Manolo Sanchez Prize
The Manolo Sanchez Prize awards $25,000 to a student-led for-profit or non-profit startup with the potential to help improve the financial health of the financially underserved.
We welcome this brand new donor-funded prize to the ecosystem of prizes at Startup Yale. Projects seeking to develop a solution among credit, insurance, payments and remittances, savings and personal financial management, financial education, or infrastructure addressing special challenges of underserved individuals and families are encouraged to apply.
Timeline
- November 17, 2021: Early Mentorship Application Opens
- November 17, 2021: Informational Session about Startup Yale 2022 at Tsai CITY from 12pm-1pm
- December 1, 2021: Early Mentorship Application Closes
- January 24, 2022: Optional mentorship request form opens
- January 24, 2022: Informational Session at Tsai CITY
- February 21, 2022: Optional mentorship request form closes (mentors are assigned on a rolling basis)
- February 21, 2022: Informational Session at Tsai CITY
- February 22, 2022: Startup Yale application opens
- March 20, 2022: Startup Yale application deadline
- April 8, 2022 (approximately): Finalists selected
- April 28-30, 2022: Finalists participate in a live pitch event as part of Startup Yale.
Want to preview the application before diving in? Download a PDF version.

Questions about the Manolo Sanchez Prize?
For questions about the Manolo Sanchez prize, contact city.support@yale.edu or tsaicityfunding@gmail.com.
Startup Yale
The 2022 Manolo Sanchez Prize Final Pitchoff is part of Startup Yale, a collaboration between the Yale Center for Business and the Environment, InnovateHealth Yale, Dwight Hall and the Tsai Center for Innovative Thinking at Yale. On April 28-30, this event will bring together Yale’s entrepreneurs in two days packed with pitches, prizes, and world-changing ideas. Over $135k of prizes will be awarded to the finalists, including:
- Manolo Sanchez Prize ($25k)
- Miller Prize ($25k)
- New Haven Civic Innovation Prize ($10k)
- Rita Wilson Prize Fund in Support of Innovation and Entrepreneurship ($10k)
- Sabin Sustainable Venture Prize ($25k)
- Thorne Prize for Social Innovation in Health or Education ($25k)
- Yale Innovator's Prize ($15k)