On January 15th, the Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation (VIPC) team brought their Funding Pathways statewide series to REaKTOR in Hampton, delivering an impactful yet straightforward session packed with opportunities for local founders. If you’re building in aerospace, cybersecurity, advanced manufacturing, autonomous systems, energy, life sciences or other high-growth tech areas here in the 757, this was a reminder that Virginia is serious about supporting its innovators.

VIPC is the nonprofit arm of the Virginia Innovation Partnership Authority (VIPA). VIPC’s mission? To “fuel Virginia’s innovation-driven economy by amplifying entrepreneurial startup ecosystems, accelerating technology commercialization pathways, and attracting early-stage investment capital”. They support entrepreneurs, researchers, and ecosystem partners with funding, expertise, and statewide connections so that ideas can turn into scalable businesses that create jobs and drive economic growth across the Commonwealth.

For founders, VIPC offers non-dilutive grants, seed investments, SBIR/STTR mentoring, proposal reviews, and access to networks that can help move their ventures forward. They also provide free/low-cost training, webinars, and one-on-one support—helping to save time and navigate pitfalls.

Pre-Revenue? Pre-MVP? VIPC even highlighted funding opportunities for startups in very early stages:

  • Launch Grants: $50K non-dilutive awards for pre-MVP startups (not currently raising), with 1:1 match requirements.
  • Lab-to-Launch Grants: Up to $50K for startups licensing IP from Virginia R1 universities, using the founder-friendly Fast-Track License (zero upfront costs).
  • Higher Education Grants: $100k-$300k of support toward university teams for early validation, prototyping, and customer discovery—bridging research to startup formation.

VIPC also offers Virginia Venture Partners investments for different MVP-stage companies raising anywhere from $500K–$5M, and support services like the Federal Funding Assistance Program that provides SBIR/STTR mentoring and consultation.

We caught up with Jennifer O’Daniel, Senior Director of Virginia Venture Partners and VIPC Launch, to see what top 3 pieces of advice she has for founders interested in learning more and/or pursuing these opportunities:

“First, join us for Coffee with Virginia Venture Partners. We do it every other Friday morning on Zoom 9:00-10:30am, we start with some sort of investor presentation and then move on to breakout rooms where you can have a one-on-one conversation with me.

I would immediately start a newsletter talking about your company. Tell us what your company does. Tell us what you achieved last quarter, what you’re going to achieve next quarter, and then any asks you might have. I would start to regularly send that every time you meet somebody who could be a mentor and an angel investor or institutional investor- start sending that out on a regular cadence.

Lastly, I would be pitching to everybody. You’re at Starbucks? Talk to the person in front of you, behind you, tell them what you do. Get really comfortable talking about what it is you do.”

This event brought lots of energy and excitement for the impressive crowd we had in the room. Several founders in attendance engaged in an ad hoc pitch moment to VIPC reps and other ecosystem players. That just goes to show- you never know who is in the room with you that can introduce you, fund you, or further support the fruition of your venture. Show up and show up ready!

Hampton Roads founders—opportunities like these are closer than ever. Check out vipc.org/funding for more details and get plugged in with all that VIPC has to offer.