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Entrepreneurship scholarships in Ontario

You are probably searching the wrong word.The clearest award we could verify with “entrepreneurship” in its title is worth $1,000 and requires you to already be enrolled at that university. The awards a young founder can genuinely win are worth $25,000 to $150,000 and none of them has the word in the name.

See the awardsFunding, not tuition

Published Last reviewed How we research and correct this

The argument

Why the word is the problem

Five things, and the fourth one costs more students a scholarship than anything else on this page.

  1. Almost no entrepreneurship scholarship is open to you yet

    The awards with the word in the title are mostly internal to one university and require you to already be enrolled there. The clearest one we could verify is worth $1,000 and needs you to be in Ontario Tech's Business Incubator first.

  2. The big awards are character awards, and you have the evidence

    Loran, Schulich Leader and Horatio Alger are looking for initiative, persistence and service. A student who found customers, priced a job, got told no and went back the next week is describing exactly that — in specifics, which is what almost every applicant lacks.

  3. The gap between the two is not small

    A Schulich Leader engineering award is $120,000. A Loran is about $150,000 over four years. The entrepreneurship-titled award we verified is $1,000. You are not choosing between similar things.

  4. Two of these need action a year before you would think

    Schulich Leader needs your school to nominate you, one student per high school, by late January of Grade 12. Horatio Alger's undergraduate award is applied for in Grade 11. Both are lost by timing far more often than by merit.

  5. Listings will tell you about awards that no longer exist

    TD's Community Leadership scholarship ran for over thirty years, is worth up to $70,000, has concluded, and is still listed as open in places. Check the awarding body's own page before you plan around anything.

The awards

What a young founder can win

5 open, one concluded, one you can only get once you are already a student. Each checked on the awarding body's own page.

Open to applyLoran Scholars Foundation

Loran Award

“Approximately $150,000 over four years” — a $12,000 annual stipend, a full tuition waiver at partner universities, and up to $14,000 for summer experiential learning

Character, service and leadership, explicitly ahead of marks. A four-year enrichment program with mentorship attached, not just money.

The catch

A minimum cumulative average of 88%, and you must be entering university for the first time in September 2027 with Canadian citizenship or permanent resident status. The 88% is the wall: everything else about this award rewards the student who has been out building something, and then the average quietly excludes a lot of them.

Loran Scholars Foundation's own page for this award

Open to applySchulich Foundation

Schulich Leader Scholarships

$120,000 for engineering, $100,000 for science and math. 100 awarded a year across 20 partner universities

Entrepreneurial leadership in a student entering a STEM program — their word, not ours. Academic excellence and financial need are also weighed.

The catch

Two of them, and the first ends most applications before they start. Your high school has to nominate you, and it can nominate one student a year. If you have not asked your principal or guidance office by the autumn of Grade 12, you are not eligible no matter how good your case is. Second, it is STEM only — a business program does not qualify.

Deadline: High school submits its nominee by 27 January 2027; the nominee applies by 17 February 2027

Schulich Foundation's own page for this award

Open to applyHoratio Alger Association of Canada

Horatio Alger Canada Undergraduate Scholarship

Up to $25,000

Integrity and perseverance in overcoming adversity, commitment to post-secondary education, a desire to contribute to society, and a good academic record.

The catch

Family income under $80,000, and you apply in Grade 11 — not Grade 12. Canadian students apply in Grade 11 for the Class of 2027; in Québec it is Grade 12, Class of 2026. Most people find this award a year too late.

Deadline: Applications 1 January – 31 March

Horatio Alger Association of Canada's own page for this award

Open to applyHoratio Alger Association of Canada

Horatio Alger Canada Vocational & Technical Scholarship

Up to $9,000

The same qualities as the undergraduate award, for students heading into a certificate or diploma program.

The catch

Worth knowing because almost nobody lists it: if you are going to college for a trade or a diploma rather than to university, there is a separate award with a separate, later window. The undergraduate deadline passing does not close this one.

