

The Advanced Industries Early-Stage Capital and Retention Grant helps Colorado-based advanced industries technology businesses develop and commercialize advanced technologies that will be created or manufactured in Colorado. Projects can receive up to $250,000. This grant award maximum can be lifted for projects that impact more than one advanced industry.
The market typically under-invests in early-stage technologies. The grant’s goal is to fill the gap left by the market. The grant is not meant to compete with existing funding.
The Global Business Development (GBD) division administers this grant in partnership with Colorado’s advanced industry trade associations and receives final approval from the Economic Development Commission.
Type: Grant
For: Advanced industries businesses
Amount: Up to $250,000 per project
Match: 2-to-1 (company-to-state), cash
Application periods: January to March and July to September
OEDIT division: Global Business Development
Program impact:
Check out the program impact with the Grant Map
A project or technology with a particular application may receive grant awards up to $250,000 unless the award cap is lifted. The award cap may be lifted for projects that impact more than one advanced industry. The advanced industries selected must correspond to the core technology of the project. Applicants should select no more than a primary industry and secondary industry. To receive the full requested amount, all industries selected must support the application.
If advanced manufacturing, electronics, or information technology (enabling industries) are among the identified industries, the application must directly address how the enabling technology will impact the scalability, process improvement, or market adoption of the commercial product for the non-enabling technology. To receive the full requested amount, all industries selected must support the application.
To apply for the Advanced Industries Early-Stage Capital and Retention Grant, your business and project need to:
Applicants will receive preference points for projects that:
If you are a past grant recipient interested in applying for a new grant, your new grant must be for a different technology/project. Continuation projects will not be supported. You will also need to have successfully closed your previous award.
A disruptive technology is defined as a significant departure from the currently available technology in the industry. The use of an industry’s currently available technology does not constitute a significant impact. For example, the use of currently available electronics components does not constitute an impact on the electronics industry.
The technology must impact at least one of these advanced industries:
You need to have dedicated money at least two times the requested grant amount at the time of grant execution. For example, if you request a grant of $250,000, you need to identify $500,000 in cash from other sources.
Dedicated money must be demonstrated as cash in an account held by the grantee; funds are traceable and committed to the execution of the project work. Dedicated funds are demonstrated at the time of the grant award notification.
Eligible sources of matching funds include a third party investor, federal granting organization, and company revenues. Matching funds cannot be OEDIT funding or other state funding, neither directly received, nor received through a third party. In-kind contributions do not satisfy matching requirements.
Though dedicated funds are required to execute a grant, an otherwise eligible business may apply to the program without dedicated matching funds. A conditional grant award may be given to an applicant without dedicated matching funds. Should you receive a conditional award, you will have to obtain the required dedicated match within six months of the award notice. If the required dedicated match is not raised within the six-month period, the award is forfeited.
Applications are open twice a year from January to March and July to September.
Apply online in the OEDIT application portal. Log in to your account or create a new account. To protect your personal information, we manually add new users to the portal, so it may take several days to activate your account.
The application process for the grant is:
The application includes the following sections. Some sections are scored, while other sections provide important background information that will help evaluators understand your application. Draft your application with the assumption that the reviewers have an undergraduate/master’s level education in both business and the relevant scientific discipline.
These sections are not scored:
These sections are scored and have variable weights:
If you were previously awarded funding less than $250,000, you are able to reapply for the remaining funds up to the maximum amount. You will need to:
The review process typically takes 10 to 12 weeks. The Advanced Industries Grant staff will communicate all relevant dates to applicants after the application deadline. People reviewing your application have an undergraduate or Master’s-level education or equivalent experience and are familiar with Colorado’s advanced industries.
Applications are reviewed in a multi-stage process:
Scored sections are evaluated on a 0 to 5 scale.
Rejected applications may be re-worked and resubmitted in the next grant cycle. There is no appeals process, but applicants can request feedback as directed in the decline notice. Reviewer names are not shared to maintain a fair and impartial grant review process.
Once an application is approved, applicants must execute a formal grant agreement with OEDIT prior to obligating or spending any grant funds. Project milestones and budgets will be defined in the agreement. Unused funds must be returned to OEDIT and the program fund.
This is a reimbursement grant. Awarded applicants will be provided reimbursement instructions after the formal grant agreement has been executed.
Review the Colorado Special Provisions. The expenditure of both grant and matching funds must comply with the approved project budget. Once you have been notified of an award, you may begin spending matching funds. Grant funds may not be spent until a grant agreement has been executed, meaning it has received final signature by the State Controller or designee.
The intent of this grant program is to provide support to businesses that will actively pursue commercial development and manufacture of the product or technology within Colorado. In the event that a company supported by an Early-Stage Capital and Retention Grant award relocates or moves outside of the state (and therefore no longer meets the original grant eligibility criteria listed below) within 24 months of the conclusion of a grant, the company shall be obligated to reimburse the Advanced Industries Grant Program for the full amount of the award, over a payback period of no more than 60 months. Such reimbursements shall be made to OEDIT and will be used to support future advanced industries programs and activities. For purposes of the foregoing, a company will be deemed to have moved its operations out of Colorado if:
In applying for this grant, you are providing information to the State of Colorado. As the submitter, you have an obligation to carefully review all information provided to ensure it is accurate to the best of your knowledge and it does not contain any omissions, misrepresentations or factual errors. The reviewers of this application reserve the right to validate or check any information provided by the applicant, and if errors, omissions or misrepresentations are found, to modify the responses to correct for these deficiencies in evaluating the application and/or cancel any grant awards based on such deficiencies. Deliberately providing factual errors, omissions or misleading information to the State of Colorado as part of this application may be subject to penalties and sanctions as allowable by law.