The Best Business Grants in Virginia

Virginia Beach

A matching grant program to support small, locally-owned, and operated businesses in the City of Virginia Beach. Façade improvement grants (FIG) are reimbursements for significant exterior improvements for small, locally owned, and operated businesses located in any commercial or industrial-zoned area within the City of Virginia Beach. Funding is not an entitlement and is available on a competitive, first-come, first-served basis until funds for the fiscal year are awarded.

The program will match small business owners', or those who lease to small businesses, investments up to $10,000,for exterior building, site, and outdoor dining improvements. Grants are performance-based and will be authorized by VBDA after successful completion and evaluation of the improvements. Paid invoices and receipts must be submitted.

$ GRANT AMOUNT

$10,000

City of Virginia Beach

AAG is a matching grant program offering $10,000 to $25,000 to support businesses between 2nd and 40th streets on Atlantic Avenue. The program offers a 50% match of investments up to $25,000 for exterior building, site, and outdoor dining improvements.

The program is for properties that are owned or leased from 2nd to 40th Street along Atlantic Avenue in Virginia Beach. All properties and applicants must be current on all City of Virginia Beach licenses, fees, and taxes.

$ GRANT AMOUNT

$25,000

City of Hampton

Grants, loans, and incentives assist eligible recipients in developing economic development plans and studies designed to build capacity and guide the economic prosperity and resiliency with the City of Hampton.

$ GRANT AMOUNT

$50,000

City of Newport News

The City of Newport News offers small grants to eligible e-commerce businesses, with a special focus on women-owned and minority-owned e-commerce businesses. Most businesses can get up to $2,500 in grant money; women and minority-owned businesses can get up to $4,500.

$ GRANT AMOUNT

$4,500

City of Newport News

The objective of the Façade Improvement Grant (FIG) program is to restore, sustain, and improve commercial properties located within the City of Newport News. The FIG program provides matching grant funds, up to a maximum of $20,000, to assist with eligible façade improvements on properties citywide that are used for commercial, industrial, office or mixed-use purposes.

$ GRANT AMOUNT

$20,000

Roanoke Economic Development

This program helps businesses grow and modernize by offering a 50/50 match on eligible equipment purchases.

Elligible businesses can receive up to $20,000 in matching grant funds.

$ GRANT AMOUNT

$20,000

City of Suffolk

The City of Suffolk offers a Small Business Improvement Grant to local retail and restaurant operations to help them fund building improvements. Businesses can get grants equal to up to 50% of their project costs, not to exceed $10,000. Companies must commit to creating at least one new, full-time job to qualify.

$ GRANT AMOUNT

$10,000

Virginia Economic Development Partnership

The International Trade Facility Grant Program gives grants to eligible international trade facilities (ITFs) that increase qualified trade activities at port facilities in Virginia. To qualify, companies must also improve their port cargo volume growth by 5% from the previous year. The grant amount is $3,500 per new job created from the increased trade activities.

$ GRANT AMOUNT

$50,000

Virginia Department of Small Business & Supplier Diversity

The SBIG program provides a meaningful return on investment from the Commonwealth to encourage individuals or special purpose entities (created for the purpose of investing in small businesses) to make cash investments in Virginia’s small businesses for working capital, growth, and expansion.

SBIG grants are awarded to eligible Investors that have invested in eligible small businesses. They are not grants awarded to the small business that received the investment.

$ GRANT AMOUNT

$50,000

Virginia Economic Development Partnership

The Supply Chain Optimization Program is designed to help Virginia businesses looking to improve their supply chain processes to pursue exporting initiatives. Eligible companies can apply for up to $10,000 in reimbursement for expenses associated with supply chain enhancement. Companies also receive expert guidance on supply chain mapping, transportation, import compliance, and more.

$ GRANT AMOUNT

$10,000

Virginia Coalfield Economic Development Authority

The VCEDA Telehealth Fund is a grant fund established to help address telehealth and telemedicine needs in the VCEDA region.

For-profit and nonprofit entities and industrial or economic development authorities in the VCEDA region are eligible to apply for funds from the VCEDA Telehealth Fund. Available funding is based upon annual appropriation from the Virginia General Assembly.

Grant funds provided by VCEDA under this program must be used for initiatives intended to address telehealth and telemedicine needs in the VCEDA region.

$ GRANT AMOUNT

$50,000

Virginia Coalfield Economic Development Authority

VCEDA’s Coalfield Workforce Development and Training Fund is a source of loan and/or grant funds to assist with workforce development and training in the VCEDA Region. Eligible applicants for the Coalfield Workforce Development and Training Fund include for-profit enterprises or entities, governmental or corporate instrumentalities in the coalfield region of Virginia, not-for-profit enterprises or entities, nonprofit industrial development corporations, economic development authorities, or industrial development authorities.

