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AFO · Grants & refundable tax credits

Non-dilutive, project-scoped capital — when the eligibility fits.

Federal and provincial grants plus refundable tax credits don't dilute ownership, don't carry interest, and don't have to be repaid. The trade-off is that every program is project-scoped with specific eligibility criteria, application windows, and reporting obligations a CPA needs to manage carefully.

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What makes this family distinct

  • Non-dilutive, non-interest-bearing capital — preserves ownership.
  • Project-scoped: eligibility, application windows, and reporting matter.
  • Stacks cleanly under senior debt or alongside an ABL revolver.

What this family is

Grants & refundable tax credits

Federal and provincial grants plus refundable tax credits (SR&ED-style) — non-dilutive, project-scoped capital.

Government grants — Strategic Innovation Fund, NRC IRAP, SDTC, CanExport, the regional development agencies — fund up to 25–50% of project costs as non-repayable contributions. The eligibility narrative matters more than balance-sheet strength: the project must demonstrate technical innovation, environmental benefit, market entry, or regional economic impact, depending on the program.

Refundable tax credits behave like cash once the corporate return is filed. SR&ED refunds 35% of eligible R&D expenditure for CCPCs up to $3M of qualified pool, with provincial top-ups stacking on top. The Clean Tech ITC refunds 30% on eligible equipment investments. Provincial digital-media credits refund 17–40% on eligible labour. The CPA scopes the eligible pool, files the claim, and tracks the refund through to deposit.

Grants and credits also stack well with debt — most large industrial projects layer a SIF contribution under a senior debt facility, or run a SR&ED claim alongside conventional working-capital financing. The Capital Toolkit engagement models the stack and sequences the applications so the timing actually works.

8 programs in the catalog · 3 live

The programs in this family.

Each card links to the program profile. Coming-soon programs are surfaced honestly — the screener routes there with a consultation CTA instead of a self-serve apply link until the integration is wired through.

Other families

Compare against the other capital options.

Most real-world deals end up stacked — senior plus a grant, RBF plus a tax credit, equity plus a working-capital revolver. The full picture is rarely one family.

  • 7 programs

    Debt

    From the $50K equipment loan through to a $25M mezzanine layer, debt is rarely a single instrument. The right answer is usually a structure — senior plus ABL, senior plus a grant, equipment plus a working-capital revolver — modelled before you walk into any lender meeting.

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  • 1 program

    Equity

    Equity is the most expensive capital — once you've sold a share of the company you can't buy it back at the same price. The Capital Toolkit equity bucket exists to introduce founders to the right type of capital partner at the right stage, with the cap-table impact modelled before any term sheet is on the table.

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  • 3 programs

    Alternative structures

    Revenue-based financing, royalty deals, equity crowdfunding, and hybrid structures fill specific gaps where conventional debt is too restrictive and equity is too dilutive. Each instrument has a distinct cost profile that the CPA models before commitment — the apparent simplicity often hides a higher effective cost of capital than the headline rate suggests.

    Explore the family

Land on the right instrument before the first conversation.

Twenty-minute call. Bring the use of proceeds and a rough sense of where the business stands today — we’ll walk through which instrument or stack fits, what the providers will want to see, and how long the engagement takes.

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