Anyone Tried Grantify?
Discussion
www.grantify.io for Govt grants.
They doing a lot of advertising at the moment. Approx £2k up front, another £2k in 30 days then 3% of any grant awarded.
Has anyone tried them or alternatives?
They doing a lot of advertising at the moment. Approx £2k up front, another £2k in 30 days then 3% of any grant awarded.
Has anyone tried them or alternatives?
First off, it's worth noting that almost all of the 'true' grants (i.e. money that you don't have to pay back) currently available fund technology and tech-focused businesses and business ideas; that means software and hardware. And it has to be unique and global in ambition. And they are mostly based on match funding, very rarely total funding.
There are countless smaller pots available for other sectors but none of these are accessed (as far as I can tell) via Grantify.
Grantify assist on three core funding sources; EU Commission, UK Innovate and R&D Tax Credits. I have direct experience, successful and unsuccessful, of all three.
UK Innovate exist to give grants. It's the metric by which they are measured and are thus motivated to award grants so they provide as much support as you need on completing an application. This includes open seminars, one-to-one sessions and bags of accessible advice.
Similarly, the EU Commission are also generous with their support plus, in the UK, most - if not all - of their grant funding is administered via UK Innovate anyway.
R&D Tax Credits are different and do sometimes require expertise to manage correctly - and even then, it can go wrong. I've written here previously of my experience with this but to surmise, we applied, were awarded £26k rebate, only for HMRC to claw this back 18 months later because on review they determined the claim was invalid. And this was all arranged via what at the time was a highly reputable firm similar to Grantify.... who have since gone bust.
I've looked at Grantify previously and have just had another look. My view is that they charge a lot of money to solve a problem that doesn't really exist. They may do some of the heavy lifting but you will still need to do some yourself. It seems to me that their primary offer is writing the application. There are plenty of freelance bid and grant writers out there that will do the same for a lot less.
And I'm I'm 99% certain that you cannot use any of the grant you receive to pay their fees and nor can your spend with them be counted towards match funding requirements. All of that has to come from your day-to-day cashflow.
I'm not saying they're a bad outfit and each business is different so they may well be of use but personally, I would explore what's involved in applying directly and the support that's available free or charge from the grant givers before you commit.
One slight red flag is that this morning, I tried their grant-finder tool. I entered in details that I know full well would not qualify me for a grant (one-man business that hasn't been set up, unproven idea, looking for £5m) ..... and lo and behold, they've found grants that are suitable!!
Regardless of whether you use them or not, do read the conditions of grants carefully. There really is no such thing as free money and the caveats and requirements that often come with grants can be exceptionally onerous and burdensome to the uninitiated.
There are countless smaller pots available for other sectors but none of these are accessed (as far as I can tell) via Grantify.
Grantify assist on three core funding sources; EU Commission, UK Innovate and R&D Tax Credits. I have direct experience, successful and unsuccessful, of all three.
UK Innovate exist to give grants. It's the metric by which they are measured and are thus motivated to award grants so they provide as much support as you need on completing an application. This includes open seminars, one-to-one sessions and bags of accessible advice.
Similarly, the EU Commission are also generous with their support plus, in the UK, most - if not all - of their grant funding is administered via UK Innovate anyway.
R&D Tax Credits are different and do sometimes require expertise to manage correctly - and even then, it can go wrong. I've written here previously of my experience with this but to surmise, we applied, were awarded £26k rebate, only for HMRC to claw this back 18 months later because on review they determined the claim was invalid. And this was all arranged via what at the time was a highly reputable firm similar to Grantify.... who have since gone bust.
I've looked at Grantify previously and have just had another look. My view is that they charge a lot of money to solve a problem that doesn't really exist. They may do some of the heavy lifting but you will still need to do some yourself. It seems to me that their primary offer is writing the application. There are plenty of freelance bid and grant writers out there that will do the same for a lot less.
And I'm I'm 99% certain that you cannot use any of the grant you receive to pay their fees and nor can your spend with them be counted towards match funding requirements. All of that has to come from your day-to-day cashflow.
I'm not saying they're a bad outfit and each business is different so they may well be of use but personally, I would explore what's involved in applying directly and the support that's available free or charge from the grant givers before you commit.
One slight red flag is that this morning, I tried their grant-finder tool. I entered in details that I know full well would not qualify me for a grant (one-man business that hasn't been set up, unproven idea, looking for £5m) ..... and lo and behold, they've found grants that are suitable!!
Regardless of whether you use them or not, do read the conditions of grants carefully. There really is no such thing as free money and the caveats and requirements that often come with grants can be exceptionally onerous and burdensome to the uninitiated.
Edited by StevieBee on Wednesday 29th November 09:24
StevieBee said:
One slight red flag is that this morning, I tried their grant-finder tool. I entered in details that I know full well would not qualify me for a grant (one-man business that hasn't been set up, unproven idea, looking for £5m) ..... and lo and behold, they've found grants that are suitable!!
I'd suggest that their grant finder tool is nothing more than a lead generator for them.I think the challenge is to find a set of answers that causes the tool to tell you they haven't found any suitable grants ...
As an aside this is an area where AI is having a massive impact and a lot of the grant funders are struggling to cope.
Basically the AI reads the T&Cs of the grant scheme and writes an application which ticks all the funders boxes. their assessment proces stends to be very "tick box" so there's a high chance of the grant being approved.
That being said you DO actually have to do whatever you put in your application or risk them coming after you.
Basically the AI reads the T&Cs of the grant scheme and writes an application which ticks all the funders boxes. their assessment proces stends to be very "tick box" so there's a high chance of the grant being approved.
That being said you DO actually have to do whatever you put in your application or risk them coming after you.
jeremyc said:
'd suggest that their grant finder tool is nothing more than a lead generator for them.
I think the challenge is to find a set of answers that causes the tool to tell you they haven't found any suitable grants ...
Sounds like the first official HMRC IR35 assessment tool...which seemed to ensure that everyone was assessed as inside IR35, no matter what answers you gave.I think the challenge is to find a set of answers that causes the tool to tell you they haven't found any suitable grants ...
Countdown said:
As an aside this is an area where AI is having a massive impact and a lot of the grant funders are struggling to cope.
Basically the AI reads the T&Cs of the grant scheme and writes an application which ticks all the funders boxes. their assessment proces stends to be very "tick box" so there's a high chance of the grant being approved.
That being said you DO actually have to do whatever you put in your application or risk them coming after you.
This is starting to impact public sector tenders as well (tenders and grants often found to be sharing a bed). I'm seeing more and more tenders that include face-to-face meetings with shortlisted applicants and things like 'pre-market-engagement' which I assume are designed to weedle out the Ai users.Basically the AI reads the T&Cs of the grant scheme and writes an application which ticks all the funders boxes. their assessment proces stends to be very "tick box" so there's a high chance of the grant being approved.
That being said you DO actually have to do whatever you put in your application or risk them coming after you.
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