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Secure "deal-closing" grants from the Texas Enterprise Fund to fuel your business expansion. Create jobs, boost investment, and choose Texas over competing states. Apply now!
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Sign in to save this grantThe Texas Enterprise Fund only works while Texas is still competing for your project. Sign the lease. Purchase the land. Make a public announcement about the city. Even bring on your first local hire for the new facility. Any one of those actions closes the TEF window – permanently, with no exceptions and no appeals.
That is the mechanic almost every description of this program gets wrong, including the official page. TEF is not a reward for choosing Texas. It is the negotiating tool the Texas Governor’s office deploys during active site-selection competitions – used only when the outcome is still genuinely undecided. With roughly $356 million available for FY2024-25 and a rolling application period that has no fixed deadline, the fund is active right now. But the window is structural, not calendar-based. It closes the moment your company’s location decision does.
If your company is currently weighing a Texas site against a genuine out-of-state alternative, that is the window you are in.
Grantaura’s TEF Eligibility Checker maps your project’s key parameters against the fund’s core qualification gates. Competition status, job creation projections (after the contract worker exclusion is applied), wage levels against your specific county average, and planned capital investment – the tool covers all four and flags which gates need attention before you invest further time in this process.
It is built specifically to give you a structured read on where your project stands before you commit the $1,000 non-refundable application fee. No wading through portal documentation. No guessing whether your headcount clears the threshold once the contractor adjustment is applied.
If the checker shows a strong match, the right next step is not to go directly to the TEF Portal. Eligibility is rarely where TEF applications lose ground. The harder question is how the competing-site claim is documented and how the project narrative holds up under 11-step scrutiny. Submit an assessment to have our team review your project parameters before anything gets filed – and before the $1,000 fee is paid.
If the tool surfaces a problem – your eligible headcount falls short after excluding contractors, or you cannot document a genuine out-of-state competition – that is not a dead end. Our matched grants tool can surface programs that fit your actual project profile better than TEF does at this stage.
Not certain which outcome applies? A short consultation with a TEF-familiar specialist covers more ground faster than reading the portal documentation cold. Book a consultation here.
Most business incentive programs ask you to prove need. TEF asks something different entirely. It asks whether Texas is in an active competition right now, and whether your project is large enough to be worth the state’s investment in winning that competition.
The Texas Legislature established the fund in 2003 with an initial $295 million. Since then it has been reappropriated during every single legislative session without interruption – 22 consecutive sessions through 2025. That streak matters if you are weighing whether this program will still be operating when your multi-year contract term ends. Most state incentive programs cannot point to that kind of track record.
What TEF is not: a foundation grant, a small business program, a startup incentive, or a subsidy for companies that have already committed to Texas. The official description uses the phrase “deal-closing” and that framing is exactly right. The state deploys TEF to win competitive business location decisions it would otherwise lose to other states or countries. And once you choose – once the decision is made – the state has no incentive to pay you for a choice you made on your own.
TEF applications go through the Office of the Governor – not a state agency, not a grant foundation. The Governor of Texas, the Lieutenant Governor, and the Speaker of the Texas House must all individually agree to support each award. Unanimously. One veto stops the grant regardless of how strong the due diligence review outcome is. This political layer is unusual for any incentive program and worth building into your timeline planning before you apply.
Expert Tip
There is no published maximum. No “$5 million ceiling.” No per-job dollar figure in the program guidelines anywhere. Every award is calculated through a cost-benefit analysis model the state applies uniformly to each application.
The model weighs three variables: the number of new direct permanent jobs created, the average wages paid to those employees, and the expected hiring timeline. It projects the resulting increase in Texas sales tax revenues from those wages, then calculates the grant amount that produces a full return on the state’s investment within the contract period. Higher wages, faster hiring, more jobs – all of those improve the calculation. But here is what most applicants do not realize. TEF applications also rank competitively against each other. It is not purely a pass/fail eligibility screen. The projects with the highest projected ROI to Texas win among all applications currently in the queue – which means your application is measured against a threshold and against every other project being reviewed at the same time.
How that plays out across verified awardees at different project scales:
A 62-job manufacturing project in Waller County received $368,838 in April 2025. A 2,000-job financial services expansion received $18 million. The range is genuinely wide. Trying to estimate your award before understanding your exact wage levels and hiring timeline produces numbers that are not very meaningful. The formula does not simplify to a round figure, and the competitive ranking layer adds uncertainty that no formula can resolve without knowing what else is in the queue at the same time.
