Startup Funding in Austria: What Can Pay for Your MVP

An early-stage founder in Austria has four sources of public money to know about: the federal promotional bank aws (Austria Wirtschaftsservice), with its Preseed and Seedfinancing grants; the research agency FFG, with the Basisprogramm, the Kleinprojekt and the Forschungsprämie tax premium; regional agencies such as the Vienna Business Agency and SFG in Styria; and aws loan guarantees. The ones that can realistically fund building a first product are aws Preseed (Innovative Solutions if your idea has a social or ecological impact, Deep Tech if it rests on a real scientific challenge), the FFG Kleinprojekt for genuine experimental development, and in Vienna the Innovation programme. None of them pays for a routine website or app, and several expect most of the development to happen inside your own company in Austria.

This page is orientation, not financial or legal advice. For what building from Austria involves beyond funding (prices, Impressum duties, VAT), read MVP development in Austria. For other countries, start at the MVP grants and funding hub for Europe.

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

At a glance

aws Preseed and Seedfinancing

aws runs one programme, Preseed and Seedfinancing, with two lines: Deep Tech, and Innovative Solutions for everything that is not deep tech. Each line has a Preseed module for the first proof of concept and a Seedfinancing module for the step towards market launch. The legal basis is one programme document; only its German version is binding.

One timing point: that document says funding decisions on its basis can be made until 31 December 2026. Applications are still listed as ongoing, but one submitted today may be decided under a successor document, which we did not find on the pages we checked. Ask aws which rules will apply.

aws Preseed Innovative Solutions

This is the line most MVP founders should read first. According to the programme page, it is a non-repayable grant of up to 80% of eligible costs, at most €89,000, rising to 90% and €100,000 when women who hold more than 25% of the shares are part of the project. The project runs for at most one year, and payment comes in instalments tied to milestones. aws adds non-cash consulting and coaching.

Eligibility. Founding teams before incorporation, or companies registered no more than six months earlier, that are micro or small enterprises. The project must be in Austria, highly innovative, scalable, and bring social or ecological added value in one of six areas: diversity and inclusion; environment, resources and climate; health and care; education; mobility and transport; or urban development, rural living and housing. Deep tech projects are excluded from this line.

Eligible costs. Personnel, third-party services such as IT services and project-specific consulting, material costs, and other direct project costs. Not eligible: costs before the application date or contractual start, routine or incremental changes, VAT you can reclaim, and invoices under €50.

Match funding. At least 10% of total costs must come from the (future) shareholders as cash paid into the project account, and non-cash contributions are not recognised (programme document, section 3.2.2). With the gender bonus, 5%.

Process and odds. Apply in the aws Fördermanager with a business plan of about 25 pages, a pitch deck, a work-package and cost plan, ID and CVs. A jury decides, usually quarterly. The page gives a success rate of about 10%.

aws Seedfinancing Innovative Solutions

For the next stage: established micro and small companies up to five years after incorporation, with feasibility already verified and first prototypes built. Up to 80% of eligible costs, at most €356,000, or 90% and €400,000 with the gender bonus, over up to two years, with the same impact areas and cost rules. If you have no product yet, this is not your starting point.

aws Preseed Deep Tech

The Deep Tech Preseed module pays up to 80% of eligible costs, at most €267,000, or 90% and €300,000 with the gender bonus, for one to two years. It is for natural persons and micro-enterprises before founding or up to six months after registration, with a significant scientific challenge and financing rounds of at least €5 million realistic within a few years. Products that merely reflect the latest technology are excluded. Submission is ongoing and the page reports a 25% success rate.

aws Seedfinancing Deep Tech

The Deep Tech Seedfinancing module goes up to €889,000, or €1,000,000 with the gender bonus, for companies under 50 employees applying within 54 months of start-up. Unlike the other modules, it is repayable interest-free if the company makes a profit or is sold. It assumes the technology is already proven.

FFG programmes

The FFG is Austria's research funding agency. Its programmes fund research and development, not general company costs, which its start-up FAQ says in so many words.

Kleinprojekt

The Kleinprojekt 2026 call is open from 1 January to 31 December 2026 for SMEs and companies being founded. Project costs can be up to €150,000 and the grant up to €88,500. The Kleinprojekt guide (version 4.1, valid from 1 October 2025) sets the rate at 45% for small companies, 60% with a research cooperation, and 35% or 50% for medium-sized companies, for projects of up to 18 months. The applicant must have a site or branch in Austria when the money is paid.

