The UW System’s Ideadvance Seed Fund program is newly open to most UW System alumni, allowing more people to seek funding for their innovative business ideas.
Beginning with the upcoming April 28 deadline, the program will now accept applications from graduates of any UW System campus — except for UW-Madison. The program has been providing early-stage grant funding and business mentoring to part-time or full-time staff, students and faculty of any UW System school since it got its start in 2014.
As part of UW-Extension’s Center for Technology Commercialization, Ideadvance has given initial grants to 48 teams, 13 of which were awarded follow-on funding.
Stage 1 funding provides up to $25,000 for commercializing the idea, outlining a need in the marketplace and working to preemptively reduce risk. Stage 2 funding goes up to $50,000 to help businesses get to the point where they can seek other investors and continue to grow on their own. But only the top applicants make it past the first stage. Read the full story here.
;
