Founder Institute, a global seed accelerator founded in Silicon Valley, announced that graduates of its Denver 2018 program will have the opportunity to apply for a $250,000 equity-free grant to help build and scale their companies.

The grant is a result of an opportunity between the Founder Institute, and the State of Colorado. It’s specifically part of Colorado’s Advanced Industry Early Stage Capital and Retention Grant Program, which focuses on helping entrepreneurs who have created viable products, meet a market need, and can be created or manufactured in Colorado and exported globally. The Founder Institute said that early-stage entrepreneurs who graduate from its program, which begins in June 2018, will be eligible for the grant.

“Colorado’s thriving advanced industries have become a vital part of the state’s economic landscape,” said Katie Woslager, senior manager of Advanced Industries at the Colorado Office of Economic Development. “When you combine State funding resources such as our Advanced Industry Tax Credit with a dynamic idea-stage accelerator and startup launch program like the Founder Institute, Colorado start-ups, and small businesses receive an extra edge to secure the vital investments that enable scalable growth.”

Since launching in Denver in 2010, Founder Institute has helped launch dozens of local tech startups, including BlogMutt, enables digital marketing agencies and businesses to build, leverage, and retain flexible, high-powered teams of freelance writers that are a powerful extension of your in-house resources to create content for digital marketing; CampChamp, provide parents with a valuable, time-saving tool to find camps for their kids and to partner with camp organizations to help them optimize their programs; and Cataworx, provides a telecom pre-sales enablement platform that simplifies, automates and accelerates the process of defining, publishing, searching and quoting connectivity services.

“The Founder Institute is proud to be one of the programs investing in Colorado’s startup ecosystem,” said Adeo Ressi, the founder, and CEO of the Founder Institute. “The investment in entrepreneurship from the State of Colorado has been impressive, especially their Advanced Industries Program. In combination with Colorado’s incredible and diverse talent pool, the region is well positioned to spawn and support the next generation of meaningful tech companies.”

When Wednesday, May 16th, 2018 @ 6PM – Thrive Ballpark
Where Thrive Ballpark
RSVP https://www.meetup.com/Denver-Startup-Founder-101/events/250763239/