Legacy application documentation also references a veteran hiring incentive – an additional amount per qualified veteran hired in the first year of job creation. The current status and exact terms of this provision should be confirmed directly with the OOG before factoring it into any award projections.
Q: Is there a published maximum TEF award amount?
A: No. The award is calculated per project using a cost-benefit analysis model based on the number of direct permanent jobs, average wages, and hiring timeline. There is no published cap. Historical awards range from under $100,000 to over $20 million. Applications also rank competitively against each other – highest projected ROI to Texas wins among all active applications in the queue.
The eligibility rules for TEF are not ambiguous on paper. In practice, the hardest gate to satisfy is also the first one – and it is the one that closes most potential applications before they begin.
One Texas site must be in genuine, active competition with at least one viable out-of-state location. The key word is “viable.” A nominal alternative that nobody seriously evaluated does not qualify. The 2014 Texas State Auditor’s report (SAO Report No. 15-003) found that early-program reviews often lacked sufficient documentation to confirm that real competition existed. That history is precisely why the current application process places a high evidentiary burden on applicants. The OOG researches competing locations independently as part of its 11-step review – it does not simply accept the applicant’s assertion.
This gate is absolute. The following actions all permanently close the TEF window for a given project: signing a lease, purchasing land, hiring employees for the project, and making any public announcement about the location. All four. One is enough. There is no retroactive path and there are no exceptions.
If your company is in a “preferred Texas location” phase internally – with executive preference signaled but no formal commitment executed – you may still qualify as long as the out-of-state alternative is genuinely live. If you are unsure whether your internal process has already crossed the line, that question is worth resolving before paying the application fee.
Important Note
The project must create 75 new direct full-time jobs in urban areas, or 25 in rural areas. That threshold looks straightforward. It is not, for one specific reason.
Contract workers, temporary staff, and indirect employees are explicitly excluded from TEF job counts. Only direct, permanent full-time employees qualify. A company planning 100 new positions using a contractor-heavy staffing model may have well under 75 eligible jobs after that exclusion is applied. This is the most common headcount miscalculation in TEF applications, and it matters a great deal when the urban threshold is exactly 75.
New jobs must pay at or above the county average wage for the county where the project is located. Not just on day one – throughout the full term of the contract. Wages that slip below that benchmark in a later annual reporting period put the company in breach. Which county average applies depends entirely on the project location, and those averages vary considerably across Texas.
The project must involve significant capital investment. There is no published minimum dollar figure – the OOG assesses this on a per-project basis relative to the industry and job count. Eligible capital investment covers fixed assets, real property, and business personal property. Working capital is excluded. Operational lease payments are excluded. A capital-light project with high headcount may find its eligible investment figure falls short of what the OOG expects for its industry.
The project must have formal support from local government – city, county, and/or school district – through incentive offers. Here is the trap that disqualifies applications before the OOG even begins reviewing them. The local incentive documentation must include estimated monetary values for all proposed local incentives. An application that describes local support without stating dollar amounts is deemed incomplete and is not reviewed. This is a completeness gate that operates before due diligence begins.
The company must be well-established and financially sound, in good standing under the laws of its state of formation, and must owe no delinquent taxes to any Texas taxing unit. Texas Government Code Section 481.078(e-1) makes the last two requirements hard statutory conditions – not soft criteria. Unresolved franchise tax delinquency is a disqualifier. Both conditions are verified through the 11-step due diligence process.
Active out-of-state competition substantively documented No location decision of any kind made yet 75 or more direct FTE jobs in urban area or 25 or more in rural Contract worker headcount excluded before calculating total New wages at or above county average wage confirmed Significant capex in fixed assets and real property planned Local incentive package with stated dollar amounts ready Company in good standing with no delinquent Texas taxes
Required Steps
Do’s
Don’ts
The gates here are clear enough to read. Whether your project documentation – specifically the competing-site evidence, the adjusted headcount, and the local incentive package – will hold up under an 11-step review is a different question entirely. Submit an assessment and let our team check the substance of your application before you commit the $1,000 fee.
Q: Do contract workers count toward TEF job targets?
A: No. Contract workers, temporary staff, and indirect employees are explicitly excluded. Only direct, permanent full-time employees count toward the 75-job urban minimum or the 25-job rural minimum. This is the most common headcount miscalculation in TEF applications. Companies projecting headcount using a contractor-heavy staffing model should audit their eligible job count before applying – not after paying the $1,000 fee.
