Deadline: January 29, 2025
Applications for the New Venture Competition 2025 are now open. Innovate@BU welcomes all Boston University students and class of 2024 alumni to apply to the New Venture Competition. The competition invites founders with exciting business ideas to take their startups to the next level. Qualifying teams get access to coaching, feedback on their idea and pitch, founder and team skill-building, media exposure, and more. Plus, all semi-finalists and finalists will receive a piece of the $80,000 prize. If you’re ready to take your venture to launch, this is the opportunity for you!
Competition Structure
The New Venture Competition has two separate tracks: one for general startups, and one for social impact ventures.
- General Track: Focused on for-profit ventures that aim to solve market problems or create value for a large audience. These ventures should have a scalable business model, meaning their solution can grow and reach a broader market without requiring proportional increases in resources. If your idea is centered on building a successful business with high growth potential and profitability, then this track is for you.
- Social Impact Track: Focused on ventures—whether for-profit, non-profit, or hybrid models—that prioritize making a positive difference in society, the economy, culture, or the environment. These ventures embed their mission for impact into their core operations and decision-making processes, ensuring that creating change is at the heart of what they do. If your idea is designed to address societal challenges or drive meaningful change as its primary goal, then this track is for you.
Once accepted to a track, participants will progress through three rounds of competition between February and April 2025. The competition gets more selective with each round of cuts, so be sure to bring your A-game to every pitch!
Prizes
Each track awards prizes to the top three teams. There’s even a chance to win an audience choice award at Innovator’s Night!
- 1st Place: $20,000
- 2nd Place: $10,000
- 3rd Place: $6,000
- Audience Choice: $500
Additionally, every semi-finalist receives $500.
Eligibility
- At least one founding team member must be a current BU student (undergraduate or graduate) or an alum who graduated within the past year. This person must hold a key management role, actively contribute to developing the business, and be a main presenter if the venture advances to subsequent rounds.
- Your startup has not raised more than $250,000 in funding or grants.
- Your startup has not had more than $500,000 in revenues in the prior year.
- Your startup has not won first, second, or third place in a previous Innovate@BU New Venture Competition.
- Teams must apply with an original idea and agree to not violate any contract or third party rights including any patent, copyright, trade secret, proprietary or confidential information, trademark, publicity or privacy rights.
- For currently enrolled BU PhD students only: The venture you are applying with is not connected to your thesis work.
- The application must be submitted by the BU student or Class of 2024 alum who is the founder/co-founder and will act as the primary team contact.
Application
Each team or individual is limited to submitting one application. They encourage you to focus your efforts on your strongest idea.
For more information, visit New Venture Competition.