It funds experimental development, including prototypes and testing of new digital products, but not routine changes to existing products. Costs count only after submission and the contractual project start. Reviewers mark down, among other things: an "engineering project with predictable success", a "trivial problem", "outsourced development risk", and a project "carried out mainly by external partners", unless that is a meaningful scientific cooperation. Start-ups with their own development work are marked up.

Basisprogramm and Projekt.Start

The Basisprogramm 2026 takes applications at any time during 2026, with decisions in seven meetings a year. It combines a grant and a loan, usually covering 50% of project costs, and up to 70% for start-ups, defined in the FFG FAQ as companies founded no more than five years before the project starts. The Basisprogramm call guide also lists Projekt.Start: up to €6,000, at most 60%, over six months, to assess the potential of a planned in-house R&D project.

Innovationsscheck and Impact Innovation

The Innovationsscheck is listed as open, with a 2026 submission window of 1 January to 2 November 2026, for services worth up to €10,000. It pays for work by universities, universities of applied sciences and non-university research institutions, not commercial agencies. Impact Innovation is closed: the FFG says the 2026 call closed on 12 March 2026 and the budget is used up.

Forschungsprämie

The Forschungsprämie is a tax premium of 14% of a year's research expenditure, open to large companies, SMEs, start-ups and individual researchers. The FFG issues an opinion after the financial year and the tax office decides, so it reimburses research already paid for rather than funding a build up front.

AustrianStartups

AustrianStartups describes itself as "an independent non-profit platform for innovative entrepreneurship in Austria", open to startups, changemakers, investors and ecosystem shapers. Its site lists a think tank (including a Startup Monitor), programmes, events, investor office hours and memberships. We found nothing on its site offering grants: it is useful for introductions, not as a source of money.

Regional programmes

Vienna Business Agency: Innovation

The Innovation programme of the Wirtschaftsagentur Wien funds new or significantly improved products, services and processes by existing SMEs and companies being founded. Small companies get up to 45%, medium-sized up to 35%, with a maximum of €300,000 and a minimum project size of €30,000, as a non-repayable grant. The programme document adds that founders planning a site in Vienna must prove the company was founded there within six months of approval, that projects last up to two years, and that you must apply before any order, delivery, invoice or payment linked to the project. Eligible costs include personnel and external services for consulting and development work. Marketing and running costs are not eligible. The web page lists 31 December 2026 as the next cut-off.

Its Digitalisation programme is not for a new product: it is for SMEs active in Vienna for at least a year, funds digitalisation of internal processes, and excludes websites and web shops as a stand-alone measure.

Styria: SFG

SFG's Start!Klar plus pays 80% of costs, up to €100,000, for small innovative companies up to five years old that are preparing a first financing round. It is aimed at companies "whose development of the prototype or MVP is largely complete", and the 2026 cut-offs were 31 March and 30 September, so there is no 2026 window left. The smaller Start!Klar pays half of external consulting costs, up to €5,000 per application.

Upper Austria: tech2b

tech2b is the Upper Austrian start-up incubator in Linz, with programmes from the idea stage through to building an MVP and scaling. Its home page does not state funding amounts, so we have not listed any; ask tech2b directly what financial support comes with its programmes.

aws guarantees

If you borrow for the build, aws can guarantee up to 80% of a loan of up to €2.5 million for SMEs in their first six years, covering investment and working-capital loans. The page does not say whether software development counts or how to apply, so ask aws and your bank together.

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

The answer differs by scheme. The recurring theme in Austria is not a ban on foreign suppliers but a preference for value creation in Austria.

aws Preseed and Seedfinancing (both lines). Third-party costs are eligible: the Innovative Solutions FAQ says services purchased from third parties, "e.g., IT development", are fully eligible, and the Deep Tech pages list IT services. But the programme document says for the Preseed modules that the company "must be planned in Austria and the value creation must be predominantly in Austria", and for Seedfinancing that aid is conditional on a site in Austria and generating the majority of value added there. The aws guideline (section 6.7.4) also requires several comparison quotes for orders where the value makes that appropriate. None of these documents says where a supplier may be based. A product built mostly by a team outside Austria may sit badly with the value-creation rule. The official guidance does not say; ask the programme before you commit: for Innovative Solutions, innovativesolutions@aws.at or +43 1 501 75-880; for Deep Tech, the aws Deep Technologies team listed on the programme page.

