LEO Digital for Business

What this scheme funds

The subsidised consultancy that produces your digital roadmap — and unlocks the Grow Digital Voucher.

• Assigned digital consultant time
• Structured review of current systems, processes and digital maturity
• A written digitalisation roadmap with prioritised actions
• Follow-on guidance on which supports fit each action

What it does not fund

These costs are routinely ruled ineligible under this scheme.

• Software purchases
• Implementation and development work
• Ongoing retained advice after the programme concludes

Who is eligible

Eligibility is decided by Local Enterprise Office, not by Digital Bridge.

• Small business within the LEO's remit, typically up to 50 employees
• Trading business, not a pre-start concept
• Not an Enterprise Ireland or IDA client
• Willing to commit owner or senior manager time to the sessions

How to apply

Typical end-to-end timeline: Usually a few weeks to be scheduled, then the programme itself runs across several sessions over roughly four to eight weeks depending on the office and the consultant's diary.

• Contact your Local Enterprise Office and register interest
• Complete the intake and scheduling process
• Work through the assigned sessions with the consultant
• Receive and review the roadmap report
• Use the report to apply for the Grow Digital Voucher where relevant

Evidence you will need

Applications are usually delayed by missing paperwork rather than by weak projects.

• Basic business details and employee numbers
• Overview of current systems and processes
• Owner or manager availability for the sessions

Why applications get rejected

The recurring reasons assessors give under this scheme.

• The business is an Enterprise Ireland or IDA client and should use that route
• Pre-trading, so outside the LEO's scope for this programme
• The office's current cohort is full — apply for the next intake

What Digital Bridge delivers under this scheme

Illustrative net cost applies the published rate (Fully or heavily subsidised mentoring, subject to your LEO) to our published engagement bands. It is arithmetic, not an offer of funding.

• Implementation of the roadmap's software actions — list From €1,295, illustrative net cost Grow Digital Voucher may co-fund eligible lines at 50%

Who decides this grant, and what we are responsible for

Local Enterprise Office decides eligibility, approval and payment under this scheme. Digital Bridge supplies the work and the documentation an assessor asks for from the supplier side.

• Digital Bridge does not administer, assess, approve, pay or appeal any grant. Every decision is made by the funding body named on the scheme, under its own published rules.
• This section is general information, not financial, tax, legal or grant-writing advice. It is not an application, a pre-approval, or any form of assurance that you will be funded.
• Scheme rates, ceilings and eligibility change without notice and several supports are administered locally, so your Local Enterprise Office or agency may apply different rules to the ones published here. Confirm everything with the funder in writing before you commit.
• Our questionnaire is a deterministic guide based only on the answers you give. It cannot see your accounts, your sector classification, your state-aid position or your previous awards, so it can suggest a scheme you are ultimately found ineligible for.
• If an application is refused, delayed, reduced or clawed back, our fees for work you have instructed remain payable. We recommend you do not instruct chargeable work until your funder confirms in writing what it will support.
• Costs incurred before a funder receives your application are almost always ineligible. Timing is your responsibility, and we will always tell you when we think you should wait.

How the Digital for Business works in practice

Digital for Business is a mentored programme rather than a cash grant, and companies that expect a cheque are usually disappointed. A consultant works through the business's digital position and produces a plan; the value is the plan and the outside perspective. Where it works well, the company arrives with a real constraint — orders taken by phone that never reach the accounts system, stock counted twice, a website nobody can update — and leaves with a sequenced roadmap. Where it works badly, the business treats the sessions as a formality and the roadmap goes in a drawer. The programme is often a sensible precursor to funding applications, because the resulting plan supplies the justification later applications need.

What we do as the supplier on the quote

We are frequently the firm quoting against a roadmap that came out of this programme, and the useful pattern is to price the roadmap in phases rather than as one project. Companies emerging from mentoring often have an ambitious document and a modest budget, and phasing lets the first phase start now instead of stalling the whole thing. We will also say plainly when part of a mentor's roadmap is not worth doing yet, or when an existing system can be fixed rather than replaced. The point of the roadmap is sequencing; a supplier who quotes for all of it at once is not respecting that.

Do I have to do Digital for Business before the Grow Digital Voucher?

Yes. A completed Digital for Business project within the previous two years is part of the published Grow Digital eligibility criteria, so sequencing matters — start here, not at the voucher.

Will the roadmap recommend AI?

Only if AI is genuinely the right next step for your business. In our experience a good roadmap for a ten-person Irish business often recommends fixing the booking flow, the quoting process and the data hygiene first, because AI applied to a broken process simply automates the mess faster.

Is there any cash payment under Digital for Business?

Not typically — the support takes the form of subsidised mentoring and a resulting plan. If your project needs capital, look at the separate grant routes and use the plan as supporting evidence. Confirm current arrangements with your Local Enterprise Office.

Source and last review

Scheme parameters checked against Local Enterprise Office — supports (https://www.localenterprise.ie/) on 2026-08-18. Reviewed quarterly. Next scheduled review: November 2026. Digital Bridge is a supplier, not the awarding body. Eligibility, approval and payment are decided solely by the funding body named on each scheme. Figures below are the published scheme parameters as at the review date shown, and net costs are arithmetic illustrations of the published rate applied to our published prices. Always confirm current rules with the funder before you commit to any spend, because expenditure incurred before an application is received is almost always ineligible.

Who benefits from Digital for Business, and who is disappointed by it?

This is a mentored programme, not a cash grant, and businesses that expect a cheque at the end are usually disappointed. A consultant works through the company's digital position and produces a roadmap; the value sits in that plan and the outside perspective, subsidised or free depending on your Local Enterprise Office. It suits businesses that arrive with a real, specific constraint — phone orders that never reach the accounts system, stock counted twice, a website nobody can update — and are prepared to act on what comes out of the sessions. Where it goes badly, the business treats the mentoring as a formality and the resulting roadmap goes in a drawer unused. There is no application to fail in the usual sense, since it is not a competitive cash award, but the programme only delivers value where the company engages honestly with the diagnostic and follows through on the sequencing it produces afterwards. It is often a sensible precursor to a later cash-grant application, since the roadmap supplies the justification those applications need.

How should a Digital Bridge quote respond to a Digital for Business roadmap?

Companies emerging from this mentoring often arrive with an ambitious roadmap and a modest budget, so we price against it in phases rather than quoting the whole document as one project, letting the first phase start now instead of the entire plan stalling on cost. We will say plainly when part of a mentor's roadmap is not worth doing yet, or when an existing system can reasonably be fixed rather than replaced outright, because the roadmap's purpose is sequencing, and a supplier who quotes for everything at once is not respecting that sequencing. Where the roadmap points toward a project with a published starting price — a brochure website from €1,200, a growth build from €4,500, or workflow automation from €2,500 — we map each phase to the relevant service so the company can see cost against priority. There is typically no cash payment under this programme itself; if the resulting project needs capital, that is a separate application under one of the LEO's cash-grant instruments, and eligibility and approval for that sit entirely with the Local Enterprise Office, not with any supplier's recommendation.