Finep Brazil 2026 Non-Refundable Innovation Calls for Companies and Startups

Finep Brazil 2026 Non-Refundable Innovation Calls for Companies and Startups

There is no single grant called the “Finep Startup Innovation Grant,” and there is no universal award amount for a startup. Finep (Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos) publishes separate chamadas públicas under its non-refundable innovation funding route. Each call has its own thematic lines, budget, technological-maturity rules, eligible costs, counterpart requirements, partners, and closing time. A startup is considered as a company applicant only when it satisfies the particular edital; the word “startup” does not replace the legal or technical tests in that document.

The official starting point is the Finep opportunities hub. It separates direct non-refundable funding for companies and ICTs from non-refundable funding operated by agents, reimbursable credit, and indirect venture-capital routes. This page is about the direct company calls in the 2026 Finep Mais Inovação Brasil – Rodada 2 package, with a short explanation of the agent route for smaller companies.

Finep’s current site also exposes the non-refundable route as a separate opportunity category. The older /chamadas-publicas address resolves to the opportunities hub, but the hub is the URL to keep bookmarked.

What is open in the 2026 cycle

Finep’s current public-call pages show a group of Rodada 2 selections still open to company applicants. The first deadline is 2026-08-31. It applies to:

The second closing date is 2026-09-30. The open calls are:

Finep’s call pages pair each closing date with the submission cutoff for that call. Treat the displayed date and time as a hard electronic cutoff, and check the specific page again before submission in case Finep publishes a rerratificação. The opportunity metadata uses 2026-08-31 because it is the earliest live deadline across the portfolio; it does not mean that every Rodada 2 call closes that day.

Amount and type of support

The Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation and Finep announced a package of about R$3.3 billion in non-refundable resources across 13 2026 calls. That is a package total, not an amount a single company can request. The announcement assigns R$500 million to Transição Energética and R$300 million each to Cadeias Agroindustriais, Saúde, Tecnologias Digitais, and Base Industrial de Defesa. The individual call pages and their regulations control the actual project range and any division among thematic lines or regional groups. The Economia Circular e Cidades Sustentáveis page identifies a R$150 million call budget.

This is a subvenção econômica, meaning non-refundable public support for eligible innovation activity. It is not a loan, and it is not an equity investment. Finep’s general description also explains that the State and the company share project risk, so a counterpart contribution may be required. The amount, eligible counterpart form, maximum share, and permitted costs must be read in the selected call’s regulamento rather than copied from another call.

The headline totals should not be read as a promise of a small fixed startup ticket. A company proposing a narrow product improvement may not fit a call whose minimum project size, technical scope, or consortium rule is much larger. Conversely, a startup with the right technical project can compete as a Brazilian company even when it is small. The decisive evidence is the company’s CNPJ, the project plan, the technology line, and the call’s eligibility section.

Who can apply

For the direct Rodada 2 calls, Finep identifies the public target as empresas. The 2026 package announcement says Brazilian companies of all sizes may compete, but that broad statement does not waive the conditions in a particular regulamento. Your company should have an active Brazilian CNPJ, a legal representative able to submit and sign, and a project that fits the call’s named thematic lines. The proposal must show research, development, or technological innovation with associated risk; ordinary expansion, routine commercial work, or a product description without a technical work plan is not enough.

Some calls add a required ICT relationship. For example, the official Transição Energética page describes company projects carried out with an ICT partnership, and the Economia Circular e Cidades Sustentáveis page makes the company–ICT partnership mandatory. Do not assume that an informal adviser, customer, or university conversation satisfies this rule. Confirm the required role, documents, work share, and signature in the annexes.

There is a separate route for smaller businesses through Finep’s agents. The official Tecnova description says eligible companies are Brazilian companies of any size located in a participating state, with gross revenue in the last fiscal year of no more than R$16 million. Finep sets the general rules and transfers the federal resources; the selected state or regional agent publishes the local edital, runs the selection, contracts the companies, and monitors the projects. A startup should therefore look at its state agent for the actual application notice instead of treating the direct Rodada 2 deadline as the Tecnova deadline.

What is no longer an open application

The Rodada 2 Subvenção Econômica Regional page records a revised closing date of 2026-04-09, so it is not a current application route. The Prêmio Mulheres Inovadoras, 7ª edição – 2026 records an application end date of 2026-05-11 in its official call schedule. Those are useful historical references, but neither should be substituted for the live Rodada 2 deadlines above.

Finep also offers indirect investment and agent-operated programs. Those should not be described as the same grant. In the venture-capital route, Finep selects fund managers; a founder does not submit a Rodada 2 subvention proposal to a fund-manager selection. In the agent route, the state or regional partner publishes the startup-facing notice. Follow the route that matches the instrument you need.

How to apply to a direct call

1. Start at the Finep opportunities hub and choose one open Rodada 2 page whose thematic lines match the technical work. Do not submit the same generic pitch to every call. A project about digital infrastructure belongs in a different regulatory framework from one about energy storage or sustainable agroindustry.

