It's an investment, not a grant. Fifth Star Funds invests in founders and the companies they're building. You don't pay it back, and it isn't free money either. If a grant is what you need, the list is further down.
A standard post-money SAFE with a $4M cap and a 20% discount. It converts to a small piece of your company when you raise a priced round. If the company closes, you owe us nothing. If it exits, our share comes back to the fund and goes out to the next founder.
At least one co-founder who has faced material barriers to accessing capital due to racial discrimination. Headquartered in Chicago. At the Friends & Family stage, before any priced round. Tech-enabled and built to scale. Less than $25,000 previously raised in equity. A corporation or an LLC. The full criteria and the rubric.
We run an evaluation cycle every quarter and read every application ourselves. Between cycles we hold applications for the next one. The application is on our Apply page.
A grant is money you keep with no strings past the reporting. An investment means someone owns a small piece of what you build and wants it to get big. If you're building a company that could be worth a lot more in five years, an investment is usually the better fit, and it comes with people who've done it. If you're building a business you plan to own outright, a grant or a small loan will suit you better. The list below is for that.
We're a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, which is why people assume we make grants. We don't. Being a nonprofit changes where the returns go, and the terms are a standard investment. How the fund works.
Chicago has a lot of help for founders at this stage. These are the organizations we send founders to when we're not the right fit. Some make grants, some lend and some run training, and all of them work with early founders.
Want to know who sends founders to us? It's on our About page.
The application takes about 30 minutes, and we read every one.
Updates on the founders we back and the work behind the checks.
