LEO Grants for MVP Development in Ireland

If you are an early-stage founder in Ireland, your Local Enterprise Office (LEO) offers three grants that can touch an MVP build: the Feasibility Grant (up to €15,000, for testing demand and technical viability, including prototype development), the Priming Grant (a start-up grant within your first 18 months, normally up to €80,000 at 50%) and, once you are past 18 months, the Business Expansion Grant. Of these, Feasibility and Priming are the two that can realistically pay part of an MVP, and both pay at most half of the eligible cost, after you have spent it. Your LEO decides, and the details differ from county to county.

One of our clients in Ireland is using Local Enterprise Office support towards the MVP we are building with them now.

This guide covers what each LEO grant pays for, what changes by county office, and the question most guides skip: whether the money can pay an outside development team, or one in another country. For the national picture across Europe, see the MVP grants and funding hub. For Enterprise Ireland's start-up funds, see Enterprise Ireland funding for startups; for online selling, see the Trading Online Voucher page.

This is orientation, not financial or legal advice.

At a glance

The rules that apply to every LEO grant

The national eligibility criteria page sets the frame for all LEO financial supports.

• Sector priority. Priority goes to manufacturing and internationally traded services businesses that can grow into exporters and move on to Enterprise Ireland. Retail, personal services, professional services and construction are not supported, because the LEOs regard grants there as deadweight or displacement.
• Size, including linked companies. LEO financial supports are for enterprises employing up to ten people, with some exceptions. If another company owns 25% or more of yours, or you own 25% or more of another, you count part or all of its staff and figures too.
• Excluded applicants and activities. Existing Enterprise Ireland, IDA or Údarás na Gaeltachta clients, coal and steel, gambling, adult entertainment, tobacco and unauthorised cannabis products.
• Apply first, spend later. "An application must be submitted before any project expenditure is incurred or any project activity commences." You must not commit to, order, contract for or start any element of the project before you apply. This is the rule founders break most easily: signing a development contract before applying can make the whole project ineligible.

What varies by county office

There are 31 Local Enterprise Offices, one per local authority area, and you can only apply to the office covering the area where your business is established, registered and operates. The national limits above apply everywhere, but each office runs its own process, and the differences matter for an MVP timeline.

• Committee dates. LEO Kerry sends Feasibility, Priming and Business Expansion applications to an Evaluation and Approvals Committee that meets about every two months; its last 2026 closing date is 21 October 2026. LEO Offaly takes full Priming applications by the 1st of each month for the following month's meeting, with no meeting in January or August.
• First step. Offaly and Kerry ask for an expression of interest or a mentoring form first; Offaly says it replies within 10 working days. LEO Cavan asks you to discuss the project with staff before you apply, and says a decision takes about six to eight weeks once a complete application reaches the committee.
• Local priorities. Offaly's Priming page also lists "a domestically traded services business with the potential to trade internationally", wording the national page does not use.
• Claim rules. LEO Dublin City cancels a Feasibility Grant not claimed within four months of approval, requires the LEO logo and a link on the home page of any grant-aided website, and sets supplier rules covered below. LEO Fingal asks for evidence of three quotes on Feasibility claims.
• Feasibility rate by region. The national page sets 50% in the Southern and Eastern region and 60% in the BMW region, so your county decides which rate applies.

Treat any detail on this page that comes from a county office as that office's rule, and ask your own LEO for theirs.

Feasibility Grant: the closest fit for an unbuilt MVP

The Feasibility Grant is "designed to assist promoters in researching the market demand and technical viability of a new product or service before committing to full development or launch." The page says it covers "specific consultancy requirements, hiring of expertise from third level colleges private specialists, design and prototype development."

• Eligibility. Only businesses or individuals exploring the feasibility of a manufacturing or internationally traded services business. Up to 10 employees, operating commercially, established and registered in the LEO's area, with a demonstrable market.
• Eligible costs. Market research, consultancy costs, technical development, prototype and innovation, salary or own labour, research and miscellaneous costs.
• Rate. 50% of the investment or €15,000, whichever is less, in the Southern and Eastern region; 60% or €15,000 in the BMW region.
• Match funding. You pay the remaining 50% or 40% yourself.
• Claiming. Paid after the work, against invoices and proof of payment. Fingal's checklist also asks for a feasibility study report covering the objectives, progress (with photo or video evidence of prototype development where relevant), problems, and the plan to market.

For an MVP, this is the grant whose stated purpose matches the work: a scoped prototype that tests whether people want the product and whether it can be built. If your MVP is really a full launch product, the Priming Grant may fit better.

Priming Grant: for the first 18 months

The Priming Grant is "a business start-up grant, available to micro enterprises within the first 18 months of start-up", for sole traders, partnerships or limited companies.

• Eligibility. No more than 10 employees, with some exceptions your LEO adviser can explain; established, registered and operating in the LEO's area; commercial; a demonstrated market; and potential for growth and new jobs.
• Eligible costs. Capital items, salary costs, consultancy, innovation and marketing costs, and general overheads. County pages spell these out: Wicklow lists "website development, consultancy fees" under consultancy, innovation and marketing, and excludes laptops, tablets and phones from capital items.
• Rate. "50% of the investment or €80,000 whichever is the lesser" in most cases. Grants above €80,000 and up to €150,000 are the exception, for projects that "clearly demonstrate a potential to graduate to Enterprise Ireland". Employment support is capped at €15,000 per full-time job, within the 50% limit.
• Approval. Any grant of €50,000 or more, or €100,000 cumulative over three years, also needs Enterprise Ireland approval.
• Salary payments. Paid in two instalments, at the start of employment and after six months, according to the Offaly and Dublin City pages.

