GRANTS TO KICK-START BRISBANE TECH SCENE

The Lord Mayor's Budding Entrepreneurs Program offers grants of up to $5000 for business owners to study, attend a start-up conference, seek professional advice or participate in a trade mission.

Acting Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner says the funding gives would-be entrepreneurs the chance to take their venture to the next level.

"The Budding Entrepreneurs Program provides practical support to some of our city's best emerging start-ups," Schrinner says.

"In Brisbane we have a growing community of exciting and inventive start-ups with low-entry costs and the potential to reach global markets and bring significant investment into the Brisbane economy.

"Start-up companies, which have relatively low entry costs, have the potential to reach global markets and bring hundreds of millions of dollars into the Brisbane economy."

Schrinner says it's important that the digital economy remains a key area of focus, with start-up companies presenting an enormous potential to expand.

Brisbane is considered an innovation capital and is ranked in the top 15 per cent of cities around the world for "nurturing innovation," he says.

Young Entrepreneur of the Year technology finalist Tanda is a past grant recipient and utilised the funds to grow its automated payroll system.

Digital Brisbane chief digital officer Cat Matson says the Budding Entrepreneurs Program allowed the company to kick-start operations.

"Alex Ghiculescu, who launched Tanda, used the grant to develop their software idea into a fully integrated cloud-based rostering, time, attendance and reporting system for small businesses," Matson says.

"At the time, Tanda were operating their business from a home office - now they have hundreds of clients across Australia and overseas and have moved into an office in Fortitude Valley."

Applications for the next funding round are open and close on April 30.