Venture Lab is the entrepreneurship center at the Wharton School that serves all students and alumni across the University of Pennsylvania who are interested in entrepreneurship and innovation.
Our Impact
Like so much else at the University of Pennsylvania, Venture Lab has a proud history. The Wharton School was the first to develop a fully integrated curriculum of entrepreneurial studies, in 1973. The Sol C. Snider Entrepreneurial Research Center was the first Center dedicated to the study of entrepreneurship.
3,500+
The number of students engaged in entrepreneurship programming at Venture Lab
20
The collective number of programs that support explorers, founders, joiners, and investors.
$1.5M
The total amount of non-dilutive funding received by student startups (2022)
1,083
The number of undergraduate students that identify as founders (source: 2023, Pitchbook)
1043
The number of graduate students (MBA) that identify as founders (source: 2023, Pitchbook)
525
The number of graduate students (non-MBA) that identify as founders (source: 2023, Pitchbook)
Labs & Programs
Check out a few of our signature programs, funding opportunities, and more
Our flagship program, the Venture Initiation Program is a joint incubator-accelerator that introduces students to the key aspects of entrepreneurship.
Since its inception in the Fall of 2001, our Visiting Experts program has provided over 1700 Penn students with the unique opportunity to meet one-on-one with over 170 successful entrepreneurs.
The Penn Wharton Innovation Fund exists to fund creative and meaningfully innovative ventures from the Penn student community.
Compete for a slice of more than $150,000 in cash and in-kind awardsto help launch your venture!
The Studios @ Venture Labs are a collection of workspaces and labs that house digital and analog fabrication technologies that empower the Penn community to make their ideas a reality.
The Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition (ETA) program provides training, funding, and guidance to help interested students buy an established small to medium-sized company and operate, optimize, and grow it. Our workshops and events are open to all Penn Students. The $50K Perlman Fellowship is a competitive opportunity available only to Penn and Wharton Master's Degree and Ph.D students in their final year of study and graduating in 2025.
Where Ideas Come to Life
With a new name and a new home, Venture Lab — formerly known as Penn Wharton Entrepreneurship — is the culmination of a nearly 50-year journey to help aspiring founders at Wharton and across the university realize their visions.
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