PEI business grants and loans: see which you qualify for

Data as of October 4, 2026 · Reviewed by Khalid Hamadeh, Founder

GrantCompass is an independent funding database, not a government office. Some features are paid.

Which one are you?

• Starting a business

  Start with Small Business Assistance (up to $5,000 in year one). If you are launching an innovative product with export potential, the Ignition Fund awards up to $25,000 in competitive rounds.

  See what fits a PEI startup

• Looking for a loan

  Finance PEI's Micro-Loan goes up to $15,000; a CBDC lends rural businesses up to $150,000; Futurpreneur lends up to $75,000 if you are 18 to 39.

  Match me to PEI loans and grants

• Need help with a business plan

  An Innovation PEI Business Development Officer helps for free, and Small Business Assistance pays half a consultant's fee for a business plan, up to $2,500.

  See the help I qualify for

• Growing or exporting

  The Innovation Fund pays 50% of a new product's commercialization costs, up to $50,000, for exporters in strategic sectors. For larger projects, ACOA's interest-free scale-up loans.

  Find growth funding for my business

• Hiring

  Employ PEI covers up to 50% of a new hire's wages, to $12.50 an hour. Strategic-sector exporters can add the Labour Rebate, up to 25% of new full-time salaries.

  See hiring support I qualify for

• Hit by U.S. tariffs

  ACOA's Regional Tariff Response Initiative gives non-repayable help to tariff-hit businesses with at least $1 million in revenue. Innovation PEI posted a Tariff Impact Relief Fund on September 1, 2026.

  Check what my business can get

Not sure which one you are? Answer the questions at the top of this page and the map narrows every programme to the ones your business can actually get.

Who funds PEI businesses? Seven organisations compared

Almost every search for business development programmes, assistance or loans in PEI leads to one of these seven. The biggest difference between them is whether you pay the money back.

What business development programs are there in PEI?

On the Island, "business development" covers three things: free advice, small cost-share grants, and loans. Innovation PEI's Business Development team handles the first two from offices across the province. These are the programmes behind most searches for business development assistance, help and resources in PEI:

• Free advice. Innovation PEI's Small Business Development Officers give one-on-one support at no cost. Its Business Navigator helps with permits and regulations, and LaunchPad PEI, a non-profit incubator managed by Innovation PEI, offers office or lab space and is a designated Start-up Visa incubator.
• Small Business Assistance. Pays 50% of professional fees for business plans, marketing plans or a first website, up to $2,500 a year, plus up to $2,500 for marketing in a business's first year. Details below.
• Strategic Improvement Assistance. Helps pay for outside experts on efficiency, internal planning and quality-assurance projects.
• Capital Acquisition Assistance and the Small Business Investment Grant. Equipment, technology and leasehold improvements; the grant pays 15% of eligible costs, up to $3,750 a year.
• Marketing Assistance and Export Trade Assistance. Marketing and trade-mission costs for exporters; they now carry the support the ended Export Enhancement and Diversification Fund used to offer.
• ACOA's Business Development Program. Interest-free, unsecured repayable funding for up to 50% of a business's capital costs, and contributions for up to 75% of training, marketing and productivity work. Non-profits that help small businesses can apply too.

Fishing, farming, banking and property-development businesses cannot use Small Business Assistance, and farms, fishers and real estate firms are also excluded from the Small Business Investment Grant. Farms and food producers have their own route: see PEI agriculture grants.

What business loans can a PEI startup or growing business get?

Most startup money in PEI is a loan, and the right lender depends on how much you need, where you live and how long you have been selling.

Where can I get help with a business plan in PEI?

Free help exists, and the province will pay half of a consultant's fee if you want a professional plan. In the order most founders use them:

1. An Innovation PEI Business Development Officer. One-on-one support at no cost; they will look at your idea and point you to the programmes you may be eligible for. Call 902-368-6300 or email [email protected].
2. Small Business Assistance for a paid plan. It covers 50% of a consultant's fee for a business plan, marketing plan or market research, up to $2,500. An Island resident who is actively planning to start a business may get planning support before the business is registered. Apply before you hire the consultant.
3. Your CBDC. The three PEI CBDCs give business advice alongside their loans, which helps if the plan is for a loan application.
4. Futurpreneur, if you are 18 to 39. Its application needs a business plan and cash-flow forecast, and every loan comes with up to two years of one-on-one mentorship.
5. A loan application that teaches the plan. Finance PEI's Micro-Loan application has its own business plan section and a cash-flow template, a useful outline even if you apply elsewhere.

