Money for founders, the honest map.
Everything on this page follows one rule: the provider's own page is the truth, not ours. Programmes change monthly, so the maintained numbers live in the playbook on the front page — this page is the map around them, plus a guide you can question.
ask the guide
AI-generated answers — can be wrong; the official pages win · up to 10 questions a session · we store nothing you type — messages go to Google's Gemini service only to generate the reply · privacy
credits — the short version
Potentially £6,000+ in cloud and AI credits — on your own accounts, direct from the providers, at a cash cost of £0. Every one is an application, decided by the provider under its current eligibility rules; approval is theirs to give, not anyone's to promise, and programmes change monthly. The catalogue below carries the catch for each and the date we last checked. Their pages are always the truth.
| Programme | What you can get | The catch |
|---|---|---|
| AWS Activate | Credits by application — amounts and packages are at AWS's discretion under the current terms (updated Jan 2026). | No fixed self-serve figure any more: apply, don't assume. Credits are non-transferable. checked 24.08.2026 |
| Microsoft for Startups | $200 on joining; $5,000 once your registered company passes business verification. Usage milestones can grow it — $25k at five sustained Azure workloads, up to $150k at production scale. | The ladder is usage-driven and takes months of real building. Treat $5,000 as the plannable number. checked 24.08.2026 |
| Google for Startups Cloud | $2,000 Start tier (12 months, plus a year of Workspace Business Plus) for pre-funded startups. | Needs a working MVP, a company under 24 months old, and Google's discretion. Larger tiers require qualifying investment. checked 24.08.2026 |
| NVIDIA Inception | Free membership: training credits, engineering resources, hardware discounts, investor visibility. | It's a membership, not a cheque — no blanket GPU grant. |
| Cloudflare | Startup programme covers paid plans for a year; the free tier alone carries most pre-launch products. | Programme terms shift — check the current cohort criteria. |
| GitHub | Free org tier is genuinely enough at this stage; the startup programme adds Enterprise seats for a year. | The startup programme wants a partner affiliation. |
| MongoDB Atlas | Atlas credits — commonly cited at around $500 self-serve. | Not verified against an official figure as of 24.08.2026 — their page is the truth. The free cluster may be all you need for months. |
| Notion | Up to 6 months of paid plans free with a partner code. | Without a code the offer shrinks — ask; codes are everywhere. |
money without giving up equity
Start Up Loans
Government-backed personal loans for starting a business — borrowed by you, not the company, with free mentoring attached. A loan, not a grant: it gets repaid whatever happens.
startuploans.co.uk — their eligibility page is the truthThe King's Trust Enterprise Programme
For founders aged 18–30: free courses, mentoring, and routes to funding. No company needed to start, no equity ever taken.
kingstrust.org.ukInnovate UK
Competitive government grants for genuine R&D projects — real money, real applications, and months of process. Best once you have something innovative and evidenced, not week one.
ukri.org — Innovate UK funding finderUniversity enterprise funds
If you're a student or recent graduate, your university likely runs grants, competitions and incubation support that outsiders can't touch. Ask your enterprise office by name.
your university's enterprise / innovation pagesequity money, when it's time
SEIS and EIS are UK tax reliefs for investors who buy new shares in early companies — they make your company more attractive to invest in, but they matter only when someone is actually writing a cheque. Nothing to do in week one except know they exist. When the time comes, the rules live at gov.uk and a professional should check your eligibility — this page doesn't give tax advice.
red flags — read this one twice
- Credits are always free to claim. Anyone charging to "get you cloud credits" is selling you your own paperwork.
- "Guaranteed grants" do not exist. Grants are competitive by definition; a guarantee is the tell.
- Never pay to apply — to an incubator, an accelerator, a grant, or a credits programme. (Ours is free too; that's the point.)
- Equity-for-credits schemes — swapping shares in your company for cloud vouchers — price your equity at almost nothing. Walk away.
- Check anyone offering money on the Companies House register. It's free, it takes a minute, and it ends most conversations early.