The Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) and the Center for Technology Commercialization (CTC) announced recently that 11 additional grantees from UW faculty, staff and student teams have been selected to receive up to $25,000 each through the Ideadvance Seed Fund, bringing the total to 23 teams receiving grants.

“Ideadvance provides a forum for our UW entrepreneurs to explore ideas and overcome commercialization challenges,” UW-Extension Division of Entrepreneurship and Economic Development Executive Director Mark Lange said in a statement. “Ideadvance helps them identify critical business questions and work through those challenges early.”

In addition to the monetary grant, the entrepreneurs receive Lean Startup training and business mentoring to help them develop strategic business models for ideas and technologies generated at UW campuses.

The $2 million seed fund was launched to speed commercialization of ideas and technologies generated at UW campuses outside of UW-Madison. Ideadvance differs from most early-stage funding in that it encourages ideas from all disciplines, including the humanities, social sciences and liberal arts.

The first set of recipients has already seen success with Ideadvance, according to Lange, noting that some are already testing their products.