FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Nelson Center for Entrepreneurship Launches Micro-Grant Program for Student Founders
$5,000 awards pair cash with mentorship to accelerate climate, social-impact and tech ventures launched by Brown University students
Providence, R.I. – November 22, 2025
The Nelson Center for Entrepreneurship at Brown University today opened applications for a new micro-grant initiative that will distribute up to $25,000 in non-dilutive funding each quarter to undergraduate and graduate student ventures. Individual awards of $5,000 can be used for prototyping, customer discovery, regulatory filings or other early-stage milestones, but may not be spent on inventory or payroll.
The program arrives as demand for micro-capital among student founders is surging. According to the Global University Entrepreneurship Report released last month, 42 percent of Gen-Z founders require less than $10,000 to reach their first revenue milestone, yet only 18 percent of traditional campus accelerator budgets are allocated to grants under that threshold.
“Students are launching climate-tech, ed-tech and social-impact companies earlier than ever, but most venture funds are still optimized for $100,000-plus rounds,” said Danny Warshay, executive director of the Nelson Center. “These micro-grants close the gap between idea and investability without forcing founders to give up equity before they are ready.”
The initiative is modeled on the Center’s existing Climate-Tech Venture Grants, which since 2022 have provided $50,000 in seed awards that helped teams secure follow-on funding from the National Science Foundation and venture firms such as Clean Energy Ventures .
Applications are accepted on a rolling basis; five teams will be invited to pitch a faculty-alumni committee each month. Winning groups also receive dedicated office hours, AWS credits and automatic entry into the spring cohort of Brown’s B-Lab accelerator, where the average alumnus raises $1.3 million within 18 months of completion.
Recent market data underscore the need for bite-sized, flexible capital. A 2025 survey by PitchBook found that student-founded start-ups in the U.S. raised a median first round of $1.7 million—up 31 percent since 2020—yet pre-seed deal volume has contracted 19 percent as investors shift toward larger, later-stage checks. Micro-grants can keep younger founders in the pipeline, supporters say.
“We already validate ideas through coursework and research; the missing piece is often $3,000 to $7,000 to pay for a regulatory test or a key software integration,” noted Priya Krishnan, a Ph.D. candidate whose battery-recycling start-up, ReVolt, received an earlier Nelson Center grant and subsequently closed a $750,000 pre-seed round. “Non-dilutive capital at that level is rocket fuel.”
The program is underwritten by the Spiegel Family Fund and the van Beuren Charitable Foundation, which collectively committed $500,000 over the next three years. Additional corporate partners are expected to join in 2026, potentially expanding the initiative to student entrepreneurs across the Rhode Island consortium that includes the Rhode Island School of Design and the University of Rhode Island.
About the Nelson Center for Entrepreneurship
Founded in 2016, the Nelson Center for Entrepreneurship is Brown University’s hub for venture creation, offering courses, co-working space, alumni networks and more than $750,000 in annual non-dilutive funding. The Center has supported 450-plus student ventures that have gone on to raise over $550 million in follow-on capital and create more than 2,800 jobs worldwide.
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