The aim is to analyze the influence of public financing on patent creation at the Mexican state level during 2009-2017. Patenting is one of the outcomes by the innovative activity that the government can stimulate by financing projects. Schumpeterian theory suggests a positive relationship in which large firms tend to innovate more because they have greater resources to invest in R&D, allowing economies of scale. Count data methodology finds positive effects, that differ by size of firm, from public financing and education on patenting, which show more consistency in large firms. To encourage innovation, it is recommended to design customized public programs by firm size alongside strategies that seek to improve educational achievements. Besides to methodological constraints, the results depend by the measurement of the innovation from patents, implying that the estimated evidence could be broader. This research contributes to the financing-innovation nexus because it uses disaggregate data by size of firm and type of financing. It is concluded that public financing encourages innovation.