This is the gray zone the official page does not explain. It also carries the most practical ambiguity of any eligibility question in the program.
“Active competition” means a genuine out-of-state site is still being seriously evaluated as an alternative to the Texas location at the time of application. Not a site visit from three months ago that ended without follow-up. Not a brief consideration of other states that never progressed to formal analysis. A site that is still on the shortlist, still being actively compared, with no decision yet made.
What the OOG looks for: site-specific analysis, formal shortlist documentation, evidence of engagement with competing states or communities, or other demonstrable signals that the out-of-state alternative was a real option. The 2014 State Auditor’s report confirmed that the state historically lacked evidence to verify many of these claims in early-program reviews – which is exactly why the current review places such weight on documentation. The burden of proof is squarely on the applicant.
Here is the honest version. If your site-selection process involved formal competing-site analysis with documented alternatives, you are in a strong position. If Texas was the preferred option from early in the process and other states were nominal mentions in an internal memo, the answer is less clear – and far less defensible under scrutiny. Unsure where your situation falls? A consultation with our team covers that question quickly and without committing you to an application.
Q: When exactly should I apply for the Texas Enterprise Fund?
A: Before any location decision is made – before signing a lease, purchasing land, hiring employees for the project, or making any public announcement. TEF has a rolling application period with no fixed calendar deadline. The relevant deadline is structural: it is tied to your company’s internal decision timeline, not a date on the program calendar. Apply too late and there is no retroactive path. There are no exceptions.
There is a $1,000 non-refundable application fee. It is payable to the Office of the Governor and it triggers the start of the due diligence process. Almost every third-party description of TEF leaves this out. Plan for it before you begin.
Applications are submitted through the TEF Portal at tef-portal.gov.texas.gov. The portal supports three registration roles: Business Representative, Local Community Representative, and Authorized Consultant. Three conditions must all be met before the 11-step review begins: the application must be complete, the fee must be received, and all milestone dates in your hiring schedule must be set at least one full quarter after your submission date. A hiring schedule with milestone dates that are too close to submission is not reviewed.
The 11 areas the review examines: program application review, project executive summary analysis, applicant management and current news research, corporate tax status verification, business climate evaluation and comparison against competing locations, economic impact assessment from a third-party report, corporate financial analysis, credit assessment, local and state economic incentive package review, project cost-benefit analysis and return-on-investment calculation, and project clawback analysis. That final step matters because the OOG does not take the applicant’s word on what competing states are offering. It researches those locations independently and builds its own assessment of the out-of-state business environment.
After the review, all three of these must agree unanimously: the Governor of Texas, the Lieutenant Governor, and the Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives. Not a majority. One veto stops the grant regardless of how strong the due diligence outcome is. How long does the full process take? Honestly, the standard timeline is not publicly confirmed anywhere. The program does not publish processing timelines and any specific figure from third-party sources is unverified. Plan for several months minimum in your site-selection schedule.
Submit complete application and pay the $1K fee via TEF Portal Set all milestone dates at least one full quarter after submission date Include dollar values for all local government incentive offers in the application Document out-of-state competition substantively – not as a passing mention Attach a current Certificate of Status from your state of formation Confirm no delinquent Texas franchise taxes via the Texas Comptroller before filing
Must Do
Q: Is there an application fee for the Texas Enterprise Fund?
A: Yes. A $1,000 non-refundable fee is required and payable to the Office of the Governor. The 11-step due diligence review does not begin until both the fee is received and the application is complete. This is confirmed by the TEF Portal and is omitted by nearly every third-party description of the program. Budget for it before starting the application process.
Most TEF applications that fail do not fail on eligibility. They fail on how the competing-site claim is documented and how the project narrative holds up when the OOG independently researches your competing location.
TEF does not work alone. Most successful TEF awards are announced simultaneously with a local property tax abatement or other municipal incentive from the city, county, or school district where the project is located. The April 2025 announcement for TMEIC Americas in Waller County made this dynamic explicit – the company’s CEO cited both the TEF grant and the local property tax abatement as decisive factors in choosing Texas. This is not coincidence in TEF awards. It is structural.
