The Draper Foundation made a $2.5 million gift to The University of Texas at Dallas to expand the university’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. The funding will support initiatives ranging from early-stage student ventures to startup competitions designed to help companies move toward the marketplace.
The Draper Foundation was founded by Silicon Valley venture capitalist Tim Draper. The gift is intended to strengthen entrepreneurship programming at UT Dallas through the Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and the Naveen Jindal School of Management.
The five-year pledge has already started reshaping entrepreneurship programs across campus. In April, UT Dallas renamed its annual Big Idea Competition as the Draper Pitch Competition and expanded the award funding to $330,000.
The gift also established the Startup Founders Awards. This initiative supports early-stage student entrepreneurs as they develop minimum viable products and prepare to launch new ventures.
The Draper Pitch Competition brought together student and alumni founders from across UT Dallas. Participants presented startup ideas spanning healthcare, artificial intelligence, robotics, sustainability, and consumer technology.
The competition attracted 181 startup team applications. Finalists competed in undergraduate, graduate student, and alumni categories, with nine teams advancing to the finals.
Winning ventures included SalesPilot, an AI-powered dealership sales coaching platform; RadMap Robotics, which develops autonomous drones and robotic systems for radiation mapping; and MusiQ Bio, a biotechnology company developing noninvasive drug delivery methods for the brain.
The Startup Founders Awards launched in spring 2026. The $5,000 awards were given to six undergraduate students and four graduate students for a semester-long accelerator experience that included milestone-based funding, mentorship, accountability groups, and structured entrepreneurial training.
Students met weekly with faculty, mentors, and facilitators while developing startups across technology, consumer products, healthcare, and entertainment. Participants also worked in peer accountability groups designed to resemble startup advisory boards and founder networks.
In the fall, the program will evolve into the Draper Accelerator. The more selective initiative will include interviews, expanded venture evaluation, and stronger milestone requirements to help accelerate startup readiness and long-term growth.
UT Dallas said the broader goal is to create a system that supports entrepreneurship at several levels. The university aims to help students launch companies while also teaching them how innovation, venture creation, and startup ecosystems work.
KEY QUOTES:
“This partnership represents a major step forward for entrepreneurship at UT Dallas. The dream is to take this kind of a pitch competition and multiply it by 10.”
Prabhas V. Moghe, President of UT Dallas
“Major venture capital firms regularly look to places like Stanford [University] and Silicon Valley for the next generation of founders. Tim Draper’s investment signals that UT Dallas has the talent, ambition and ideas to belong in those conversations. We want UT Dallas to become a destination for entrepreneurship and venture creation.”
Chris Bhatti, Associate Vice President for Development and Alumni Relations at UT Dallas
“The creativity and ambition we saw from these founders was remarkable. Programs like the Draper Pitch Competition create opportunities for students and alumni to move innovative ideas toward real-world impact.”
Carol Marcus-Rehtmeyer, Executive Director of the Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship
“We wanted to help students progress startups across campus and put entrepreneurship into action. This gave students an opportunity to move toward a minimum viable product and really test whether their ideas could succeed in the marketplace.”
Michelle Jones, Program Director for Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the Naveen Jindal School of Management
“We had students from computer science, engineering and business all working together. What we’re really building is an entrepreneurial community and ecosystem that helps students discover how to move ideas forward.”
Michelle Jones, Program Director for Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the Naveen Jindal School of Management
“Not everybody is going to become an entrepreneur. But startups create jobs, industries and opportunities. We want students to learn how innovation works and how they can contribute to building the future.”
Michelle Jones, Program Director for Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the Naveen Jindal School of Management
