Sovereign Tech Fund

Funds development and maintenance of foundational open source infrastructure where the described work costs more than EUR 50,000, applied for continuously via an application platform.

What you get

from €50,000Cash

“The cost of the work described in the application must exceed EUR 50,000 (current minimum).”

Time to decisionwithin 70 days

Strings attachedFOSS licensing is mandatory: "all code and documentation to be supported must be licensed such that it may be freely reusable, changeable, and redistributable. OSI-approved or FSF Free/Libre licenses are acceptable for code. Creative-Commons-like licenses for documentation may not include non-commercial or 'no derivative' clauses." No double public funding: "Projects are not eligible to receive financing or work commissions from the Sovereign Tech Fund if other public entities are already making or have made grants or investments for the same proposed activities."

Can you apply

VC backingnot stated

Referral or partnerNot required

Registered companynot stated

Individualsnot stated

Open sourceProject must be open source

CountriesOpen worldwide

Before you applyApplications must be submitted through the online portal, in German or English. Proposed activities must relate to developing or maintaining open digital base technologies. Applicants must be a recognised part of the technology's community or hold the endorsement of that community or the maintainer.

The activities listed in the application must be related to developing or maintaining open digital base technologies. Development is our primary focus, although security audits, conference attendance, and other community-based events can be included in the application should they be necessary. The cost of the work described in the application must exceed EUR 50,000 (current minimum). We do not finance the development of prototypes. We are currently not looking for user-facing applications, such as messaging apps or file storage services.

When

Always open, applications reviewed on a rolling basis.

What Sovereign Tech Agency funds

German public investor in open digital base technologies: the libraries, package managers, protocol implementations, encryption tooling and developer infrastructure other software depends on. Funds maintenance, security and sustainability work in the public interest, explicitly not prototypes or user-facing apps.

Everything Sovereign Tech Agency funds →

Details

Applications go through the online platform in German or English with no published rounds. Projects are scored on prevalence, relevance, vulnerability, public interest, activities and expertise. Prototypes and user-facing applications such as messaging apps or file storage services are out of scope. No maximum is published. Review takes up to 10 weeks, then scoping up to 8 weeks, then legal and contracting up to 8 weeks, with roughly 6 months from submission to a potential contract start.

Apply on Sovereign Tech Agency