Non-Dilutive Funding to Advance Your Venture

Need funding to take your venture to the next level? Duke I&E accepts applications from current students for non-dilutive awards of $500.

TYPES OF AWARDS

  1. TEST your idea 
    • Examples: website build, web hosting, customer discovery
  2. BUILD your prototype 
    • Examples: coding app, development, mold injection
  3. OPERATE your startup 
    • Examples: legal, marketing, quality assurance

Please note that student funding is taxed and reportable income for all students and may be withheld in advance for some, depending on visa status. 

Eligibility 

All current Duke students are eligible for startup funding. Priority will be given to students who have actively engaged with Duke I&E programs, those who have not previously received funding, and those who have received funding and completed a post-award survey.

How to Apply 

Applications for Spring 2025 funding are now closed. Applications for Fall 2025 funding will open in September.

QUESTIONS?

GET IN TOUCH

We used the funds to create prototypes that allowed us to iterate our dual-sided makeup removing mitts. Because of the funding, we were able to manufacture enough to sell a bulk order to our first B2B sale at 300 Thrive. Furthermore, we have used the funding to begin prototyping our new product, body oils. We are extremely grateful for this funding which allowed us to validate our business idea without sacrificing our personal financial stability.

Swan & Lake, Alissa Rivero

The funds were primarily used to cover essential steps in building our prototype, such as basic platform design, market research with local producers in rural areas, and software testing.

BazarAgro, Heloisa Juvane Sitefane

I used the money to sign up for one month of a few different services, which gave me access to genAI text-to-speech and code generation, which allowed me to build a very rough low fidelity example of the vision.

Mosaic Bridge, Jack Prommel-Saenz 

The funds were used to develop our prototype. We have been making advancements in our design and moving towards a final design. The funds helped to purchase materials to test and further develop the final design. We now have been able to create our final product.

MedForce, Elizabeth LoVerde