The Auburn University KickStart Fund, a designated fund within the Auburn University Foundation, has received a grant from Truist Foundation that will help provide direct, non-dilutive funding to select Auburn-affiliated companies exhibiting best-in-class potential for success.

The Truist Foundation grant marks the first corporate donation to the AU KickStart Fund, which is designed to bridge the gap between new business formation by students, faculty and local area residents and initial seed or Series A funding. The AU KickStart Fund will be administered under the governance and oversight of the Harbert College of Business and the New Venture Accelerator.

Dan O’Keefe, entrepreneur-in-residence at Auburn’s New Venture Accelerator (NVA), who is leading the establishment of the AU KickStart Fund, highlighted the importance of this commitment by Truist Foundation to keeping the initial momentum going strong, especially during the traditional holiday and end-of-the-year giving season.

“We’ve made great progress since announcing the AU KickStart Fund in June,” says O’Keefe, “with Auburn alumni stepping up in a big way. Truist Foundation’s recognition of the opportunity to support Auburn entrepreneurs and the alignment between our vision and their mission in the community is a great example of how partnering with the AU KickStart Fund can help young entrepreneurs launch their businesses.”

“We are proud to support Auburn University’s KickStart Fund,” said Alex Bumpers, Truist market president for Auburn and Montgomery. “Our purpose at Truist is to inspire and build better lives and communities and we look forward to working closely with Auburn’s New Venture Accelerator to help support entrepreneurship.”

Expanding the Auburn entrepreneurship ecosystem

Auburn’s NVA has established itself as the go-to source of new business idea formation, start-up business education and new business pitch competition training for Auburn students and faculty. The growth of Auburn’s Tiger Cage Pitch Competition and the success of many of the companies the NVA has supported is proof of the tremendously promising investment opportunities being created by aspiring entrepreneurs at Auburn.

Several startup businesses mentored at the NVA have successfully progressed to secure seed, early stage and A, B and even C Series investors to commit more than $110 million in next-stage funding to stand-out start-up businesses—but the NVA decided it could do more.

So, the NVA conducted a detailed assessment of how its pitch competition training and business formation advisory services might be expanded through direct, grant-based capital infusions, and the findings were clear—the availability of non-dilutive grants for the most promising prospects will help grow the list of successful Auburn University-based start-ups.

The AU Kickstart Fund is a new element in the NVA’s strategy to help finance Auburn-based start-up teams, including enlisting strategic partners, generating pro forma financial projections, and assisting with the creation of a formal business plan as required for consideration by early-stage investors. The financial support provided through the AU KickStart Fund, coupled with the expanded hands-on mentoring from the NVA’s team of entrepreneurs-in-residence, will help propel best-in-class new ventures at Auburn to the next level.