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.

- Glenn Philen, CEO Carbon Freight
“Spark Grant has helped me hire a designer to work on the art, design and animation of my project. Also it has allowed me to make a trip to California to do customer discovery, make connections and learn about some funding opportunities."
- Nesra Yannier, CEO NoRILLA
Spark Grants By The Numbers
Support Project Olympus
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
- 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