Raise Buddy
Grants, loans, credits and prizes

Find money you actually qualify for.

Paste your website or say what you do. Raise Buddy checks you against 3,795 real programs, read from their sources, and shows which ones you qualify for, what one step stands in the way, and what is unclear, in the funder's own words.

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Free to search, no account needed. The Pro demo is a shared account: nothing to sign up for.

Raise Buddy's matches for a four-person AI startup in Austin: a Foresight Institute grant it qualifies for, and NASA's SBIR program one step away
You qualifyThe funder takes small businesses
$225,000 to $1.3MNASA SBIR, closes Oct 15
One step awayRegister at SAM.gov (free)
In the funder's wordsEvery claim quoted and checked
3,795real programs checked for you
13sources, 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
Grants.gov 1,530EU Funding & Tenders 483More US states 325StartupPerks 324SAM.gov loans and payments 321California Grants Portal 172Hand-checked catalog 170Sourcey 142Australia GrantConnect 128UK Find a Grant 115Defense SBIR and STTR 48National 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 a profile: what kind of organisation you are, where you are, and what you work on. You check it and fix anything it got wrong.

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

Every rule, checked

Fixed rules decide each verdict, not a guess: who may apply, where, the deadline, the registrations a funder asks for, how old the company is. When one thing stands in the way, it says what to do about it.

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 carries the sentence it came from, checked word for word against the funder's page, with the link. Then you apply on the funder's own site, and keep your list of applications here.

“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. Each example lists what a right answer has to show, and the server checks it against the live catalog 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.”

11 of 11 checks pass this hour
You qualifyIowa Energy Center Grant ProgramEconomic Development Authority (Iowa) · Up to $1M
You qualifyRural Energy for America Program (REAP)Rural Business Cooperative Service · $2,500 to $500,000
You qualifyFood for Progress (FFPr)Foreign Agricultural Service · $10-40 million
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
You qualifyJohn P. McGovern Foundation GrantsJohn P. McGovern Foundation · $500 to $10M
You qualifyThe George Foundation Nonprofit Grants (Fort Bend County)The George Foundation
You qualifyAmeriCorps State Grants in Texas (AmeriCorps Texas)OneStar Foundation
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
You qualifyPathways to Work Innovation FundDepartment for Work and Pensions · £1 to £10 million
You qualifyThe Solidarity FundThe National Lottery Community Fund · £1,000,000 to £5,000,000
You qualifyYouth Jobs GrantDepartment for Work and Pensions · £3,000 to £25 million
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.”

11 of 11 checks pass this hour
You qualifyNVIDIA Inception program for AI startupsNVIDIA
You qualifyForesight Institute Grants – AI for Science & Safety Nodes RFPForesight Institute · $30,000 to $100,000
One step awayVercel AI AcceleratorVercel · $8M
Open the whole example
Beyond grants

A raise plan, and a board to prepare you.

Grants are one way to raise money. Every organisation also gets the other ways that suit it, strongest first, each with its official rules and a first step.

25 other ways to raise

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

AI advisors built from the public advice of well-known founders, investors, lenders and grant officers, seated for your kind of organisation. None is a real person, and none is named.

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 PRO

The 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, or any MCP app, can search the catalog, check whether you qualify and keep your applications list while it works with you. It comes with Pro.

$ claude mcp add --transport http raise-buddy \
  https://raise-buddy-api.lunawerx.workers.dev/mcp \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer <your key>"
find_fundingget_opportunitycheck_eligibilityget_raise_planget_profileupdate_profileprofile_from_websitetrack_opportunityupdate_applicationlist_applications
Plans

Search free. Pay when it pays.

Every plan checks every program. Paid plans show more of the list and bring in the advisors and your AI. Try each one first in its demo.

Free $0
  • The first 15 matches of every search
  • 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
  • Everything in Free
  • Every match for every search, not just the first 15
  • Every program you are one step away from, with what to do about it
Try the Plus demo
For a real raise Pro $199 a month
  • Everything in Plus
  • The advisors' written review of your organisation and your matches
  • Your own AI connected: Claude or any MCP app
Try the Pro demo

Without an account you see 5 matches a search. Plans are monthly and cancel any time; Stripe takes the payment, and it shows on your statement as CONNECTIONS GLOBAL. The demos are shared accounts that start over every day and cannot buy anything.

Questions

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 and National Lottery Community Fund, the EU Funding & Tenders Portal, Australia's GrantConnect, 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 "One step away" and "Unclear" mean?

One step away: you would qualify 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 shared accounts, one per plan, that you open with a click and no sign-up. Everyone trying Raise Buddy shares them, they start over every day as a worked example, and they 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 qualify 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