USA EDA Build to Scale Venture Challenge

Program Overview

The U.S. Economic Development Administration’s (EDA) Build to Scale Venture Challenge is the nation’s premier federal investment in regional innovation engines that support high-growth entrepreneurs. Through cooperative agreements of up to USD $2,000,000, the program accelerates organizations that cultivate technology commercialization, attract private capital, and build inclusive startup pipelines. Awardees include universities, economic development organizations, accelerators, incubators, tribal governments, and public–private partnerships that can demonstrate measurable impact for innovation-driven companies in their communities.

The competition prioritizes sectors that align with national economic priorities—advanced manufacturing, biosciences, clean energy, artificial intelligence, quantum technologies, resilient supply chains, and climate-smart solutions. Funding helps local organizations expand services that move founders from research and prototype stages into scalable businesses capable of creating quality jobs. Because awards are made as cooperative agreements, the EDA remains actively engaged throughout project delivery, offering technical assistance and ensuring that programs deliver tangible outcomes for the regions they serve.

Why the Venture Challenge Matters

Startup success is often concentrated in major coastal hubs. The Build to Scale Venture Challenge is explicitly designed to spread entrepreneurial opportunity by investing in emerging ecosystems across the United States. By supporting intermediary organizations rather than individual companies, the program multiplies the reach of federal dollars: one grant can enable hundreds of founders to access mentorship, labs, customer discovery resources, and investor introductions. Grantees are encouraged to build networks that connect industry, academia, investors, and workforce systems, ensuring entrepreneurs can access everything they need to grow in place.

The EDA also emphasizes inclusive economic development. Awardees must demonstrate strategies that remove barriers for underrepresented founders—including women, people of color, veterans, rural entrepreneurs, and individuals from tribal communities. Programs that successfully broaden participation not only fulfill federal equity goals but also tap into untapped innovation potential that can revitalize regional economies.

Funding Structure and Financial Expectations

The Venture Challenge offers grants up to USD $2,000,000, typically disbursed over 24 to 36 months. Every dollar of federal funding must be matched with a dollar of non-federal contributions (50% match). Matches can include cash, staff time, donated facilities, intellectual property contributions, or third-party programmatic investments, but they must be well documented and auditable. Successful applicants design diversified match strategies that combine philanthropic support, state or municipal investments, corporate sponsorship, and earned income.

Allowable costs cover a broad range of ecosystem-building activities:

Program staff salaries and benefits, including project directors, entrepreneur-in-residence positions, and outreach coordinators.
Training programs, accelerator cohorts, startup bootcamps, and specialized workshops.
Technical assistance such as legal clinics, export readiness, regulatory strategy, and product validation.
Investment readiness services, investor education events, due diligence support, and seed fund administration.
Data infrastructure, customer relationship management systems, and third-party evaluation.
Travel required to connect founders with investors, customers, or specialized facilities.

Because the EDA reimburses expenses, grantees need robust cash flow management. Establish internal controls, document procurement processes, and ensure compliance with federal cost principles (2 CFR Part 200). Organizations that have never managed federal funds should partner with experienced fiscal agents or hire grants management professionals before submitting an application.

Detailed Eligibility Requirements

Eligible applicants include U.S.-based nonprofits, institutions of higher education, economic development agencies, tribal governments, and state or local government entities. For-profit companies may participate as subrecipients or contractors but cannot serve as the primary applicant. Key eligibility expectations include:

Organizational Capacity: Demonstrate a track record of delivering entrepreneurship or capital-access programs, managing multi-stakeholder partnerships, and stewarding large budgets. Provide bios for key staff and outline governance structures, including boards and advisory committees.
Regional Focus: Identify a clearly defined geographic service area and provide data that illustrates the region’s innovation assets and challenges. Applicants often cover metropolitan regions, multi-county partnerships, tribal nations, or statewide collaborations.
Sector Alignment: Explain how programming aligns with priority industries or clusters. Reference state economic strategies, U.S. Department of Commerce priorities, or national security considerations when relevant.
Equity and Inclusion: Outline concrete plans to reach underrepresented founders and ensure equitable access to services. This may include targeted outreach campaigns, scholarships, translation services, childcare support, or partnerships with community-based organizations.
Match Commitments: Provide letters, resolutions, or legally binding agreements that confirm match contributions. These documents must accompany the application and align with the proposed budget schedule.

