Early Stage Business Funding and Angel Investing:
FedDev's Investing in Business Innovation (IBI)
Written by:
Kate Hendriks, Technical Writer.
The Investing in Business Innovation (IBI) program is an initiative geared towards southern Ontarian start-up businesses. Because of this FedDev Ontario-operated initiative, new businesses have the potential to enhance their skills and capacity to develop products that will be competitive around the nation and across the globe. An additional aim of IBI is to enhance the capacity of eligible start-ups to procure private investment capital.
Although there are three funding streams in the IBI program, the early-stage
businesses stream is the most applicable avenue for the majority of manufacturers in the province. This stream is geared towards southern Ontarian companies that are Canadian incorporated and have less than 50 full-time equivalent employees. Late-stage development and early-stage commercialization are both eligible for financial assistance. Companies must be able to demonstrate that they have a business model that is maintainable in the long run as well as a working prototype or product. Per project, the company may receive up to $1 million in the form of a repayable contribution, and no more than 33.3% of eligible expenditures can receive financial assistance through the IBI program.
Please note that eligible projects in the early-stage businesses stream must be concluded by December 31, 2018.
