Applications being accepted for NC State Acceleration Fund

March 13, 2017 superuser 2-min. read

Photo of Jon Carr, Jenkins Professor of Entrepreneurship, talking with students at the Garage on NC State's Centennial Campus — Jon Carr, Jenkins Professor of Entrepreneurship, talking with students at the Garage on Centennial Campus

NC State University student entrepreneurs and recent graduates are invited to apply for support from the NC State Acceleration Fund. Applications for the 2017-18 program cycle are due by April 15.

This program, managed by the NC State Entrepreneurship Clinic, is open to entrepreneurs whose startup’s leadership teams have at least one NC State student or an NC State alumnus who graduated within the past two years. The student team members must have either junior or senior standing at NC State, or be a current graduate student at NC State.

This program is designed to accelerate economic development by providing equity-free grants and pro bono support services to entrepreneurs who complete the Andrews Launch Accelerator (ALA) program. The NC State Acceleration Fund was made possible by a $1 million seed donation from Lyn and Chip Andrews.

Finalists will be selected and interviewed by the NC State Acceleration Fund Selection Committee during the first weeks of May. Cross-discipline teams receive extra weighting in the decision process.

The committee will determine the amount of the grant awarded to each recipient, up to $50,000. Grants are non-equity and non-dilutive. The funds will be paid in portions, upon achievement of milestones set by the NC State Acceleration Fund administrators. The start-ups must use these funds for business-related expenses, such as business development, marketing, market research, start-up expenses and prototyping. No more than 10 percent of the funding can be used for the founders’ salaries.

Grant recipients also agree to a philanthropic pledge to donate to the NC State Acceleration Fund a minimum of 25 percent of their original grant if and when their company revenues reach $1 million.

Additional requirements for grant recipients include giving a final presentation, providing quarterly updates for five years after receiving the grant and participating in the NC State Entrepreneurship Clinic’s data collection for entrepreneurship research.