Grants and Funding

Grow with Grants & Funding

The Stellar Development Foundation offers grants and funding to projects building on and contributing to the growth of both the Stellar network and Soroban, Stellar’s native smart contracts platform. Explore our grants and award programs below and see if you’re eligible to apply today.

Stellar Community Fund

The Stellar Community Fund (SCF) is an open-application awards program that draws on community input to support developers and startups building on the Stellar network and Soroban. Qualified submissions may receive awards of up to $100,000 worth of XLM at a time. SCF rounds run every 4 weeks.

  • For developers, startups, and full-fledged companies building on the Stellar network

Bug Bounty Program

Have a gift for catching bugs in code? Individual developers that discover vulnerabilities and exploits in the Stellar protocol or any of the code in our repos can earn awards up to $250,000 worth of XLM. Awards up to $50,000 paid in USD can also be earned for possible exploits discovered in the Soroban platform.

  • For individual developers discovering vulnerabilities in the Stellar protocol or any of the code in our repos

Marketing Grants

Marketing can make or break a product. SDF offers Marketing Grants of up to $100,000 awarded in USD, USDC, or XLM to support the growth and user acquisition of projects built on the Stellar network. The funds from Marketing Grants provide support for digital and offline marketing, in-app incentives, PR, and communications.

  • For both new and existing projects with a live product built on the Stellar network

Matching Fund

The Matching Fund is an investment track within the Stellar Enterprise Fund. SDF will match investments raised from lead investors up to $500,000 in USD for earlier stage companies interested in building on the Stellar network.

  • For earlier stage companies (Pre-seed to Series B)

Academic Research Grant

Students and researchers can earn academic grants from SDF up to $150,000 in USD. Grants are awarded to research proposals that advance SDF's goals of financial inclusion, fast and inexpensive cross-border payments, efficient decentralized markets, and other beneficial applications of distributed ledger technology.

  • For students and researchers

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More Funding Sources

The Stellar Development Foundation also offers other sources of funding. There is no application for these programs; we find promising enterprises and engage with them.

Enterprise Fund

The Stellar Enterprise Fund is a venture-style fund for growing the network, including direct investments or acquisitions in companies.

Learn More

Currency Support

Currency Support funds support issuing stablecoins, offering deposit-withdrawal endpoints, or market-making efforts on the network.

Learn More

Infrastructure Grants

The Infrastructure Grant program supports projects that provide crucial network utility.

Learn More

Read the SDF Mandate

See all grants in one place and get live updates on our progress towards achieving our goals of greater access to the financial system.

Read the Mandate