State funding is the best-kept secret of the German funding landscape. While EU and federal programmes are promoted nationwide, most SMEs hardly know their own state development bank, even though it often runs the fastest procedures with the highest regional rates.
What state funding is suited to
State programmes are the right choice for regionally rooted SMEs tied to their location: investments, early-stage projects, digitalisation, pilot plants, consulting and innovation vouchers. Application procedures are often 3 to 4 months shorter than at federal level. Frequently combinable with ZIM or the research allowance.
What we bring
- A direct line to the development banks: at many institutions we are in active contact with the programme managers.
- Programme knowledge per federal state: we know which funding line is running in 2026, which budgets are exhausted and which new calls are coming.
- Early-stage & investment funding: programmes such as ProFIT (Berlin) or Spitze auf dem Land (Baden-Württemberg) offer exactly what the federal government and the EU do not.
- A funding roadmap and stacking with further programmes: we check combinations, e.g. ProFIT early stage with ZIM, or InvestBW with the research allowance.
Some programmes at a glance
- BayTOU: for founders and young companies in promising technology fields in Bavaria.
- ProFIT Berlin: as an early-stage variant or for larger R&D projects with a volume of more than €1 M, always a combination of grant and low-interest loan.
- PROFI Hamburg: R&D funding of up to €1 M for companies of any size, industry and technology field.
- IFP Lower Saxony: funding for individual and cooperative R&D projects of start-ups and SMEs developing new products, production processes or services.
- INNOTOP Rhineland-Palatinate: technology-neutral SME funding for feasibility studies and R&D projects with a funding rate of up to 80 %.
"At federal level the application was in progress for six months. At NBank it took eleven weeks, at a comparable rate. Those who don't know this leave money on the table." innolabor experience from 18 years of practice
What we don't do
- Parallel applications in several federal states. The approving banks talk to each other.
- Projects without a clear regional link where the guideline requires one.