Venture Funding

Venture Devils supports all ASU student, faculty, staff, and community-based entrepreneurs.

The program aims to catalyze the entrepreneurial success of founders by connecting them with Venture Mentors who provide regular, ongoing support. This dedicated mentorship is paired with an optional online Venture Devils course, which is designed to challenge, monitor, and advance the venture development process. As part of Venture Devils, founders may receive direct access to ASU funding opportunities and venture development spaces.

First, competitors apply to the ASU Venture Devils program. Venture Devils applications are accepted and processed five times per year, coinciding with the Fall, Spring, and Summer academic start dates.

Applications must be submitted exactly one week before classes begin. Why you might ask? This application deadline cycle is essential to ensure that the Venture Devils team is able to review application information and match it with an appropriate Venture Mentor and Funding Network track (like the Global Sport Venture track) prior to the start of the session.

Once the startup joins the ASU Venture Devils family, they will be invited to participate in the bi-annual Pitch Playoff and Demo Day events. During the Pitch Playoffs each October and March, several volunteer evaluator panels will determine which startups are worthy of an array of available seed grants, ranging between $1,000 and $100,000 in value.

Finally, during the Demo Day events each December and April, a judging panel determines which startups are worthy of seed grants and other resources.

The Global Sport Venture Challenge (GSVC) is a funding track within ASU’s Venture Devils program. GSVC and the follow-up Global Sport Venture Development program (GSVD) assists qualified students, faculty, and community entrepreneurs in developing their products and/or services to appeal to sport-related market segments. GSVD provides the ventures with up to $10,000 in grant funding, one-on-one coaching, university resources, and access to a carefully curated network of advisors and strategic partners.

The Global Sport Social Impact Challenge (GSSIC) is a funding track within ASU’s Venture Devils program that provides support for groups or individuals that are looking to positively impact the world through sport. Qualified applicants can receive up to $10,000 in grant funding in addition to one-on-one coaching, university resources, and support from strategic advisors to help develop their concept. These concepts could include community programs, educational opportunities, training and mentorship programs, building or converting sport facilities to better serve communities, forming a non-profit, starting a league, bringing sport to an area that doesn’t have access to it, and more.

Each year the Global Sport Institute puts on a two-day event highlighting topics, speakers, and presentations that coincide with the institute’s annual theme. In 2019, we chose to utilize the first day of the summit to highlight GSI’s research and innovation programs. Each year, we will look to invite the top ventures from our Spring and Fall Demo Day sessions to perform a live pitch at the Global Sport Summit and compete for additional funds and other various prizes.