Equity Free Funds for Startups

A list of funds targeting early Startups, helping them with cash without asking for any equity.
This is a Work-in-Progress. If you wish to contribute, add/edit, to the list, please look at the Source on Github.
— Brajeshwar

1. 1st 50K, Cape Girardeau 50K USD
   1ST50K is a startup competition for startup business ideas that offers extensive support from a broad business network, pro-bono development services, and up to $50K in cash grants to entrepreneurs to establish or locate their businesses in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.
2. 50/50 Founders’ Fund, Montreal 10K CAD
   Each quarter, 50/50 Founders' Fund provides a handful of socially-conscious leaders $10,000 grant in seed stage funding, access to classes from General Assembly, and advice from an expert advisory board of real-life entrepreneurs. The 50/50 Founders’ Fund is simply our way of supporting today’s creative innovators, and extending the values that contributed to shaping our ever-growing community.
3. Arch Grants, St.Louis, United States 50K USD
   Arch Grants is a nonprofit organization that accelerates economic development by providing $50,000 equity-free grants & pro bono support services to entrepreneurs who locate their early-stage businesses in St. Louis. Through its competitive global startup competition, Arch Grants retains & attracts the most innovative entrepreneurs to the St. Louis region. This program is an aggressive effort to inspire the next generation of employers, civic leaders, & philanthropists for St. Louis.
4. BMW Startup Garage, Munich, Germany Variable
   The BMW Startup Garage is the venture client unit of the BMW group. As a venture client, the BMW group becomes a client of a startup, at an early stage when its product, service or technology is not yet mature. In comparison to venture capital, they purchase a first unit of a startup's product, service or technology, not its equity. The money startup receives when accepted to the program is a payment for a prototype of their technology & the costs associated with its integration & validation. This payment accounts as revenue & not an equity investment.
5. Chobani Food Incubator, New York City, United States 25K USD
   Chobani's Food Incubator is designed to help nurture, support & celebrate like-minded food startups that can positively impact the world. As a part of this unique program, food entrepreneurs who share the vision for delicious, nutritious, natural & accessible (DNNA) food will receive support, guidance & resources needed to provide better food for all. The program includes a 6-month Incubator program for one executive & up to 2 team members.
6. Cisco LaunchPad, Bangalore, India 8K USD
   Cisco LaunchPad Program aims to support startups in their entrepreneurial journey & help them scale to the next level by providing the critical resources needed. It is a one of a kind platform that brings together Cisco technologies, startups, & the partner/developer community to deliver business relevant end-to-end digital solutions. LaunchPad is an opportunity to be part of an innovation ecosystem. In addition to technology & business mentorship. Selected startups get a grant of $8000 upon graduation & ~$500 per month is available to support the IT needs of startups.
7. Fit for Start, Luxembourg city, Luxembourg 50K EUR
   Fit for Start offers early-stage funding & coaching to ICT startups in Luxembourg. The program helps startups develop a prototype of their product & learn how to test it with their first clients. It is a 16-week program of coaching with weekly follow-up by lean startup experts, opportunities to benefit from the offer of other players that support startups in Luxembourg & a grant of €50,000.
8. French Tech Ticket, Paris, France 45K EUR
   The French Tech Ticket is a one year program by the French government to attract gifted & ambitious individuals from all around the world & help them set up & develop their startup in France. More than just a startup visa, this 12-month program offers end to end support on the journey from early stage start-up to successful business from financial support & training to first customer acquisition. Selected entrepreneurs & projects will work closely in one of the 41 top French partner incubators providing among others mentoring, fundraising strategy, expert advice & pitch practice.
9. Future Starter, Singapore 28K SGD
   Income Future Starter, powered by TAG.PASS, is an 11-week accelerator program that fast tracks the commercialisation of products & market access through mentorship & co-innovation with Income. The program comprises of 3 core phases - business model development & validation, product development & pitch for investments. Startups will go through intensive training & guidance where they are expected to conduct field interviews, problem-solution validation, rapid prototyping, storyboarding, software & hardware development, growth hacking, marketing, branding, sales & business pitching amongst others. Income will provide the startups with required guidance & support including S$28,000 entrepreneur grant.
