Raise Buddy

Find money you can actually apply for.

Paste your website. Raise Buddy checks you against 48,110 real grants, loans, credits and prizes and says which you can apply for, in the funder's own words.

Find my matches Try the Pro demo
  1. 1Paste your site
  2. 2See what you can apply for
  3. 3Apply on the funder's site

Free to search. No account needed.

Raise Buddy's matches for a four-person AI startup in Austin, in the Pro demo: the counts it can apply for, is one step away from and is unclear on, then each card with the funder's icon, the amount in green and the No blocker found badge; the AI House Incubator comes first
No blocker foundThe funder takes small businesses
$225,000 to $1.3MNASA SBIR/STTR
One step awayRegister at SAM.gov (free)
In the funder's wordsEvery claim quoted and checked

Programs from more than 31,400 funders, among them

  • NIH
  • NASA
  • NSF
  • USDA
  • SBA
  • H-E-B
  • Tractor Supply
  • Walmart
  • Gates
  • UKRI
  • National Lottery
  • EU
48,110real programs checked for you
25sources, re-read every day or week
30countries: the US, the UK, the EU's 27 and Australia, plus startup credits anywhere
0guesses: unknown is never shown as yes
US foundations (IRS Form 990-PF) 21,088Hand-checked catalog 8,900Aides-territoires (France) 3,181BDNS (Spain) 2,755aides-entreprises.fr (France) 2,475findfunding.vc's early stage VC funds 2,107Transparenzportal (Austria) 1,893Grants.gov 1,613The SBA's lenders and investors 588EU Funding & Tenders 539jGrants (Japan) 419StartupPerks 372More US states 367SAM.gov loans and payments 321business.gov.au (Australia) 284NSW Grants and Funding (Australia) 250Sourcey 218California Grants Portal 186RVO (Netherlands) 147UK Find a Grant 140Australia GrantConnect 135Defense SBIR and STTR 73Innovate UK competitions 22National Lottery Community Fund 22Federal prize competitions 15
How it works

A straight answer for every program.

Most grant lists hand you thousands of links. Raise Buddy reads the rules for you and says, for each one, whether it is for you.

1

Say what you do

Paste your website or write a few sentences. The AI drafts your profile, and you check it.

lanternlabs.ai
What Raise Buddy read
Small business Austin, Texas AI Health Founded 2024 4 people
2

Every rule, checked

Fixed rules decide, not a guess: who may apply, where, the deadline, the registrations it asks for. When one thing stands in the way, it says what to do.

Small businesses may apply
Open anywhere in the United States
Closes Oct 15, 2026
You are not registered at SAM.gov, and this funder requires it
One step away What to do: register at SAM.gov (free; allow 2 to 4 weeks)
3

In the funder's own words

Every answer quotes the funder, checked word for word on their page. You apply on the funder's own site.

“entrepreneurs, startups, and small businesses with less than 500 employees can receive funding and non-monetary support to build, mature, and commercialize their technologies”
Found on the page NASA (Space Technology Mission Directorate)
Worked examples

Four real searches, checked every hour.

Made-up organisations, real programs from today's catalog, checked by the server every hour. Open one to see the whole search.

Iowa family farm

Corn and soybeans, starting to sell grass-fed beef

“Miller Family Farm: we grow corn and soybeans on 600 acres near Ames, Iowa, and we're starting to sell grass-fed beef straight to customers. It's the two of us plus two seasonal hands, farming since 1998. We'd like help paying for solar panels to run our grain dryers.”

12 of 12 checks pass this hour
State Revolving Loan Fund (low interest conservation loans)Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship · $5,000 to $500,000No blocker found
Grow-NY Food & Agriculture Startup CompetitionGrow-NY · $250,000 to $1MOne step away
Farm Storage Facility Loans (FSFL)Farm Service Agency · $100,000Unclear
Open the whole example

Houston food bank

A 501(c)(3) running mobile pantries and summer meals

“We're Bayou City Food Bank, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in Houston, Texas. We run mobile food pantries in low-income neighborhoods and serve free summer meals to children. About 25 staff and hundreds of volunteers.”

11 of 11 checks pass this hour
BByrd Family Foundation grantsByrd Family Foundation · $1,000 to $10,000No blocker found
The Good Samaritan Foundation grantsThe Good Samaritan Foundation · $3,000 to $50,000No blocker found
WWinfred and Elizabeth Moore Foundation grantsWinfred and Elizabeth Moore Foundation · $10,000 to $45,000No blocker found
Open the whole example

UK young carers charity

A registered charity in Newcastle, England

“Carers Together North East is a registered charity in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. We support children and teenagers who look after a parent with an illness or disability, with after-school clubs, respite trips and one-to-one support.”

11 of 11 checks pass this hour
Group Activity HolidaysHappy Days Children's CharityNo blocker found
Cash for Kids local grant roundsCash for KidsNo blocker found
Group Day Trips & Visiting TheatreHappy Days Children's CharityNo blocker found
Open the whole example

Austin AI startup

Four people building AI scheduling for clinics

“Lantern Labs is a four-person software startup in Austin, Texas, founded in 2024. We build AI tools that help small clinics schedule patients and cut no-shows. We are not registered at SAM.gov yet.”

