Startup funding platform

Startup Funding Roadmap

CloTho tells you what you can win now, what needs work first, and what to walk away from. Grants, R&D incentives, accelerators, cloud credits and investors across North America, Europe, the Middle East, APAC, LATAM and Africa.

· No success fee · No commission from any program · Every route sourced and dated
Grants & subsidiesR&D incentivesAccelerators Cloud & AI creditsCommunitiesInvestors
The real cost

The wrong application doesn't cost money. It costs the quarter.

The disqualifier on page one

Three weeks of evidence assembled, then the clause that excludes you turns up in the first paragraph.

The window that closed while you shipped

Nobody owns the funding calendar, so the cut-off passes and you find out in December.

The round you didn't have to raise

Equity given away for money that was sitting in a programme nobody on the team had seen.

Advice that can't say no

Everyone offering to help is paid when you apply, not when you skip.

What one application costs you 3–9 months
Scope the fit1–2 wks
Assemble evidence3–6 wks
Write & review2–4 wks
Wait for a decision2–6 months

And the clause that disqualifies you was readable on day one, in the first paragraph of the rules.

How it works

Three steps, and the third one never really ends.

Your map is a living board. Programs open and close, your company changes, and the map moves with it.

STEP 01

Describe the company once

Stage, jurisdiction, founder residency, product, revenue, R&D, IP, what you've already tried. Fifteen minutes — and it's the part that makes eligibility real instead of approximate.

STEP 02

Get your map

Every route comes back with a verdict, an amount you can plan around, the reason behind it, and a link to the official source. Four lanes, no scoring theatre.

STEP 03

Apply from the board

Open a route, see its requirements and deadline, start the application without leaving CloTho. Track what's submitted, what's waiting, and what just opened.

What the intake actually asks

Fifteen minutes, no documents to upload. These are the fields eligibility turns on — and the reason a generic tool gets your case wrong.

Stage & entity typeCountry of incorporationFounder residency & nationality Cap table shapeProduct & technology readinessRevenue & runway R&D spendIP statusCloud & compute spendWhat you've already applied to

See if it covers your company

The board

This is what comes back.

One company, one board. Every route we check, sorted into four lanes — each with a verdict, an amount you can plan around and the next concrete step.

Cifrix S.à r.l. Pre-seed · Luxembourg · post-quantum cryptography · 5 people · TRL 4 · R&D 71% of spend Example map
38
routes checked
12
relevant to this company
3
open right now
4
dropped, with reasons

Three things in this structure that decide the rest

24% held by a Singapore fund

Dual-use programmes check control by non-associated third countries. 24% sits below the control threshold, but an ownership-and-control declaration is required before you can be assessed.

Documents, not restructuring · ~2 weeks
Cryptography is dual-use

The product falls under EU Regulation 2021/821. An export authorisation is needed before the first sale outside the EU, and several programmes check that it exists.

Not a funding blocker, but a condition · 6–10 weeks
No filed IP

The Luxembourg IP box — a 6.75% effective rate — needs qualifying IP, which means a patent and not software copyright. Two further routes want a filed application.

A provisional filing opens three routes · 4 weeks
Do now3
Fit 4 Start #16€150k
  • Next call
  • 3 wks prep
  • Equity-free

Under five years, small enterprise, team of two or more, digital track. Paid in three tranches against milestones — no MVP required to apply.

Apply this cycle

RDI aid — experimental development€180k
  • Rolling
  • 5 wks prep
  • Up to 45%

Ministry of the Economy. Covers up to 45% of a €400k project for a small enterprise, provided the work is carried out in Luxembourg.

Book the pre-application meeting

Cloud & AI credits€22k
  • Rolling
  • 2 days
  • No equity

Pre-seed, not previously enrolled. The fastest money on this board and the only one that lands this month.

Apply this week

Prepare first3
Young Innovative Enterpriseto €1m
  • 3–4 months
  • Co-matching

R&D at 71% of spend clears the 15% threshold comfortably. The instrument co-matches private capital, so it only opens once a round is closed.

