MassRobotics Opens Cohort 6 Applications for Healthcare Robotics Catalyst

MassRobotics has opened its call for applicants for Cohort 6 of its Healthcare Robotics Startup Catalyst Program.

The initiative runs four months and takes no equity. It is built to help robotics and automation teams move faster on clinical readiness, technical validation, and go-to-market work in healthcare and life sciences.

Applications are open now and will close on Dec. 31, 2026.

The cohort will run from February through June 2027 and will conclude with company showcases at the Robotics Summit & Expo in Boston.

MassRobotics welcomed Intel to the program's steering committee this year.

Intel joins founding partners Festo, Novanta, and Mitsubishi Electric U.S. on the committee.

The company said its Health and Life Sciences team contributes mentorship and technical depth in edge AI and on-device compute.

Those capabilities apply to surgical and procedure-enabling robotics and operating-room automation, an area of growing interest across the cohort.

Johannes Linzbach, head of Research Hub Boston at Festo, said that after three years supporting the program, Festo is proud of its journey from founding member to seeing standout startups such as Tenomix thrive.

He said what he values most is discovering the people behind the technology: their ambition, their ideas, and what drives them.

Festo said it is excited to support Cohort 6 with its experience and connections across the ecosystem as those teams turn ideas into solutions that can scale.