EPICentre is thrilled to announce an $800,000 donation by the Royal Bank of Canada Foundation to support the RBC EPIC Founders. The donation was announced at a press release Tuesday October 13th and will help EPICentre to foster the growing entrepreneurial spirit across the University of Windsor.
The RBC EPIC Founders program is a full time 12 week program from May to August that assists entrepreneurs in developing their business idea. The final outcome being a minimum viable product (MVP). The program holds space for up to 12 businesses, who are paid $6000 to work on their business full-time, giving them the time to focus on the development of their business. Throughout the program the businesses work with faculty and industry advisors, and attend workshops to overcome their start up challenges. At the conclusion of the program each business presents all they have accomplished over the 12 weeks to mentors, supporters and potential investors at the EPIC Founders Demo Day.
In addition to the EPIC Founders program, the funding will also be used to establish the RBC Business Model Competition, with prizes of $10,000 and $2,500 for the top two winning participants. In recognition of this generous donation, two of EPICentre’s incubation modules will be named the RBC Innovation Space.