Funds may be approved as loans and/or grants. Funds may be approved and used for workforce development and training and associated costs, including costs and expenses of curriculum development, training equipment, training facilities construction, instructional materials, stipends, scholarships, tuition, internships, training or retraining instructional costs, retraining costs, recruiting expenses, job advertisements, pre-employment classes, assessments, classroom instructional expenses, process skill instruction, and/or instructor travel expenses, and costs associated with the foregoing. The program is funded from revenues that were previously generated by the Coalfield Employment Enhancement Tax Credit.

$ GRANT AMOUNT

$100,000

Virginia Economic Development Partnership

Virginia Economic Development Incentive Grants are designed to attract competitive projects to Virginia. Projects must be significant, creating hundreds of jobs in Virginia by relocating headquarters, administrative, or service sector operations to Virginia. Depending on location and wages offered, companies must create between 200 and 400 jobs, ranging from 150 to 200 percent of the local prevailing wage, and meet minimum capital or job investment requirements. Award amounts vary and are calculated based on a return-on-investment analysis, jobs and wages, capital investment, regional unemployment and poverty figures, and more.

$ GRANT AMOUNT

$1,000,000

Virginia Department of Housing and Urban Development

Virginia Enterprise Zone Job Creation Grants incentivize businesses that bring jobs to areas falling within defined Enterprise Zones. Eligible companies may claim grants for up to 350 jobs per year and must create over four full-time jobs to qualify for a five-year grant period. Awards are per-employee and range-based on the salary offered, benchmarked against the federal minimum wage or the Virginia minimum wage, whichever is higher. For jobs providing 150% of the minimum wage, companies receive up to $500 per worker. Those offering 175% of the minimum wage get up to $800 annually per worker. In areas with high unemployment, companies can receive a defined grant of $500 for jobs paying 125% of minimum wage and $800 for jobs paying 175%.

$ GRANT AMOUNT

$280,000

Virginia Economic Development Partnership

The Virginia Global Business Internship Program reimburses companies up to $6,000 for a talented university student to perform a ten-week summer internship at a Virginia company. Students will further the company’s export capacity and make progress on its international business expansion strategies. Eligible companies have at least five employees and operate in Virginia.

$ GRANT AMOUNT

$6,000

Virginia Economic Development Partnership

The Virginia Jobs Investment Program (VJIP) is a discretionary incentive that provides funding and services to qualifying companies to support new job creation or upskilling in conjunction with new or expanding operations. The cash grant and accompanying services are intended to offset a company’s recruitment and training costs.

The funding for each net new, full-time job created or full-time employee retrained is based on a customized budget determined by an assessment of the company’s recruiting and training activities, as well as the project’s expected benefit to the Commonwealth. The final budget and proposal are approved in advance of the project by the Secretary of Commerce and Trade.

VJIP support is typically for a 36-month period. Companies can be reimbursed 90 days after the new employee is hired (for new jobs programs) or after the retraining activity is complete (for retraining programs).

$ GRANT AMOUNT

$50,000

Virginia Coalfield Economic Development Authority

VCEDA operates a Renewable Energy Fund to help attract new green jobs and investment to Southwest Virginia's e-Region and to help diversify its economy.

Projects eligible for funding from the Renewable Energy Fund include commercial/industrial generation projects using renewable energy sources; manufacture of renewable energy products and components; and workforce development and training projects to prepare the region’s workforce for renewable energy jobs.

Funding is available as low-interest loans and/or grants for real estate acquisition, building construction, equipment purchases, and other physical improvements adding value to real estate, including associated soft costs. Grants are available to assist with workforce development and training, including tuition reimbursement, internships, and training equipment.

$ GRANT AMOUNT

$1,000,000

Virginia Coalfield Economic Development Authority

The Seed Capital Matching Fund provides a source of matching grant funds to assist new, startup, and emerging small businesses located within Southwest Virginia’s e-Region and to attract new small businesses from outside the region to locate here. Since the program was established in 2017, more than 200 new business startups have been assisted in the region by the Seed Capital program and hundreds of full-time and part-time jobs have been created.

The applicant must have dollar-for-dollar matching funds from one or more other sources in at least an amount sufficient to match funds requested from VCEDA. No applicant can be approved for more than $10,000 under this program.

$ GRANT AMOUNT

$10,000

Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation

VIPC’s venture capital program, Virginia Venture Partners (VVP), supports entrepreneurs and founding teams building transformative companies in Virginia. VVP invests in technology, cybersecurity, life sciences, energy, and aerospace startups through grants, pre-seed, and seed-stage funding, providing the critical support needed to fuel company growth and success.

The Launch Grant is a $50,000 grant opportunity for the next generation of transformative companies at the earliest stage of formation. Companies must meet the eligibility criteria outlined. A 1:1 non-dilutive capital or in-kind match is required.

$ GRANT AMOUNT

$50,000

City of Waynesboro

The Building Improvement Grant is an annual, competitive, reimbursable grant available for businesses in the downtown and East Main Street qualifying area to make improvements to the front of their buildings. Based on annual appropriation from City Council, the grant program is announced in July of each year with applications due in September. Applications are reviewed and scored with grantees announced in late September of each year. There are two categories of improvements: façade or landscaping, offering up to $5,000 in funding.

$ GRANT AMOUNT

$5,000