Student entrepreneur programs get $800K funding boost from RBC

Young entrepreneurs in the Windsor area will want to make note of a new investment announced Tuesday, which will fund a pair of programsfor student entrepreneursfor a seven-year period.

The RBC Foundation announced an $800,000 donation to support two Entrepreneurship Practice and Innovation Centre programs at the University of Windsor.

Part of the money will be put into the RBC EPIC Founders Program, which gives as many as a dozen entrepreneurs up to $6,000 in funding to develop a business idea over a 12-week period during the summer.

Participants eventually get to show off their ideas to mentors and investors, with one entrepreneur receiving a $3,500 award to keep going with their concept.

Some of the donation from the RBC Foundation will go toward the RBC Business Model Competition, which lets students and alumnitest out their business ideas. The top two participants are awarded with a cash prize the first-place finisher getting $10,000 and the second-place finisher receiving $2,500.

A news release did not spell out the explicit accounting of the money from RBC, but the university says the money will provide funding for these programs for seven years.

In a statement, Alan Wildeman, the president of the University of Windsor, said the donation from the RBC Foundation is "an investment in the future."

Wildeman said the programs "not only give students a place to create their own opportunities, they foster a belief in the entrepreneurial spirit that benefits us all."