Missing: Luxinnovation certificate + closed round

NATO DIANAto €400k
  • Next cohort
  • NATO member

Luxembourg is a NATO member, so the entity qualifies. The ownership declaration above has to be in place before the application is assessed.

Missing: ownership declaration

IP box, 6.75%on revenue
  • 4 wks
  • Permanent

Not a grant — a tax position that compounds for the life of the company. It needs qualifying IP, and today there is none filed.

Missing: filed patent

12-month horizon2
EIC Accelerator€2.5m
  • + up to €15m equity

The largest number on this board, and the one you cannot reach yet: it expects TRL 5–6 and you are at 4. The two bank pilots are what closes that gap.

Signal: TRL 5

DIGITAL Europe — cybersecurityConsortium
  • Next work programme

Calls are written around consortia rather than single companies. Worth a partner search once the patent is filed, not before.

Signal: call opens

Not a fit4
European Defence Fund

Requires a consortium of at least three entities across three member states. A single SME cannot apply, however good the technology.

Ineligible — structure

Eurostars, this cycle

Needs a partner in a second country. Assembling a consortium takes around four months and the next cut-off lands before that.

Too late — revisit next cut-off

US SBIR / STTR

Open only to small businesses owned by US citizens or permanent residents. A Luxembourg entity does not qualify under any structure.

Ineligible — jurisdiction

Y Combinator

7% for $125k at this valuation. Not ineligible — simply the most expensive capital available to you right now.

Skip — price

€352k
available in the Do now lane
3
routes you can act on this week
4
killed before they cost a quarter
0%
equity given up to get here

Illustrative example built on real programmes. Amounts, deadlines and verdicts are indicative — your board is checked against your own company.

Check eligibility for your company

20-second check

Does the board cover a company like yours?

Five questions, no email. These are the fields eligibility actually turns on — the ones a keyword search never asks about.

Where is the company incorporated?

Do the founders live where the company is registered?

What stage is the company?

Are you spending on R&D, cloud or compute?

Answer all four and we will tell you, plainly, whether this is worth your time.

Get early access

What you walk away with

A funding roadmap you can act on Monday morning.

Not a research report nobody reads. Four things you can put in front of your co-founder and start moving on the same day.

1

A ranked board, not a list

Every route sorted into four lanes so the order of attention is obvious before you read a single line of detail.

2

A kill list with reasons

The applications you are not eligible for, and the ones where the cost exceeds the award — each with the sentence that ends the debate.

3

A calendar of windows

Cut-offs, rolling deadlines and the date preparation has to start — so a route never closes while you were busy shipping.

4

Next steps with owners

One concrete action per live route and the person on your team who carries it. Nothing on the board is a task without a name.

What gets checked

Six kinds of startup funding, on one board.

Most tools cover one. A grant database will never tell you that $150k of cloud credits is faster, larger, and closes this month.

Money

Grants & subsidies

National and regional programs. Eligibility, deadlines, co-financing rules and the evidence each one expects before you write a word.

Tax

R&D incentives

Credits and reliefs, patent box, payroll offsets. Which of your spend qualifies, and what has to be documented to survive review.

Programs

Accelerators

Equity terms, stage fit, geography, cohort dates — including which ones are worth applying to and which are a three-month distraction.

Infrastructure

Cloud & AI credits

AWS, Azure, Google, OpenAI, NVIDIA and the rest. Often larger and far faster than a grant, and almost nobody treats them as funding.

Access

Communities & hubs

Founder networks, university partnerships, technology transfer offices and clusters — with the actual route in, not a promise of an intro.

Equity

Investors

Angels, funds and venture debt matched to your stage and sector, plus a straight answer on whether raising now is your strongest move.

The honest comparison

Why not just ask an AI, or search a database?

Both give you names. Neither can tell you whether your company clears the rules — which is the only part that decides anything.