Applicants must also maintain active SAM.gov and Grants.gov registrations. Because account activations can take several weeks, organizations should begin registrations early in the planning process.

Application Timeline and Submission Components

The deadline for the 2024 competition is July 24, 2024 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time. Successful applicants treat the application as a comprehensive business plan for their regional innovation strategy. Required components include:

Forms and Certifications: SF-424, SF-424A, CD-511, and other assurances as outlined in the Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO).
Project Narrative: Typically limited to 12–15 pages, the narrative should cover objectives, target industries, community need, proposed activities, implementation timeline, staffing plan, equity strategy, and anticipated outcomes.
Budget Narrative and Spreadsheet: Provide detailed calculations for each cost category, identify funding sources for the match, and explain procurement procedures.
Logic Model or Work Plan: Map inputs, activities, outputs, and outcomes. Include quarterly milestones and responsible staff.
Letters of Commitment: Secure letters from investors, universities, workforce boards, corporate partners, municipal leaders, and community organizations that demonstrate tangible support.
Data Management and Evaluation Plan: Explain how data will be collected, stored, and reported to the EDA. Address privacy, cybersecurity, and continuous improvement methods.

After submission through Grants.gov, applications undergo eligibility screening followed by a technical review. Highly rated proposals are forwarded to EDA Investment Review Panels, and final selections are approved by the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development. Award announcements typically occur in the fall, with projects beginning shortly thereafter following negotiation of cooperative agreements.

Designing a High-Impact Program Portfolio

A compelling proposal articulates how funding will catalyze measurable outcomes for startups. Consider integrating the following program elements:

Accelerator and Incubator Services: Cohort-based programs that provide mentoring, lean startup training, prototyping resources, and market validation.
Capital Formation: Establish or expand seed funds, angel networks, micro-VC partnerships, or sidecar funds that co-invest with private investors. Provide investment readiness bootcamps, pitch preparation, and due diligence coaching.
Technology Commercialization: Collaborate with universities and federal labs to move research from lab to market. Support proof-of-concept funds, IP licensing guidance, and faculty entrepreneur training.
Market Access: Facilitate pilot agreements with regional corporations, supply chain introductions, and procurement readiness programs. Support export strategies for globally oriented startups.
Talent and Workforce: Connect founders with technical talent, apprenticeships, and upskilling programs to ensure companies can scale locally. Coordinate with workforce development boards to align training with startup needs.
Community Building: Host meetups, investor summits, and founder peer groups that foster trust and knowledge sharing across the ecosystem.

Programs should demonstrate how these components integrate into a continuum of services that supports entrepreneurs from idea to scale. Use visuals—such as pipeline diagrams or stage-gate models—to illustrate the founder journey and identify handoffs between partners.

Crafting the Strategic Narrative

The narrative should paint a compelling picture of the region’s innovation economy:

Regional Need and Opportunity: Present data on job trends, industry clusters, capital flows, and entrepreneurial activity. Identify gaps—such as limited access to seed funding or sparse commercialization infrastructure—and explain how the Venture Challenge investment will address them.
Unique Value Proposition: Describe what differentiates your organization. Highlight specialized facilities (labs, maker spaces), nationally recognized mentors, or prior successes (companies launched, capital raised, exits achieved).
Partnership Network: Showcase the breadth of stakeholders involved. Provide organizational charts or network diagrams demonstrating how universities, investors, corporates, governments, and community groups coordinate to support founders.
Economic Impact: Quantify expected results over the project period, including numbers of startups supported, revenue generated, capital leveraged, and jobs created or retained. Link these metrics to broader regional plans, such as Comprehensive Economic Development Strategies (CEDS).
Sustainability Plan: Detail how the program will continue beyond the grant period through earned income, philanthropic support, or policy changes. Sustainability is a critical selection factor.

