Förderbar GmbH specializes in public funding consultancy for startups in Germany, aiding clients in securing around €15 million annually with a 100% success rate. They offer a full-service approach to navigating funding programs that generally cover a portion of costs, requiring companies to invest their own funds. Key programs include pre-seed, R&D funding, and the Innovationsassistent initiative, each designed to support various stages of project development and innovation.

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Public Funding for Startups
Michael Schulte
Senior Consultant förderbar GmbH

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 Public funding experts for IT, Internet and Industry 4.0
 Team of experienced Senior Consultants
 Office in Berlin, working with public funding programmes
anywhere in Germany
 Full service approach: Our clients have no time to deal with
public funding
förderbar – Public Funding Consultancy

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Success
Success rate
100%
Winning around
15,000,000 € annually
for our clients

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References

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 All programmes support projects, not
companies
 Individual projects and projects for cooperation
 Programmes don‘t usually fund 100% of the
costs – company has to invest its own money in
the project
 Costs of the company that are not included in
the project
Project Funding

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 Public funding is for those who have already
acquired some financing
 Leverage of VC
Example: Financing of a Company
750,000€
600,000 €
50,000 € 30,000 €
VC
R&D funding
Revenues
Founders' Money

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Pre-Seed
 Exist
 Pro FIT-Frühphase (Berlin)
R&D
 IBB Pro FIT (Berlin)
 FuE Brandenburg, FuE Sachsen
 ZIM (Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology)
Staffing/Employment
 Innovationsassistent (in many Federal States available)
Overview of Some Relevant Programmes

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 Pre-seed programme for new technology
companies without access to VC financing
Pro FIT Frühphase
• Preparation for an
R&D project
• 50% grant
• 50% loan
• Max. 200k €
• Angel investment
Early Stage 1 Early Stage 2 Growth
• Company
infrastructure
• 100% loan
• Max. 500k €
• VC financing
R&D project (“Anchor” project)
• Usually Pro FIT R&D project
• Anchor project is a condition for Frühphase!

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R&D Programme
Pro FIT of Investitionsbank Berlin
R&D Programme Pro FIT

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 SME with business premises in Berlin
 Development of new technologies for a new or an
existing product
 Project based on work done by permanent
employees of the company, plus additional costs
 Pro FIT finances three stages of the innovation
process
 Research
 Development
 Setup of production, market introduction
General Conditions

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 Grants
 Subsidised loans
 Conditions
 Grants: Research, up to 400,000 EUR, up to 70 %
of the costs
 Loans: Development and market introduction, up
to 3m EUR, up to 80 %
 Lent term up to 8 years
Types of funding

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 Amount of securities for Pro FIT loans
 Depends on the amount of the loan
 Significant shareholders provide securities
 No securities
 Financial investors
 Shareholders who hold less than 10% per
person or less than 25% of the shares
altogether
 Investments reduce the need for securities
Securities

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Time Frame for Pro FIT Application
Prepare documents
Submit documents
Project outline phase
Meeting with technical
expert
Application phase
Decision grant
committee
First tranches
Apr MayOctSep Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar
First feedback
Final decision
Recommendation to
submit application

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Programme
Innovationsassistent
of Investitionsbank Berlin
Innovation Assistant

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 Hire a person who graduated from university
less than 2 years ago
 Permanent contract or min. 24 months or
permanent
 Project
 IBB gives a grant for the first-year salary
 Max. 20,000 EUR
 Max. 50%
 Do not sign contract before submitting the
application
Innovation Assistant

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Vielen Dank für Ihre
Aufmerksamkeit!
Michael Schulte
Senior Consultant
förderbar GmbH
Die Fördermittelmanufaktur
Pascalstraße 10, 10587 Berlin
Telefon: +49 30 726 13 23 26
Telefax: +49 30 726 13 23 23
Mobil: +49 172 620 58 51
michael.schulte@foerderbar.de
www.foerderbar.de

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Example: Pro FIT Project
Costs
Project-
related
expenses
Not project
related
expenses
Salaries of permanent
employees
Example costs
Capital the
company
needs until
break even
80 % of
project
20 % of
project
Pro FIT loan
Pro FIT grant
Seed investor
Financing
Revenues
Management
External costs
Market introduction