12 of 12 checks pass this hour
Foresight Institute Grants – AI for Science & Safety Nodes RFPForesight Institute · $30,000 to $100,000No blocker found
Deep FundingArtificial Superintelligence Alliance · Up to $100,000No blocker found
NASA SBIR/STTR Program (incl. software & AI subtopics)NASA (Space Technology Mission Directorate) · $225,000 to $1.3MOne step away
Open the whole example
Beyond grants

A raise plan, with 25 other ways to raise.

Grants are one way to raise. You also get the other ways that suit you, strongest first, each with a first step.

Your own customersFriends and familyAngel investorsSAFE (simple agreement for future equity)Convertible noteAcceleratorsVenture capitalEquity crowdfundingRewards crowdfunding (pre-orders)Revenue-based financingSBA-backed loansFarm Service Agency loansCommunity lenders (CDFIs)Small business research grants (SBIR and STTR)Prizes and pitch competitionsIndividual donorsCommunity foundationsCompany givingDonor-advised fundsFiscal sponsorshipProgram-related investmentsGift AidSEIS and EIS investorsStart Up LoansInnovate UK

A board of 10 advisors to prepare you.

AI advisors built from the public advice of founders, investors, lenders and grant officers. None is a real person.

The accelerator partner
The seed investor
The angel investor
The Series A investor
The founder who has raised before
The bootstrapper
The research founder
The grant program officer
The nonprofit fundraiser
The lender

WITH PROThe board reads your organisation and your matches, and writes what to do first.

The advisors' review in Raise Buddy's raise plan: the first moves for an AI startup
Bring your own AI

Your AI can use it too.

Raise Buddy is an MCP server. Claude, ChatGPT or any MCP app can search the catalog, check whether you can apply and keep your applications list while it works with you. Add it as a connector and sign in with Connections: no key to copy. It comes with Pro.

$ claude mcp add --transport http raise-buddy \
  https://raise-buddy-api.lunawerx.workers.dev/mcp
# then /mcp in Claude Code to sign in with Connections

Search free. Pay for the size of money you are after.

Every plan checks every program, shows your whole list and opens the first three matches of each section. Past those, what a program offers decides the plan that opens it. Try each in its demo first.

Free
$0
  • Opens the first three matches of each section, in full
  • Then programs that offer up to $1,000
  • Your whole list: each program's kind, amount, deadline and whether you can apply
  • Your profile kept on every device
  • Your list of applications, stage by stage
  • Your raise plan and your board
Try the Free demo
Plus
$14.99 a month, or $119 a year
  • Everything in Free
  • Opens programs that offer up to $5,000
  • Opens grants that state no amount
Try the Plus demo
For a real raise
Pro
$199 a month, or $1,589 a year
  • Everything in Plus
  • Opens every program of any size: the large grants, the loans and the investors
  • The advisors' written review of your organisation and your matches
  • Your own AI connected: Claude or any MCP app
Try the Pro demo

A program larger than your plan opens still shows its kind, its amount, its deadline and whether you can apply; its name and how to apply open with the plan. Without an account a list ends after 5 matches. Plans are monthly and cancel any time; Stripe takes the payment, and it shows on your statement as CONNECTIONS GLOBAL.

Straight answers.

Does Raise Buddy apply for me?

No. It never sends anything to a funder. You apply on the funder's own site, and Raise Buddy keeps track of where each application stands: saved, researching, drafting, submitted, awarded.

Where do the programs come from?

From their sources, read again every day or every week: Grants.gov, SAM.gov's loan and payment programs, the Defense Department's SBIR topics, federal prize competitions, the states that publish their grants (California, Pennsylvania, New York, Texas, Iowa and more), the UK's Find a Grant, Innovate UK's competitions and the National Lottery Community Fund, the EU Funding & Tenders Portal, Australia's GrantConnect, business.gov.au and New South Wales' grants finder, France's Aides-territoires, Spain's BDNS (every administration down to the town halls), the Netherlands' RVO, Austria's Transparenzportal, Japan's jGrants, the US private foundations that take applications (from their own tax returns), two open startup-credit datasets and a hand-checked catalog. Each program links to where it came from.

Could the AI invent a program or a rule?

No. The programs come from real sources, and fixed rules pick your matches, not the AI. The AI only reads websites and fine print, and every claim it makes about a funder must quote the funder's own words, found on the page, or it is thrown away.

What do "No blocker found", "One step away" and "Unclear" mean?

No blocker found: the checks Raise Buddy could make (your kind of organisation, your place and any rule it could read) found nothing in the way. Other rules may still apply, so read the funder's own, and it is not a promise of money; the funder decides. One step away: you could apply but for one thing you can fix, such as registering at SAM.gov, and it says how. Unclear: the funder's words do not settle it either way. Raise Buddy never counts an unknown as a yes, and tells you what to ask the funder.

Which countries does it cover?

The United States (federal programs and the states that publish their grants), the United Kingdom, the European Union and Australia, plus startup credits open to companies anywhere. More sources are added as they are checked.

What are the demos?

Three demo accounts, one per plan, that you open with a click and no sign-up. Each browser tab gets its own copy of the worked example, which starts over every day and cannot buy anything. Your own account is yours alone.

Why do I sign in with Connections?

Connections is the account behind LunarWerx's apps. Signing in keeps your profile and your list on every device. You only need it to keep your work; searching is free without it.

See what you can apply for.

It takes a minute: paste your website and read your matches. Nothing to install, nothing to pay to look.

Find my matches Try the Pro demo