Is Grants subject to the CLOUD Act?

No. The CLOUD Act compels US-based companies (or US subsidiaries) to hand over data they control, regardless of where it physically lives. Grants has no US entity, no US contracts, and no US-controlled infrastructure in the data plane. Stripe processes payment data and is US-headquartered, but that boundary is well-defined: payment metadata only, never your records.

Where exactly is my data stored?

On dedicated servers we operate ourselves, physically located in Germany. The audit log, attachments, embeddings - everything in the data plane - lives there. Backups stay within the same EU jurisdiction in different physical locations and roll off on a 30-day window. We deliberately do not name the exact data centre - knowing the rack does not buy the customer anything and would make operator changes a public event.

Do you log IPs or session metadata to a US service?

No third-party analytics, no Google Analytics, no Meta pixel, no third-country tag manager. The first-party device + session ledger lives in our own Postgres + Redis - same EU boundary as the rest of the data plane. Logs are operational only and rotate at 30 days.

What happens if I'm a customer outside the EU?

You can use Grants from anywhere. The data still lives in the EU; the request travels from your location to our servers and back. That's a posture choice on our side, not a geo-restriction on yours.

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Grants: the EU alternative to Unternehmenswerk

Same job, hosted in the EU. Grants runs in Germany under German law - your data stays in EU jurisdiction end to end.

EU alternative

Unternehmenswerk

AVGS

Finn GlasCo-Founder + Engineering

·May 15, 2026·

1 min read

If your reason for moving off Unternehmenswerk is data sovereignty, the comparison gets simpler. Grants is hosted in Germany on infrastructure we operate ourselves - no US-headquartered company in the request path. The CLOUD Act does not reach what physically lives here.

At a glance

Unternehmenswerk is a Germany-wide consulting firm specialising in business-plan writing bundled with founder coaching, grant-application support (Gründungszuschuss), and financing guidance. They deliver a bank-compliant plan in ~14 days. Their special angle: many founders coming from ALG-1/ALG-2 unemployment can use the AVGS-Gutschein from the Arbeitsagentur to cover most or all of the consulting fee - effectively free for the founder. That makes Unternehmenswerk a great fit for necessity-driven founders writing a bank plan + Gründungszuschuss application. Grants doesn't fit that flow - we don't write the document for you, and we don't handle AVGS billing. We're a workspace for innovation grants (EXIST, IGP, KMU innovativ, BMBF, Horizon) where the document, reviewer, and criteria are completely different. Pick by which money you're after.

EU jurisdiction

What 'EU-hosted' actually means here, end to end

Grants runs on dedicated machines we operate ourselves, physically located in Germany. There is no US-headquartered subprocessor in the request path - the data plane (your records, your files, your audit log) lives entirely in EU jurisdiction. Two third parties exist outside that boundary: Stripe (payment information only, under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework) and the mail relay for transactional email. Neither sees your records. Unternehmenswerk's setup is the variable - if their primary infra is US-based, the CLOUD Act applies regardless of what their privacy page claims.

Grants vs Unternehmenswerk: EU comparison

	Ours Grants	Theirs Unternehmenswerk
AVGS-Gutschein billing (Arbeitsagentur)
Gründungszuschuss application support
Bank-loan-ready business plan in ~14 days
EXIST / IGP / KMU innovativ / BMBF / Horizon application
Innovation-grant chapter structure with reviewer language
1:1 consulting hours
Founder writes themselves
Effective price for ALG-eligible founders	Standard subscription	~€0 with AVGS-Gutschein

When to pick which

Pick Grants when

You're going for innovation grants where the document needs PTJ / DLR-PT / EU-reviewer-grade structure, not a bank plan.

You're a tech / research-driven founder and the AVGS path doesn't apply to you.

You want to write the document yourself - keeping the learning, owning the IP narrative.

Pick Unternehmenswerk when

You're an ALG-1 / ALG-2 founder and the AVGS-Gutschein covers most of the consulting fee.

Your target is the Gründungszuschuss plus a bank-loan plan - not an innovation grant.

You want 1:1 senior coaching alongside the document and don't need a long-term workspace.

EU-jurisdiction questions

Specific to where the data lives, who can subpoena it, and what crosses borders.

Start with Grants

Free plan, no credit card. We host in Germany. Export + delete are self-serve.

Written by

Finn Glas

Co-Founder + Engineering

Finn is one of the Co-Founders. He owns the engineering side, the infrastructure, and most of the late-night fixes that ship before anyone notices.

finn.glas at aicuflow dot comLinkedIn Website