FFG Kleinprojekt and Basisprogramm. The FFG cost guide (version 3.2) counts contracts for work and services as third-party costs, requires comparative offers above €100,000, and says third-party costs may be restricted by each programme's guide. The Kleinprojekt guide says third-party costs "should not exceed 50%" of total costs, and its criteria mark down projects carried out mainly by external partners and projects with outsourced development risk. It also marks down a project with "insufficient value added in Austria". Neither guide says where a supplier may be based: the official guidance does not say; ask the FFG's Basisprogramme team (contacts on the call page) before you commit.

Forschungsprämie. This one is explicit. Under section 108c of the Income Tax Act, in-house research must take place in a domestic business or permanent establishment, and commissioned research counts only if the contractor's seat is in an EU or EEA state, up to €1,000,000 of costs per financial year. The Austrian business service portal adds that the contractor must be a company or institution engaged in such research, and that you must notify the contractor by the end of your financial year. A supplier invoicing from outside the EU and EEA does not qualify.

FFG Innovationsscheck. Only research institutions can provide the service, so no commercial agency, Austrian or foreign, can be paid with it.

Vienna Innovation. External development work is an eligible cost, but the programme document says projects must be carried out "im Wesentlichen mit eigenem Entwicklungsaufwand in der Wiener Betriebsstätte", essentially with your own development effort at your Vienna site; the official English version says "a significant share of development work carried out at the Viennese establishment". Outside development can support the project; it cannot be the project. The document does not mention supplier location; ask foerderungen@wirtschaftsagentur.at before you commit.

SFG Start!Klar plus. Third-party services are eligible, but the programme is for companies "that develop and implement the innovation themselves", with the MVP already largely done. The page does not mention supplier location; ask SFG.

Easify invoices in euros from its registered entity in India, so we are outside Austria, outside the EU and outside the EEA. That rules us out for the commissioned-research part of the Forschungsprämie, and for aws, FFG and Vienna grants it means you should get the programme's view in writing before counting our invoices as eligible costs.

How to plan your MVP budget around it

1. Apply before you spend. aws excludes costs before the application date or contractual start, the FFG Kleinprojekt only recognises costs after submission and the project start, Vienna requires the application before any order or invoice, and SFG requires the application before the project begins. A signed development contract dated before your application can make that cost ineligible.
2. Check the calendar. aws decides roughly quarterly and its current programme document allows decisions until 31 December 2026; Vienna's next cut-off is 31 December 2026; the FFG decides Basisprogramm projects in seven meetings a year. Plan the build to start after a decision.
3. Plan your own share in cash. aws requires at least 10% (5% with the gender bonus) from shareholders, paid into the project account. FFG and Vienna grants cover 35% to 60%, so most of the cost is still yours.
4. Get comparable quotes. The aws guideline asks for several quotes where the order size justifies it, the FFG requires comparative offers above €100,000, and Vienna's Digitalisation programme asks for quotes on items over €10,000. A written scope lets two suppliers quote the same thing.
5. Write the scope down. Applications ask for work packages, a cost plan and a timeline. Our MVP Scoping Sprint, €900 and about two weeks, produces a written scope and a fixed price for the build, credited in full against the build if you build with us. As general advice, a document like that helps with any application that wants a project plan or quotes; no Austrian programme requires or endorses ours specifically.

Where Easify fits, and where it may not

We typically build MVPs for €5,000 to €25,000 over four to twelve weeks. We are a Budapest team; engineering is in India, and our invoices come in euros from our registered entity in India. We deploy client products to EU data-centre regions, but that does not mean data never leaves the EU, since our engineers work from India.

That makes us a sensible fit when the build is funded from your own money, an angel, or a grant whose rules you have confirmed allow a supplier like us. It makes us a poor fit where a programme expects the work in Austria, where most development must be your own effort, or for the Forschungsprämie on commissioned research. There, an Austrian or EU team may be the safer choice for that budget line.

We do not write funding applications. Already have a prototype? Start with the €99 Prototype Check. For price benchmarks, see how much an MVP costs in Europe, and for comparing suppliers, how to choose an MVP development agency.

For EU-level options, see EU funding for start-ups; for neighbours, see start-up grants in Germany or start-up funding in Hungary.

If you have your funding route mapped out, send us what you want to test, who it is for and when the money lands, or book the Scoping Sprint, and we reply within one business day.