Is there a $5,000 government grant for small businesses in PEI?

These are the government grants a small or new PEI business can realistically get. Most of them ask you to pay part of the cost, and each one wants the application in before you spend.

Innovation PEI and provincial programmes: status as of October 4, 2026

The provincial programmes a PEI business is most likely to use, checked against our catalogue and Innovation PEI's own programme list. Most accept applications year-round, but every one requires you to apply before you spend.

PEI funding by the numbers: what our catalogue shows

We track every grant, loan, tax credit and support programme a Canadian business can use, and check each one against the funder. Counting the ones open to a PEI business that have not closed, the split below answers "grant or loan?" for the Island. The map at the top of this page also counts programmes between intakes. Of the 344, our catalogue listed 244 as accepting applications on October 4, 2026.

• The Island's own money is all grants, and all small. Every PEI-only programme is non-repayable, and none is a large capital grant: most cap between $1,000 and $60,000.
• The Atlantic layer is where the loans are. Six of the 18 Atlantic-only programmes are loans, and only 2 of its non-repayable programmes are taking applications, one of them for non-profits only.
• Most of the choice is national. 305 of the 344 programmes are open to businesses anywhere in Canada, from NRC IRAP to SR&ED, and a PEI business competes for them on the same terms.

Innovation PEI runs the province's business programmes from Charlottetown, with advisers across the Island. Aerospace is the clearest cluster: Innovation PEI counts more than 900 aerospace jobs on PEI, most of them at Slemon Park outside Summerside. UPEI and Holland College are frequent research and training partners on federal R&D and skills projects.

Is ACOA funding a grant or a loan in PEI? What 831 agreements show

The Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency publishes every grant and contribution it signs, with the assistance type: grant, non-repayable contribution or repayable contribution. We pulled every ACOA agreement with a PEI recipient that started on or after April 1, 2021, kept the latest amendment of each and dropped cancelled ones: 831 agreements worth $296.9 million.

• For a business's own growth project, ACOA is a lender. In the stream a business applies to, 131 of 148 agreements (89%) were repayable. ACOA describes that money as interest-free and unsecured, which is better than a bank, but it is still repaid.
• Most ACOA dollars in PEI are non-repayable, but they mostly went elsewhere. 70% of the $296.9 million was non-repayable, and most of it went to non-profits, communities and two relief funds that have ended (Hurricane Fiona and Tourism Relief).
• Tariff relief is the exception. All 17 PEI agreements under the Regional Tariff Response Initiative were non-repayable. ACOA's current terms: up to $2 million for liquidity and up to $1 million for a pivot project, each up to 50% of costs, for incorporated businesses with at least $1 million in revenue that can show tariff exposure.

Federal programmes that apply in PEI too

National programmes work the same way on the Island as anywhere else. These are the ones PEI businesses ask about most.

Stacking a provincial and federal package

You can usually combine programmes, within one rule Innovation PEI prints on its programme pages: combined funding from all non-repayable government sources cannot exceed 75% of eligible costs. That rule counts non-repayable money; loan programmes set their own limits. Three combinations that work in PEI:

Every application asks what other government funding you have received or applied for on the same project. Disclose all of it.

How to apply

There is no single PEI funding portal. You apply to each programme through the organisation that runs it.

1. Talk to Innovation PEI first. Call 902-368-6300 (toll-free 1-800-563-3734) or email [email protected] and ask for a Business Development Officer.
2. Decide grant, loan or tax credit. Provincial grants are small cost-shares; growth capital is usually a loan; R&D is often recovered through SR&ED.
3. Apply before you spend. Innovation PEI programmes require an application before any financial or legal commitment, and IRAP cannot fund work already under way.
4. Have the basics ready. A business description, written quotes for the costs, financial statements (or a business plan if you are new) and a list of other funding.
5. For a loan, go to the lender. A Finance PEI Account Manager, your CBDC office, Futurpreneur online, or ACOA's PEI office for scale-up funding.
6. Claim SR&ED at year-end. File within 18 months of your fiscal year-end; there is no extension.

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