Smart & Start Italia

Smart & Start Italia

Funds innovative Italian startups with early financing to develop new products in AI, biotech, and digital fields.

Smart & Start Italia is a permanently open incentive programme administered by Invitalia on behalf of MIMIT to support the creation and growth of high-tech innovative startups across the whole of Italy. The measure finances business plans worth EUR 100,000 to EUR 1,500,000 covering tangible and intangible assets, technological services, marketing, research-collaboration costs, and personnel employed on the plan. The aid takes the form of a zero-interest loan covering 80% of eligible costs, with a maximum repayment term of 10 years. The loan rises to 90% of eligible costs if the startup is entirely composed of women and/or young people aged 35 or under, or if it includes a doctoral researcher with at least three years of recent research or teaching experience abroad. For startups located in the eight Mezzogiorno regions (Abruzzo, Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Molise, Puglia, Sardinia, Sicily), only 70% of the financed amount must be repaid, creating an effective 30% non-repayable component.

Eligible applicants are innovative startups no more than 60 months old registered in the special section of the Italian Companies Register and classified as small-scale enterprises. Natural persons intending to incorporate an innovative startup may also apply, provided incorporation occurs within 30 days of the admission notice. Foreign companies are eligible if they commit to establishing at least one operational headquarters in Italy. Business plans must cover activities with significant technological and innovative content, products or services in digital economy, artificial intelligence, blockchain, or IoT, or commercialisation of public or private research outputs. Startups under 12 months at application also receive technical-management tutoring valued at EUR 7,500 (northern regions) or EUR 15,000 (Mezzogiorno). The sportello is always open; applications are submitted electronically via the Invitalia platform.

A loan conversion option allows beneficiaries to convert up to 50% of the financed amount to a non-repayable grant if third-party investors inject equity — capped at 50% of the amounts invested by those third parties. Invitalia evaluates plans on technical adequacy, innovativeness of the idea, economic and financial sustainability, and technological and operational feasibility. Collaboration with research organisations, incubators, accelerators, or Digital Innovation Hubs attracts additional scoring credit.