NRW opens €100,000 grants for young social enterprises

North Rhine-Westphalia has opened a new grant programme for young social enterprisesNRW: Boost4Impact.NRW funds market-consolidation spending by non-listed micro-enterprisesNRW, founded no more than three years agoNRW, whose business model serves the common goodNRW. The directive (Runderlass) takes effect the day after publication and expires on 30 June 2027NRW; applications must reach the granting authority by 31 March 2027NRW, and each enterprise can receive the funding only onceNRW.

The Land grants the funds on application, with no legal entitlement — the granting authority decides at its dutiful discretion within available budget funds. The purpose is to enable young common-good enterprises to shape their organisational and structural foundations so they can position products and services sustainably in the market; more than one in two businesses gives up within five years of founding. Common-good solutions are entrepreneurial approaches that respond distinctively to social or ecological challenges and create collective, not merely individual, benefits.

Eligible applicants are non-listed micro-enterprises under Article 22 of the General Block Exemption Regulation (AGVO)NRW seated or operating in NRWNRW and founded at most three years agoNRW — the founding date being first entry in the commercial register or, absent registration, the earlier of starting operations or becoming taxable. They must qualify as a social enterprise under the European Commission's 25 October 2011 Social Business Initiative (common-good purpose as the point of the business, profits mostly reinvested, participatory ownership), file a "Gemeinwohlunternehmen" declaration and an SME declaration, have distributed no profits, and must not have taken over another business or emerged from a merger above the 10% turnover thresholds. Excluded are the Article 1(2), (3) and (5) AGVO sectors, undertakings in difficulty, and recipients of unrecovered unlawful aid. Onward transfer of the grant to third parties is barred.

Funded spending covers supplies and services that build the structural, organisational and sales preconditions for a lasting market position — prototypes, external consulting, coaching and training, software licences and digital solutions, market studies, agency and creative services, IT and implementation services, and external finance and valuation services. Providers must be unrelated to the beneficiary and charge market terms. Eligible are tangible and intangible fixed assets above EUR 1,000 net and third-party services that are neither recurring nor ordinary operating costs.

The grant is a project grant via partial financing of up to 70% of eligible expenditureNRW, capped at EUR 100,000 per enterpriseNRW with a EUR 15,000 de minimis threshold. Coaching expenditure is capped at EUR 5,000 with a maximum EUR 3,500 grant. Double funding is excluded, including simultaneous funding under the Gründungsstipendium.NRW; Article 8 AGVO cumulation rules apply.

Funding requires continuous coaching: the coach must commit to supporting market consolidation and, where needed, bankability and investor contacts, must hold at least four of the listed start-up-coaching competences with three reference projects no older than three years, and must file a one-page report after the implementation period. The enterprise must attend at least one binding appointment per quarter. The implementation period runs up to twelve months; funded fixed assets carry a three-year tie-in, and the grant is reclaimed pro rata if the activity ceases or moves out of NRW within three years of the last payment (except non-fraudulent insolvency). Applications go via the EFRE.NRW.online portal or in writing to the Innovationsförderagentur NRW in Jülich.

The legal basis is one closing sentence: the directive rests on the EFRE/JTF Rahmenrichtlinie NRW, sections 23 and 44 of the NRW State Budget Code (Landeshaushaltsordnung), Regulations (EU) 2021/1060 and 2021/1058, and Regulation (EU) No 651/2014 (Allgemeine Gruppenfreistellungsverordnung), with editorial alignment to the new block-exemption regulation due 1 January 2027.