Eshelman Innovation Venture Studio (Kairos)
Offers a venture studio programme for University of North Carolina linked startups building digital health products through mentoring.
The Eshelman Innovation Venture Studio (branded Kairos) is a public-private partnership that conceives, de-risks, launches, and capitalizes digital health startups. Student venture builders partner with UNC faculty in a 6-month sprint. The 13-week Venture Diligence process gates to an external investment committee, which invests approximately $1M of pre-seed capital per launched startup and provides back-office services (finance, HR, legal, marketing). Eligible concepts can also receive a separate Eshelman Innovation validation grant for technology or clinical validation. Eligibility is restricted to UNC-Chapel Hill faculty and student venture builders (Kairos model), with HBCU partnerships (NCCU, NC A&T). No grants emitted — instrument is equity pre-seed, not non-dilutive grant, and eligibility is internal-only. Should be re-catalogued under split slug us-unc-eshelman-innovation if this entry is tombstoned.
Each grant below is a distinct funding opportunity with its own eligibility, scope, and deliverables.