Start Up Business Grants in Australia

Australia has a strong commitment to supporting small businesses, with many government and private sector startup business grants available to assist you with funding, advice and support. We’ve previously rounded up some of the top small business grants for women-owned businesses but in this article, we’ll share the ways you can stay on top of things yourself. 

Look for national-level startup business grants by checking the Australian Government’s business.gov.au hub

For a one-stop shop, business.gov.au is a whole-of-government website that acts as a single point of information for Australian businesses. It’s been active and regularly updated for 20 years and so is a valuable resource for any small business owners who are interested in scaling up their business or looking for funding to start a business.

There are 2 hubs that you should bookmark:

1. The Grants & Programs Finder is where you can search for the grant or program that best suits your industry, business structure, support type and business type. 
2. GrantConnect is the centralised location for Australian Government grants. You can find current Grant Opportunities, organised by sector, as well as be notified of future Forecast Opportunities.

Through these hubs, you will locate nationally-available grants created by the Federal Government like the Boosting Female Founders Initiative and Entrepreneurs’ Programme.

There are also public-private or private funds and programs to keep an eye out for. For example, the Australian Business Growth Fund is a public-private partnership between the Federal Government and 6 leading banks with an initial capital of $450 million to fund small businesses. Each investment is an injection of $5-15 million of capital into a growth-ready business for a minority stake of up to 49%, with an exit plan set from day one. 

Bookmark your State or Territory’s grants and funding page

Each state government also has its own department or office dedicated to supporting business, including startups, sole traders and small not-for-profit organisations. We have compiled a list of state government websites and the pages directly related to startup grants for women in all 7 states and territories for you! 

For those in the Premier State

NSW Government Grants and Funding

For those in the Garden State

Business Victoria Grants & Programs

For those in the Sunshine State

Advance Queensland Programs

For those in SA

SA’s Office for Small and Family Business’ Grant Programs

For those in Van Diemen’s Land

Business Tasmania Funding and Support

For those in the Capital

ACT Government Grants

For those in WA

WA’s Small Business Development Corporation

For those in the Top End

NT Government Business Grants and Funding

Look for industry-specific grants and funding

There are some funds and startup grants for women that are designed for specific industries, offered by both the public and private sector. For example, earlier in 2023, the Australian Government announced $15.9m in new grants for 17 projects in the latest round of Women in STEM and Entrepreneurship (WiSE) grants. This was the 4th round of funding with the previous 3 rounds of the WiSE program providing $10 million for 54 projects to boost the participation of women and girls in STEM across Australia. If you run a startup in STEM, definitely check in about the WiSE program for future rounds. 

Here are some other industry-specific grants we’ve discovered that may be of interest:

• AgriFutures Australia’s Rural Women’s Acceleration Grant — grants of up to $7,000 for 7 Australian rural women per year to foster their professional growth in emerging industries.
• Creative Victoria’s Creative Enterprises Program — grants of minimum $100,000 over 4 years to non-government organisations to help deliver on Victoria’s Creative State 2025 priorities.
• Biomedical Translation Fund — venture capital funding for early-stage biomedical companies to develop and commercialise their biomedical discoveries and technologies. Note that venture capital funding for business can involve giving up an equity stake.

Check with business accelerators and incubators

Business accelerators are focused on helping startups rapidly grow and scale their businesses, while incubators are focused on providing ongoing support to startups over a longer period of time. 

Many business accelerators and incubators also offer funding for business, in addition to other resources and support like mentorship and access to networks.

We’ve curated a list of accelerators and incubators that are industry-specific as well as open to all startups. 

• Global Sisters accelerates women from the earliest stage of ideation and building foundational business knowledge through to launching, gaining momentum and growing their businesses. Through a roadmap of programs, Global Sisters offer 3 stages of support over a 3+ year roadmap, making their offerings especially ideal for those who have just discovered self-employment as a viable option and are beginning their entrepreneurial journey.
• SBE Australia accelerates women-led businesses by delivering a number of programs that cater to different stages of business, including:
  • SBE Explore for the very early stages of ideation and validation
  • SBE Evolve for businesses looking to scale
  • SBE Elevate to support women-led scale-up businesses that are post-MVP
  • SBE Global for high-growth companies looking to scale internationally or into new international markets in the next 6-18 months.
• EnergyLab’s Climate Solutions Accelerator invests in startups that deploy solutions to mitigate climate change at scale. The program consists of 5 modules over 5 months and the amounts range from $75,000 to $100,000 investment at your latest post-money valuation (your approximate market value after any outside financing is accounted for). 
• MedTech Actuator aggressively funds and accelerates MedTech, HealthTech and BioTech ventures across Asia Pacific, with initial investments of up to $200,000, plus support in accelerating from Seed stage to Series A in 15 months.
• Startmate Accelerator boosts early-stage and high-growth potential startups across all industries in Australia and New Zealand with a 12-week experience. The Accelerator runs twice a year and invests $120k at a $1.5mn valuation for startups that haven’t raised capital and $120,000 at your latest valuation if you’ve already raised capital. You’ll recognise names amongst their alumni like Heaps Normal and AirRobe.
• H2 Ventures is a fintech accelerator for startups working on innovative solutions in Fintech, Data and AI. They invest on a cohort basis in 8-16 startups at a time and all businesses participate in their 6-month in-house pre-seed program. We weren’t able to find out how much they typically invest though!
  

Other funding options outside of startup business grants 

In a previous blog, “How To Get Funding For Your Business”, we took you through forms of non-dilutive and dilutive funding to start a business, with pros and cons of each funding option and who each funding option is best for. You can learn all about small business loans, rewards-based and equity-based crowdfunding, venture capital funding and angel investment in that article. 

At Lift Women, we are passionate about inspiring and empowering female entrepreneurs to achieve their business dreams — and part of this is also funding them ourselves! For 2 consecutive years, we have run our Female Founder Grant Challenge. Through the Challenge, we not only award the winning female founders a cash grant, but also thousands of dollars in support in the areas of strategy, accounting, legal, marketing and more. We will definitely back for another Challenge in 2023 so stay tuned.

With so many business funding grants and programs available, small business owners in Australia have a wealth of opportunities to access the funding and support needed to succeed. By checking government websites, exploring industry-specific business funding grants and funding opportunities, and considering business accelerators and incubators, you can find the resources needed to start and grow your businesses! 

At Lift Women, we offer free 30-minute business strategy consultations to help female founders take the next steps in their startup, including assisting them to navigate grants and funding for business. Book your call to move forwards in realising your business dreams. If you have found this article useful, head to our other channels for more information: sign up to our free community platform, follow us on Instagram, connect with us on LinkedIn or sign up to our newsletter on our website.