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Financing Innovation: Fintech Solutions for Grants and Incentives
Funding Portal | Teri Kirk | Aug 2, 2019
Grants and incentives are an important source of funding for many companies and organizations. In fact, governments in Canada alone disburse about $26B annually through federal and provincial grants and incentives, largely to fund innovation. Yet, actioning this funding can be time-consuming and expensive for companies; many choose not to action it at all.
Now, with the trend toward fintech and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), CFOs can access the data and tools they require on their desktops and mobile devices, 24/7. This article seeks to help companies understand the grants and incentives funding marketplace and ensure that their organization is getting its fair share.
Problem: Relying on Analogue Systems to Get Money Out the Door
Grants and incentives constitute the third largest spending envelope of most governments. Yet, Administrators tend have last generation analogue systems for administering this funding and Applicants have trouble finding and successfully applying to these programs. As a result, this capital – often the very life blood of innovation—is inefficiently distributed, with as much as 50% of promised program spending diverted from the innovation sector to program overhead.
See: OurCrowd Double IPO Success Provides Crowdfunding Validation
A Modern Fintech Grants Solution for the 21st Century
The applicant community is comprised of leading companies that are transforming almost every sphere of economic activity: fintech, agri-innovation, health tech, life sciences, aerospace, cleantech, and the digital sector, among others. Successful applicants range from startups to global leaders, with more than half (51%) of the largest cheques ($10M+) going to enterprise market companies that are able to leverage this funding with their own resources to achieve a high impact on the economy.
These companies have been early and consistent adopters of today’s fintech and office automation solutions, driving the market for Big Data, Cloud, and SaaS solutions. Now, they are leading the trend towards GMS—Grants Management Systems.
What is GMS?
GMS solutions streamline processes for grant applicants, advisory firms, and administrators. Fundsuite GMS is one example of an award-winning Grants Management System that helps these user groups to navigate and succeed in the grants and incentives marketplace. It leverages AI, big data, and analytics to greatly improve funding outcomes for a wide range of applicants and administrators.
How Can My Organization Benefit from a GMS?
Comprehensive GMS solutions help applicants to quickly match their projects to the right funds, repurpose past grant applications, and efficiently manage post-award compliance processes, all while protecting the applicant’s confidential data. On the other side of the ledger, they help administrators to effectively post program information online, receive and assess applications, and automate post-award reporting and audit processes.
See: Uber is making a fintech push with a New York hiring spree
By adopting the perfect grants management system for their needs, applicants can take advantage of the latest fintech developments to ensure their organization is fully benefiting from the innovation funding marketplace managed by the public sector.
Funds for Your Fintech Venture
Here are a few examples of funds your fintech venture can pursue today:
- Business Scale-Up and Productivity: This federal program helps high-growth companies to grow, adopt new technologies, enter new markets, innovate and commercialize their innovations.
- NRC-IRAP: The National Research Council Canada’s Industrial Research Assistance Program helps businesses to undertake innovation and R&D projects.
- Ontario Scale-Up Vouchers Program: This provincial program helps high-potential Ontario-based businesses to scale globally by offsetting up to $1M in eligible expenses.
- Innovative Solutions Canada: Keep an eye out for any fintech related challenges under this federal program! Your business could receive a grant of $150k to develop a proof of concept, and up to $1M to develop a prototype.
- WIL Digital: The Work Integrated Learning Program provides fintech firms and companies in other emerging sectors with $5k-$7k in wage subsidies per intern.
By Teri Kirk, President, Fundingportal
Fundingportal is an award-winning fintech software and services firm. It owns and operates fundingportal.com, an online platform for organizations and industry to source and apply for funding from more than 10,000 government grants and incentives programs in Canada, the US, and the UK; and owns and operates Fundingportal GMS, a SaaS solution that powers your in-house Grants Management System.
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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