ceremony on Oct. 23, MassChallenge said.

To see the full list of finalists, please click here.

To read a recent post about MassChallenge on the Hive, Boston.com’s new section devoted to covering innovation, please click here.