Accelerate Blue Foundry
Are you an entrepreneur seeking your next great startup idea?
The Accelerate Blue Foundry is a new program designed to bridge the gap between startup founders and some of the most promising innovations from University of Michigan research. By connecting top entrepreneurial talent with U-M technologies, the program will accelerate the path to startup launch, fostering new ventures that have the opportunity to solve the world’s great challenges.
The Foundry is looking for motivated entrepreneurs to build startups based on technologies from a curated portfolio of U-M innovations. Those who successfully complete the program may pitch ventures to a panel of experts for a chance to launch their startup and secure seed funding.*
Selected entrepreneurs will be matched with revolutionary U-M technologies, and will develop a pitch for funding. From December 16, 2024 through late March or early April 2025, entrepreneurs will have the opportunity to engage with inventors to gather technology background materials, receive ongoing mentorship and support from the Innovation Partnerships Ventures and Licensing teams as they craft their funding pitch. The program will culminate in a selection day where projects will present to the Innovation Partnerships team and investors for an opportunity to license the technology and receive seed investments ranging from $50,000 to $250,000 from the Accelerate Blue Fund.**
Key responsibilities of the selected entrepreneurs will be:
- Evaluate technology and build a commercialization and funding plan
- Provide executive level leadership for startup
- Collaborate with university researchers who developed the founding technology
- Complete early startup benchmarks towards commercialization
- Complete regular checkpoints with U-M team
*Entrepreneurs will not receive direct compensation for their work.
**This is a competitive program. Not all partnered projects will advance to Selection Day. We anticipate that out of a possible 50 partnered projects, only 15-20 will be chosen to compete for the opportunity to launch with funding on Selection Day. Those not chosen may have the opportunity to continue to incubate their ventures with Innovation Partnerships support for future launch.
