Eligibility Requirements

To qualify as a Maine-based organization, you must:

• Be registered with the State of Maine’s Bureau of Corporations (or complete registration before funding is released).
• Maintain a regular place of business in Maine where company work is regularly conducted. A home office qualifies; a mailing address, PO box, or registered agent alone does not.
• Have at least one of the following living in Maine full-time for at least the duration of the award: a C-suite level W2 employee, or a principal or founder with significant equity ownership and an active leadership role in the company.

Contractors, consultants, and non-executive employees do not satisfy the leadership requirement.

Businesses actively participating in an approved Maine-based accelerator or university program may also be eligible at MTI’s discretion if they can demonstrate that the business plans to remain in Maine beyond the duration of the program.

For organizations with plans to establish a presence in Maine, any approved MTI funding will not be released until substantial progress has been made in securing a Maine location and activities are underway in Maine.

At higher funding levels, MTI also evaluates your long-term commitment to growing the business in Maine. A strong preference exists for companies where the Maine employee count is greater than the number in any other single state.

Either your organization or your innovation must be connected to one or more of MTI’s seven Targeted Technology Sectors:

• Biotechnology
• Composites & Advanced Materials
• Environmental Technologies
• Forest Products & Agriculture
• Information Technology
• Marine Technology & Aquaculture
• Precision Manufacturing

MTI’s focus is supporting the research, development, and commercialization of innovative technologies that empower Maine businesses to scale and generate economic impact in Maine. MTI funds innovations that:

• Drive scaling and significant Maine economic impact that the company could not achieve without them
• Create a competitive advantage by being substantially different from existing alternatives
• Have a credible path to defending that advantage against competitors over time

The innovation may originate from the company’s own work or from legitimately acquired technology (such as university research or licensed IP), provided it has not already been commercialized and the company is doing meaningful work to bring it to market. Technology that has been commercialized elsewhere may still qualify where the company is doing substantial engineering to adapt it to a materially new application or sector, beyond deploying it as-is in a new market.

The strongest fits for MTI support are innovations that involve solving meaningful scientific or technical challenges. Non-technical innovations, such as business model innovations, meet MTI’s innovation standard when the applicant demonstrates compelling evidence of defensibility and barriers to entry, validated customer demand, and significant market opportunity. Because these innovations do not have the protection that technical complexity provides, the evidence on each must be stronger.

The following are very rarely a sufficient basis for an innovation argument on their own. For them to be considered as a core basis of the innovation argument, the applicant must present a compelling and credible case that the business has a defensible competitive advantage and a clear path to scale the business and generate significant economic impact in Maine.

• Off-the-shelf technology: Purchasing or deploying off-the-shelf equipment, software, or technology
• AI wrapper applications: Building on existing AI models without solving technical challenges beyond prompt engineering
• Combining or repackaging: Existing ingredients, components, technologies, or formulations – unless the combination required solving a genuine technical challenge that substantially differentiates the result
• Incremental improvements: To existing business practices
• Geographic novelty: Being the first to offer an existing product or service in a region
• Creative works: Creating content, media, video games, or other creative works. Companies developing genuinely new creative technology such as a novel engine or development tool are evaluated on that technical work, not the creative output.
• Relationships, location, pricing, or branding alone: Competitive advantages based solely on relationships, geographic proximity, pricing strategy, or branding

This standard reflects how MTI generally evaluates innovation, not a rigid test. MTI weighs each application as a whole and retains discretion to apply the standard with judgment in exceptional cases.

MTI funds businesses that will create quality jobs and generate economic growth in Maine. Your business should have a credible path toward meaningful economic impact, and the project should advance the company along that path. What constitutes “quality jobs” varies by sector and geography, but generally means jobs that offer competitive wages and benefits relative to the regional economy. At higher funding levels, MTI expects greater economic impact with stronger evidence supporting those projections.

If you’re not sure if your project or organization contributes to economic growth in Maine, start an interest form and we can help you assess whether your project is the right fit.

MTI requires a matching investment equal to or greater than the amount of MTI funding requested. All MTI funding requires a concurrent cash investment. Cash match is weighted more heavily than other forms of match in the application review process. In some cases, MTI will consider sweat equity or in-kind contributions for part of the match, but the required proportion of cash match increases with cumulative funding level:

• $0 – $15,000 cumulative: at least 50% of match must be cash
• $15,001 – $30,000 cumulative: at least 70% cash
• $30,001 – $60,000 cumulative: at least 80% cash
• $60,001 – $100,000 cumulative: 100% cash

Sweat equity (founders’ uncompensated time on the project) is generally only accepted for early-stage companies and should represent a small proportion of total matching funds. Rates are capped at $50/hr for principals and $30/hr for all other individuals.