Deadline: Applications 1 May – 30 June

Horatio Alger Association of Canada's own page for this award

Open to applyTD Bank Group

TD Scholarship for Indigenous Peoples

Up to $60,000 over four years, 25 awards a year

Indigenous students in Canada heading into post-secondary study.

The catch

This is the TD scholarship that still exists. The much better-known TD Scholarships for Community Leadership has ended — see below — and the two get confused constantly in scholarship listings.

TD Bank Group's own page for this award

No longer runningTD Bank Group

TD Scholarships for Community Leadership

Was up to $70,000 over four years

Community leadership in a final-year high school student. For more than thirty years this was the one to aim at.

The catch

It is over. TD states: “After more than 30 years of meaningful impact, the TD Scholarships for Community Leadership program has concluded,” and that “no new applications will be accepted for 2026 and beyond.” It is still listed as open on scholarship aggregator sites, which is exactly why this page exists.

TD Bank Group's own page for this award

Only once you're enrolledOntario Tech University

CPPI Group Inc. Entrepreneurship Scholarship

$1,000. Two awards available

Students enrolled in Ontario Tech's Business Incubator program, in any year of study, in good academic standing.

The catch

You must already be an Ontario Tech student, enrolled in the Business Incubator, on a full-time course load. This is the award that comes up when you search “entrepreneurship scholarship Ontario”, and it is a top-up for people who are already there rather than a way of getting there. It is worth one two-hundredth of a Schulich Leader.

Ontario Tech University's own page for this award

What they want to read

Build the evidence first

Every award above is looking for initiative and persistence in specifics. That is a thing you do, not a thing you write.

Launch League is not a scholarship provider and takes no part in any award on this page. We do not charge students for anything, and nothing here is an application service.

Questions

Common questions

Are there entrepreneurship scholarships in Ontario?
Very few, and the ones that exist are smaller and more conditional than people expect. The clearest example we could verify is the CPPI Group Inc. Entrepreneurship Scholarship at Ontario Tech: $1,000, two awards, and you must already be enrolled in the university's Business Incubator program. It is a top-up for students who are already there, not a way of getting there.
So what should a young entrepreneur apply for instead?
Character, service and leadership awards. The Loran Award is worth approximately $150,000 over four years. Schulich Leader Scholarships are $120,000 for engineering or $100,000 for science and math. Horatio Alger Canada goes up to $25,000. None has “entrepreneurship” in the name, and all of them are looking for the initiative and persistence a student who has run something can actually evidence.
What is the deadline most people miss?
Schulich Leader has to start with your school. Every high school in Canada can nominate one graduating student a year, and the school submits its nominee by 27 January 2027, with the nominee applying by 17 February 2027. If nobody at your school has put your name forward, you are not eligible regardless of how strong your case is. Ask in the autumn of Grade 12, not the spring.
Can I apply for scholarships in Grade 11?
For one of these, you have to. Horatio Alger Canada's undergraduate award is applied for in Grade 11 in most of Canada — the current cycle is for the Class of 2027 — with applications running 1 January to 31 March and a family income requirement under $80,000. In Québec it is Grade 12. Most students find it a year too late.
Is Summer Company a scholarship?
No. Summer Company is a grant for running a business over the summer, and Futurpreneur is a loan with a mentor attached. They are not tuition money and they have their own age rules. Those are covered separately on our youth entrepreneurship funding page.
How current is this page?
Every award was opened on the awarding body's own page and read there on September 23, 2026. Nothing is taken from a scholarship aggregator. Deadlines and amounts change every year and aggregators are often a cycle behind — TD's Community Leadership scholarship has concluded and is still listed as open in places — so the awarding body's own page always wins over this one.

Sources

How this was checked

Every award was opened on the awarding body's own page and read there on September 23, 2026. Nothing is taken from a scholarship aggregator, and where a page did not state something — Loran's deadline, several exact award counts — this page says nothing rather than guessing. Scholarship deadlines and amounts change every year, and listings are routinely a cycle behind: TD's Community Leadership scholarship has concluded and is still shown as open in places. The awarding body's own page always wins over this one, which is why every entry links straight to it. How we research and correct guides is set out in our editorial standards.

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