From RISE to Startup: How Our Team Launched GrantsMate at UAlbany
In this blog, an interdisciplinary team share their experience with UAlbany’s Research and Innovators Startup Exchange (RISE) program and how it helped them develop GrantsMate, an innovative tool that connects researchers with grant opportunities. Team members include Tianning Huang (GrantsMate Founder) and Yuemin Li (GrantsMate Founder & incoming CEO), Abhineet Kumar Pandey (GrantsMate CTO), Aidai Kokonova (incoming GrantsMate COO), and Mariam Boudjelkha (RISE program fellow, GrantsMate Marketing Strategy Lead). They came from several of UAlbany’s graduate programs, including Public Administration - MPA, Sociology - PhD, Computer Science - PhD, and Business Administration - MBA.
The Idea Behind GrantsMate
GrantsMate is an intelligent AI assistant designed to help researchers discover the right funding opportunities and collaborators faster than ever. GrantsMate began in the Office of Strategic Initiatives (OSI), where Yuemin Li and Tianning Huang noticed that researchers often only see funding from the top or most well-known organizations, leaving many opportunities overlooked. The platform uses AI, powered by large language models, to provide personalized recommendations for grants and potential collaborators, taking into account a researcher’s interests, past publications, and previous proposals. By bringing together information from multiple funding databases in a simple chat-style interface, GrantsMate helps researchers uncover relevant funding opportunities they might not have found otherwise, making it easier to explore options and make informed decisions.
How We All Came Together
The team gradually formed around GrantsMate. Early developers - Abhineet Kumar Pandey, Tianning Huang, and Yuemin Li - had been building the initial product since 2024, followed by new members who joined through the RISE program. RISE Fellows Mariam Boudjelkha and Saloni Agrawal joined through the MBA Analytics course, selecting the project as part of their applied coursework, while Aidai Kokonova was working at OSI at the same time. With complementary roles in data analysis, business management and technical development, the team collaborated to move the project forward.
RISE: The Game Changer
The team’s progress accelerated through the RISE program, run by The UAlbany Innovation Center’s Research and Innovators Startup Exchange. Over eight weeks, RISE offered mentorship, support, and a space to test ideas and think critically about every step of the project. Our mentors, Brett Orzechowski and Kelly Reardon, provided invaluable guidance and feedback, helping us refine our approach and stay focused on real challenges. The program also connected us with peers and other mentors, offering fresh perspectives that strengthened both the platform and the way our team works together.
Building Toward a Startup
After RISE Spring 2025, we continued refining GrantsMate and showcased our progress at Research & Entrepreneurship Week 2025 at ETEC. There, we presented our research, product roadmap, and vision for the future. Looking ahead, we plan to incorporate as a startup in early 2026, continue user testing, refine the UI/UX - improving the platform’s interface design, usability, navigation, and overall user experience - and develop new features based on feedback from researchers and administrators.
Looking for Help: Join Our Team!
As GrantsMate grows, we’re looking for new collaborators, particularly a volunteer UI/UX developer who is passionate about designing user-friendly and AI-based tools and a Cloud Engineer experienced in cloud architecting. Interested in a potential collaboration? You can find us at www.grantsmate.ai and reach out! We would love to hear from you!
Reflections and Takeaways
RISE didn’t just help us build a product - it helped us grow as collaborators, problem-solvers, and emerging founders. We’ve learned the importance of mentorship, teamwork, and staying focused on real user needs. GrantsMate is still just the beginning, and we’re excited to continue this journey with UAlbany’s support and our expanding team.