If you’re an Irish SME and you want to grow – whether that’s from nothing, ie. a start-up, or to something bigger, ie. an established business – the LEO has a grant for it. They had one for me and Posude!

Pre-Covid, I sat down with Enda Cannon, of the Roscommon LEO to find out what support they have available for Irish SMEs. One of the biggest takeaways I had afterwards was that growth grants aren’t only for start-ups, which I’d initially thought was the case.

  1. Feasibility Study Grant

This grant helps your business to test the commercial or technical feasibility and whether your product or service is sustainable in your industry.

The funding available is up to 50%-60% of the investment that you make or up to €15,000 – whichever amount is the lesser. The difference in percentage depends on which region you’re in.

You can expense your market research, consultancy costs, technical development, prototype, salary, and other miscellaneous costs with this grant!

This grant is available to both start-ups and established businesses. Check it out here and see if you’re eligible.

Watch the 70-second clip below to see Enda explain it himself!

There are two kinds of growth grants – I’ll go into detail on them below.

1. Priming Grant

Priming grants are for pre-start-ups, up to businesses that have been trading for up to 18 months. It’s essentially a kickstarter fund, which will help to get the business off the ground. This was the first one I received from the LEO and really helped me get things up and running.

You can receive up to €50,000 from your LEO. If you take it a step further, to Enterprise Ireland, you can receive up to €150,000. It’s an incredible funding opportunity!

Hear Enda explain the priming grant in his own words in the clip below.

The grant is broken down into a 50% matching grant. For example, if you spend €10,000 on a piece of equipment that’s been approved for the grant, you get €5,000 back. Salary funding is different though. You have x amount of money per role, depending on the role – the maximum of which can be €15,000. You get half of that amount on recruitment of the person, then half when they’ve been working for 6 months.

This grant is best suited to those trading or manufacturing internationally, or with the potential to do so.

To learn more about the priming grant, click here.

2. Business Expansion Grant

For a business that’s been trading longer than 18 months. It’s also suited to those trading or manufacturing internationally, or with the potential to. It’s also naturally the next step after a priming grant.

This grant is up to €80,000, or €150,000 if you take the further step to Enterprise Ireland. It covers salaries, innovation costs, marketing, consultancy, and capital items.

To learn more about the business expansion grant, click here.

Hear Enda give his insight on the expansion grant in the clip below.

Summary

Whether you’re starting your business, in business a few months, or an experienced business looking to expand, there’s a grant for you. There definitely was one for me!

Even if the priming or business expansion grants above aren’t the right fit, give your LEO a call. They will have some kind of resource to help you out. Don’t ignore a free resource!