EXIST Business Start-up Grant: Amounts and How to Apply
Short answer
The EXIST Business Start-up Grant funds founders from German universities and research institutes for twelve months with €1,000 to €3,000 per person per month, depending on qualification, plus up to €30,000 in material costs for teams and €5,000 for coaching. The university applies on your behalf, and teams have at most three members.
For a PhD candidate in Munich or a computer science graduate in Aachen with an idea that came out of their research, EXIST is usually the first door worth knocking on. Three-person teams can receive more than €100,000 over a year without giving up a single share. Few early-stage sources anywhere in Europe are that generous.
There is one hard gate. The route runs through a German university or research institution. No link, no EXIST.
A note on the name: the programme’s English-language website now calls it the exist Startup Grant. “Business Start-up Grant” is the older translation you will still find in many documents.
Is EXIST for you? A quick check
- You are a researcher at a German university or non-university research institute, or
- You graduated, or left a research post, no more than five years ago, or
- You are a student who has completed at least half of your degree and join a team
- Your team has no more than three people
- Your idea is technology-based or a knowledge-based service built on scientific findings
- A professor at your institution will act as mentor
- Your institution will provide a workplace for twelve months
One team member may hold a vocational qualification instead of a degree, or a degree older than five years. Teams made up mostly of students are funded only in exceptional cases, according to the University of Kassel’s start-up office.
The idea itself has to come with a scientific or technological edge. Social media agencies will not qualify. Software that turns a method from your thesis into a product people can buy very likely will.
How much the grant pays
The programme belongs to the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, is administered by Projektträger Jülich, and is co-financed by the European Social Fund Plus. The current funding guideline dates from 18 April 2023, and the programme is set to run until the end of 2029.
Plus €150 per month for each dependent child. Paid for twelve months.
Source: Projektträger Jülich, EXIST Business Start-up Grant programme page (accessed October 2026)
On top of living costs, the grant covers material costs of up to €10,000 for solo founders and €30,000 for teams, plus €5,000 for start-up coaching.
Take a team of two graduates and one PhD. Their stipends come to 12 × (€2,500 + €2,500 + €3,000), or €96,000. With €30,000 in material costs and €5,000 for coaching on top, the total package reaches €131,000. That is real money: at €90 an hour, the median rate for freelance software and web developers in German-speaking countries according to the freelancermap Freelancer-Kompass 2026, the material budget alone buys about 330 hours of outside engineering. Our breakdown of MVP development cost shows what that covers.
Health insurance and your residence permit
Because the stipend is not employment, nobody pays employer contributions on your behalf. Ask a German health insurer early how you will be covered for health and long-term care, and assume the contribution comes out of the stipend. Budget for that before you plan rent.
Non-EU founders should check their residence status early. The EXIST website states that international founding teams receive support with visa-related documentation. Whether your current permit allows you to prepare a business is a question for your local immigration office, and it is worth asking before you sign the stipend agreement rather than after.
How the application works
The applicant is not your team but your university or research institute. Everything therefore starts at the institution’s start-up network or incubator.
- Book a meeting with the start-up office and check whether EXIST or another programme fits.
- Find a professor who agrees to mentor the project.
- Write the idea paper together with the start-up office: problem, market, team, work plan.
- The institution submits the application to Projektträger Jülich. Submissions are possible at any time.
- Funding starts, according to the University of Kassel, three months after the application date.
Allow lead time. The University of Kassel, for example, asks teams to get in touch no later than six weeks before the application deadline.
What goes into the idea paper
The idea paper is the heart of the application. Page limits and templates differ between universities, so ask your start-up office for the current version. Reviewers nearly always want answers to the same questions:
- What problem does the product solve, and for whom exactly?
- What is new about it technically or scientifically, and where does that knowledge come from?
- Who are the competitors, including indirect ones such as spreadsheets or service providers?
- How will it make money, with a price assumption?
- Who is on the team, and who takes which role?
- What will be achieved after twelve months, in milestones someone can check?
Keep it tight. Reviewers read a lot of these.
Mistakes that sink applications
Incorporating too early. EXIST funds the pre-founding phase, and the company is normally set up during the grant year. According to the programme FAQ, the company may be founded during the funding period but not before it starts. If you already have one, raise it with the start-up office before applying. Choosing a legal form when the time comes is covered in our comparison of UG vs GmbH.
An idea paper that celebrates the technology and forgets the customer. Reviewers want to see who has the problem and why they will pay. Evidence from customer discovery interviews beats another architecture diagram.
Milestones nobody can check. “Business plan completed” is not a milestone. “Prototype tested with five pilot customers, two letters of intent” is.
Forgetting what comes after month twelve. By then you need revenue, follow-on funding or both. Starting the investor search in month nine is late, and our guide on how to find angel investors explains why it takes longer than founders expect.
Other EXIST strands
EXIST Research Transfer targets development-heavy projects that already have a proof of principle, such as a lab demonstrator. That suits deep-tech work with long development cycles better than software that could be on the market within six months. EXIST Women supports women with a first business idea who want structured time to develop it.
If you have no university link but are unemployed in Germany with benefit entitlement left, the Gründungszuschuss from the Federal Employment Agency is the more relevant route.
Is it worth it?
If you qualify, almost always yes. Twelve months of living costs without dilution, plus a workplace, a mentor and a network that has done this before, is something no private investor offers on those terms. It is not worth forcing if your idea has no genuine research link and the idea paper would have to pretend otherwise.
Venture studios such as OnlineBuilders also look at teams coming out of programmes like this, typically near the end of the grant when the question becomes how to turn a prototype into a product. For current programme details, check the Projektträger Jülich programme page.
Your next step: find out what your university’s start-up network is called and book a meeting. Bring one page with the problem, your evidence, the team and your open questions.
Questions people ask
Can international students and researchers apply for EXIST?
Nationality is not a criterion; the link to a German university or research institution is. The programme website says international teams get support with visa-related documentation. Check separately with your immigration office that your residence permit covers preparing a business.
Is the EXIST stipend taxable or a salary?
It is a stipend, not an employment contract, so no employer pays into social insurance for you. Check with a German health insurer how you will be covered for health and long-term care during the grant year. Ask your university's start-up office or a tax adviser about the tax treatment in your situation.
How long does the EXIST application take?
The University of Kassel, for example, gives the funding start as three months after the application date. Preparing the idea paper and lining up a mentor usually adds several weeks before that, so plan four to six months from first meeting to first payment.
Can a solo founder get EXIST funding?
Yes. Material costs are then capped at €10,000 instead of €30,000. The review also looks at the team, so a solo founder needs to show credibly how all key roles will be covered.
