Play Labs

Bayview Labs and Seraph Group, in coordination with the MIT Game Lab, has announced Play Labs, a startup accelerator for MIT students and alumni to launch companies that utilize playful technologies. The first round of projects at Play Labs will run from June through August on the MIT campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Play Labs is a new startup incubator/accelerator program for MIT-affiliated startups using playful technologies in any industry. Playful technologies (see definition below) come in many forms, including Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, 3D Modeling, Gamification, AI, which can be applied to industries such as Video Games, eSports, Healthcare, Simulation, Manufacturing, etc.

The first batch of Play Labs will be in the summer of 2017, and will consist of 5-10 MIT-affiliated startups who will receive hands-on mentoring and a curriculum of speakers and advisors designed to help them make their startups successful.

Play Labs is a private venture run by Bayview Labs (www.bayviewlabs.com) , and its executive director is Riz Virk, MIT ‘92, a successful entrepreneur in both video games and enterprise software, and angel investor in many playful companies. Play Labs is hosted by the MIT Game Lab, whose faculty and researchers will be involved hands on with startups, and will take place on the MIT Campus.

Play Labs is being run in partnership with the Seraph Group (www.seraphgroup.net), a seed stage venture capital investment firm that invests in technology startups. Also participating is VR@MIT, a student organization on campus dedicated to fostering VR/AR/MR entrepreneurship at MIT (vratmit.com).