Five Houston-based startups have been accepted into MassChallenge's 50th startup accelerator.

Three of the local startups are part of the program's Houston cohort, and two are part of the Austin cohort. In all, 71 startups from around the world are participating in the new Houston cohort.

Aside from Houston and Austin, there are cohorts in Boston and Rhode Island. This year's MassChallenge class, announced June 28, comprises 229 startups from 20 countries.

The five Houston-based startups in MassChallenge's latest accelerator program are:

• Church Space, an "Airbnb for churches" that enables churches to rent out space for worship, events, meetings, and ghost kitchens. It's part of the Houston cohort.
• Every Shelter, which localizes response and relief efforts for global refugee crises. It's part of the Houston cohort.
• Milkify, which freeze-dries breast milk, enabling mothers to carry it in a powdered form. It's part of the Houston cohort.
• Javari, a music prediction and discovery platform. It's part of the Austin cohort.
• Netnoids Rx Laboratories, which provides a platform called Spanio that lets individuals and companies test therapeutics. It's part of the Austin cohort.

"At the core of these early stage businesses is the entrepreneurial spirit of their founders. Entrepreneurial spirit is the unique blend of optimism, passion, and drive that gets founders and their businesses through the daunting early days," Jon Nordby, managing director of MassChallenge Texas, says in a news release.

Church Space, Every Shelter, and Milkify are among the 71 startups in the new Houston cohort. MassChallenge released the names of 69 of those companies. The two others are in stealth mode. Below are the names of the 69 publicly identified startups.

Energy / clean tech

• Ener.com
• SeebeckCell Technologies

General

• Algdeha
• Analatom
• Astrileux
• DeepCharge
• Freshspire
• Grain4Grain
• Intelligent NanoFiber
• Lepidext
• Lodgeur
• Milkify
• NanoFlowX
• Nature Knows
• NjordFrey
• ProFish Ghana
• Solo
• Stagetime

Health care / life sciences

• AMF Medical
• Arcascope
• CardMedic
• CaringWire
• Exposphere Fitness
• Galileo Innovations
• Insu Health Design
• Kismet Technologies
• LucyDx
• Newton Tech
• Nightingale Caring Solutions
• Nurlabs
• Refined Imaging
• Ronawk
• SafetySit
• SONOflammation
• Tender Light Scientific
• Uniphage
• WestFace Medical

Social impact

• Carta Digital
• Every Shelter
• Nile Agro Value Chain

Tech

• Aerosens
• Areanna AI
• Church Space
• CodeLn
• Cybrik
• Debtle
• Edusko Africa
• Exum Instruments
• Fanorama Social Media
• Glo3D.com
• HintEd
• Invento Robotics
• KNWN Technologies
• Krtki
• Magos
• Makeena
• Manus Robotics
• ModoScript
• Notewardy
• Nuw
• Otomo
• Owiwi
• Patturn
• Privoce
• Third Ray
• Tru-Spot Technologies
• Yada.ai
• Xena Intelligence
• Xiggit

To be selected for the MassChallenge program, startups went through a two-round process that included more than 1,000 judges. During the program, participants will receive tools and advice to grow their businesses.

At the end of this year's program, startups will compete for equity-free cash prizes and grants adding up to $100,000. The prizes and grants will be awarded in October.