University of Virginia faculty, staff, students, and even alumni have access to a range of funding sources, supporting teams across stages — from prototype to growth capital. The primary sources for available funding would be: competitions, seed funds, as well as University, State, and Federal translational research funds.

Competitions

The University of Virginia Entrepreneurship Cup (ECUP), provides a total of $100,000 in awards across all three stages of the competition: Concept, Discovery, and Launch. The E-Cup is open to all UVA undergraduates, graduate students and post-doctoral fellows.

The Galant Challenge connects ventures from the UVA community with potential investors. This exciting event has successfully funded ventures with more than $2 million in capital, in just the past few years alone.

LVG Seed Fund

The LVG Seed Fund supports new ventures emerging from the UVA research portfolio. Managed by the UVA Licensing & Ventures Group, the $10 million LVG Seed Fund is uniquely positioned to assess new ventures created from UVA research ideas and discoveries. The investment team works closely with the licensing professionals to identify opportunities and is governed by an oversight committee comprised of leaders in early-stage investing and startup development who are all UVA alumni. Investments from this fund are typically joined by other investors in each respective industry. 

Translational and Commercialization Grants

The mission of the Coulter Translational Partnership program is to promote, develop, and support translational research collaborations between biomedical engineers and clinicians in order to accelerate the successful translation of appropriate innovations to improve patient care.

The Ivy Biomedical Innovation Fund was created by The Ivy Foundation to support biomedical innovation and translational research projects. The goal of this program is to support research projects that address unmet clinical needs and lead to improvements in health care.

3 Cavaliers is a rapid seed-funding program that enables creative, collaborative, consequential research ideas. The program facilitates funding for faculty members from at least two disparate disciplines, located in different units or schools. The platform helps faculty members self-assemble and pursue new research projects that may not be ready for external funding or may not fit traditional funding models.

The Commonwealth Research Commercialization Fund (CRCF) as well as the CRCF Matching Funds program advance science- and technology-based research, development, and commercialization to drive economic growth in Virginia, create and foster high-potential technology companies in the Commonwealth, as well as encourage and strengthen collaboration between the public and private sector. 

Angel Groups and Venture Funds

CAV Angels is a non-profit organization and angel group composed of UVA alumni, faculty, parents, students, and friends of the University. The organization's mission is twofold: first, to provide education on investment in private, early stage companies to members of the UVA family; second, to facilitate investment by members of the organization in early stage growth companies founded, owned, or managed by members of the UVA family.

The Charlottesville Angel Network (CAN), with a membership of greater than 70 accredited investors, puts their skills, connections and capital to work to help entrepreneurs succeed. In addition to CAN, a range of regional angel groups and state-funded funds invest in early stage companies across and beyond the state: Virginia Venture Partners, 757 Angels, enture South Virginia, Shenandoah Valley Angels, Launchplace, and others.

According to Crunchbase, there are nearly 100 venture funds in Virginia, most firms located in the DC area. Examples include: New Enterprise Associates, Grotech, Revolution Ventures, Route 66 Ventures, QED, In-Q-Tel, and others.