Israel Tnufa Pre-Seed Grant Program 2026

The Tnufa program provides grants of up to 85% of approved expenses, with a maximum of approximately NIS 200,000 for a single entrepreneur or NIS 400,000 for a team of two or more. Eligible expenses include prototype development, proof of concept, patent filing, market research, and business plan preparation. The grant is designed to help validate ideas before seeking larger seed-stage funding.

Tnufa is designed for individual entrepreneurs or small teams at the earliest stages who have not yet established a company or have only recently incorporated. Applicants must be Israeli residents or citizens proposing a technology-based innovation. The program is administered by the Israel Innovation Authority and does not require repayment, making it one of the most founder-friendly early-stage grants available.

Tnufa serves as a pipeline mechanism within Israel's innovation ecosystem, providing initial validation capital that strengthens applications to larger programs such as the Incubator Track or R&D Fund. Completing a Tnufa-funded feasibility study demonstrates viability to follow-on evaluation committees. Approximately forty percent of alumni successfully transition to more substantial Innovation Authority instruments within eighteen months.

Tnufa covers intellectual property assessments, preliminary prototype construction, market research surveys, regulatory pathway analysis, and professional consulting fees. Grants reach up to two hundred thousand shekels covering approximately eighty-five percent of approved budgets. Recipients retain full IP ownership, distinguishing Tnufa from incubator arrangements involving equity dilution. General overhead and marketing expenses are excluded from reimbursable categories.

Tnufa welcomes applications from recent immigrants bringing specialized technical expertise acquired in former countries of residence including semiconductor fabrication experience from East Asian manufacturers, pharmaceutical formulation knowledge from European research laboratories, and artificial intelligence algorithm development capabilities from North American technology companies. Evaluation committees assess technology differentiation claims through independent expert consultation panels. Hebrew language proficiency requirements remain flexible for recent arrivals when technical documentation demonstrates sufficient commercial communication capability. Integration support services connecting immigrant founders with Israeli business culture orientation, legal system navigation, and banking relationship establishment complement financial grant provisions.

Tnufa reimburses prototype development costs encompassing printed circuit board fabrication, three-dimensional printing of mechanical enclosure components, injection mold tooling for small-batch plastic part production, and electronic component procurement for functional demonstration units. Software prototype expenditures cover cloud hosting infrastructure provisioning, user interface design contractor fees, and application programming interface integration development. Customer discovery research costs including focus group facilitation, usability testing laboratory rental, and survey instrument distribution represent qualifying market validation activities. Independent laboratory testing services verifying product performance claims against published specification standards substantiate technical milestone achievement documentation.