Use the resources listed on this page if you are in the process of seeking funding for your startup. We have put together a number of funding resources for early stage startups. This list is not exhaustive, but includes funding resources grouped under five categories below.

 

Business Accelerators

Ashoka (fellowship): Provides early stage financial support and lifetime membership for social entrepreneurship from four programs/tools.

ASPIRE from VentureWell: Startups gain admission into a week-long training and mentorship program geared towards increasing investments. Open to startups focused on inventions in the area of science and engineering. 

ATDC (Advanced Technology Development Center): Fosters technological entrepreneurship by combining curriculum, coaching, connections, and community. Students at Georgia Tech are eligible to join ATDC's Educate program for free. Located in Tech Square. 

CREATE-X Startup Launch: 12-week intensive student-focused program that enables teams to work on their startup-up ideas. Acceptance into this program includes $20,000 in seed funding, $50,000 in legal assistance, access to the CREATE-X collaborative workspace, 1:1 faculty-led coaching, and access to a network of field specific mentors and experts.

Echoing Green (fellowship): Provides funding for social innovation through a robust fellowship program aimed at tackling a wide range of issues.

Endeavor Atlanta: Entrepreneurs will be a part of an organization that helps companies grown through the entirety of their life-cycle. Entrepreneurs will have access to mentors, capital, markets, and talent. 

I-Corps South: Provides entrepreneurship eduction for startups through various support programs, including SBIR Phase Zero that provides a $25K grant. 

techstars: Has a two-phase program, Accelerate and Scale. Startups benefit from a 3 month mentorship program and then investment from Techstars Venture Capital Fund. 

Unreasonable Group: Focuses on growth-stage entrepreneurs (moved beyond startup phase).

Y Combinator: Founders move to Silicon Valley for 3 months to benefit from intensive work in order to get them ready for investors. Y Combinator also provides seed funding twice per year to help founders scale their companies. Located in Silicon Valley, California. 

 

Competitions

ASME Innovation Showcase (ISHOW): Global competition focused on innovation in hardware. The competition covers both design, engineering, and social innovation. 

Collegiate Inventors Competition: Student teams compete to see which invention will win the innovation awards. 

InVenture Prize (Georgia Tech students only): Georgia Tech students compete before a life audience for $35,000 in prizes and non-monetary awards. This based on the zero-equity, competition-based model.

MassChallenge: Participants submit their application and compete to wish cash prizes through a zero-equity, competition-based model. Several programs are based in different parts of the world and focus on specific areas. 

Queen's Entrepreneurship Competition (based in Canada): This innovation competition is open to any full-time undergraduate degree/diploma-seeking student (or student teams). Former students who have graduated within the last year are also eligible. Compete for over $80K in prizes.

TiE University Competition (Georgia only): This innovation competition is open to all university students (and recent grads) across Georgia. Compete for over $80K in prizes. 

 

Crowd Sourcing

Crowd Supply: Focused on hardware, inventors can seek backing original innovation. 

Crowdfundr: Startups can seek investment from multiple investors for a stake in your company.  

Experiment: Focused on scientific research. All projects have to be pre-approved. 

IndieGogo: Startups and growing companies can seek investment. Anyone can invest, starting at $100. It's not all or nothing and allows for flexible funding. 

Kickstarter: Open to anyone, you can start a project and seek seed funding to make your idea a reality. It's all or nothing - entrepreneurs set their project goal and funders are not charged until the project meets its goal.

 

Grants

E-Team Grant Program from VentureWell: This is a student-focused program that provides $5K and $20K grants to multi-disciplinary student-lead E-Teams (Entrepreneur-Team). 

SBIR-STTR: Dubbed as America's Seed Fun, this portal houses a number of funding opportunities from various government organizations such as NASA, NSF, USDA, Department of Homeland Security, etc. You can read more about the SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) Program - grants/contracts range between $70K and $150K, but you can receive additional grants up to $1M. It is aimed at helping emerging startups. The SBTTR (Small Business Technology Transfer) Program is aimed at helping small business; however, you will need to collaborate with a research institution. Grants starts from $150K and go up to $1M.

Federal and State Government Grants (grants.gov): Search the federal government database for small business grants that might tie to your particular area. They are often open to companies/startups in the science, technology, or health fields. 

DOA's Grant program for Innovations focused on Rural Energy/Renewable Energy Systems/Energy Efficiency Improvement Technologies: With specific focus on rural areas this grant can range between $1,500 and $250,000. The program also offers guaranteed loans or a combination of grant and loans. 

Non-Governmental Grants: Search the non-government database for small business grants that might tie to your particular area. They are often open to all companies/startups.

Pivot: Search this global database for funding for your research that can support your startup/project.

 

Seed Funding

AngelMD: An healthcare investment community that bridges the gap between medical startups focused on clinical applications and physicians and angel investors.

Bolt Build and Bolt Capital: Provide pre-seed and seed funding to companies to help build their foundation in order to get them to the next stage of funding. Venture capital focusing on hardware and software.  

CREATE-X Startup Launch: 12-week intensive student-focused program that enables teams to work on their startup-up ideas. Acceptance into this program includes $20,000 in seed funding, $50,000 in legal assistance, access to the CREATE-X collaborative workspace, 1:1 faculty-led coaching, and access to a network of field specific mentors and experts.

Contrary Capital: Focuses mainly on student founders. Partners directly with Georgia Tech (and other universities) as Venture Partners. Click here to reach out to our GT on-campus student partners to discuss investment opportunities.  

Dorm Room Fund (DRF): Focuses mainly on student founders. Provide $20,000 in pre-seed funding with exposure to a wide network of inventors and mentors. 

FundRx: Targets high impact healthcare and life science startups for funding and support. 

Georgia Research Alliance (GRA): Provides public-private venture capital funding for university research and startups focused on inventions. Startups have to be Georgia-based and research-driven.  

Raise Forum: Provides investment funding for startups with a proven business model and those currently focused on scaling and requires between $1M - $5M to aid growth. Startups have to be located in the Southeast.