Learn about the Galant Challenge
GALANT
CHALLENGE
Do you have a compelling seed through A round venture? Seeking investors to take it to the next level?
The Galant Challenge connects seed through A round ventures associated with the UVA community with potential investors. Since launching in 2012, the annual competition hosted by the McIntire School of Commerce's Galant Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship has become one of the nation's premier university startup events. The 2023 Challenge resulted in historic outcomes—entrepreneur teams who pitched raised more than $15 million to take their ventures to the next level. Last year, five startups in the 2024 Challenge received funding from our investors and CAV Angels, our UVA-focused angel fund collaborator. In 2025, the Galant Challenge raised the stakes. Our first cohort of UVA-connected venture capital funds were invited to bring both startups and their capital to the event.
FINALISTS
Apis Cor
Buzz Solutions
Chordia
Coral Innovations
PS Fertility
Vendera
The 2025 Galant Challenge took place on April 23 at the McIntire School of Commerce.
How It Works
Entrepreneurs in the UVA community are invited to submit a pitch to the Galant Challenge, UVA's premiere startup event connecting seed and early-stage ventures with potential investors. Since the Challenge started in 2012, more than $30 million has been invested in teams selected to pitch in the Challenge.
Eligibility: UVA students, alumni, faculty, and staff who are founders or members of the startup's management team as well as teams introduced by a UVA VC Cohort member are eligible to apply. Four to six finalist teams were ultimately chosen to showcase at the Galant Challenge on April 23 at UVA.
Pitch Submission Deadline: All pitches were due through our online submission form no later than 11:59 p.m. EST on Friday, Feb. 28 (extended from Feb. 21). The submission form includes required data fields and an upload for a pitch deck as PPT or PDF. Submission requirements outlined on the form should be carefully reviewed and followed. Photos and videos are taken during the Challenge. Proprietary data should not be included in the pitch deck or finalist presentation (if invited).
Investor Panel
Elizabeth Blankenship-Singh (Darden '22)
Senior Associate, Overlay Capital
Elizabeth Blankenship-Singh is a Senior Associate at Overlay Capital, seamlessly integrating client insights from Overlay Capital’s Build’s consulting arm deploying technologies with real estate owner-operators, to the team’s strategic investment vision. With expertise in sustainability and climate tech, she's honed her skills at two early-stage VC funds, injecting catalytic capital into innovative climate solutions. Ms. Blankenship-Singh holds an MBA from UVA Darden with a focus on Innovation for Sustainability, bringing a unique blend of entrepreneurial spirit and passion for driving impactful investments.
Mark Galant (McIntire '80)
CEO, Tydall Investment Partners; Founder, Galant Center for Entrepreneurship
Mark Galant is the Founder of GAIN Capital/FOREX.com, a leading online FX trading firm. He served as CEO from its beginning in 1999 until 2007. Mr. Galant continued as Chairman until December 2010, when the firm went public on the NYSE. Before GAIN, his Wall Street trading career included Global Head of Options for Credit Suisse. He followed GAIN with the founding of Tydall Trading, a high-frequency algorithmic trading firm, trading over $10 billion a day. He currently is the CEO of Tydall Holdings, a real estate development and startup investment firm. Mr. Galant holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a B.S. in Commerce (Finance) from the University of Virginia’s McIntire School of Commerce.
Aditi Rajagopal (Darden '21)
Principal, Good Growth Capital
Aditi Rajagopal is a Principal at Good Growth Capital, where she focuses on data science investment opportunities. Prior to GGC, Ms. Rajagopal was on the investment team at Invest Detroit Ventures, the most active early-stage investor in Michigan, where she led deal sourcing and KPI development while building entrepreneur relationships across the Great Lakes region. She started her career in software engineering working on open source cloud infrastructure products, including IBM Cloud, Kubernetes, OpenStack, and Docker. Ms. Rajagopal holds a B.S.E. in Computer Engineering from the University of Michigan and a dual MBA/M.S. in Data Science from the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business.
David Zusman (McIntire '97)
Managing Partner, Talara Capital and GoPoint Ventures
David Zusman is the Managing Partner of Talara Capital and GoPoint Ventures, investment partnerships he founded in 2010. The firm’s PE investments are real asset focused, while its venture investments have focused on software with workflow/data orchestration, AI solutions, and energy transition technologies. Mr. Zusman has invested over $1 billion alongside visionary founders, serving on numerous boards. In 2019, he co-founded the We Are All Music Foundation. Mr. Zusman began his career in finance at Credit Suisse before becoming Managing Director at North Sound Capital, a hedge fund, and Partner at Perella Weinberg. Mr. Zusman earned a B.S. in Commerce at the University of Virginia’s McIntire School of Commerce.
VC Cohort
Greg Benante, Investor, IPD Capital
Elizabeth Blankenship-Singh, Senior Associate, Overlay Capital
Kelly Dill, Partner, Imaginary Ventures
Amanda Gex, Senior Associate, FM Capital
Dwight Greenhouse, Senior Associate, Lightbank
Dayna Grayson, Co-Founder and General Partner, Construct Capital
Melody Koh, Partner/GP, NextView Ventures
Wallace Kyle, Principal, Skyview Ventures
Peter Liu, Managing Partner and Co-Founder, Revelry Venture Partners
Brian Macauley, Portfolio Manager and Managing Member, Broad Run Investment Management
Allyson Plosko, Principal, SpringTime Ventures
Ekaterina (Katya) Plotnitskaya, Associate, Investment Team, Climate Investment
Aditi Rajagopal, Principal, Good Growth Capital
Weston Reynolds, Founder, Definition
Matt Shapiro, Director of Investments, York IE
David Zusman, Managing Partner, GoPoint Ventures
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Galant Challenge?
The Galant Challenge is a premier startup showcase held annually at the University of Virginia's McIntire School of Commerce to expose startups founded by UVA community members (students, alumni, faculty, and staff) to potential investors. The Galant Challenge has resulted in more than $30 million in capital raised for finalists since 2012.
Who are the investors?
Led by Mark E. Galant (McIntire '80), the investor panel changes annually but is typically composed of leading entrepreneurs and investors ready to put real capital into the final ventures selected to pitch. In recent years the panel featured Paul Tudor Jones (A&S '76) of Tudor Investment Corporation; Baiju Bhatt, Co-Founder of Robinhood; John Griffin (McIntire '85) of Blue Ridge Capital; and Ralph Sampson (A&S '83) of The Sampson Group, among others.
In 2025, the Galant Challenge raised the stakes. Our first cohort of UVA-connected venture capital funds brought both startups and their capital to the April 23 pitch event.
Who has been funded in past Galant Challenges?
Each year, dozens of pitches are submitted to the Galant Challenge, with four to six ventures ultimately selected to pitch to our panel of investors at the UVA McIntire School of Commerce during the live event. Of those, many are selected for funding by one or more investors. In 2024, five finalists received funding from the investors who attended the Challenge.
Check out the Past Events section below for recaps of each year's Challenge, with details about the companies and investments that resulted.
Can anyone attend the Challenge?
The Challenge is open to the public and all are encouraged to attend.
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