The CBA model that calculates your TEF award looks at the total economic return to Texas from your project. A stronger combined incentive package from both the state and the local community makes the Texas proposition more competitive against the out-of-state alternative – which strengthens your competitive ranking relative to other applications in the queue. Engaging with the local economic development corporation simultaneously with your TEF preparation, not sequentially, is the right approach. The local incentive package must be in the application and it must include dollar amounts. There is no way to complete a qualifying application without it.
There is a genuine tension most applicants do not think through until it is too late. Documenting out-of-state competition for TEF purposes creates a risk: you may weaken your negotiating position with those other states. Companies worry that revealing Texas interest signals they have already made up their minds. They are right to worry about that. But TEF requires documented out-of-state competition. You cannot hide your Texas discussions and still satisfy the evidentiary requirement.
The solution is structural. Running a simultaneous formal RFP process to multiple states – with Texas included formally as one of several recipients – satisfies TEF’s competition requirement while maintaining leverage with every location in the process. The OOG understands this dynamic and wants to see genuine competitive uncertainty, not theater. An RFP that went to four states with documented responses is credible evidence of active competition. An internal memo noting that someone once mentioned another state is not.
Coordinate this with your local EDC early. The economic development corporation for your target Texas community is also your ally in making the combined state-and-local incentive package compelling enough to document as decisive. Each commitment – local and state – strengthens the other during parallel negotiations. That is the mechanics of a TEF-compatible site-selection process.
Reach out to the local EDC for your target Texas community early in the site-selection process – before you need the documentation for the TEF application. Their involvement strengthens the community support eligibility gate and signals to the OOG that the project has genuine local buy-in, which matters for both the completeness review and the CBA scoring.
Expert Tip
Winning a TEF award does not mean receiving money. What TEF approval actually means is entering a multi-year contractual obligation to deliver on job creation and wage commitments, with cash disbursement tied to hitting those targets in each annual reporting period. No targets met, no disbursement for that period.
Miss targets across periods and there are clawbacks. The state has recovered $36.6 million in liquidated damages across the program’s full history. That number is a small fraction of total disbursements – which is the honest way to frame it. Companies that consistently meet their targets are not affected by clawback provisions. But the OOG enforces them actively when triggered, and the Governor’s office reserves the right to conduct on-site compliance reviews at any point during the contract term.
Two requirements tend to surprise first-time TEF applicants specifically:
The TEF contract term length is not publicly standardized. It is project-specific and negotiated during the contracting phase. The program does not publish a standard term. Current term length for new contracts is not confirmed in any publicly available document – expect to negotiate this directly with the OOG during contracting.
Important Note
Q: What happens if a company misses its TEF job creation or wage targets?
A: Clawback provisions in the TEF contract allow the OOG to demand repayment of previously disbursed grant funds if the company fails to meet its performance commitments. The state has recovered $36.6 million in liquidated damages across the program’s history. The OOG also has the right to conduct on-site compliance reviews at any point during the contract term. Companies that consistently hit their annual targets are not affected – but the enforcement mechanisms are real and active.
This is something most applicants never think to ask about. It matters more than it looks.
TEF application information – negotiation details, competing-site documentation, award discussions, and application materials – is protected as confidential under Texas Government Code Section 552.131, the Economic Development Negotiations exception to the Public Information Act. The OOG invokes this exemption against any public records request that comes in while an application is being actively processed. Your application is not a public document during the negotiation phase.
What it does not cover: confidentiality breach on the applicant’s side. If your company discloses negotiation details publicly before a final agreement is reached, the OOG can treat that breach as grounds to terminate negotiations. Keep the process quiet internally until the Governor’s press release goes out – which is mandatory for all awardees anyway.
Q: Is the Texas Enterprise Fund application confidential?
A: Yes. Application information and negotiation details are protected under Texas Government Code Section 552.131 (Economic Development Negotiations exception) until an agreement is finalized. The OOG invokes this exemption against Public Information Act requests during active negotiations. Applicants should maintain confidentiality on their side as well – breach by the applicant is grounds for termination of negotiations.
TEF has been running since 2003. More than 211 projects have been contracted since inception, representing over $58.7 billion in company capital investment commitments at the time of award. The 2023-2024 reporting period alone saw 3,113 new jobs committed and $4.44 billion in capital investment across new TEF contracts.
