Digitalpraemie Berlin: Closed Since 2023, What Replaced It

Search for “Berlin small business grant” in English and you will still find the Digitalprämie in listicles and relocation guides. It was a good programme. It is also gone, and has been for almost three years.

This page is for two groups: founders who arrived recently and keep seeing the name, and owners who received the grant and want to know whether anything still applies to them.

What the Digitalprämie paid for

IBB, Berlin’s state development bank, still keeps the programme page online. The terms were simple:

• Grant of 50 percent of eligible net costs, capped at 17,000 euros.
• Open to Berlin SMEs with up to 249 staff, and to full-time solo self-employed people earning at least 26,000 euros a year.
• The business had to be founded before 31 December 2021.
• First come, first served, applications until 31 December 2023.
• One grant per company, ever.

Eligible spending covered digital workflows, inventory systems and IoT platforms, IT security including backups and penetration tests, and consulting or training. Consultants were capped at a day rate of 1,000 euros and had to follow the BSI’s IT-Grundschutz standards. Training providers needed ISO 27001 certification, AZAV accreditation or authorisation under the federal go-digital programme.

What made it popular was breadth. A flower shop in Prenzlauer Berg could put an inventory system, a backup solution and a staff workshop into one application. Nothing in Berlin works that way in 2026.

If you were funded, check this now

IBB required that every funded purchase stayed in the Berlin premises for at least two years after the project was completed, and that it was used in the Berlin business.

Do the arithmetic. If you applied in late 2023 and finished the project during 2024, your retention period may run into autumn 2026. Moving the business to Potsdam, selling the funded till, or taking the funded laptop to a new job in Hamburg could trigger a repayment claim during that window. The binding date is in your Zuwendungsbescheid, the funding notice.

• Find the project completion date in your final report (Verwendungsnachweis)
• Add two years to get the end of the retention period
• Keep a list of funded devices and licences with serial numbers
• Ask IBB Business Team before selling, moving or closing the business
• Store invoices and payment records with your other accounting documents

Tax retention rules apply on top. Under section 147(3) of the German Fiscal Code, accounting vouchers must be kept for eight years since 2025, books and records for ten.

The successor that also closed

The Digitalprämie page still points visitors to the Berliner InvestitionsBONUS for new digitalisation projects. That programme paid up to 30 percent under the de minimis rules, covered software licences and even rented software-as-a-service, and focused on retail, hospitality, tourism, services and crafts.

Today IBB Business Team states that the application system is closed and that the programme “has been ended and will not be relaunched”. Applications already filed are still being processed.

1. 31 Dec 2023Last day to apply for the Digitalprämie Berlin.
2. End of 2024The last extension of the federal go-digital programme ends.
3. By Oct 2026Berliner InvestitionsBONUS ended, Coaching BONUS no longer offered.
4. 30 Sep 2026Federal funding for the Mittelstand-Digital Zentrum Berlin ends.
5. 31 Dec 2026Current BAFA consulting subsidy guideline expires. No successor published as of October 2026.

Source: IBB, IBB Business Team, Mittelstand-Digital Zentrum Berlin, BAFA

What you can use instead

None of these is a like-for-like replacement, but together they cover part of the ground.

Criterion	Digitalprämie (to 2023)	October 2026
Till, inventory, software	50 % grant	loan or one-year depreciation
IT security, backup	50 % grant	KfW loan, level 1 or 2
Consulting, workshop	50 % grant	BAFA: 50 % up to €1,750
Tech project with a university	partly	Transfer BONUS up to 70 %

The BAFA consulting subsidy is the closest thing to the advisory part of the old grant. For Berlin it covers half of a consultant’s fee up to 3,500 euros, so 1,750 euros at most, and it runs until the end of 2026. Our guide to the BAFA consulting grant covers eligibility and the order of steps.

The Transfer BONUS pays up to 70 percent and 45,000 euros for digitalisation projects, but only for tech-oriented companies working with universities or development firms. KfW’s ERP digitalisation loan finances hardware, standard software and cloud migration through your bank, with a grant component only from level 2. Everything currently open is compared in our overview of digitalisation grants in Berlin.

Already bought the equipment? Bad timing

The obvious question: can a purchase you made last month still be funded? Almost never.

KfW explicitly excludes refinancing of projects that have already started or finished. IBB’s microloan has the same rule. At BAFA, signing the consulting contract counts as the start. The Transfer BONUS lets you start only after approval, and accepting the research partner’s offer already counts as starting.

What does work retroactively is tax. Under a Ministry of Finance circular from 22 February 2022, computer hardware and software can be written off over one year, though a standalone cash register may not qualify. With a 30 percent marginal tax rate, 3,000 euros of hardware cuts your income tax by roughly 900 euros. No application, no waiting.

Why English-language guides still list it

The Digitalprämie was widely covered while it was open. Pages written back then tend to stay in search results long after the facts change, simply because they have collected links over the years, and relocation blogs rarely go back to update a funding list.

There is also a language gap. IBB announces closures on German pages first, often in a single sentence. The English versions of IBB pages are thinner, and many programme pages simply say they are not available in your language.

For an international founder, that means two habits pay off. Read the German programme page, even if you need a translation tool for it. And treat any English summary older than twelve months as a lead to check, not as a fact.

One more practical point. Every Berlin and federal programme mentioned here expects a business registered in Germany, usually with its seat or a permanent establishment in Berlin. Applications, guidelines and the final report are in German. If your German is shaky, ask the free advisory services listed below whether they can take the call in English. The forms themselves stay German either way.

How to tell whether a programme is really open

Go to the IBB or IBB Business Team page directly rather than through a blog. Look for the box headed “Aktuelle Information zum Programm”, where closures are posted first. Then check the date on the guideline. That takes two minutes and saves you from paying an agency for an application that cannot be filed.

If your project goes beyond a website and needs software built for your process, a short technical conversation with a studio such as OnlineBuilders can give you a realistic scope before you talk to a bank or a consultant.

Your next step: book a free orientation call with one of the advice services listed in free business advice in Berlin. Bring a rough budget and a one-paragraph description of what you want to change.

Questions people ask

Is the Digitalprämie Berlin coming back?

Nothing suggests it. Berlin's Chamber of Skilled Crafts says the digitalisation programmes were dropped because of tight federal and state budgets, and no replacement had been announced by October 2026.

I received the grant and want to leave Berlin. Is that a problem?

Possibly. Funded equipment had to stay in your Berlin premises for at least two years after the project was completed. Check the end date in your funding notice and ask IBB Business Team before you move or sell anything.

Someone offers to get me the Digitalprämie for a fee. Is that legit?

No. The programme is closed. Anyone selling access to it in 2026 is either working from an outdated page or trying to collect leads.

Did the grant cover websites?

Not as a website grant as such. It paid for digital processes, inventory systems, IT security, data backup and consulting or training. Websites only fitted in as part of a broader process project.