10. Google Launchpad, Silicon Valley Upto 50K USD
    Launchpad Accelerator is a program to empower founders by supporting their startups through mentorship and equity-free support. The Accelerator leverages all that Google has to offer, to help participating tech startups reach their true potential. The program is currently operating in Latin America (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico), Asia (India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam), Africa (Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa), and Europe (Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland).
11. Honduras StartUp, Honduras 250K HNL to 1 Million HNL
    Honduras StartUp is a program created by the Honduran government that seeks to boost the entrepreneurship ecosystem with training and seed capital to attract early-stage, high-potential entrepreneurs to build their startup. The program has 3 stages: StartUp Academy (a one week, intensive training program on how to build a startup for 200 teams), Pre-incubation and Pitches to Investors (one month acceleration for 15 startups that ends in a demo day to compete for 10 seed capital prizes), and the StartUp Incubator (a six-month incubation for the 10 finalists).
12. Hot DesQ, Queensland, Australia 100K AUD
    Hot DesQ is part of Advance Queensland suite of programs and it provides Equity-free grants of up to AUD$100,000 available to successful applicants along with Free co-working space for 6 months, Experts Access to mentors and business advisors besides having location proximity to the massive supply and demand markets of Asia
13. Ideaspace, Metro Manila, Philippines 50K PHP
    Ideaspace is a multi-faceted support program designed to help budding technopreneurs as they seek to build, develop & operate as startup companies in the Philippines & to transform their ideas into successful & scalable businesses. The incubation program is kicked off with a 5-day bootcamp followed by a 6-week remote incubation phase. The acceleration phase will then run for 4.5 months. Pitch days will be open to partners, investors & the community. Prototype Day will be the midpoint event for the acceleration phase & demo day will be the ending event.
14. Impact Growth, Virtual (Head Office in Spain) 100K EUR
    IMPACT Growth will select 14 startups that will be financed with up to €250,000 equity free in cash plus acceleration services. The 14 startups selected will receive €100,000 in cash equity free and services in the first phase. The two best of these startups will receive a prize of up to €150,000 in cash equity free, so in total they can receive up to €250,000 equity free in cash plus services
15. Innovating Justice, Hague, Netherlands Variable
    The Hague Institute for Innovation of Law (HiiL) Justice Acclerator runs challenges across the world to find the most innovative startups providing access to justice in their home countries. The Accelerator scouts, supports, & trains the entrepreneurs behind these startups to strengthen the skills necessary to run a sustainable, scalable justice innovation.
16. Innovators Program, Raleigh, United States 10K to 50K USD
    The Innovators Program is a 12 week program that embraces the core principles of design thinking, lean startup, SaaS business models & team execution; enabling founders to rapidly test & validate their ideas in the market with real customers. Selected startups get $10,000 in equity free funding at the beginning while an additional $50,000 will be allocated to most successful teams at the end
17. Kickstart Accelerator, Zurich, Switzerland 25K CHF
    Kickstart, the swiss accelerator is a fast-track gateway for entrepreneurs from near & far to access the swiss innovation ecosystem. The 11-week program is open to the best international early-stage startups with a promising business idea within our 4 verticals: Food, Smart & Connected Machines, FinTech & Future & Emerging Technologies. For 11 weeks selected founders & their teams live & work in Zurich, Switzerland. The accelerator provides founders with up to 25,000 swiss francs in prize money, a monthly founder stipend, mentoring, a shared office space & fast-track access to relevant industry partners & the swiss startup ecosystem. The program culminates in demo day where each team presents to investors, corporate leaders & the media.
18. Lighthouse Labs, Richmond, United States 20K USD
    Lighthouse Labs accelerator program is designed to give startups an unfair advantage in the region by providing them with accelerated access to capital, connections, & customers. It is a 3 month program that provides $20,000 in seed capital without equity stakes & amazing mentor sessions led by industry experts in design thinking, product & software development, customer development, team culture building, fundraising, & lean startup practices
19. MaGIC, Cyberjaya, Malaysia 6K MYR
    A program to accelerate startups to be investment ready, & to build a strong ASEAN startup community by cultivating ASEAN relationships. The program is approximately four months long & MaGIC will provide each participant a fixed living allowance of RM1,500 per month over the course of four months.
