Penn Wharton Innovation Fund — Entrepreneurship

The Penn Wharton Innovation Fund supports early-stage ventures founded and led by University of Pennsylvania students. Venture Lab runs the fund, and funding decisions are made by a student Investment Team drawn from across Penn.

Applicants choose one of three award levels that matches the venture’s current stage: Design, Build, or Boost. The award funds a concrete next step in developing and testing the venture rather than a fixed-location program.

Benefits & funding

The Design Award provides $1,000 to turn validated learning about a problem, customer, user, or market into a testable solution.
The Build Award provides $2,000 to develop and test a solution that is already tangible enough to evaluate.
The Boost Award provides $5,000 to help a prior Build or pre-2025–2026 Implementation Award recipient reach an important next milestone.
Permitted uses can include prototypes, technical or legal resources, employees or interns, surveys, focus groups, pilots, beta tests, and website development when appropriate to the venture’s stage.

Eligibility

The lead applicant must be currently enrolled in a degree-granting bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral program at the University of Pennsylvania.
The venture must be an early-stage startup founded and led by one or more Penn students, and it must have a revenue model.
Design applicants should have evidence of customer, user, stakeholder, or market research; no prototype is required.
Build applicants must have something tangible enough to evaluate or test and a scoped plan for the next development step.
Boost applicants must previously have received a Build Award, or an Implementation Award before the 2025–2026 academic year, and must demonstrate meaningful progress.
No separate nationality, country-of-residence, age, gender, or work-experience requirement is published.

Can you apply?

Here's who can apply

Decoded from the official rules. A free account checks them against your passport, degree and age in seconds.

Education required
Bachelor Enrolled · Master Enrolled · PhD Enrolled

Check my eligibility — free

Circlebreaker is a free database of global fellowships, scholarships and programs — every one decoded like this.

We only check the criteria we have data for. Always confirm full eligibility on the official page before applying.

Application process

1
Sign in to the Venture Lab application portal with PennKey credentials.
2
Select the Penn Wharton Innovation Fund and choose one award level that matches the venture’s stage.
3
Complete the application with the venture’s problem and solution, validation evidence, market and business model, team, next milestone, and an itemized use-of-funds budget.
4
Submit by the relevant cycle deadline; if multiple applications for the same venture, team, or person are filed in one cycle, only the latest submission is reviewed.

Program timeline

Cycle 1 applications open.
September 18, 2026
Cycle 1 application deadline at 11:59 p.m. ET.
October 4, 2026
Cycle 1 applicants notified.
October 28, 2026
Cycle 2 applications open.
October 9, 2026
Cycle 2 application deadline at 11:59 p.m. ET.
November 1, 2026
Cycle 2 applicants notified.
December 9, 2026
Cycle 3 applications open.
December 4, 2026
Cycle 3 application deadline at 11:59 p.m. ET.
January 24, 2027
Cycle 3 applicants notified.
February 24, 2027
Cycle 4 applications open.
February 5, 2027
Cycle 4 application deadline at 11:59 p.m. ET.
March 14, 2027
Cycle 4 applicants notified.
April 16, 2027