Equalize A pitch competition and symposium for women academic founders in therapeutics, medtech, research tools and the physical sciences. Mentorship and training lead up to a final pitch. Closes November 13 - APPLY

SXSW Pitch 2027 A shot at pitching 40 investor judges in Austin next March. Past participants have raised $22.5 billion combined. Your product must have launched after January 1, 2024, and you need to be under $10 million raised. Heads up, there’s a $225 entry fee. Closes November 13 - APPLY

D-Prize Up to $20,000 to launch a new organization that gets a proven poverty solution to the people who still don’t have it, like clean water filters, reading glasses or childcare. Open worldwide, and most winners are first-time founders who haven’t launched yet. Regular deadline November 15, extensions to December 6 - APPLY

Techstars Spring 2027 $220,000 and three months inside a Techstars accelerator, including the fully remote Anywhere program. This one takes equity, so read the terms. Closes November 18 - APPLY

SMU Cox FinTech Accelerator A brand-new, free fintech accelerator run with MassChallenge, and they take no equity. Sixteen weeks of mentorship and introductions to banks, corporates and investors, mostly virtual with three in-person stops in Dallas. Built for pre-seed to Series A fintech startups with early traction. Closes November 19 - APPLY

Mozilla Human-Scale AI Incubator The big one: $300,000 in non-dilutive funding, with up to $500,000 over three years if you hit your milestones, plus a year of coaching inside a small global cohort. Mozilla wants small, private, fit-for-purpose AI that already has real users, not another chatbot wrapper on a frontier model. Your project needs a public-benefit angle, but you don’t have to be a nonprofit. Closes November 20 - APPLY

Treehub Residency Building at the intersection of AI and health? Treehub writes a first check, sometimes before you’ve even formed the company, and brings you into an in-person residency in Los Altos with access to hospital partners and medical data. It’s backed by the AI Health Fund, so expect equity. Closes November 20 - APPLY

Hey Helen Grant $10,000 in unrestricted cash to one woman founder every month, from Visionaries. Your US business needs to be at least 50% woman-owned and under $1M in revenue. Pre-revenue is fine. Apply once and you stay in the running for 12 monthly rounds. There’s a $15 fee. November round closes November 30 - APPLY

Entreprenista Evolve Grant $5,000 for a woman founder ready for the next step, from Entreprenista and IT Cosmetics. US business, at least a year old, doing $100,000+ in revenue. Closes November 30 - APPLY

Threadneedle Alley Foundation Grant $5,000 plus your own entrepreneur mentor, built for founders 40 and up. You and your business need to be in the US and registered, and money pressure is slowing you down. At least five winners this round, and a short pitch video is part of the application. Closes November 30 - APPLY

CancerX Accelerator 2027 Building digital tools for cancer care? This free, year-long program matches you with at least two health systems and industry champions who want to pilot what you’ve built, plus mentors and investor access. You need a live product with at least one completed pilot. Deadline just got extended. Closes November 30 - APPLY

Future of Capitalism Competition IV: Austin Up to $1 million in investment for early-stage tech startups that pair real business with social impact, and this year the finals are coming to Austin around SXSW. Free to enter, pre-seed through Series A. Deadline was extended. Closes November 30 - APPLY

CIF Innovation Prize in Maternal Health Working on affordable care for pregnancy, birth or postpartum? Catalytic Impact Foundation picks finalists for coaching and pitch prep, then they pitch in New York next February for a $100,000 investment. Pre-seed through Series A, with extra interest in under-resourced US communities. Closes December 10 - APPLY

Skip $10K Growth Grant $10,000 to one US entrepreneur or small business owner, no strings. Anyone 18 and up can apply, with no revenue or stage requirements. It’s a short set of written questions, so it’s worth 20 minutes. Closes December 17 - APPLY

Verizon Digital Ready Grant $10,000 grants every month through the end of 2026. Finish two free Digital Ready courses, apply once, and you stay in the running all year. Open to US for-profit small businesses. Monthly picks through December - APPLY

Braze Tech for an Equitable Future Twelve months of the Braze customer engagement platform for free, plus support to get it running. Built for underrepresented founders with under $30 million raised and fewer than 100 employees. Closes January 15 - APPLY

Rice Business Plan Competition The world’s biggest student startup competition is right here in Houston, with more than $1 million in cash and investment on the line next April. Every team walks away with at least one prize. Got a student founder in your life? Send them this. Applications open November 9 and close January 29 - APPLY

The Amber Grant $10,000 to a woman-owned business every month, plus a startup track if you’re still pre-revenue and a $50,000 prize at year end. One application covers it all, with a $15 fee. Monthly - APPLY

Warrior Rising Up to $20,000 in non-dilutive funding for veterans and military spouses building a business. The path is free: start at Warrior Academy, and founders with real traction get invited to pitch. Rolling - APPLY

America’s Seed Fund (NSF) Up to $2 million for deep tech, and the NSF takes no equity and no IP. AI, energy, medtech, robotics, semiconductors. Project pitches are open year round, so there’s no deadline to miss. Rolling - APPLY

Claude Startups Anthropic just opened its startup program wider. Members get up to $45,000 in partner credits and discounts, office hours with Anthropic’s Applied AI team, and invites to founder events. Backed by a partner VC? You may qualify for up to $100,000 in API credits on top. Open to startups founded in the last five years or funded in the last two, bootstrapped included. Heads up: the free Claude Team year and $1,000 credit offer is over capacity right now. Rolling - APPLY

Grok for Startups New from xAI: up to 12 months of free AI credits you can spend across Grok, Grok Build, Grok Bot and the Grok API, all from one balance. You get 20% when you’re approved and the rest once your team is up and running. Built for VC-backed startups with a live product, and you’ll need to apply with your work email. Rolling - APPLY

NVIDIA Inception Free cloud credits, technical training, hardware discounts and VC intros for AI startups. No fees, no equity, no cohort. You need to be incorporated, under 10 years old, with a working site and at least one developer. Rolling - APPLY

20 Funds Writing Pre-Seed Checks of $250K or Less Raising a pre-seed round? Line up a couple of smaller checks before you pitch the big names. Vahid Fakhr checked 200+ funds and found 20 that start at $250K or less and have all invested this year, with check sizes pulled from each fund’s own site. Names like Homebrew, Unpopular Ventures, Dorm Room Fund and Sterling Road, plus who each one just backed. A few only invest in certain cities, so check the notes. Credit to Vahid Fakhr - SEE THE LIST