50 Startups Funded Without Equity: 2025 Report Q1

How founder-first funding is reshaping the startup landscape — one grant at a time

In the not-so-distant past, “startup funding” almost always meant giving up a piece of your company. For decades, equity was the default currency of innovation — founders handed over shares, and in return, investors wrote checks. But in 2025, that’s no longer the only way to build.

Today, equity-free funding has crossed a tipping point — no longer fringe, no longer experimental, and definitely no longer rare.

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