Carnegie Mellon University

What are Spark Grants?

The Project Olympus Spark Grant Fund helps Project Olympus PROBE projects kick-start their business ideas. It is available for PrOBE projects ONLY and is funded by charitable gifts from alumni and other community donors. 

Overview of Spark Grant Program [pdf]


kevin-murphy.jpg“The Spark Grant and the support from the Project Olympus team made our startup possible. The Spark Grant not only funded the prototyping of our product, enabling us to bring our idea to life, but also supported us in finding manufacturers, creating media, and marketing.”

- Kevin Murphy, Founder, OneBar

di-hu.jpeg“The Spark Grant provided us with the opportunity to delve into a significant market segment in Oregon. Through this journey, sponsored by the grant, we were able to engage with potential customers face-to-face, garner valuable insights directly from the field, and forge connections that would have been unattainable had we remained remote.”

- Di Hu, Co-Founder, 
moss robotics, inc.

krish-visht.jpegFor many founders, it's difficult to validate the scope of the problem you're trying to address. The Spark Grant helped Certably validate our thesis with potential customers at the ideation stage, adding tremendous value when it came to building and deploying our minimum viable product!"

- Krish Visht, Co-Founder, Certably

Spark Grants By The Numbers

71 teams have been awarded grants since 2007
$252K in Spark Grants have been awarded
$114,000,000+ in additional funding received by awardees
16 teams have been accepted to Accelerator Programs
7 Spark Grant awardee teams have had exits 

Spark Grants Awards

PrOBE Projects are awarded up to $3K micro-grants from the Project Olympus Spark Grant Fund. These grants are made possible through charitable contributions from alumni and Friends of Project Olympus.

2022

  • Certably
  • EIDAR
  • Lead-In
  • moss robotics, inc.
  • Ocellux
  • OneBar
  • Piximo Robotics

2021

  • Mach9 Robotics
  • Pralent
  • Synthody

2020

  • Convertsation
  • Komodo
  • Sparkline

2019

  • ZODAJ
  • Pairi
  • Audition Tech

2018

  • 3D Farms
  • Processly
  • Shine Registry
  • Wicklets

2017

  • BlastPoint
  • Choitek
  • ComYoot
  • InvenTower
  • Generational Transfer Entrepreneurs
  • Hillside Hydro
  • Nimbus Robotics
  • StitchBridge
  • Toyz Electronics

2016

  • 101
  • Chiroproktor
  • eeBooks
  • Inventory Connection
  • KOPO
  • Meal Matcher
  • Micetro
  • Robotany

 

2015

  • Carbon Freight
  • Hyliion
  • Nebulus
  • Outliers Finance
  • Rubitection
  • SimSim
  • VIT

2014

  • Abililife
  • Approach.io
  • ConnectWith
  • Digest-o-mat
  • NoRILLA
  • PieceMaker
  • RistCall
  • SemanticMD
  • ZenRez

2013

  • Baloonr
  • Lightside Labs
  • PieceMaker
  • PlayPower
  • Premier Distributor
  • RistCall
  • Schema Fusion
  • Vendalize

2012

  • AutoRef
  • EEMe
  • Globatrek
  • Prooty

2011

  • BlackLocus
  • OnlyinPgh

2010

  • Smart.Mirror
  • Spark Meter

2008-2009

  • Accel Diagnostics
  • Fooala
  • Mindkin
  • Semiotic

Thank you to our Spark Grant Sponsors:

Michael Baum
Tony R. Berkman
Manuel & Lenore Blum
Roger Byford
Eric C. Cooper
Eric & Melissa Daimler
Marcel D. DePaolis
Michael Donohue
Marc C. Guldimann
Adrian Hodges
James Jacob Huttner, M.D., Ph.D.
Theo Nicholas
The Painter Family
The Tey Family
Richard and Nancy Waichler

Thank you to our Spark Grant Pre-Seed & Seed Level Crowdfunding Donors

Tiffany Black
Srinath Chavali
John Choi
Randy & Pam Eager
Samir & Elora Gupta
Jeremy Guttman
Ahmad Jarjis Hasan
Philip Lehman
Jill Lehman
William Lutz
Ian Magazine
Jason McDowall
Reed McManigle
Ray Milhelm
Catherine Mott
Kit Needham
Thomas Shelly
Neil Soni
Stephen Tatum
Eric Wise
John D. & Tara Lee Wise
Jake Witherall

Thank you to our Spark Grant Entrepreneur & Bootstrap Level Crowdfunding Donors

Alison Alvarez
Niccole Atwell
Sarabeth Boak
Andy Chan
Todd Medema
Vincent Ponzo
Brandon Taylor
Nesra Yannier
Xunjie Zhang
Omar Ahmad
Lenore Blum
Kevin Elfenbein
Fang Liu
Mel Pirchesky
Justin Weinberg