The NCIIA has announced it is joining the White House's Startup America Initiative, a national campaign to help America create jobs by promoting high-growth entrepreneurship across the country.

As part of its participation, NCIIA has committed to awarding nearly $1 million in grants to twenty-three universities in fourteen states over the next two months, and bring many of these grantees into its mentoring program. 

In the next five years, NCIIA expects to fund and mentor an additional 200 student-led innovation teams, and anticipates the launch of 75 new technology ventures.

The funding boost builds on NCIIA’s venture accelerator pathway, which has funded and supported over 800 educational programs and student innovation projects at 200 universities, and helped launch over 100 student-originated technology companies.

See the White House Fact Sheet.

NCIIA's success stories and ventures launched.

Some of the great companies NCIIA has funded:

Intelliject: In 2003, NCIIA awarded $13,700 to a student team at University of Virginia to develop a credit-card sized epinephrine injector that was more portable and convenient than existing systems. The team launched the company Intelliject, which in 2009 announced an exclusive license worth $230 million with Sanofi-Aventis U.S.

Ecovative Design: In 2007, NCIIA awarded $15,800 to a student team at Rennsalaer Polytechnic Institute to develop an eco-friendly, mushroom-based packaging material to replace polystyrene (Styrofoam) products. In 2010 the company opened a new plant in Green Island, NY, and signed a deal to produce green packaging for office furniture manufacturer, Steelcase.

GoodGuide: In 2007, NCIIA awarded $44,000 to support a University of California-Berkeley project to develop a mobile technology that enables shoppers to enter the barcode of a product on their cell phone and bring up information on the social and environmental impacts of the product and the company that makes it. GoodGuide now employs over 20 people.