Perth Small Business Grants: Which Ones Fund Tech Work

People ask us about grants at the end of scoping calls. Is there any funding for this sort of thing?

We had never checked properly, so we did: all thirty local governments in the Perth metro area, plus the state programs. What can a small business actually get towards a website, software, automation or cybersecurity work?

Not much, and not where you would expect.

The three that actually work

City of Belmont — $10,000, no deadline

The best council grant in Perth, and almost nobody talks about it.

The Belmont Business Innovation Grant is up to $10,000, open all year round, with no co-contribution stated. It is the only council grant in the metro area that names our kind of work outright — eligible costs include "leasing, purchasing or developing IT hardware/software necessary for the project" and "website development for the project".

You need 20 or fewer employees, an ABN, and either to own your premises or hold a lease with at least two years left.

Two catches. It is merit-scored with heavy weight on novelty, so a straight website rebuild will not score well — it wants a new product, process or practice. And the guidelines PDF dates from 2022, so ring the City before counting on the terms.

City of Rockingham — $5,000, no deadline

Up to $5,000 matched at 50%, from a $50,000 yearly pool. No rounds — apply any time, answer usually inside 30 working days. Eligible work includes "new systems, tools or technology that improve productivity" and "digital solutions that create a genuine step change".

You need under 20 staff, under $10 million turnover, an ABN, premises in Rockingham, and 12 months of trading. You also have to talk to their Economic Development team before applying, which people miss.

What it will not pay for is instructive: routine marketing, SEO, social media advertising, wages, and standard software subscriptions without implementation. A build qualifies. A licence on its own does not.

City of Stirling — $2,000, but you need a shopfront

Stirling's Innovative and Productive Communities stream lists "e-commerce activities that are outsourced" and "content and app development and game development" as eligible. Quick Response is up to $2,000, open year round.

But it is matched at every tier, so a $2,000 grant means a $4,000 project. And it explicitly excludes "e-commerce activities for home based and online businesses" — you need physical premises in Stirling. Quick Response also pauses from 6 to 30 June and over Christmas.

Round Two opens around February or March 2027, dates not yet published.

Closing 30 September: City of Swan

Swan's Small Business Grants opened 1 September 2026 and close 30 September 2026. Up to $5,000 ex GST, dollar for dollar, out of a $25,000 pool. The money has to be spent between 1 January and 31 March 2027.

Digital work is not named as eligible — there is no itemised list at all — so you would be arguing it under "projects that improve operations, skills and long-term sustainability". Worth a shot if you are in Swan, but do not assume.

Every Perth council

Every shape is a link — tap your council to open its own grant page.

A few notes. Perth actively rules this work out — its guidelines exclude computers, exclude marketing campaigns, exclude anything focused on security, and disqualify online and home-based businesses entirely. Claremont looks generous on paper, but every project must have a public outcome and physically happen in the Claremont Town Centre, and virtual events are excluded. Gosnells is painting and awnings. Melville is worth watching — a search result suggested digital software funding in its refreshed program, but the source page is dead, so no figure here. And Peppermint Grove, the smallest council in the metro area, runs a heritage conservation scheme and charitable donations for not-for-profits, and nothing for business.

Not one council in Perth names cybersecurity, automation or AI as eligible spending.

Shut, but coming back

City of Cockburn — reopens May 2027. From a $100,000 annual pool, with a named "digital technology and cybersecurity" category funding "software, hardware, or services". The best-worded council grant in Perth. One thing to do now: you have to be subscribed to the City's business e-news to be eligible.

Local Capability Fund — closed 3pm, 4 September 2025. Under review, no new date. The state program that fits this work best: $25,000 for "software purchase and integration, cyber audits and mitigation strategies, automation of business processes", or $50,000 for robotics and IoT, both at 50%.

Innovation Booster Grant — up to $50,000. Opened 10am, 10 March 2026. Closed 4pm, 30 March 2026. Twenty days. For startups and product ideas. Since 2021 it has put $6.6 million into nearly 200 WA founders.

We can vouch for this one. Co-Connect, a workforce platform we built and co-own, was a 2026 recipient — $45,390 towards rostering and facilities management. So the notes above about scoping the project before the round opens are not theoretical.

Commercialisation Bridge Grant — $50,000 to $250,000. Closed. You contribute 35%, or 25% if you are regional, First Nations-founded or female-founded.

Small Business Growth Grants — $10,000 matched. Opened 10am, 4 August 2025. Closed 5pm, 3 October 2025.

The Innovation Booster is the lesson here. Twenty days from open to close. If you start thinking about your project when a round opens, you have already missed it.

And if you are in one of the twenty-six councils with nothing useful — which is most of you — the Local Capability Fund is the one to watch rather than your council. Its eligible list reads almost exactly like a scope of work, it is worth five to ten times any council grant, and it is under review rather than cancelled.

Also open: creative industries

If you are a creative business, DLGSC has four rounds running, and digital work counts when it serves the creative project — ticketing, an archive, an online catalogue.

What they all want

They knock back vague applications, not small ones.

1. A clear problem. Not "we want to modernise". Something specific going wrong, with a number on it — hours lost, orders typed in twice, a compliance job you do by hand.
2. A clear solution. Explained well enough that someone non-technical can see it is a plan and not a wish.
3. A quote. Written, itemised, from a named supplier with an ABN. This is where most applications fall down.
4. A timeline. Dates, finishing inside the funding period.
5. A result you can measure. "Improved efficiency" is not one. "Quotes out same day instead of three days" is.

We are a software firm in Fremantle. We do not write grant applications. But if you want to talk through what you are trying to build, come and have a coffee.

Sources

Every council in the table above links to its own grant page. Checked on 9 September 2026 (yesterday). Several council pages are themselves out of date — Belmont's guidelines are from 2022, Claremont's live page returns an error, Melville's 404s — so confirm with the council before relying on anything here.

• Local Capability Fund: Digital Transformation Round — Government of WA
• Innovation Booster Grant and the 2026 launch statement — Government of WA
• Commercialisation Bridge Grant — Government of WA
• Small Business Growth Grants — SBDC
• Creative industries funding — DLGSC
• Grants register for WA industry — Government of WA

Photo credits. All images used under the Unsplash License — free for commercial use, attribution appreciated:

• The Fremantle Rainbow at sunset — Corey Serravite
• Red dirt road through the outback — Dylan Shaw
• A stack of floppy disks — Vincent Botta