Desjardins Startup Prize — Early-Stage Prize
Awards University of Toronto-affiliated early-stage founders up to $15,000 CAD for a three-minute pitch, as part of an annual competition with over $100,000 in total prizes.
Desjardins Startup Prize — Early-Stage Prize is a University of Toronto Entrepreneurship (UTE) prize that awards University of Toronto-affiliated early-stage founders up to $15,000 CAD for a three-minute pitch, as part of an annual competition with over $100,000 in total prizes. Early-Stage applicants must have raised less than $50,000 in cumulative funding or investment and earned less than $25,0…
The Early-Stage track is open to startups with at least one founder who is a current full-time U of T student, post-doc, or a recent alum who graduated no earlier than June 2024, across all faculties and sectors -- affiliation with a U of T Accelerator is strongly encouraged but not required. It targets ventures still early in their funding journey, capping cumulative funding or investment (dilutive and non-dilutive combined) and cumulative revenue at low thresholds.
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Guides for this application
All guides →How to Write a Grant Proposal Reviewers Can Score
Learn how to write a grant proposal around reviewer criteria, evidence, work packages, budget logic, and commercialization for deeptech and R&D funding.
DocumentsGrant Work Plan Template: Work Packages, Gantt, Milestones, and Risks
Use this grant work plan template to structure work packages, tasks, owners, deliverables, Gantt timing, dependencies, and risk registers.
DocumentsGrant Pitch Deck Example: Slides, Storyline, and Video Script
See a grant pitch deck example with slide outline, EIC-style pitch logic, demo-video script, and grant-vs-investor deck differences.
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