20. McGill Dobson Centre for Entrepreneurship, Montreal Upto $12K CAD
    The McGill Dobson Cup powered by National Bank and hosted by the McGill Dobson Centre for Entrepreneurship, is an annual startup competition across 4 tracks — Innovation Driven Enterprise, Small & Medium Enterprise, Social Enterprise, and Health Sciences. Startups will have the opportunity to compete for cash prizes, awarded as seed funding to the most promising companies. McGill X-1 Accelerator is an intensive 10-week summer program designed to accelerate early traction McGill startups towards investment readiness and launch
21. Merck Accelerator, Darmstadt, Germany 50K EUR
    Merck Accelerator in Germany is applicable for startups in the fields of healthcare, life science & performance materials, with a digital perspective. The aim of the accelerator is to support startups with the potential to reshape entire industries & make people's lives richer. The program provides financial support up to €50,000 & access to a global network with 50,000+ industry leaders & investors
22. Merck Accelerator, Nairobi, Kenya 30K USD
    Merck Accelerator in Kenya is applicable for startups in the field of digital healthcare. The aim of the accelerator is to support startups with the potential to reshape entire industries & make people's lives richer. The program provides financial support up to $30,000 & access to a global network with 50,000+ industry leaders & investors.
23. Open Data Incubator, London, United Kingdom Upto 100K EUR
    The Open Data Incubator for Europe (ODINE) is aimed at small & medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) building a business around open data. It is a 6 month incubator for open data entrepreneurs across Europe. Open data is a new field, yet it is supporting a rapidly developing market for innovative business ideas. Startups & SMEs based on open data are creating an open data ecosystem, using data to build sustainable businesses that generate economic, social & environmental impact. During the incubation program, companies receive up to €100K equity-free funding, mentoring, business & data training, high-quality media exposure, visibility at international events & introductions to investors. Funds can be spent on salaries, equipment, consumables, travel etc.
24. Parallel18, San Juan, Puerto Rico 40K to 75K USD
    Parallel18 is an economic development initiative that attracts early stage, high impact startups that can scale from Puerto Rico to global communities, beyond the island, including mainland US, Latin America, & Europe. The goal of the program is to position Puerto Rico as a unique gateway to scale globally. The program is running with the support of the Puerto Rico Science & Technology Trust, the Department of Economic Development & Commerce & the Puerto Rico Industrial Development Company.
25. Porsche Innovation Contest, Leipzig 25K EUR
    Porsche in collaboration with Spinlab is exploring Blockchain technologies. Selected startups will do a pilot project with Porsche, get a total prize money of 25K EUR and a 3-month participation at SpinLab – The HHL Accelerator to grow business in Germany
26. Project Entrepreneur, New York City, United States 10K USD
    Project Entrepreneur ignites bold ideas by providing women access to the tools, training & networks needed to build scalable, economically impactful companies. Their plan to achieve this goal through a multi-faceted national initiative that includes this robust digital hub, multi-city events, a venture competition, & a 5-week accelerator program. Finalists will be pre-selected to pitch during the PE weekend intensive. The finalists will pitch live to a panel of judges for an opportunity to win a $10,000 grant & a spot in the 5-week PE accelerator in NYC.
27. Prototron, Tallinn, Estonia 10K EUR
    Prototron provides financing & consulting for implementation of ideas, inventions, devices & solutions that make our everyday life easier, more convenient & comfortable. It is an all Estonian competition of ideas & the best ideas will receive start-up funds of up to €10,000, legal support, corporate marketing channels & 6 months of incubation in Tehnopol startup incubator to prepare the startups for market entry & investment readiness.
