Jobs for New South Wales provides a range of grants that can assist new NSW-based startups in reaching key development milestones, such as MVP development. How does the NSW MVP Grant work, though, and which startups can apply?
Over half of all Australian startups are based in New South Wales. The Sydney startup ecosystem is a resource-rich environment for new startups, offering networking opportunities, incubators, accelerators and potential funding opportunities.
Jobs for New South Wales, a NSW Government-backed agency designed to foster job growth in the state, operates a funding initiative that allows promising startups to capture growth capital in the form of grants.
The Minimum Viable Product grant offered by Jobs for New South Wales to promising startups in order to assist them in the product development process. What are the requirements for the NSW MVP grant, however, and how does the grant work?
What is the Minimum Viable Product Grant?
The Jobs for NSW Minimum Viable Product Grant is a matched grant of up to $25,000 for new NSW-based technology startups. The grant is intended to assist tech startups in conducting market research, testing consumer response to business models, and help startups progress from a proof of concept stage to the completion of a minimum viable product.
Jobs for NSW provides the MVP Grant for startups that are not yet at a revenue generating stage. The MVP Grant can be used by startups to engage with potential business customers or develop innovative solutions that address significant market gaps.
Who is Eligible for the MVP Grant?
- In order to be eligible for an MVP Grant, your startup will need to meet a variety of requirements. The MVP Grant is intended for NSW-based startups that are developing scalable technology solutions. Startups applying for an MVP Grant must:
- Have a New South Wales-based Australian Business Number and operate from NSW
- The business entity of the startup must operate at a pre-revenue stage
- The startup must have completed a prototype or a proof of concept
- The startup must hold the rights to commercialize the product or service, or hold relevant intellectual property
- The solution developed by the startup must be a scalable solution that can be deployed to multiple customers
- Startups must demonstrate a potential business customer or a business channel to market
- Importantly, startups must demonstrate that 80 percent of development costs will occur within New South Wales
- Startups must demonstrate that adequate matched funding has been secured
The final eligibility point presented above is important — MVP Grants are only made available to startups that have independently secured an equal amount of funding. The MVP Grant is a matched funding grant of up to $25,000, with funds directed towards explicitly defined and approved project costs.
How MVP Grant Eligibility is Assessed
Eligibility for the New South Wales Minimum Viable Product Grant is assessed in a competitive manner. Applicants must satisfy various eligibility criteria, and are ranked against one another.
Startups applying for the MVP Grant must demonstrate that their business will deliver tangible economic benefits to the state of NSW. These benefits can include the creation of new jobs, enhancing the NSW workforce talent pool, direct economic benefits to regional NSW, or potential export opportunities.
Startups must also demonstrate a high level of innovation. Applicants must demonstrate a unique concept that can potentially accelerate market adoption or an innovative application of new or existing technologies.
Business model strength is also taken into account as part of the eligibility assessment. Business model assessment factors include target market size, potential customer value, and the management capability of the startup team.
Lastly, startups applying for the MVP Grant must demonstrate a clear benefit to an industry sector such as efficiency optimization, new supply chain or capabilities, the ability to scale to other sectors, or must directly address a market gap.
How the Minimum Viable Product Grant Works
Successful applicants that are approved for an MVP grant will receive matched funding of up to 50 percent of approved project costs up to $25,000. So for an MVP project costing $60,000, the MVP will cover $25,000 of this.
Grant recipients will receive 35 percent of the approved funding upfront, with 65 disbursed after the completion and validation of the minimum viable product. Applications for the NSW MVP Grant can be made via the Jobs for NSW website. Assessments are typically completed within eight weeks of application.
Past MVP Grant Recipients
Examples of previous NSW MVP grant recipients provide insight into the types of businesses that are approved by the assessment process.
TapView, a micropayment and subscription platform designed to streamline paid online content delivery systems, received a $15,000 NSW MVP grant in 2015. Obelisk Systems, a NSW-based STEM technology platform that provides educational tools for aerospace and biotechnology, captured $15,000 in MVP grant funding from Jobs for NSW in 2016.
Developing a minimum viable product is a critical step in the growth of any startup, but is often a costly process. If you’re seeking guidance on how best to structure your startup when applying for a startup grant or the R&D Tax Incentive, reach out to Fullstack today.
