WATERLOO - A Silicon Valley venture capital firm is offering University of Waterloo engineering students the opportunity to tap into $2 million in seed funding.

Spectrum 28 is launching a program at UW next month that offers funding for early stage startups as well as access to advice from Silicon Valley tech entrepreneurs.

The Waterloo Engineering - Spectrum 28 Venture Program will include a series of pop-up classes, a fast feedback day, and a demo day where Spectrum 28 will offer equity funding to student teams that meet the program's criteria.

The program is the brainchild of Lyon Wong, a partner and founder of Spectrum 28 who graduated from UW's system design engineering program in 2003.

"It's not enough to just have bright, hardworking students who dream of entrepreneurial ventures," Wong said Friday in a news release.

"They need to understand that having a diverse team of co-founders that includes graduate students or faculty with deep technical knowledge is a distinct advantage when creating a startup - with any hope of long-term success. Too many teams struggle because they are strictly undergraduate focused and aren't accessing the mentorship from the experts in Waterloo engineering or Silicon Valley."