SOLIDWORKS Startup Eligibility Checklist

The startup offer can remove a meaningful early software expense, but the word startup is not enough to qualify. The application is designed to separate young physical-product companies from established customers and businesses that sell engineering work to other companies.

That distinction is useful before filling out the form. A robotics company creating its own mobile platform and a consulting firm designing robots for clients may use similar tools, yet only one fits the program's stated purpose. The checklist below turns the current official language into a practical pre-application review.

The six-part eligibility screen

1. The company must be developing its own physical product

The official program page describes eligibility around startups that design and develop physical products. That covers a wide range of companies: robotics, industrial equipment, medical devices, mobility products, electronics enclosures, consumer hardware, and other products that must move from digital definition to something that can be built.

The important phrase is its own. An engineering consultancy may create physical products every day, but it creates them as a service for customers. A contract manufacturer may make real parts, but its core business is production for other product owners. Current official guidance excludes both models.

2. New-customer status is a separate gate

The current application states that existing SOLIDWORKS customers are not eligible. This is easy to miss when a new venture is connected to a founder's prior company, a parent company, or a lab that already owns licenses. Do not answer the customer-status question from memory. Check who owns the existing agreement, which legal entity will apply, and whether the new company has already purchased or subscribed.

This is also where structure matters. A separate legal entity does not automatically guarantee eligibility, and the program team can examine the nature and status of the business. State the relationship accurately instead of trying to force a simple answer onto a complicated ownership history.

3. Revenue and funding are related, but not interchangeable

Official sources use thresholds below $1 million, but they describe the measures with slightly different detail. The June 2026 eligibility page says less than $1 million in funding and less than $1 million in lifetime cumulative revenue. The main application also references the revenue and funding criteria.

Prepare both numbers. Revenue is money earned by the business. Funding is capital raised or received. A company can have little revenue and substantial funding, or meaningful revenue and no institutional funding. Reporting only the smaller number does not answer the program's question.

4. The company-age rule needs a transparent note

This is the most important current discrepancy. The main SOLIDWORKS program page and the application page say a business can be up to five years old. A separate eligibility page updated June 9, 2026 says the business must be under three years old.

Those statements cannot both define the same universal threshold. It may reflect an update, a regional difference, or lag between official pages, but the public sources do not explain the difference. The safe response is not to select the number that makes the company qualify. Provide the formation and operating dates and let the program review determine which guidance applies.

What to prepare before opening the application

A short preparation pass helps prevent vague answers from slowing review. Gather the legal company name, formation date, lifetime revenue, total funding, current software ownership, and primary operating region. Then write two plain-language sentences:

1. What physical product does the company own and develop?
2. Which design, simulation, collaboration, or manufacturing workflow is blocking the next milestone?

A useful product description names the object and what stage it has reached. A useful workflow description names the decision the software must support. “We need CAD” is weak. “We need to control a 1,200-part robotic cell assembly, validate motion, and release revision-controlled drawings to two suppliers” gives the reviewer something concrete.

If the company misses one criterion

Do not distort the application. A company that is already a customer or primarily sells services may still need SOLIDWORKS, but the startup program is not the only path. Standard term licensing, role-specific packages, and staged implementation may fit better than an application that is likely to be rejected.

The same applies to companies between $1 million and $5 million in revenue. The official application points those companies toward a separate Scale-Up path with different commercial terms. That is not the free startup offer, but it may be the relevant route.

Frequently asked questions

Continue the startup planning sequence

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