UC Davis Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship

What UC Davis Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship does

The UC Davis Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship is an organized research unit within the University of California, Davis, founded in 2006 to accelerate student and faculty venture formation. It runs a portfolio of programs including the Big Bang! Business Competition, Little Bang!, Ideas Competition, entrepreneur academies, and fellowships, supported by a $5 million endowment from the Child Family established in 2011. A core staff of approximately seven is augmented by a network of more than 800 mentors, and the institute has helped launch 160+ ventures that have collectively raised over $1.7 billion in venture capital.

The institute operates as a non-profit university entity: all programs are free to participants and funded through the endowment, corporate sponsorships, and grants from partners including DLA Piper, Techstars, the Blackstone Charitable Foundation, and Lawrence Livermore and Sandia National Laboratories. It does not develop or commercialize proprietary technology, including AI, and has no traditional revenue model. Reach is broad — 7,500+ competition and workshop participants and 3,000+ academy trainees — but concentrated within the UC Davis ecosystem and the broader Sacramento / Northern California entrepreneurship community.

From a commercial investment perspective, the entity is not investable in the conventional sense; it functions as a public-good platform that derisks early-stage founders and channels them into external capital markets. Its strategic significance lies in being a venture-creation engine for UC Davis IP and talent rather than a standalone revenue business.

Name

UC Davis Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Legal name

The Regents of the University of California, Davis campus

Website

https://innovate.ucdavis.edu

Company type

Public

Founded year

2006

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

The UC Davis Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship is a university organized research unit founded in 2006 that runs free venture competitions, academies, and fellowships for UC Davis students, faculty, and alumni, supported by a $5M endowment and corporate sponsors.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

University Entrepreneurship Education

NAICS

Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools (6113), Professional and Management Development Training (611430)

SIC

Services-Educational Services (8200)

akta.pro primary industry

Entrepreneurship, Startup Incubation & Pitch Programs (EDAMAKAK)

akta.pro secondary industries

Business Planning, Pitching & Competitions (Pitch Decks, Demo Days) (EDAMAHAB), Youth Business Incubators & Accelerators (EDAMAHAC), Career Exploration & Industry Exposure (Guest Speakers, Company Visits) (EDAMAHAJ)

Keywords

• Entrepreneurship education
• Startup competitions
• Innovation fellowships
• Business incubation
• University entrepreneurship programs

Headquarters

HQ city

Davis

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices4 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Endowment and Private Support: The institute is funded through private support from individuals, businesses, and organizations. Mike and Renée Child provided a $5 million endowment to launch and expand the institute.
2. Grant Funding: Programs are supported by grant funding awarded to startup ventures, with over $1M in grants supporting new ventures.
3. Prize Sponsorship: Corporate and organizational sponsors provide prize money for business competitions, including over $100,000 in annual Big Bang! prizes.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

The Mike and Renée Child Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship operates entrepreneurship training, competitions, fellowship, and academy programs for UC Davis students, postdocs, faculty, California higher education participants, and national laboratory employees. Programs include the Big Bang! and Little Bang! business competitions, the Ideas Competition, the UC and National Labs Entrepreneurship Academies, and fellowship programs (EQUIP, Business Development Fellowship, Leaders for the Future Fellowship), all delivered free of charge with mentorship, workshops, networking, and prize funding.

Product overview

The Mike and Renée Child Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship is an educational entrepreneurship support organization at UC Davis, not a traditional technology product company. Its offerings consist of competition programs (Ideas Competition, Little Bang! Pitch + Poster Competition, Big Bang! Business Competition), entrepreneurship academies (UC Entrepreneurship Academy, National Labs Entrepreneurship Academy), fellowship programs (EQUIP, Business Development Fellowship, Leaders for the Future Fellowship), workshop series (Big Bang! Workshops), and a speaker series (Think. Do. Discover.). These programs collectively support students, researchers, and innovators in developing entrepreneurial skills, validating business ideas, and commercializing innovations through mentorship, networking, education, and funding opportunities.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Quantifiable outcome

• 160+ new ventures created through institute programs
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers3 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

