There is public money for startups in Spain that most founders never apply for, because they do not know it exists or they apply in the wrong order and lose months. Here are the families of funding available, the order worth going after them in, and what each one will ask of you. Inside the platform, the map of programmes and the tracking of every application.
Bodies such as ENISA lend without asking for a personal guarantee, assessing the project’s viability. They do not dilute, but they have to be repaid: they require an incorporated company and defensible accounts.
They vary by autonomous community and run as calls with deadlines. They are usually the most accessible early on, and the ones most often lost by finding out too late.
National, aimed at technical development. They ask you to genuinely document the innovative component, so they fit once you are actually building something.
Reduced Social Security rates and rebates when you register. It is the first thing you can take advantage of, and almost nobody optimises it.
Broadly there are four families: participating loans from public bodies such as ENISA, which require no personal guarantee and are granted on the project’s viability; regional grants and subsidies, which vary by autonomous community and usually run as calls with deadlines; national innovation programmes such as those of the CDTI, aimed at technical development; and Social Security rebates and reduced rates when you register as self-employed or incorporate. Each has different requirements and they cannot all be combined.
First, whatever demands no revenue and no track record: registration rebates and regional company-creation grants. Then, once there is a company incorporated and some traction, participating loans of the ENISA type, which normally require accounts and a defensible plan. Innovation programmes come last, because they ask for a documented technical component. Doing it in the reverse order is the most common way to lose months.
No, and that is worth saying plainly. The platform points you to which programmes fit your situation and lets you run each application with its status, its dates and its documents in one place, so you do not miss a deadline. You file the application yourself, and for the complex ones a specialist adviser is worth the money.
It depends on the programme. Self-employed rebates and some regional creation grants work before you have a company. Participating loans and almost all innovation programmes require an incorporated company and, frequently, one closed financial year. That is why incorporating is a stage of the journey in its own right and not something dispatched at the end.
Because public funding is slow: between the call, the decision and the actual disbursement, many months can pass. If you have four months of runway left, funding that resolves in eight does not save you. Knowing your real deadline is what tells you whether the public route arrives in time or whether you need revenue first. You can work it out free and without signing up in our runway calculator.
No. It is general information and orientation on what programmes exist and what they typically require. The requirements, deadlines and amounts are set by each call and change frequently, so always confirm with the official source before deciding, and consult a professional for your specific case.
Public money does not dilute. But it arrives late if you apply late.
See the funding map →This page is general, orientative information, not tax, legal or financial advice. Requirements, deadlines, amounts and conditions are set by each call and change frequently: always confirm with the official source of the relevant body before making decisions, and consult a professional for your specific case. Madrid Ventures does not file applications and does not guarantee that any funding will be granted. In the event of any discrepancy, the Spanish version of this page prevails.