Horn Entrepreneurship receives $750K grant for its proof-of-concept program

For more than half of the University of Delaware’s deep tech startups (i.e startups whose inventions are developed using science and engineering), the university’s Horn Entrepreneurship Proof-of-Concept (POC) program has been a source of grant money, resources, facilities, consulting and mentoring. These companies — including Versogen, TRIC Robotics and TheraV — have created approximately 100 new jobs and raised more than $15 million in follow-on funding, according to UDaily.

To help expand the successful program, the U.S. Economic Development Administration’s SPRINT (Scaling Pandemic Resilience Through Innovation and Technology) has awarded Horn $750,000 in funding. The funds will be used to make the POC Program accessible not only to UD students, but also to statewide, community-based scalable ventures in Delaware’s ecosystem.

The POC program also has a new feature, known as mock board of director sessions, where founders must field tough questions from potential investors, forcing them to make hard assessments of their startups and make improvements to their ideas and business plans.

“POC’s new directors panel is a whole new type of startup experience,” said Adam Stager, founder of the agtech startup TRIC Robotics, in an interview with UDaily. “I’m really trying to vet my business model and bring things from concept to reality. Because of this, it’s easy to stray away from what is important for the company. Updating a board of advisers who ask hard questions keeps me on track and helps me identify new opportunities.”

To learn more about the program and some of its participants, following the link below for the full post on UDaily.