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digitisation funding
05.06.2024
How the ‘Digitalbonus Bayern’ subsidy supported the path to a successful app
Karl Tsaltas
Marketing & Content Creation
According to a press release from the Bavarian State Ministry of Economic Affairs, Regional Development and Energy, the Digitalbonus Bayern funding programme will be extended for a further six months (as of January 2024).
<p>According to a press release from the Bavarian State Ministry of Economic Affairs, Regional Development and Energy, the Digitalbonus Bayern funding programme will be extended for a further six months (as of January 2024). This offers excellent opportunities for small and medium-sized companies in Bavaria to push ahead with digitalisation projects. These include, for example, the development of their own software or application.</p>
<p>The development costs of digital products can be high, depending on the requirements and scope of the features. For this reason, our client, <a href="casestudy-abimanufaktur" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Abimanufaktur GmbH</a>, also decided to apply for funding in order to cover part of the development and design costs incurred. Our client's efforts to obtain the funding definitely paid off, as today their application developed by us is in great demand.</p>
<p>We asked Paul, founder and CEO of Abimanufaktur, to provide us with more information about the Digitalbonus and to share his experiences with you. Who knows, maybe you have an exciting digitalisation project of your own, but no funding options on the horizon yet.</p>
<h3>You received the "Digitalbonus" grant for your digital product. What is the digital bonus, how did it help you and how exactly did it work?</h3>
<p><strong>Paul: </strong>The digital bonus is financial support from the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs, specifically for digitalisation projects. It enabled us to finance part of our development costs for our digital product, an app. Contrary to what you might expect with grants, the application process was really quick and smooth via the online portal. In particular, we were asked for a lot of information about our company structure, which we were able to provide ourselves without any problems and without external help.</p>
<h3>What exactly did you receive the funding for and in what amount?</h3>
<p><strong>Paul</strong>: Our company supports high school graduates in the creation of their graduation newspapers. Originally, we used an external service for this, but we quickly reached our limits. That's why we wanted to launch our own scalable product with our own corporate identity and the features that are important to us. We wanted to have our service, a digital editorial system in the form of an app, subsidised. The grant totalling 8,500 euros enabled us to finance part of the development and design costs. Although the overall costs were much higher, the digital bonus was still a huge support as it covered part of the costs.</p>
<h3>How long did you wait for the funding?</h3>
<p><strong>Paul</strong>: It went really quickly. After founding the company, we applied for funding for our product six months later and received approval within two months. This shows that even newly founded companies have the opportunity to benefit from funding quickly.</p>
<h3>How did typedigital support you with your project?</h3>
<p><strong>Paul</strong>: We had to apply for the funding ourselves on behalf of our company; no external support is required for this. typedigital GmbH supported us with the planning and development of our product. The requirements for our product were defined in a professional scoping workshop prior to development. The workshop showed us the effort required for product development, which is particularly important in order to know the costs that need to be specified when applying for funding.</p>
<h3>What requirements must be met?</h3>
<p><strong>Paul</strong>: Everyone should research the exact requirements individually. However, one crucial point is that only projects that have not yet been started are eligible for funding. It is therefore not possible to fund projects that have already started or are ongoing. It is therefore very important to know as much as possible about the planned product before submitting an application, especially with regard to the features required to describe it precisely. The scoping workshop with typedigital therefore proved to be crucial and informative in order to be able to provide the necessary information. We knew in advance exactly how high the development costs would be.</p>
<h3>What advice do you have for young companies considering the funding?</h3>
<p><strong>Paul</strong>: Although the Digitalbonus did not cover the total cost of our product, it was an excellent support in the development and successful market launch of our editorial system. My advice to young companies is: if you have an idea, take a chance and give it a try. The application process is not complicated and can definitely be worthwhile. I therefore encourage everyone to consider the Digitalbonus as a supporting element for their own project.</p>
<h2>Dear Paul, thank you for sharing your experience of the digital bonus.</h2>
<p>Are you also planning to develop a digital product and need support in terms of advice and development? Then send us a message! We look forward to hearing about your project.</p>
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