28. SEED Brazil, Minas Gerais, Brazil 68K to 80K BRL
    SEED - Startups & Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Development is a 6 month program of support to entrepreneurs, domestic or foreign, to develop technology-based business projects in Minas Gerais. The program provides seed capital of BRL 68,000 for projects with 2 participants while a project with 3 participants gets BRL 80,000.
29. Seoul Global Startup Center, Seoul, South Korea 10 Million KRW
    Seoul Global Startup Center is a 5 month program funded by the Seoul Metropolitan Government to assist foreigners & teams with global products in developing startups & small enterprises. Each team that enters the center will receive a 10 million KRW voucher for expenses, free 24/7 office space, visa assistance, business services, legal services, mentoring, consulting, workshops, & the opportunity to travel to an overseas market.
30. Shell Springboard, London, United Kingdom 40K to 150K GBP
    The Shell Springboard program supports UK businesses with bright solutions to reduce carbon emissions. One national winner will receive £150,000 & a further five regional winners will each get £40,000 of equity-free funding, as well as feedback from leading academics, investors & policy makers to help scale up their enterprises.
31. Sparklab, Budapest Upto 5K EUR
    Sparklab is a 3-month, mentorship-driven incubator program in the heart of Budapest. Startups will take part in regular workshops and social events while getting acquainted with the local startup scene. Sparklab also provides some pizza-money so founders don't have to worry about making ends meet
32. Spinlab, Leipzig, Germany 6K EUR
    SpinLab supports the growth of innovative teams who want to scale up their businesses. Located within Leipzig’s creative the accelerator provides access to infrastructure (co-working office space & technology), coaching & mentoring as well as to their international network of successful business founders, established market players & leading investors. The accelerator provides each startup a small amount of €6,000 through cooperation with the city of Leipzig which will cover expenditures such as accomodation & travel costs.
33. Startup Chile, Santiago, Chile 10 Million to 60 Million CLP
    Start-Up Chile is a program created by the chilean government that seeks to attract early-stage, high-potential entrepreneurs to bootstrap their startups using Chile as a platform to go global. There are 3 programs organized by Startup Chile namely The S Factory (pre-acceleration program with two rounds in a year of 20-30 companies each focused on female founders providing 10 million CLP & 3 months acceleration), Seed(acceleration program with two rounds in a year for 80-100 companies for startups providing 20 million CLP & 6 months acceleration) & Scale(follow-on fund with two rounds in a year for top performing startups incorporated in Chile providing 60 million CLP)
34. Startup Hub Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland 30K PLN
    Startup Hub Warsaw aims to make startup development as easy as possible. Participation in the program gives startups access to Startup Hub Poland's great network of startups, supporting organizations, scientific organizations, research units & universities as well. The program provides a grant for PLN 30,000 & has three phases - Warm up (10 days), Grow up (1 month) & Demo day (2 days).
35. Startup Sauna, Espoo, Finland 1K EUR
    Startup Sauna is an accelerator for top-notch tech teams focusing on finding the right product-market fit & go-to-market strategy. The 5-week accelerator is free of cost & takes no equity. Teams can select either a grant of €1000 or free accommodation during the program.
36. TechFounders, Munich, Germany 25K EUR
    TechFounders is a 20 week international accelerator program based in Munich, Germany. The accelerator brings tech startups together with industry partners & venture capitalists. During this accelerator program the teams will have the chance to cooperate with one of TechFounder's industry partners, who can help the teams develop their business. The teams will also have access to hardware prototypes, data & APIs in order to test & further develop their product. The aim of the accelerator program is to get the startups an industry partner as a high class customer or investor. The accelerator focuses on startups in the automotive field, robotics, automation, financial services, clean-tech, software, telecommunications, electronics, big data, insurance, industry 4.0, mobility, wind power & related industries.
37. VUNK, Tallinn, Estonia Upto 30K EUR
    VUNK startup labs is an entry point for innovative B2B & B2C startups in the region seeking to partner with Telia to improve their offering & get access to the market. The VUNK Accelerator is Eesti Telia’s startup accelerator program. It’s a full-time, 4-week intensive program, led by Startup Wise Guys. Telia Eesti does not retain equity in the companies participating in the VUNK Accelerator program.