Small Business Grants Ottawa (2025): 27 Best Funding Programs for Ottawa Entrepreneurs

Invest Ottawa’s vision is for Canada’s Capital to be the best city in the world for all women founders and business owners to launch, grow and scale commercially successful, globally oriented and sustainable companies.

We are on a journey that we know will take time, long-standing leadership, and extensive community collaboration. But we’re determined to move the dial and to create long-lasting change.

The Tourism Relief Fund (TRF) was a Government of Canada investment delivered by the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario that provided one-time, non-repayable funding support of up to $100,000 to eligible tourism businesses and organizations in the Ottawa and Prescott-Russell region.

The program supported costs related to product development and enhancement of tourism experiences to help tourism businesses adapt to the ‘new normal’, modernize tourism offerings, and encourage the adoption of more environmentally sustainable practices. Funding also supported destination development initiatives that would position communities to take advantage of post-pandemic opportunities through strategic planning for medium to long-term investments.

The TAF is a pilot funding program that aims to address specific gaps in our destination’s visitor experience and increase the destination’s accessibility by funding tourism businesses to improve the level of accessibility in their businesses. The intention of the TAF is to ensure that Ottawa can provide an amenity-rich experience for visitors with disabilities. The application-based grant program will allow businesses to upgrade their built environment and in-destination experiences.

SheBoot is tackling the funding gap facing women entrepreneurs by increasing the number of women making and receiving investment. We’re charting a new path for women founders—to grow, scale and compete globally.

The Save on Energy BizEnergySaver program is designed to help industrial, commercial and institutional (ICI), and multi-residential building owners and operators make equipment improvements to reduce their energy consumption. The program helps address local electricity system constraints in Ottawa and in the Richview South area in Toronto by offering upfront incentives and direct installation of LED upgrades, adaptive lighting controls in areas such as exit stairwells and parking garages, high bay lighting upgrades and controls, variable frequency drives (VFDs) for pump systems and fans, and parking garage exhaust fan controls.

Invest Ottawa currently runs multiple intellectual property (IP) programs and can provide referrals to other IP programs where appropriate. The good news is we’ve harmonized these resources into a central access point with our IP team and IP advisors.

With a competitive landscape where tech firms compete to get market share, the role of intellectual property (IP) is becoming an increasingly important factor of success. Get ahead of the game and ensure you know the threats and opportunities of IP. Invest Ottawa has resources to support your IP needs and to recommend next steps in your IP journey

IP Assist, an IRAP funded program, is available to companies to increase their IP knowledge and to better understand the threats and opportunities specific to their innovation and business. This program is structured into two steps:

Level 1 – IP Education: receive 2 hours with an IP Professional to better understand IP and what role IP can play in transforming your innovation into valuable IP assets.
Level 2 – Robust IP Strategy Up to $18k in funding to provide your company with an analysis of the technical and competitive landscape of your innovation along with providing a prioritized IP action plan that will support your company in making go/no-go decisions on new market opportunities, new products, and competitive risk.

This program is for high-growth technology firms that have reached $2 million in revenue or capital and are on track to generating $100 million or more

A 10-week program for entrepreneurs who want to validate a tech startup idea and establish a solid foundation to build their business on.

IO Flex gives founders and business leaders access to early-stage advisors, cost-saving startup perks and a network of like-minded peers

For tech firms with early market traction, this program offers expert guidance from experienced advisors to help you establish and grow your business in multiple markets

The program teaches youth the practical skills for starting up a successful business during the summer break. We then coach and fund them to run it.

The Starter Company Plus program offers free training and mentorship to support early-stage, non-tech, Ottawa-based businesses.

The Immigrant Founder Launchpad is a collaboration between Invest Ottawa and Maple Bridge Ventures.
The Immigrant Founder Launchpad will prepare first-generation immigrant tech founders to raise investment.

In five weeks, we will cover topics like developing your financing strategy, achieving and demonstrating traction, and perfecting your pitch. Most importantly, the program will open doors by providing exclusive networking opportunities and warm introductions to potential funders.

Our Global Expansion team helps businesses that are seeking to expand their global footprint in Ottawa and those already established in the city scale up their enterprises.

The ARTicipate Events and Performance Grant supports public-facing artistic presentation and activity at the Shenkman Arts Centre.

ElevateIP is designed to support the improvement of IP Knowledge, the development of IP Strategy, and the creation of IP assets for startups in Eastern Ontario.

Invest Ottawa, Launch Lab, and Spark Centre are collaborating with Communitech and ISED to deliver a 3-tiered program:

Tier 1: IP Education through training sessions, workshops, and online resources.
Tier 2: IP Strategy development including patent mining and prior art searches, trademark searches, agreement reviews, and more.
Tier 3: IP Creation such as patent drafting/filing/prosecution, trademark registrations, licensing agreement creation, Open-Source audits, and more.

The E-Commerce Accelerator program equips established entrepreneurs with expert support, peer networks, and actionable training to help scale their annual recurring revenue. This is a bootcamp style program that will provide dedicated learning delivered over two days followed by six months of peer group sessions.

This bootcamp is designed for early-stage startups designing a solution to tackle challenges in the healthcare industry. In just five weeks, we will cover a variety of topics including data protection and privacy regulations, selling into health care institutions and hospitals, legal and IP strategies, regulatory landscape, investments, and US vs. Canadian markets. Our goal is to bring together experienced founders, industry experts and healthcare professionals. Most importantly, it will provide the critical knowledge and connections to push the startup forward.

Ottawa Tourism’s Destination Development Fund assists tourism businesses and organizations in developing quality tourism products and experiences that encourage the competitiveness of its tourism sector, stimulate increased destination visitation and visitor spend, and encourage private sector tourism investment in Ottawa.

The ARTicipate Creation and Development grant supports the exploration, experimentation, and development of new artistic work for one week in the Richcraft Theatre at the Shenkman Arts Centre.

OCAF is excited to announce our Climate Equity Granting program, developed to further our commitment to equity and Reconciliation in climate action. This program is designed to ensure that climate action not only involves but is led by the communities it aims to serve – emphasizing our commitment towards communities that have historically been excluded from environmental dialogues.

Get real-world guidance from an experienced business expert that’s specific to your business needs and your business challenges

The Artist Takeover Program offer a unique opportunity for Arts Ottawa to connect, collaborate, and uplift artists within our community.
Selected artists will have access to our Instagram platform where they can showcase their work through Instagram LIVE and stories. We prioritize equity-deserving groups and strive to center marginalized voices. Artists have access to our platform for 24 hours but are only required to be online and active to complete the deliverables. Any time spent on the account afterward is optional.

ARTicipate grants are intended to spark and support artistic activity at the Shenkman Arts Centre. The ARTicipate LaLande + Doyle Exhibition Space Grant supports public presentation and exhibition by visual artists and visual arts groups within the Shenkman Arts Centre’s LaLlande + Doyle Exhibition Space. This may include individual, collaborative, or group exhibitions.