Asking a chatbot

  • Doesn't know your cap table, residency or entity — the exact fields eligibility turns on
  • Confidently states terms and deadlines that changed last year
  • Can't tell you whether the window is open right now
  • Never tells you to skip something

A grant database

  • Returns everything matching a keyword, weighted equally
  • Covers grants only — no credits, incentives, accelerators or communities
  • Leaves you to judge fit, cost and order yourself
  • Charges by the month for a search box

CloTho

  • Checks every criterion against your actual company profile
  • Six funding types on one board, sourced and dated
  • One verdict per route, and the next step with an owner
  • Paid by you, not by the programs — so it can say no
Founder

I spent fifteen years deciding where money goes. Now that judgment is in the product.

I ran corporate budgets at €7.2 billion scale. I bought technologies and companies, applied for grants, negotiated with governments, and built the partnerships that changed what a business could reach.

Built by a founder, for founders.

15+
years in finance and capital allocation
€7.2bn
scale of budgets managed
founder of my own companies
  • CIMAInvestment Analyst
  • MBACorporate finance
Beta pricing

One price for the year. Everything else is optional.

No success fee, no percentage of what you raise, no commission from any program on the board.

The roadmap · 12 months
$290a year, beta price

Everything the board does, for one company, for a full year.

  • Every route checked against your company profile
  • All six funding types, sourced and dated
  • Four lanes, with the next step and an owner on each
  • Apply and track applications from the board
  • Twelve months of a live board — alerts when a window opens, a rule changes, or your company crosses a threshold
Get early access
Optional · with a funding strategist
$15060 minutes

A second pair of eyes on a decision you have already made on the board.

  • We walk your board together, route by route
  • Pressure-test the first move before you commit the team
  • Decide what to prepare, and in what order
  • Written summary of the calls made, same day
Add it after your map
Add-ons

Once the board is set: writing and filing the applications, finding your consortium partner, running grant reporting, building R&D documentation or setting up the entity — flat fees, quoted per case.

Twelve months from the day your map is ready. Beta price held for everyone who joins before public launch, and you pay when the map is ready — not to request access.

Questions

Questions founders ask before they start.

What does it cost?

$290 for the year during the beta — one company, everything the board does, and the board stays live for twelve months. A 60-minute working session with a funding strategist to walk through it together is an optional $150, added only if you want it. No success fee, no percentage of anything you raise, and no card charged until your map is ready.

How fast do I get my map?

The intake takes about fifteen minutes and the first board comes back the same day. After that it's live: when a window opens, a rule changes, or your company crosses a signal you set, the affected routes update and you're told which ones moved.

What if there's nothing for my company?

Then the board says so, and that's a real answer worth having early. Some companies are too young, too small, or in a jurisdiction with thin programs. We'd rather show you an honest four-route board than pad it out to twenty.

Is this just a grant database?

No. A database returns everything matching a keyword. CloTho returns a decision: which routes you qualify for today, which need work first, which to watch, and which to drop — checked against your company, not against a search term. It also covers R&D incentives, cloud credits, accelerators, communities and investors, which grant databases don't.

Do you write applications or make introductions?

The map never depends on it. We're paid for the map, not for outcomes — that's what lets us tell you to skip something. The board takes you to the door with the requirements, the deadline and the evidence list. If you'd rather not walk through it yourself, we'll write and file at a flat fee, quoted per case. Never a percentage of what you raise.

Do you guarantee funding?

No. Nobody honestly can. We guarantee the delivery — a complete, sourced, dated map of the routes open to your company — never the decision of a program, fund or agency on it.

Which countries does it cover?

North America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia-Pacific, Latin America and Africa — including the programmes that turn on founder residency and entity structure, the part that trips up every matching tool. Depth varies by country: North America and Europe are the deepest today, and the board tells you plainly when your country's side of it is thin rather than padding it out. Tell us where you're incorporated when you request access and we prioritise by where demand actually is.

What happens to my company data?

It builds your map and nothing else. It isn't sold, isn't shared with programs or investors, and isn't used to train anything. Delete it and your account at any time.

Next step

See what you qualify for before you give anything away.

Ask for access and we'll open it for you.

No card, no deck, no call. One email when your access is open.

CloTho · early access Get early access