Non-dilutive funding
Money a company receives without giving up equity — grants, prizes, most tax credits, and revenue. It is the reason grant programmes matter to startups at all, and it describes a funding source rather than any property of a specific opportunity.
Part of the GrantTrove grant funding glossary — one entry for every field the catalogue stores.
Also called Non-dilutive capital
In detail
For a company, the arithmetic is simple: a $500,000 grant and a $500,000 equity round put the same cash in the bank, and only one of them changes the cap table. The grant costs time instead, which is a real price and a very differently shaped one.
The term is used loosely to include convertible instruments and revenue-based financing, neither of which is strictly non-dilutive. When a programme uses it, read what the instrument actually is.
Against an award record
Non-dilutive is a category of capital, not a field. Every grant in the catalogue is non-dilutive by construction, so a flag for it would be true on every row and would inform nobody. What varies between records — and what we store — is who may apply, how much, by when, and whether you are paid before or after you spend.
How GrantTrove stores it
- `elig_entity_types` records the applicant classes a notice names, and a business searching the catalogue filters on that rather than on a funding-type label.
- The disbursement fields matter more for a company than for anyone else: `is_reimbursement` tells you whether the award funds the work or repays it, which is the difference between a grant a startup can use and one it cannot.
Common questions
Are all grants non-dilutive?
The grants in this catalogue are. Some programmes elsewhere attach warrants or revenue shares, at which point the label stops applying.
Do you list equity programmes?
No. We hold grants and the funders that make them.
Why does reimbursement matter so much here?
Because a pre-revenue company usually cannot spend $500,000 first and be repaid later, whatever the award size says.