Spark Grants

What are Spark Grants?

The Harvard Innovation Labs are excited to announce the availability of Spark Grants! For Harvard students with a demonstrated commitment and passion for a venture idea, Spark Grants will enable them to reach the next stage of their development. Students will test key assumptions and work with the Harvard Innovation Labs to achieve key milestones such as customer discovery, low-fidelity prototyping, demand validation, and business planning.

How much funding is available?

These non-dilutive grants are distributed by the Harvard Innovation Labs in increments up to $5,000. Funds will be distributed based on demonstrated need and impact of funds.

Who is eligible?

Spark Grants are available to the current Venture Program cohort teams who fulfill the following criteria:

• Ventures must be part of the i-lab Spring 2022 Venture Program.
• Ventures — not individual students — must have participated previously in at least one other i-lab Venture Program incubation over the past 12 months (Spring 2022, Fall 2021, or Summer 2021).
• Ventures must have a concrete proposal to use the money for demand validation, through low-fidelity prototyping, MVP testing, or a substantively similar approach.
• Ventures can be for profit or not for profit.