Thai Government Grants Available 2019

In 2018 we wrote by far our most popular article which covered what government grants were available for startups in Thailand. You can find the article here:

Thai Government Grant’s Available to Startups

A lot has changed since then. After a catastrophic decline in the Startup ecosystem in 2017 things are slowly starting to improve. Funding levels are increasing with numbers around 50% of what they were at the peak in 2015/16.

Digital Ventures Thailand Comparison in 2016

So what are the grants available for founders in Thailand?

THAI Government Funding for Startups/SMEs

1. TCG credit guarantee program

Thai Credit Guarantee Corporation (TCG) is a state-owned specialized financial institution governed by Thai Ministry of Finance. The incentive aims to strengthen the confidence of financial institutions in providing credits to SMEs and Start-Ups, so that they could obtain a greater amount of credit from the institutions.

This year, the ministry of finance has approved TCG, an 8-billion-baht loan guarantee in total for SMEs, startups and innobiz with the credit guarantee period of 10 years.

TCG will provide loans:

• up to 5 million baht for SMEs, entrepreneurs and startups
• up to 10 million baht for juristic SMEs, entrepreneurs and startups
• 10 million baht for individuals with innovations
• 40 million baht for juristic entities that innovate.

The submission deadline is 25 February 2021.

DRVR’s Take on this: This is effectively a government guarantee for a loan. DRVR made inquiries about this to both the banks involved and the TCG. Very limited information was available in English and the banks wanted a mountain of paper work. The likelihood of startups qualifying for this program is very slim and the rates of interest on offer were not appealing (being able to pay back the loan is a critical requirement — startups burning cash would find it difficult to do that).

NSTDA Startup Voucher Year 4

The National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA) is a science and technology research agency under the Thai Government. NSTDA provides up to 800,000 baht grants for companies to expand business opportunities both in and outside the country.

Condition:

• Available only for juristic persons incorporated under Thai laws, between 1st January 2012 and December 31st, 2016 and has Thai citizens hold share of not less than 51%.
• Your business needs to be science related, technological or innovative.
• The product or service has already been developed, has existing customers with traction and has the potential to grow.
• The business model is likely to generate revenue no less than 1 million baht in an 8 month period.
• The team has the capability to execute on proposed strategies in order to reach the company’s goals.
• Any business that has received grants for 2 years is no longer eligible to apply.

The submission deadline is 28 February 2020.

DRVR’s Take on this: For Thai founders this program is appealing and should be looked at. It’s a grant so no need to repay the money. We met with NSTDA and the process for application and paperwork seemed fairly minimal. That said there was little to no information available in English. Worth a look for Thai founders.

1. OPEN INNOVATION by National Innovation Agency (NIA)

National Innovation Agency (NIA) is a Public Organization under the Ministry of Science and Technology. NIA’s main role is to develop Thailand’s innovation ecosystem by working together with different organizations from various fields such as academia, technology, industry, finance and investment.

NIA provides funds supporting two groups:

1. Thematic innovation
2. Open innovation

For Thematic innovation, NIA provides financial support up to 5 million Baht for SMEs and startups that use IoT ( Internet of things ) technology in 6 key focus areas:

• Healthcare
• Food
• herbs for chronic non-communicable diseases
• national defence
• Travel
• smart logistics and manufacturing industry.

This program will be available at the beginning of the year.

For Open Innovation, NIA provides financial support up to 1.5 million baht/project for SMEs or startups that has business innovation models that can be repeatable and scalable to gain exponential growth under the fields; bio-economy, production, recycling economy, and service and the sharing economy.

Conditions:

1. Entrepreneur of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) as defined by the Ministry of Industry.
2. A juristic person registered in Thailand holding 51% of the share capital and held by a Thai national.
3. The particular project has not been supported by other agencies.
4. bankruptcy in accordance with the judgment of the court in civil cases, or previously convicted in criminal cases is not permitted to apply.

NIA will provide grants in the form of a “coupon” mechanism, which will be divided into compensations such as, innovative service provider pay (ISP), consultant wage, Feasibility Analysis (Feasibility).

The submission deadline is 31 December 2019

DRVR’s Take on this: For Thai founders this program is appealing and should be looked at. It’s a grant so no need to repay the money. There was little to no information available in English. Worth a look for Thai founders. If you get funding from the NSTDA then you can’t get funding from NIA.

1. DEPA Funding

DEPA Digital Start Institute is an institute under the supervision of the Digital Economy Promotion Agency, focusing on promoting digital startups in order to develop the country’s digital economy. The institute focuses on developing the ecosystem for digital startups to capture business opportunities domestically and globally. DEPA provides funding for digital startups, digital manpower, digital research & development and innovation to create events and marketing to help transform their businesses, build communities and improve Thailand’s digital infrastructure.

Conditions:

1. The company or juristic person registered not more than 3 years.
2. The project in under digital industry relating to agriculture, health, education, finance, robotics and manufacturing.
3. This program will be held in English.

DEPA aims to provide funding for 2 projects and will invest up to 1 million baht/project.

DELTA Angel Fund

Since 2015, Department of Industrial Promotion together with Delta Electronics Thailand, provides grants for entrepreneurs and startups with business ideas that relate to two core focus areas

1. Improving quality and efficiency through industrial automation, under 7 topics: smart-city, system integration, training center, Smart-farming, smart-homes, logistic systems and asset management.
2. Conserving the environment with responsible energy and water management technology: under the topics related to Circular Economy such as responsible energy and water management technology.

Conditions:

1. Individual or team not more than 2 people in total.
2. SMEs that are not over 5 years
3. General publics or students who have innovative ideas and seeking to funding opportunities.
4. New generation entrepreneurs who aim to expand or develop their existing family business.
5. Those who passed the screening round need to complete at least 80% of the training programs provided by the organization, in order to pass through the pitching round.
6. The amount of funding will be varied depending on the investors involved in the program.

The registration period is generally at the end of the previous year of the program.

DRVR’s Take on this: This program is situational at best. Firstly on the DEPA funding this is tied to various training courses and certification requirements like ISO 9001. This might be useful if you are in manufacturing or supply chain but of limited value for Digital Startups. The Delta Angel fund is also aimed at the same sector but really focused on SME.

Marketing Credits/NIA Coupons

This program was actually one of the best programs on offered we know of several startups whose entire marketing budget was based on these credits. Any spend you did on marketing both online and offline could be recouped. We have not be able to find any information on this program and NIA staff told us “No have” so we assume this has been dis-continued.

Overall Comments on Grants and Government Support

Compared to Singapore, Malaysia or HK the grants available in Thailand are poor. That said the market size of Thailand is potentially much larger than those other markets and other than Malaysia the costs are lower (at least for early stage startups). As your startup grows the costs of Thai government audits and compliance become heavy in Thailand.

Unless you are in BioTech, Deep Tech or MedTech grants should be looked at as a bonus not as the main way to fund a business. A few years back our CEO and Founder David was intereviewed by Human Asia on whether Thailand is a good place to launch a statup you can find the article here:

David Henderson - driving the fleet analytics for Asia - Human Asia

Next blog post will be interviewing him again and asking the question again three years on.