Funding for Penn Student Start-Ups: Pitch Competition Deadlines in February
3 Pitch Competition Deadlines in February that Every Penn Student Entrepreneur Needs to Know
Hi everyone! Harsha here - As you may know, I serve as the President of the Wharton Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Club (WUEC) and the Executive Director of NGEN, the Inter-Ivy entrepreneurship network that brings together student founders working on cutting-edge start-ups across Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, MIT, NYU, Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania, and Yale.
I’ve also been fortunate to collaborate with multiple VCs as both a VC scout and connector to curate and create opportunities for them to engage meaningfully with these ecosystems of brilliant founders. As part of that, I’ve been honoured to be able to organize several exciting pitch competitions and funding opportunities for student founders at the University of Pennsylvania - and have also participated in a few other competitions as a founder myself.
Several of these competitions have application deadlines in February - hence, I decided to create this list to ensure you aren’t missing out on applying to any of them!
1. NGEN Inter-Ivy Entrepreneurship Pitch Competition
In collaboration with BullMont Capital, NGEN is giving top student founders a chance to win a $10,000 SAFE investment for their ventures through NGEN’s upcoming pitch competition. The NGEN Pitch Competition aims to help founders secure their first investment to transform prototypes and early traction into scalable ventures.
Eligibility: It is open to founders from across all of NGEN’s partner schools, including the University of Pennsylvania. Students at both the undergraduate and graduate levels are encouraged to apply. Start-ups are required to have either a prototype / MVP and/or early traction/validation.
Important Dates: Applications are due by March 1st, 2025. Finalists will pitch their start-up in person in New York City at NGEN’s Upcoming Trailblazers Conference on April 11th, 2025.
2. Center City Ventures x WUEC Accelerator
The Wharton Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Club (WUEC) is partnering with Center City Ventures to launch an 8-week accelerator program culminating in a demo day on April 18th, where start-ups are considered for a $50,000 SAFE investment.
Center City Ventures is an early-stage fund operated and funded by the Wharton MBA Class of 2026 to back Penn-led start-ups. Founders joining this accelerator program have ~8 weeks to work with a dedicated mentor for their start-up from the Center City Ventures investing team and network. These mentors include expert founders and investors with experiences from top organizations like Y Combinator, etc. The accelerator aims to help start-ups make significant progress towards their ventures leading up to the demo day, where Center City Ventures will make final investment decisions in selected start-ups.
Eligibility: Applications are open to any founders from the University of Pennsylvania, including pre-MVP or pre-product.
Important Dates: Applications are due by February 15th, 2025 to be considered.
3. Venture Lab’s 2025 Start-Up Challenge
Venture Lab’s annual pitch competition remains one of the most significant start-up challenges at Penn, with over $150,000 worth of prizes, including cash and in-kind resources up for grabs across multiple categories.
This annual event and competition is a hallmark of entrepreneurship at Penn, with finalist presenting their start-ups in an in-person pitch competition in front of distinguished judges, other students, faculty and alumni.
Eligibility: Applications are open to any current Penn student in a degree-granting program from the university. For-profit and non-profit entities are eligible to apply; however, all entities must have a revenue model. View detailed eligibility criteria.
Important Dates: Applications are due by February 2nd, 2025, with the in-personal finals currently scheduled for May 2nd, 2025.
More Upcoming Pitch Competitions & Funding Opportunities
These are just some of the upcoming pitch competitions available exclusively to Penn student founders. I plan to publish a list of general upcoming pitch competitions and funding opportunities that are open to all college-level founders soon in the coming weeks. Don’t forget to subscribe here to be notified when it’s out and to stay in the loop for other funding resources, competitions, investment opportunities and insights for your start-up.
Need help getting ready to pitch your start-up or raise an investment round?
I also provide consultancy services to aid start-ups in getting pitch/investment ready based on my experiences as a founder and VC scout.
Book a free fundraising consultation session with me here to get feedback on your venture here (limited to 5 start-ups in February).