2. Download the Regulamento and every relevant annex. The call page is a summary. The regulation determines the technology lines, minimum and maximum project value, duration, technology-readiness range, counterpart, company and ICT roles, ineligible costs, evaluation criteria, and contracting conditions. If those documents disagree with a third-party summary, follow the official documents and ask Finep’s call mailbox.

3. Register the company and legal representative in Finep’s Plataforma de Apoio e Financiamento. Each Rodada 2 page links the Manual do Cliente for cadastro, the FAP manual, and the resources manual. Registration data must match the company’s official records. Finep lists [email protected] for cadastro questions.

4. Build the proposal in the FAP (Formulário de Apresentação de Proposta) and complete the resources section. Tie every activity to a technical milestone, responsible person or partner, cost, deliverable, and measurement method. Explain the unresolved technical problem and why the proposed work carries real development risk. A market-size paragraph is useful context, but it cannot replace the technical case.

5. Attach the documents named in the regulation and confirm any ICT or co-executor paperwork. Check tax, corporate, legal-representation, partner, and counterpart records early. Finep’s call pages also provide tutorials for linking a user to an already registered company; use the official tutorial when the company account and applicant account are separate.

6. Submit electronically through the platform before the deadline shown on the call page. Save the protocol and the final submitted version. A draft in the system is not a submission. If a technical or eligibility question remains, send it to the mailbox on the official call page and retain the written response.

Reading the call before spending time on a proposal

The most important checks are practical:

• Scope: map the product, process, or service to a named thematic line. A broad claim that a project is “innovative” does not cure a thematic mismatch.
• Technology maturity: verify the permitted starting and ending TRLs. The call may accept a prototype, a validated process, or a later demonstration, but the range is call-specific.
• Partners: determine whether an ICT is mandatory, whether a co-executor is allowed or required, and which partner performs each work package.
• Money: identify the project floor, ceiling, counterpart percentage or form, and which personnel, equipment, services, travel, and materials are allowed.
• Timing: confirm whether the system opening differs from the publication date and whether a later rerratificação changed a form or deadline.
• Contracting: read the outorga terms, reporting duties, procurement rules, and technical and financial prestação de contas requirements before treating an award as unrestricted cash.

The official call pages make the manuals, FAP instructions, resources instructions, tutorials, question mailbox, deadline, source of funds, public target, and situation visible together. That makes the Finep page the right place to start each application, while the regulamento remains the controlling document.

Preparing a Proposal That Survives Review

Finep evaluates projects, not companies. The proposal has to describe technological risk — a genuine chance the thing might not work — with a defined start, defined milestones, and a defined end. A better user interface is not technological risk. A new process route, a device that has to hit a performance specification nobody has hit domestically, a model validated against a hard accuracy target in a real operating environment: those are.

Practically, that means:

Write the technical differential explicitly. State what the current standard is, what you are proposing instead, and why the gap is not trivial. Reviewers include technical assessors who will look for the uncertainty.

Build the budget bottom-up, tied to activities. Person-months by role, quoted equipment costs, third-party services, taxes and social charges. Every line should map to a stage in the work plan. A budget that does not reconcile with the methodology is the most common reason a technically sound proposal loses points.

Get fiscal documents early. Federal, state, and municipal tax regularity certificates, FGTS clearance, corporate documents, proof of legal representation, financial statements. These expire. Tell your accountant the deadline the day you decide to apply.

Say what happens after the money. Reviewers want a credible path from funded prototype to adoption — a corporate partner, a procurement channel, a follow-on funding route.

Name the risks. Technical and market risks with actual mitigations — alternative methods, backup suppliers, staged validation — read as competence. Claiming there are none reads as inexperience.

Frequently asked questions

Is this a loan? No. The Rodada 2 instrument is non-refundable subvenção econômica. Finep also offers reimbursable credit, but that is a separate route with separate terms.

Can a startup apply? Yes, if it is a Brazilian company that satisfies the selected call. The call page’s “Empresas” target and the regulation’s conditions matter more than the label startup.

Does every call have the same amount? No. The R$3.3 billion figure is the 13-call package total. Each edital sets its own budget and project limits.

Is an ICT partner always required? No, but some calls require one. Transição Energética and Economia Circular e Cidades Sustentáveis explicitly describe the company–ICT relationship, so read those rules before choosing either route.

What if the company is below R$16 million in revenue? Check both routes. That threshold is part of Finep’s general Tecnova agent model, while direct Rodada 2 calls use their own rules and are not limited to that revenue band.

Where do I submit? Direct Rodada 2 proposals go through Finep’s Plataforma de Apoio e Financiamento using the FAP and resources forms. Tecnova proposals go through the relevant state or regional agent when its local edital is available.

Next steps

Open the official Finep opportunities hub, choose the non-refundable company route, and compare your project with the 2026-08-31 and 2026-09-30 call groups. Download the regulamento and annexes before estimating the request. Confirm the CNPJ and legal representative in the platform, identify the required ICT or co-executor, and build the FAP around technical milestones and eligible costs. Submit early enough to resolve registration or upload problems, then retain the protocol.

Finep’s pages can change as rerratificações, FAQs, and results are posted. Recheck the official page, the current regulation, and the submission receipt immediately before treating a call as open or a budget as available.