Grants and cost-share
Money you do not pay back. BBSDP, SPII, THRIP, the Manufacturing Support Programme, EMIA, TIA seed calls, SEDFA vouchers and Asset Assist.
Get the yams
The funding you already qualify for, without giving up equity.
There is real money in the South African system for founders: dtic cost-share, SEDFA grants, SARS incentives, corporate B-BBEE budgets, national awards. Most of it goes unclaimed because the rules are scattered across thirty websites and written for officials, not founders.
Answer a short questionnaire. Get the programmes you qualify for, what each is worth, what it demands, and when it closes. Then download the whole shortlist as a Markdown file and hand it to your AI.
- Programmes tracked
- 36
- Questions to answer
- 21
- Cost
- Free
What this is
A matching tool built on one carefully compiled research document, covering the five categories of non-dilutive support available to a South African business. Nothing here is scraped, guessed or generated: every row carries its source and the date it was last verified.
Tax incentives
Money you keep by paying less tax. Small Business Corporation rates, turnover tax, the section 11D R&D deduction, learnership allowances and the Employment Tax Incentive.
B-BBEE mechanisms
Private-sector money and contracts, unlocked by ownership. Corporate enterprise and supplier development budgets, the YES Programme, and the free affidavit that is the key to both.
Awards and competitions
Prize money via a pitch. SAB Foundation, EDHE Absa InnoVarsity, Hult Prize and the Anzisha Prize, with the age bands and windows that decide whether you can enter at all.
Loans and blended finance
Shown separately and clearly marked, because a loan is a liability and equity is permanent. NEF funds, IDC Gro-e Youth, the SEDFA Women's Entrepreneurship Fund.
What it will not do
It will not apply for you, and it is not advice. Amounts and windows move. Every result tells you what still has to be confirmed with the administering body, rather than pretending to certainty it does not have.
The plan
Founders lose funding to sequencing, not eligibility. Costs spent before approval usually stop qualifying; windows close in February and December; the free document that unlocks half the list takes an afternoon nobody books. This is the order that works.
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1
Profile the business honestly
Ownership, turnover, assets, headcount, stage and what the money is for. 21 questions, about four minutes. "Not sure" is a valid answer and is treated as something to confirm, never as a no.
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2
Match against every programme
Each programme's criteria are checked one at a time. You get three groups: what you look eligible for, what is worth checking and exactly which fact is missing, and what is ruled out and why.
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3
Fix the free wins first
A B-BBEE affidavit costs nothing and unlocks SEDFA support, corporate ESD budgets and most tender preferences. The Employment Tax Incentive cuts your PAYE bill from the first payroll run with no application at all. Do these before you write a single proposal.
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4
Apply before you spend
Across most dtic instruments, money spent before the application is submitted or approved stops qualifying. Work the calendar backwards from each window, and keep a note of which costs sit under which application: most instruments refuse to fund a cost already claimed elsewhere.
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5
Take the file to your AI
Download the shortlist as Markdown. It carries your profile, the full criteria for every match, the open questions, the judgement calls and the sources, so an assistant can rank the list, draft eligibility sections and build your application calendar without inventing the parts it was not given.
Inside the workspace
Finding the funding is half of it. The other half is being ready to apply when you do. Sign in and the workspace holds the documents, the setup steps and the paperwork you will be asked for.
Your data room
Every document South African funders, banks and investors ask for, with what each one is, how to get it and when it expires. Upload them once, download the lot as a zip whenever somebody asks.
Get set up
Three questions: do you have a registered company, a business bank account and a domain? Answer no to any of them and you get a step-by-step guide with the real costs, covering CIPC, Bank Zero and buying a domain.
I need a website
A structured brief covering what the site is for, who it talks to and what it must do. It goes to the build service in a format they can work from, and you keep a copy as Markdown.
Template library
Contracts, agreements and statutory registers drafted against South African law: NDAs, employment contracts, IP assignments, a founders agreement, a POPIA privacy policy and the registers the Companies Act requires.
Find your funding
Nothing here is collected for analytics. Every question exists because at least one programme's eligibility turns on it, and each one tells you which. Your answers stay in this browser unless you sign in to save them.