Innovate Carolina
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Innovate Carolina, the university’s campuswide initiative for innovation, entrepreneurship and economic development, offers support and services to faculty, staff and student entrepreneurs at UNC-Chapel Hill. Our programs and services help Carolina innovators and entrepreneurs launch startups and create market-ready technologies, products and services. By helping these problem-solvers move more inventions and valuable ideas into the world faster, we make the greatest social and economic impact possible.
Innovate Carolina’s offerings include the Junction Innovation Hub, technology commercialization, student innovation services, market research and competitive intelligence services, impact measurement and reporting as well as design thinking consultations and workshops that guide entrepreneurs to develop products and services that customers want.
Your past support has led to…
- $19.2 billion in revenue from annual startup formation
- 115,098 total UNC startup jobs created
- 574 active UNC startup ventures that work for the human and economic good
Help the problem-solvers of tomorrow move more inventions and valuable ideas into the world faster. Give to the Innovate Carolina General Fund today and help make innovation accessible to all.
At Carolina, we see research discoveries and novel ideas as more than academic explorations. They’re the beginnings of new businesses. Our startup accelerators and programs provide faculty and students with entrepreneurial tools and resources to launch new ventures. We turn science into startups. And novel ideas into economic impact and social good.
Why Startups Matter
1,079 – Total number of UNC startups (since 1958)
$19.2B – Annual startup revenue (FY 2024)
$19.8B – Total startup funding raised (since 1958)
Research discoveries that sit dormant on lab shelves don’t do anyone any good. That’s why Innovate Carolina’s Office of Technology Commercialization team works closely with UNC-Chapel Hill researchers to take their scientific discoveries to market. Whether it’s licensing Carolina-born technologies to industry or launching new startups, we find the smartest paths to human and economic impact.
131 – Invention Disclosures (FY 2024)
54 – Executed Licenses & Options (FY 2024)
$7.8M – Licensing Revenue (FY 2024)
The Carolina approach to innovation starts with our passion for solving hard problems. Problems like devastating diseases, environmental hazards, Economic hardship, Hunger and poverty, technological quandaries, and human inequity and injustice.
Our problem-solving tools and approach of teaching and learning the principles of innovation and entrepreneurship brings change to the world. Top-ranked entrepreneurship curricula translates into firsthand experiences working with startups and inventive organizations. Faculty research moves through the commercialization pipeline into industries.
#6 – Most innovative university in the world (Reuters)
105 – Active UNC social ventures (As of July 2024)
#9 – In entrepreneurship education (U.S. News & World Report)