Driving entrepreneurial energy: VentureCat inspires student entrepreneurs, propels businesses into the marketplace, and energizes Northwestern’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Over the past decade, Northwestern’s offerings for entrepreneurship have grown leaps and bounds. VentureCat is an important piece of this ongoing evolution that has solidified Northwestern’s reputation as a leading champion of entrepreneurship and innovation in higher ed.”
Mike Raab
Executive Director, The Garage
Since its 2014 debut, VentureCat has elevated the entrepreneurial energy at Northwestern University and created impact in and far beyond the Northwestern community.
Northwestern’s annual student startup competition, VentureCat inspires students to develop ideas they believe will make a difference in the world and spawns upstart ventures to success beyond the pitch.
Over the last nine years, 165 student-founded startups have competed in VentureCat. Participants represent every school and college at Northwestern and their startups touch a range of industries, from energy to education, manufacturing to media, healthcare to hospitality.
While pursuing $325,000 in awards – a non-dilutive prize fund greater than any peer institution – students also receive professional counsel as they prepare their pitches. In fact, more than 75 investors, entrepreneurs, and industry experts support VentureCat each year. Their engagement helps students professionalize the ways in which they discuss their businesses and fosters valuable, growth-generating connections.
With its established national profile, VentureCat has propelled Northwestern startups to accelerators, awards, national media coverage, and follow-up funding, powering commercialization and marketplace success. VentureCat businesses have collectively raised more than $1 billion in capital and created more than 2,600 jobs. Eleven VentureCat businesses, meanwhile, have been acquired while 55 percent of the 165 participating ventures remain active.
For as much as VentureCat has uplifted participants, it continues elevating Northwestern’s entire entrepreneurial ecosystem as well.
It fuels enrollment of entrepreneurial-minded students and spurs activity at The Garage, Northwestern’s on-campus hub for student entrepreneurship and innovation.
It serves as a unifying force for innovation around Northwestern, sparking interdisciplinary, inter-campus collaborations and novel ideas that bring licensing and revenue to the University.
It delivers inspired stories advancing Northwestern’s reputation as an innovative institution and generates affinity among alumni who tout VentureCat and Northwestern as significant forces behind their entrepreneurial endeavors.