Funding that takes no equity
A checked list of non-dilutive funding for AI and tech builders, with the eligibility gates spelled out: what it costs you, who can apply, and from where.
53 programmes
A three-month San Francisco residency with a $10,000 equity-free grant, housing and workspace for individuals exploring what to build; fellows can later pitch for up to $250,000 in investment.
$1,000 a month per chapter, no strings attached and no ownership claimed, open to individuals, groups and organizations through a single shared application form.
$100 to $1,000 for a solo builder's bill of materials, open to anyone of any age anywhere in the world, roughly ten days from application to funded.
Free 30-day residential deep-tech residency in Bengaluru for 14 builders. Housing, meals, workspace, a hardware lab, over $30,000 in AI and cloud credits per person and a need-based ₹20,000 stipend. No fee and no equity.
Free compute on fal for researchers and developers working on open source AI projects. No published amount, no application form: you email grants@fal.ai with the project.
Cash grants, compute credits and follow-on support for existing Forge builders with a specific immediate use. No award amount is published and Forge takes no equity.
Free 22-day residency in Mandrem, Goa for 12 to 14 technical founders, with housing, meals, mentors, compute support and Demo Day covered. Applications close September 15, 2026.
Non-dilutive grants for open source maintainers, researchers and public-goods builders working on open AGI, with rolling applications and no fixed deadline.
A stipend covering living expenses for 6 to 12 months so an open source maintainer can work full time on their project; no equity, no company required, work from anywhere.
Fast retroactive grants of 1-5 ETH for projects already live on Base; the Base team finds recipients through its own discovery process and community nominations rather than an application form.
A weekly 2 ETH pool distributed to active Base builders based on what they actually shipped that week, with no proposal and no minimum project size.
Six months inside the SPC community to ideate and validate, with no cost and no equity taken; rolling admission.
$15,000 in free Devin credits on approval, plus up to $50,000 in matching credits on the next $100,000 of usage.
Four-month accelerator providing $50,000, technical workshops and mentorship for early-stage teams building interoperable financial services for underserved communities. The 2026 application window is closed.
A one-year $24,000 stipend supplement for enrolled PhD students doing open-access academic research on designated Ethereum-relevant topics.
Open applications for up to $10,000 for new and established projects, community initiatives, developers and other early work building on Avalanche.
Grants awarded against ESP Wishlist items, which define high-level goals and stay open rather than running to a deadline. No Wishlist items were live at the time of capture.
Forward-looking grants for already-launched Superchain apps: you submit a growth plan with KPIs and a requested allocation, reviewed by the Grants Council in a dated season window.
$10,000 in Cloudflare credits for one year for bootstrapped, self-funded or early-stage technology startups with less than $1 million raised.
Active Ethereum L1 core protocol contributors receive a continuously streamed share of donated funds, weighted by how long they have been contributing; there is no application, an existing member nominates you by pull request.
Subsidised GPU hours for students with AI/ML projects and an aligned academic profile, with no company or revenue requirement.
Free open-source and proprietary AI model API keys for builders in India, decided in under 48 hours, with no published credit value.
Free membership program for AI startups giving free cloud credits from NVIDIA and partners plus preferred hardware and software pricing; NVIDIA publishes no credit amount.
Up to $30,000 for startups and established Avalanche projects selected through monthly committee nominations and votes; there is no public application.
Small grants for grassroots Ethereum initiatives in the run-up to Devcon 8: meetups, bootcamps, hackathons, roundtables and academic collaborations.
Grants for student groups, professors and academic institutions building Ethereum engagement ahead of Devcon 8. No funding amount is published for this RFP item.
Late-stage NIH funding of up to $4,191,495 over up to 3 years, available only to small businesses that already hold an NIH SBIR/STTR Phase II or Phase IIB award.
NIH development award with a $2,153,927 budget guideline over 1 to 3 years, continuing R&D started under Phase I.
Prototype development contract of up to $2.1 million over up to 24 months, requiring a Department of the Air Force technical point of contact and end user.
Combined Phase I and Phase II NSF award of up to $1,555,555, requiring a Project Pitch invitation and a heavier PI time commitment than the standard Phase I route.
Follow-on NSF award of up to $1,250,000 over a typical 24 months, open only to companies that already hold an NSF SBIR/STTR Phase I award.
NIH feasibility award with a $323,090 budget guideline over 6 months to 2 years, for U.S. small business concerns working on biomedical and health technologies.
Feasibility study contract of up to $323,000 over up to six months, awarded to U.S. small businesses against published Department of the Air Force topics.
Non-dilutive NSF R&D grant of up to $305,000 for a 6-18 month feasibility project, open only to U.S. small businesses that first pass NSF's Project Pitch screen.
Up to Rs 50 lakh grant-in-aid over 18 months for an Indian biotech company or LLP to take an idea to proof of concept, released in three to four milestone instalments.
Up to Rs 40 lakh prototype grant over a maximum 15 months for deep-tech projects with measurable TRL milestones, applied for at an Advance PRAYAS Centre.
Up to Rs 20 lakh prototype grant over a maximum 15 months, open to an individual innovator with no company, applied for at a PRAYAS Centre; pure software, app and service projects are excluded.
$1,000 growing to $5,000 in fal credits for startups in Europe and Asia with real traction or institutional funding, plus perks from fal's partners.
$25 to $250 in fal credits for solo developers and small teams in Europe and Asia shipping a generative media app. Applications go through an approved fal partner.
Subsidised GPU hours from 14 empanelled cloud providers for DPIIT-recognised startups and MSMEs with AI/ML experience and revenue or funding traction.
Growth-stage bridge of $3-15 million in SBIR/STTR funding for current or recent Phase II awardees, conditional on matching $30 million or more in government and private investment.
Grants of up to EUR 4 million against pre-defined EIC Challenge topics; unlike Pathfinder Open, single applicants are permitted.
Grants of up to EUR 4 million for early-stage, high-risk technology research, requiring a consortium of at least three independent legal entities; the 2026 round has closed.
Grants of up to EUR 2.5 million to validate technology and build business readiness, open only to projects building on results from an eligible prior EU-funded project.
Lump sum grant below EUR 2.5 million for a single startup or SME to complete TRL 6-8 innovation activities within 24 months, with no equity taken.
Tactical funding increase of $375,000-$1.7 million for current or recent Phase II awardees with shorter transition timelines, requiring 1:1 or 4:1 cost sharing.
Collaborative projects of £500,000 to £750,000 total eligible costs over 6 to 12 months to build frontier AI benchmarking datasets; the 2026 round has closed.
SME-led frontier AI projects of £150,000 to £250,000 total eligible costs over 3 to 6 months; the Phase 1 round has closed.
Short discovery projects of £25,000 to £50,000 total eligible costs to advance frontier AI, machine learning and foundation models in the UK; the 2026 round has closed.
Subsidised GPU hours for early stage startups that lack DPIIT recognition or revenue traction, gated on four years of AI/ML experience plus a letter from the IndiaAI CEO or a Joint Secretary rank officer.