Invest West Kent Business Grants Programme

 

 

Invest West Kent is delivering a £15,000 business grants programme for registered businesses across all sectors within Sevenoaks, Tonbridge & Malling and Tunbridge Wells (including sole traders, LLP’s, social enterprises etc). The grant is split equally across each local authority (£5,000 per local authority) with businesses able to apply for a £500 grant.

Applications will open on Monday 8th September 2025 and close on Friday 24th October at 5pm.

Benefits

Businesses will have the opportunity to apply for a £500 grant during the application window. One application per organisation is allowed. The grant can only be used to help an individual business grow or increase productivity e.g. the purchasing of equipment or professional services such as marketing support/consultancy or software and IT packages. The grant does not require any match funding.

Eligibility

  • A business based and registered in Sevenoaks, Tonbridge & Malling and Tunbridge Wells.
  • The business must have a bank account in the organisation’s name.
  • A business that has signed up to the West Kent Business Programme and has received support through mentoring sessions, workshops or webinars.
  • Businesses who received funding from last year’s grant programme can’t apply, but those that applied last year and were unsuccessful can apply again with a different proposal.

Application process

1. The Economic Development Officers from the Invest West Kent partnership will screen all applications and send eligible applications to a panel of external and independent judges selected by GLL that will remain anonymous.

2. All applications that do not meet the eligibility criteria will be notified as soon as possible.

3. Once the panel of judges agrees to allocate an organisation a grant, the applicant will be made aware of this in writing. The GLL judging panel’s decision is final.

4. Feedback on applications will be provided where possible, but this is not guaranteed due to the number of applications received.

What happens when I get the grant?

Organisations that have been awarded grants will need to invoice GLL with the amount they have been awarded (a template invoice will be provided to ensure the invoice is completed correctly). Grants must be spent within 3 months of receiving payment.

For monitoring and evaluation purposes, GLL will be in touch with all applicants to request evidence of spending of the grant by requesting receipts and invoices.

In addition, GLL will select a handful of grant applicants to arrange video case studies on how impactful a grant has been to their business/project.

How to Apply

Applications will open on Monday 8th September 2025 and close on Friday 24th October at 5pm.

Other information

If any business has further questions about the business grant programme, or needs help completing the application form, please email: westkentbusiness@gll.org