Internal Princeton Funding
The Office of the Dean for Research provides funding to support the University’s thriving research community in ways that complement and supplement traditional funding sources. These internal funding sources include:
We are pleased to remind faculty and staff members that they are welcome to apply for funding from the Faculty New Venture Assistance Fund (“Fund”). The Fund was created in 2016, as a direct recommendation of the Princeton Entrepreneurship Advisory Committee (“PEAC”), to provide support to Faculty and Staff considering a startup company …
The Intellectual Property Accelerator Fund awards gap funding to Princeton investigators with the goal of fostering and advancing the development of nascent technologies from university labs into commercial development and, ultimately, the global marketplace.
This fund aims to support research collaborations between industry and academia. Projects can therefore receive up to $250,000 over two years, of which up to $75,000 would come from industry, and $175,000 from the University.
The Schmidt Fund is used to support the invention or implementation of entirely new technologies that will have a major impact on a field of research or to acquire a piece of equipment or an enabling technology that will change the direction of research in a field. Unlike most endowments, the fund does not need to be spent evenly each year.
…External Startup Funding
The OTL has built relationships with a number of angels and early stage investment groups who are looking to invest in Princeton startups at the seed, or even pre-seed stage, and we are happy to provide introductions as needed. These groups include:
Is an active group of investors located in Philadelphia that actively invests early stage venture capital in therapies, medical devices, research tools, diagnostics and health IT in the Mid-Atlantic region.
Fitz Gate Ventures is an early stage, network-driven venture capital firm formed in 2015 and is primarily focused on the New York and Texas ecosystems where Fitz Gate’s GPs (Jim Cohen and Mark Poag) have deep networks and teach venture capital investing at the Princeton University Graduate School and Rice University Jones School of Business.
Fitz Gate writes initial checks of $500K - $2M, reserving for follow-on rounds, and while their third fund is a generalist fund, it does have a sub-focus on deep tech/hard tech where Fitz Gate has had a lot of success. Fitz Gate will lead rounds, co-invest with other funds or invest alone.
IP Group is an intellectual property commercialization company focused on evolving great ideas from its partner universities into world-changing businesses. We pioneered a unique approach to commercializing these ideas by providing access to capital, scientific insight and the supporting infrastructure. Princeton is a partner university.
A private, member-led angel group that invests in early-stage technology companies in the Mid-Atlantic region.
Mid Atlantic Bio Angels group (MABA), is an angel investor group focused exclusively on new and emerging life science companies. Membership in MABA is by invitation only, and is extended to active, accredited investors (life science angels) who wish to make investments in life science companies, as well as institutional investors and life science company venture arms wishing to invest alongside the angels.
New Jersey Health Foundation supports health-related research and education programs in New Jersey through its Research Grant Program, Innovation Grant Program and its affiliate, Foundation Venture Capital Group, which provides pre-seed investments to help health-related start-up companies established by researchers at Princeton University, Kessler Foundation, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Rowan University, Rutgers University and Stevens Institute of Technology.
Osage University Partners (OUP) is a venture capital fund that invests exclusively in startups that are commercializing university research. Princeton is an associate partner.
Funding Success Stories