The industries in the awardee record give a practical sense of what “advanced industry with multi-state location options” actually covers:
Advanced Manufacturing: Toyota Motor North America (Plano) and Caterpillar among past awardees, Semiconductors: Samsung Austin Semiconductor ($17M award) and Texas Instruments (Richardson), Financial Services: Charles Schwab Westlake ($6M) and TIAA Frisco ($18M), Pharmaceutical and Biotech: Eli Lilly Houston ($5.5M in 2025) and Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies (College Station), Technology and IT Services: Uber Technologies Dallas ($3M – 3000 jobs) and multiple IT outsourcing firms, Food and Dairy Processing: Leprino Foods Lubbock and Great Lakes Cheese Abilene, Steel and Heavy Manufacturing: JSW Steel Baytown and Steel Dynamics Southwest Sinton]
TEF works across a genuinely wide project-size range. The same program that handled a $368,838 award for a 62-job project in 2025 also processed an $18 million award for a 2,000-job expansion. The same industry can produce different award amounts in different cycles depending on wages and capital investment. Every single awardee from 2004 onward participated in a press release with the Governor’s office – more than 20 years of announcements, all publicly searchable.
Q: What industries qualify for the Texas Enterprise Fund?
A: Companies in advanced industries that could genuinely locate in another state or country. Historical awardees span aerospace, automotive, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, semiconductors, financial services, food processing, technology, manufacturing, and logistics. The common thread across all of them: each company could credibly have chosen a different state or country, making the Texas site competition authentic.
Q: How durable is the TEF program – will it still be funded in future years?
A: TEF has been reappropriated by the Texas Legislature in every legislative session since its establishment in 2003 – 22 consecutive sessions without interruption. As of October 31 2025, the FY2024-25 available balance is approximately $356 million. That combination of continuous legislative reappropriation and confirmed available funds is the strongest program durability signal a Texas incentive program can offer.
Q: What is the Texas Enterprise Fund in plain terms?
A: A performance-based cash grant program run by the Office of the Texas Governor. The state awards it to companies during active site-selection processes where one Texas location is genuinely competing with at least one out-of-state alternative. Award amounts are calculated using a cost-benefit model and disbursed only after the company meets annual job and wage targets under a signed contract. Rolling application period. No fixed calendar deadline.
Q: How formal does the out-of-state competition need to be?
A: Formal enough to be independently verifiable. The OOG researches competing locations on its own and compares that research against your application. It looks for formal shortlist documentation, site-specific analysis, or evidence of engagement with competing states – not a passing mention of another location. The 2014 State Auditor’s report identified weak competition documentation as the most common historical vulnerability in TEF applications. If you are uncertain whether your situation qualifies, submit an assessment before paying the fee.
TEF is the most prominent Texas state incentive for large competitive business expansions, but it is one program in a broader landscape. Companies that qualify for TEF often qualify for additional programs that can be coordinated with a TEF award – and companies that do not meet the active competition requirement still have meaningful Texas incentive options worth exploring.
Grantaura’s matched grants tool draws from a continuously updated database to surface programs relevant to your specific project profile, industry, and location. It covers federal, state, and local programs that most site-selection processes never surface. Explore matched grants here.
The eligibility rules for TEF are publicly documented. If you have read this page carefully, you now understand what the program requires. That is not where TEF applications go wrong.
Where they go wrong is specific. How the competing-site claim is framed when the OOG reads it against its own independent research on that location. Whether the headcount projection has correctly excluded every contractor and temp position. Whether the local incentive documentation actually includes dollar amounts or just describes the support in general terms. Whether the capital investment schedule correctly separates eligible fixed assets from excluded working capital. Whether the CBA inputs – wages, timeline, job count – are structured to present the project’s strongest ROI case rather than just its baseline numbers. These are application-stage problems, not eligibility problems. They are not things this page can resolve for you.
TEF awards can reach into the millions. The application involves 11-step due diligence, three-way political approval, a competitive CBA ranking, and a multi-year performance contract. Expert review before submission is not a luxury for this category of application – it is practical risk management for any company taking the program seriously.
This listing was researched and written by Imran, founder of Grantaura. Imran built Grantaura because he believed that grant intelligence – the real kind, with sources checked, unknowns acknowledged, and competitor pages actually read – should not require expensive insider access or a retainer. His approach is evidence-first: every fact sourced, every gap named honestly, every conclusion traced back to something verifiable. If something on this page is wrong, outdated, or missing, he wants to know. Learn more about Imran here. If you want to talk through your specific application situation before committing further time to it, book a consultation here.
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