Budget Planning and Match Strategy

A meticulous budget demonstrates fiscal responsibility. Build spreadsheets that align costs with programmatic activities and timeline milestones. Sample categories include personnel, fringe benefits, travel, supplies, contractual services, equipment, construction (rare), and indirect costs. If claiming indirect costs, include your federally negotiated indirect cost rate agreement or propose the 10% de minimis rate when eligible.

Match strategies should diversify funding sources to reduce risk. Examples include:

State appropriations dedicated to innovation or small business development.
Philanthropic grants earmarked for entrepreneurship.
Corporate sponsorships for accelerator cohorts or demo days.
University cost share via faculty time, lab access, or facilities.
Program income generated from tuition, membership fees, or equity returns reinvested into the initiative.

Document each contribution with letters that specify dollar amounts, duration, and allowable uses. Establish accounting systems that separately track federal and match expenditures to simplify reporting and audits.

Equity, ESG, and Risk Management

The EDA expects grantees to integrate equity and sustainability throughout their programs. Outline metrics and tactics such as:

Dedicated outreach campaigns to women-owned, minority-owned, veteran-owned, and rural businesses.
Partnership with Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) centers, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs), and community development financial institutions (CDFIs).
Provision of stipends, childcare, language translation, or transportation assistance to reduce participation barriers.
Emphasis on climate-resilient and sustainable technologies, including circular economy practices and low-carbon operations.
Risk assessment frameworks that monitor compliance, cybersecurity, and ethical considerations when handling sensitive data.

Include measurable targets—percentage of women founders served, greenhouse gas reductions enabled by portfolio companies, or jobs created in distressed census tracts—to demonstrate accountability.

Monitoring, Reporting, and Continuous Improvement

Cooperative agreements require semiannual progress reports, SF-425 financial reports, and narrative updates that highlight successes and challenges. Establish a performance management system that tracks:

Number of startups recruited, graduated, and scaling.
Capital raised (equity, debt, grants) by participating companies.
Job creation, wage levels, and talent retention.
Intellectual property filings, pilot projects launched, and commercialization milestones.
Inclusion metrics across gender, race, geography, and socioeconomic status.

Use dashboards, CRM tools, and regular partner meetings to analyze data and adjust programming. Consider engaging third-party evaluators to validate outcomes and capture qualitative stories that illustrate regional impact. Proactive communication with EDA program officers builds trust and can unlock additional technical assistance.

Application Preparation Checklist

Organize a cross-functional proposal team and assign owners to each deliverable. Key tasks include:

Review the full NOFO and highlight compliance requirements.
Build a detailed project plan with milestones for narrative drafting, budget development, partner outreach, and approvals.
Secure match commitments with signed letters well before the deadline.
Compile bios, resumes, and organizational charts demonstrating staff expertise.
Gather historical performance data, testimonials, and case studies that validate your track record.
Prepare maps or infographics that visualize service regions and target industries.
Conduct internal reviews for clarity, consistency, and compliance before submission.
Submit through Grants.gov at least 48 hours before the deadline to mitigate technical issues.

Post-Award Readiness

Winning the Venture Challenge is only the beginning. Prior to project launch:

Finalize cooperative agreement terms with EDA, adjusting scopes and budgets as needed.
Establish financial management systems that meet federal standards, including procurement policies and timekeeping.
Schedule kickoff meetings with partners to align on roles, communication cadences, and data-sharing agreements.
Develop branding and storytelling strategies to celebrate the award and attract additional community investment.
Create founder recruitment pipelines so programming can begin immediately after the grant start date.

Additional Resources

Prospective applicants should explore EDA’s resource library, attend pre-application webinars, and review success stories from prior awardees such as JumpStart (Ohio), Launch Tennessee, and BioGenerator (Missouri). These case studies provide concrete examples of how organizations structure programs, leverage match funding, and report outcomes. Staying connected with industry associations—like the International Economic Development Council (IEDC) and the State Science & Technology Institute (SSTI)—offers ongoing peer learning, policy updates, and partnership opportunities.

By combining a bold regional vision, rigorous financial management, and inclusive programming, applicants can harness the Build to Scale Venture Challenge to transform local innovation ecosystems into engines of sustainable economic growth.