Business Expansion Grant: after 18 months

The Business Expansion Grant has the same cost headings and limits as Priming, for businesses past the initial 18-month start-up period. It suits a second product phase rather than a first MVP.

One point is unclear in the official text. The national Business Expansion page says a Priming Grant recipient must wait 12 months after approval or drawdown, whichever is later, but the national FAQ says 18 months after the final Priming drawdown. If you plan to use both, ask your LEO which applies.

Grow Digital Voucher and Microfinance loans

The Grow Digital Voucher pays 50% of the cost of new, off-the-shelf software subscriptions and their setup, between €500 and €5,000, for businesses that have completed the LEO's Digital for Business support in the last two years. It says plainly that "custom or bespoke software is not eligible", so it will not pay for an MVP build. It replaced the Trading Online Voucher; our Trading Online Voucher page covers both.

Microfinance Ireland lends €2,000 to €50,000 at a headline rate of 6.5% to businesses in Ireland with fewer than 10 employees and turnover under €2 million that are struggling to get finance elsewhere. LEO Kerry says clients who apply through a Local Enterprise Office get a reduced rate, set at 5.5% from January 2025. A loan is not a grant, but it can cover the half of a project that a LEO grant does not.

Other LEO supports, such as the Market Explorer Grant and GradStart, are for exporting and graduate hiring and do not pay for building a product.

Common reasons applications fail

Only reasons the official pages give:

• Spending before applying. Any commitment, order, contract or start before the application is submitted can make the project ineligible as deadweight.
• Wrong sector. Retail, personal services, professional services and construction are excluded; priority goes to manufacturing and internationally traded services.
• Deadweight or displacement. If the project "would have proceeded anyway", or would take business from local competitors, the LEO can refuse it.
• Wrong office. LEOs cannot take applications from outside their area.
• Incomplete paperwork. Wicklow's committee assesses only eligible applications whose documentation is complete; Dublin City cancels grants not claimed in time.
• Linked companies. Counting only your own company's staff and figures when a partner or linked company must be included.

Can this money pay an outside development team, or one in another country?

This is the question that decides whether a LEO grant can fund your MVP with a particular supplier. Here is what the official rules say, scheme by scheme.

Outside team in Ireland. Yes, in principle. The Feasibility Grant explicitly includes "consultancy requirements" and "hiring of expertise from third level colleges private specialists", and Priming and Business Expansion include consultancy and innovation costs. Paying a third-party developer is the kind of cost the schemes contemplate, provided it was in your approved application.

Team in another country. The national LEO pages do not say whether a supplier must be located or registered in Ireland. Some county offices set rules that may exclude a supplier outside Ireland or outside the EU:

• LEO Dublin City's claim terms, which it says apply to all its grants: "All suppliers must be VAT registered and include all VAT on invoices, bills and quotes. Their VAT number should also be on the invoice letterhead." For website design and development, "Only work carried out by VAT registered 3rd parties will be accepted." The same page lets you claim invoices in another currency if you convert them at the prevailing rate and state the source, so foreign invoices are not ruled out as such.
• A supplier outside Ireland that sells business services to an Irish company normally charges no Irish VAT: under Revenue's rules the Irish customer accounts for VAT on services received from abroad through the reverse charge. An office that requires VAT shown on the invoice may not accept such an invoice. The official guidance does not say how it treats this case.
• Fingal and Dublin City both say only quotes approved with your application can be claimed, so a supplier you add later may not count at all.

What this means for Easify. We invoice in euros from our registered entity in India. For an Irish business client the reverse charge applies, so our invoices carry no Irish VAT. Under a rule like Dublin City's, our invoices may not be accepted. Where your office's rules do not say, the official guidance does not say; ask the programme before you commit. Email your LEO's business adviser, name the supplier and its country, and ask in writing whether its invoices are eligible for the grant you are applying for.

How to plan your MVP budget around it

1. Talk to the LEO first. Before you sign anything with anyone, including us. Ask which grant fits, the next committee closing date, how many quotes they need and their supplier rules.
2. Get quotes with the same scope. Fingal asks for three verbal quotes under €5,000 and three written quotes from €5,000 to €49,999. Quotes are only comparable if they price the same thing.
3. Write the scope down. A written scope and a fixed price help many applications that ask for quotes or a project plan. Our €900 MVP Scoping Sprint produces exactly that: the question the MVP answers, the smallest feature set, what is left out, the user flows, the technical and hosting plan, and a fixed price and timeline. That is general advice: no LEO requires or accepts our document in particular, and you can take the scope to another supplier.
4. Plan for the match. At 50%, a €20,000 eligible build means €10,000 of grant at most, and you pay the full €20,000 first and claim afterwards. Feasibility tops out at €15,000 of grant.
5. Time the build to the approval. Nothing on the project starts until the application is in, and claims follow paid invoices. Build the committee date and the claim deadline into your plan.
6. Keep the paper trail. Invoices in your business's name, bank statements showing payment, and the deliverables the claim asks for.

Where Easify fits

We build MVPs for founders across Europe, typically €5,000 to €25,000 over four to twelve weeks. The people you talk to are in Budapest and engineering is in India; client products are hosted in the EU. Invoices are in euros from our registered entity in India. That last fact is the one to raise with your LEO before you apply, because some offices' supplier rules may exclude a supplier like us. If your office says yes, the Scoping Sprint gives you the scope and fixed price to attach to the application, and the €900 is credited in full against the build if you build with us.

If your LEO's rules require an Irish or VAT-registered supplier, choose one, and you are welcome to take our scope with you.

Scheme details checked against official sources on 20 October 2026. Schemes change; confirm with the programme before applying.