Luxembourg startup funding in 2026: the complete reference

Luxembourg has no single startup grant. It has a shelf of programmes, each with a published amount. Fit 4 Start pays a selected startup up to €150,000, in instalments. Primo-création pays €12,000 to a first-time founder in commerce or craft. Young Innovative Enterprise co-funds a private raise up to €1,000,000. R&D project aid covers up to 60% of industrial research for a small enterprise. Nothing funds incorporation itself.

Getting any of it starts with mapping your eligibility across these programmes and assembling the application file, from the dated gate conditions to the costed work-package table.

Check which programmes you qualify for

Which programme fits which startup?

Each amount is from the programme's official page.

Fit 4 Start: how much cash arrives, and when?

Fit 4 Start gives 6 months of coaching and a grant of up to €150,000, paid in three tranches of €50,000, €80,000 and €20,000. Plan the runway on the first tranche, then check the gates: a team of at least 2 and a company no older than 5 years. The focus must be digital technologies, health or space, or the field specified in the Fit 4 Start call, so the call text outranks the programme page.

Primo-création: do you still pass the dated conditions?

Primo-création pays €12,000, non-repayable, in monthly instalments of €2,000 over 6 months, to newly created micro-enterprises in the commerce and craft sectors. No jury, no cohort, no pitch.

Primo-création's conditions on guichet.lu are dated and cannot be fixed later. The business permit may be at most 6 months old, with no earlier permit held in the previous 10 years. Any stake in another company must stay at or below 25%.

A founder a year into trading has usually failed the first gate, so first-time founders should apply while the permit is still new.

Which aid attaches to a private raise?

Young Innovative Enterprise aid co-funds up to 70% of a young company's financing needs, capped at €1,000,000. The funding plan runs at most 3 years, under the law of 6 June 2025, so older figures describe the previous regime.

The company must be under 5 years old, show turnover of at least €40,000 and spend at least 15% of its expenses on R&D. That last criterion sits behind Luxinnovation's innovation certificate, where the file is genuinely tested.

The aid attaches to a private raise, so it belongs in the fundraise window, not after the money is spent.

R&D project aid: what rate applies?

R&D project aid co-funds the project itself under the RDI framework, at a rate set by category and company size.

The category is argued, not declared: the same work written up as prototyping or as industrial research draws different rates. Aid must also reach €1,000 for an SME and €100,000 for a large enterprise.

SME Packages: co-funding an expert project

SME Packages Digital reimburses 70% of eligible costs on an expert project of €3,000–25,000. The usual entry point is Fit 4 Digital, a €5,000 assessment covered in full by a grant. Its costed action plan can itself become the SME Package application.

Which EU programmes can a Luxembourg startup apply to?

At the EIC Accelerator, grant and investment are separate decisions. Blended finance means a grant component plus direct equity or quasi-equity such as convertible loans, with equity of €1,000,000–10,000,000.

Without the equity, the grant covers at most 24 months of work, and the work programme caps it: under the EIC Work Programme 2026, grant-only support can be provided only once to a beneficiary during Horizon Europe, for a maximum of EUR 2.5 million covering activities of TRL 6 to 8. The 2026 budgets are €414,000,000 for EIC Accelerator Open and €220,000,000 for the Challenges.

Horizon Europe funds consortia, not single companies, at 100% for a research and innovation action and 70% for an innovation action, though other funding rates may be set out in the specific call or topic conditions. A young company joins a consortium rather than leading one.

The EUIPO SME Fund reimburses 75% of EU trade mark and design fees up to €700, 50% outside the EU and 90% of an IP scan. Its 2026 budget is €18,000,000, and it empties: as of 7 August 2026 the IP Scan and the trade mark and design vouchers are closed to new applications because their funds are exhausted, while the patent and plant variety vouchers remain open. Check the voucher status first.

SNCI loans and the IP Box

SNCI is a public-law bank, not a grant body, lending through proStart, proDevelop, proInnovate and proTransfer. Its terms run up to 15 years.

The IP Box covers qualifying net IP income, including self-developed software, under article 50ter L.I.R.. It is not a rate on revenue: the 80% exemption applies only to the share of net eligible income produced by the modified nexus ratio in article 50ter, alinéa 6 L.I.R. Per-asset expenditure tracking therefore starts with the first qualifying spend.

Can programmes be combined?

Often, but the cost allocation in the first file constrains the next, so design the combination before the first filing.

What actually sinks an application?

Almost nothing here is lost on the idea. Files fail on paperwork and sequencing.

Your own documents date the project. A signed quote, engagement letter or purchase order tells the assessor when the project began. File before any of them exists.

The permit is a prerequisite, not a parallel track. Aid files cite the business permit where the activity needs one. The chancellery fee is €50 and the ministry has 3 months to answer, so a late permit becomes the critical path.

The credential trips people up. National files run through the business eSpace on MyGuichet.lu, which needs a private or professional LuxTrust product, a Luxembourg electronic identity card, or an eIDAS device from another European country. The LuxTrust App's advertised 48-hour activation is tight in a call's last week.

Assessors read the cost table before the vision. Work packages with deliverables, staffing days and cost lines are legible. A lump sum labelled "development" is not.

Is there a grant for simply starting a company?

No. Every programme here funds something specific: a first commerce or craft business, a research project, an expert engagement or an IP filing. None of them pays for the act of incorporating. Primo-création comes closest, but it only applies once the business permit exists.

What to do first

A Luxembourg entity opens the national schemes, while EU instruments set their own eligibility. Pick the programme whose gate you already pass and write it up before signing the first supplier quote.

Have the RCS extract, the permit number and a costed work-package table in hand. Mapping your eligibility and assembling the application file is then clerical work, done in the order the MyGuichet.lu form asks.