The government NSW (New South Wales) state of Australia is providing MVP (Minimum Viable Product) grants of 50% matched funding from $25k to $200k. This means if you are about to spend money on a tech website / mobile app and you are within NSW then you should look at applying for the NSW MVP grant to get 50% funded by NSW Government. There are a number of conditions such as it must be highly innovative or unique and hence it needs to be compared against competitors.
NSW government are also looking for it to be more than an idea with a TRL (Technology Readiness Level) of between 3 and 9. Use the NSW provided Technology Readiness Level calculator (under related documents) to help identify your current TRL.
Also they require an expert third party (must be a company or research organisation) that validates independently (not connected and not a customer) the innovative/uniqueness of your tech solution. NSW Government refer to this as EVE (Eligible Validating Entity). We expect this EVE will be very important as they are placing their reputation on the line to confirm the innovation/uniqueness so the more reputation the EVE has the higher the application will be regarded. So finding a good EVE to maximise your grant’s application of success will be important.
The process to finding an EVE might be to use your existing connections or office ecosystem to find someone who knows how your tech solution will be highly innovative or unique to solving a problem. The EVE is expected to have technical skills and experience in the problem area / industry that the technical solution solves. This is possibly a good opportunity to find a potential technical customer who is in the industry and would value the tech solution but is not yet an existing customer or has any association with you or the tech solution. They can then also provide valuable thoughts and, after completion, could potentially become a customer.
There are other terms and conditions such as maximum of 20 employees and $1million in revenue so make sure you review the eligibility and terms before applying.
For the Project Information Template we have created a template to help you quickly record things that you probably need to include:
| Supplier Name | Supplier ABN | NSW Based | Description of Product or Service | Category | Total exGST |
| Developer (Could also be as a wage) | Creation of tech solution code with Developers / Designers / Outsourced Developers | Consultant Fees | Typically between $60,000 to $200,000 | ||
| Management of Build | Management of Deliverables with Founder / Product Manager / Program Manager | Consultant Fees | Typically a wage | ||
| AWS / GCP / Azure / Cloud Vault | Servers and Storage in the cloud to host tech solution on the internet | Equipment | Typically between $500 and $5000 per month | ||
| Vertex Cyber Security | 67611787029 | Y | Penetration Testing (identify vulnerabilities by ethically hacking so they can be fixed before a data breach) of tech solution | Consultant Fees | Typically between $10,000 and $20,000. |
| Vertex Cyber Security | 67611787029 | Y | Secure code review (identify insecure code) of tech solution | Consultant Fees | Typically between $5000 and $10000. |
| Legal Assistance | Create legal documents for terms of use, review supplier/employee agreements | Consultant Fees |
Vertex Cyber Security provides Cyber Security services for many startups, scaleups and established tech companies.
