Financing and financial aid

Are you currently contemplating the momentous decision to start up your own business? The state of Hessen provides support to help you to master the start-up phase of your company. RKW Hessen looks back on 40 years of successful start-up consultancy services provided on behalf of the state of Hessen.

(website only available in German)

Are you planning your professional career and looking for a reliable financing partner? As an active self-help institution within the Hessian economy the Bürgschaftsbank Hessen looks back on decades of experience helping small and medium-sized businesses towards success.

(website only available in German)

You don't know who to contact within Hessen's economic development organizations? This search engine for the economic development organisations in Hessen will help you out. You will find detailed information about people who you can contact here.

The Wirtschafts- und Infrastrukturbank Hessen takes care of the financial branch of Hessen's economic development by providing investments, securities, credits and grants for small and medium-sized businesses.

(website only available in German)

The Förderdatenbank provides a complete and up-to-date overview of all of financial funding programmes within Germany, the federal states, and the European Union.

(website only available in German)

The portfolio of the KfW Bank includes funding offers for private customers, companies and municipalities, as well as for charitable institutions.
It provides a special product locator aimed a people wanting to start a business, which will help you find the right funding product for your project in a matter of clicks.

This provides support to people starting a business in the commercial sector (retail, skilled trades, industry, hospitality and tourism industry, sales representatives and commercial brokers, miscellaneous service industries and transport), as well as to members of commercially-oriented liberal professions.

(website only available in German)

The German Federal Environmental Foundation (Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt – DBU) is one of the largest foundations in Europe. It provides funding to exemplary, innovative projects concerned with environmental protection. Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) play a key role in the funding initiatives of the German Federal Environmental Foundation (DBU). The central aim of the foundation is to support the innovative projects and ideas of medium-sized businesses. The DBU particularly focuses on the development and use of new, environmentally friendly technology and products as part of a proactive environmental protection initiative.

(website only available in German)

The investment management firm, BM H is the managing company of MBG H Mittelständische Beteiligungsgesellschaft Hessen mbH, the TF H Technologie-Finanzierungsfonds Hessen mbH (TF H II) and the RegioMIT Regionalfonds Mittelhessen GmbH. Hessen Kapital I GmbH and Hessen Kapital II GmbH came under the BM H umbrella in 2007, and Mittelhessenfonds GmbH was added in 2008. The fund provides capital and consultancy services to medium-sized, innovative businesses in Hessen. The advantage of all these funds being managed under the one umbrella is that different types of investment can be proposed according to the company's needs, and support can be provided in several different financing rounds.

(website only available in German)

In many fields, small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are quite often pioneers of technological progress. Germany, Hessen and the EU support SMBs with special funding programmes in the fields of research and innovation, promotion of technology transfer, business start-ups or research infrastructure, as well as within the framework of sector-specific funding initiatives for research and development projects.

(website only available in German)

The Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export Control (Bundesamt für Wirtschaft und Ausfuhrkontrolle – BAFA) provides business consultancy services to develop entrepreneurial expertise for small and medium-sized businesses, as well as for liberal professions. This consultancy service support allows companies and members of the liberal professions that have been on the market for at least one year to receive a subvention towards the costs of these consultancy services.

(website only available in German)

The High-Tech Gründerfonds (high-tech start-up funds) finances young technology-driven companies, offering them attractive financing conditions, and actively supports the management team with a strong network of entrepreneurial talent. In association with our partners, we specialise on financing for companies in the seed phase.

The Central Innovation Program for SMBs (Zentrale Innovationsprogramm Mittelstand – ZIM) is a nationwide funding programme covering all sectors and technologies, which is targeted at medium-sized businesses and the commercially-oriented research centres with which these companies work.

Do you need a micro-credit for your start-up or small company? If so, why not get in touch with micro-financing institutions? They take care of your loan from A-Z –from the application to repayment of the loan – and are a good place to call if you have any queries.

(website only available in German)

Micro-mezzanine financing helps reinforce your own equity base, because, from a legal point of view, mezzanine capital is a mixture of your own equity and borrowed capital. The additional capital ensures a better rating, thereby creating improved borrowing opportunities. The investor has no voice and no decision-making power.

(website only available in German)

Acting on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Culture and the Media (Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien – BKM), the Minister of State for Culture and the Media supports selected artists with funding, facilities, bursaries and other types of aid.

(website only available in German)