EXIST funding consulting: your start-up grant.
EXIST supports founders coming out of universities and research institutions, from a living stipend for an early team to multi-phase funding for research-heavy startups. We help you scope and apply.
Funding for university-based founders
EXIST is a BMWE programme that helps founders from universities and research turn an idea into a company. The EXIST-Gründungsstipendium covers a living stipend, coaching and material costs for an early founding team.
For research-intensive ventures, EXIST-Forschungstransfer funds the development and spin-out in two phases. Applications run through your university’s start-up support. We help scope the project and build the case. See who qualifies further down. Both lines are explained in the EXIST guide.
Two EXIST routes for founders
Where you are decides the track. An early idea fits the Gründungsstipendium; a research-heavy spin-out fits Forschungstransfer, which runs in two phases.
Gründungsstipendium
Living stipend, materials and coaching for a founding team turning a knowledge-based idea into a viable business.
Develop the basis
Funds a research team to mature the technical foundations and prepare the spin-off from the institution.
Build the company
Supports the newly founded company through further development and the first steps to market.
The Gründungsstipendium, in numbers
A non-repayable grant covering your living costs plus materials and coaching, for up to a year. One condition is non-negotiable: the link to a university.
You apply together with a German university or research institution, with a professor as mentor. The hard gate, we help find the anchor if you don't have one.
A technology-oriented or knowledge-based venture that builds on scientific insight.
Students (past half their studies), graduates and ex-researchers (up to five years out); a team may not consist mainly of students.
Filed via Projektträger Jülich before the project begins; paid side jobs of more than 20 hours a month rule out the funding.
Fixed monthly stipend per founder: PhD €3,000 · graduate €2,500 · vocational qualification €2,000 (one person per team) · student €1,000, plus €150/child. Materials up to €10,000 (single) / €30,000 (team) and coaching up to €5,000 are added on top.
EXIST-Forschungstransfer, in two phases
A separate line for research-intensive, technically demanding high-tech projects with long development times. It runs in two phases, from the lab to a funded young company.
€250k + team
team of up to 4 · up to 18 months
Funds personnel for up to four people plus material costs of usually up to €250,000 (up to 36 months for particularly demanding projects) to mature the technology and prepare the spin-off. Applied for through the research institution.
up to €180k
grant · up to 75% · up to 18 months
A grant of up to €180,000 towards further development and market preparation once the company is formed, applied for by the newly founded company. It covers at most 75% of the costs; your company contributes own funds at a ratio of 1:3, so €60,000 for a €180,000 grant.
A non-repayable grant. Phase I is applied for by the university or research institution before founding, Phase II by the incorporated company; Phase I is assessed at three cut-offs a year (31 March, 31 August, 30 November).
For academic founders, before founding
EXIST is built around the moment before the company exists, and it always runs through an academic host. The full EXIST requirements are in the guide.
Students past the halfway mark, plus graduates and former researchers up to five years out, and scientists from universities and research institutions.
You apply through the institution, which administers the funds and gives you a workplace, infrastructure and a mentor.
The company must not be founded when you apply for the Gründungsstipendium or Forschungstransfer Phase I. Apply before you start.
A dedicated, low-threshold line for women founders in the pre-foundation phase, with a path onward to the main lines.
Rolling for the stipend, fixed cut-offs for transfer
Run by Projektträger Jülich via the easy-Online portal, co-financed by the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+).
Apply any time
No deadline, submitted through your university whenever the idea is ready.
31 Mar · 31 Aug · 30 Nov
Continuous submission, assessed at three annual cut-offs.
The stipend is taxable
Holders pay their own tax and social contributions; it is living-cost financing, not a percentage grant.
See if your venture qualifies for EXIST
Tell us about your project. A funding advisor reviews your case by hand, then either comes back with feedback or a few follow-up questions. No obligation.
- Whether EXIST is the right fit
- A first read on the funding amount
- What to prepare before you apply
From first call to funding
Four steps. You stay focused on the work; we handle the funding end to end, on a fee agreed in advance.
Eligibility check
We clarify whether the EXIST founder stipend or EXIST research transfer fits, check your link to a university and your mentor, and give you a realistic funding figure.
Application
With you and your university's start-up service we sharpen the idea paper, work plan and expenditure plan: innovation core, milestones and budget.
Submission & review
Your university submits the application via easy-Online to Projektträger Jülich; we prepare the documents with you and handle every query through to the funding decision.
Funding
During the funding we support the business plan, the Phase II application and follow-on financing; the proof of use for the stipend and Phase I is prepared by your university as the grant recipient.
EXIST in practice
Practical examples based on real projects we have taken through EXIST, from first scoping to the funding decision. Anonymised, figures rounded.
How a university founder team secured the EXIST founder stipend to turn a research-based software idea…
Read the story
How a newly formed deep-tech spin-off secured EXIST funding for the step from a validated research…
Read the story
How a deep-tech university spin-off secured EXIST research-transfer funding for the founder team and…
Read the storyIndustries we fund
We've secured German and EU funding across the innovation economy. If you're doing genuine development, your field almost certainly fits.
Why BeFunded exists
Two founders, one mission: help every innovator in Europe fund what they build.
Our mission
To make public funding genuinely accessible to everyone building something new in Europe. Across research and development, health, agriculture, energy and far beyond, billions are set aside each year to back innovation, yet too much of it never reaches the teams doing the actual work. We want to change that, so that funding lands where it belongs and keeps innovation in Europe moving forward.
From founder to founder: we have been on the client side ourselves, navigating Europe’s funding programmes first-hand, and we learned how much complexity, paperwork and uncertainty stands between a good project and the money meant to support it.
EXIST questions, answered
The basics on tracks, who qualifies and how to apply.
EXIST funding goes to students, graduates and researchers founding a company out of a university or research institution. A link to a participating institution is required.
The EXIST-Gründungsstipendium covers a monthly founder stipend plus coaching and material costs. EXIST-Forschungstransfer additionally funds research and development for academic spin-outs.
No, the EXIST grant is a non-repayable scholarship, not a loan. You pay nothing back and you give up no equity in your company.
You apply for the EXIST-Gründungsstipendium together with your university's start-up or transfer office. BeFunded helps you scope the project and prepare a convincing application.
For EXIST consultancy with BeFunded, our fee is a fixed share plus a success component, both agreed in advance. So you know before the start what the consultancy costs.
Ask us anything
Tell us about your project and we'll assess your case by hand. No prep, no obligation. Prefer to talk?