Startup Programs for Students (2026): 7 Programs, Accelerators & Perks
Student founders and university startups. 7 listings on startups.ws state that they accept students.
Any stage 68Pre-seed 106Seed stage 113Series A+ 66Bootstrapped 74VC-backed only 73Students 7Solo founders 53Women founders 1Underrepresented founders 1AI startups 74Open source 8SaaS 83E-commerce 25Fintech 3Climate & energy 11Health & bio 12Nonprofits 3
🎁 Startup programs for students
Filter all startup programs →EXIST Business Start-up Grant (exist Gründungsstipendium) 🎁 ProgramFree
12 months of stipends (EUR 1,000-3,000 a month each) plus EUR 30,000 for costs, for German university spin-off teams.
8.0
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🚀 Accelerators & incubators for students
Filter all accelerators & incubators →YC Startup School 🚀 AcceleratorFree
Y Combinator's free, self-paced online course with weekly progress updates and co-founder matching.
8.0
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Thiel Fellowship 🚀 AcceleratorFree
$250,000 grant over two years, no equity, for builders aged 22 or under who skip or leave college.
7.5
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Emergent Ventures 🚀 AcceleratorFree
Fast grants and fellowships from the Mercatus Center for people with scalable "zero to one" ideas.
6.5
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Z Fellows 🚀 AcceleratorFree
One-week fellowship with an optional $10,000 investment at a $1B cap; rolling applications.
6.5
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Berkeley SkyDeck Pad-13 🚀 AcceleratorFree
SkyDeck's incubator track for idea-stage teams with a University of California-affiliated founder.
6.0
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🧾 Founder services for students
Filter all founder services →Before you apply
- Read the eligibility line on each page: funding stage, company age and region rule out more applications than anything else.
- Apply with a company domain email and a live website; many programs reject personal addresses.
- Keep a list of what you claimed and when it expires.