14 partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• BlueTechValley Innovation ClustercoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPlatinum-level sponsor and co-sponsor of Energy & Sustainability Sector Award for Big Bang! Competition
• UC Davis Graduate School of ManagementcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCo-located at the Graduate School of Management; MBA courses for Business Development Fellows; joint faculty and programming
• Lawrence Livermore National LaboratorycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerKey community partner; employees participate in National Labs Entrepreneurship Academy; innovation commercialization support
• Sandia National LaboratoriescoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerKey community partner; employees participate in National Labs Entrepreneurship Academy; innovation commercialization support
• UC Davis School of Veterinary MedicinecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerBronze supporter; sole sponsor of Animal Health + Industry Sector Award ($10,000) for Big Bang! Competition
• UC Davis Health School of MedicinecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerBronze supporter; sole sponsor of Human Health + Industry Sector Award ($10,000) for Big Bang! Competition
• AgStartcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerBronze supporter; provides six-month incubator membership with lab bench space (valued at $5,000) for top food, agriculture, and/or health innovation from Big Bang!
• InventopiacoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerBronze supporter; provides six-month incubator membership with lab equipment and workspace (valued at $5,000) for top engineering and/or life science innovation
• Venture CatalystcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCampus partner providing startup support and technology commercialization services
• Innovation and Technology Commercialization (ITC)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCampus partner supporting technology transfer and commercialization
• College of Engineering / Student Startup CentercoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCampus partner providing startup support for engineering students
• Startup SacminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerKey community partner supporting Sacramento regional entrepreneurship ecosystem
• UC Merced Venture LabminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerKey community partner supporting entrepreneurship across UC system
• CSUS Carlsen Center for Innovation and EntrepreneurshipminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerKey community partner supporting regional innovation ecosystem

Scale indicators11 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP): Stanford's flagship entrepreneurship center, offering student competitions, fellowships, and venture creation programs. STVP is the most directly comparable peer as a California-based, top-tier university entrepreneurship program competing for the same student-founder pool with substantially larger resources.
• Berkeley Haas Entrepreneurship / LAUNCH Accelerator: UC Berkeley's entrepreneurship programming including LAUNCH accelerator and the Berkeley Startup Cluster. Direct geographic peer also competing for Northern California student founders with deep VC network access.
• Georgia Tech CREATE-X: Georgia Tech's startup-focused program with structured cohorts, capstone projects, and venture launches. Comparable as a research-university entrepreneurship program targeting student-led venture creation.
• MIT Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship: MIT's central entrepreneurship hub running competitions, mentorship, and venture creation programs. Comparable in mission and program structure (competitions, academies, fellowships) but operates at much larger scale with global brand recognition.
• Harvard Innovation Labs (i-lab): Harvard's university-wide entrepreneurship center offering venture programs, mentorship, and workspace. Comparable in offering student/founder programs, competitions, and structured fellowships, though with a stronger business-school bias.
• Princeton Keller Center for Innovation in Engineering Education: Princeton's hub for entrepreneurship education, innovation programs, and maker spaces. Comparable as a top-tier university entrepreneurship center with focus on cross-disciplinary venture creation and student programs.
• Cornell Entrepreneurship: Cornell's university-wide entrepreneurship network running competitions, eLab accelerator, and founder programs. Similar structure with student competitions, founder academies, and alumni mentor networks.

Emerging players

• Venture For America: Fellowship program placing recent graduates at startups in emerging US cities. Overlaps with the institute's fellowship model (cohort-based entrepreneurship training) but focuses on post-graduate placement rather than in-school venture creation.

Broad incumbents

• NSF Innovation Corps (I-Corps): Federal program offering commercialization training to university researchers. I-Corps is a broader incumbent offering overlapping research-commercialization programming across hundreds of universities, including UC-system institutions where UC Davis's institute operates.

Others

• Techstars: Global accelerator that is also a platinum sponsor of UC Davis's Big Bang!. As both a partner and adjacent ecosystem player, Techstars offers downstream accelerator pathways for institute participants, creating a complementary rather than directly competitive relationship.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UCPS6wsQjlWV-quvB3xkP_jg
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/school/uc-davis-institute-for-innovation-and-entrepreneurship
• Instagraminstagram.com/ucdavis.innovate

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles6 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about UC Davis Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship