Invitalia ON — Beyond Zero-Interest New Enterprises (Oltre Nuove Imprese a Tasso Zero)

Invitalia ON — Beyond Zero-Interest New Enterprises (Oltre Nuove Imprese a Tasso Zero)

Offers new Italian startups a blended package of non-repayable grant and zero-interest loan support for growth.

Invitalia ON — Oltre Nuove Imprese a Tasso Zero is a blended financing instrument operated by Invitalia (Agenzia nazionale per l'attrazione degli investimenti e lo sviluppo d'impresa), Italy's national investment promotion agency wholly owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance, and delivered on behalf of MIMIT (Ministero delle Imprese e del Made in Italy). The program targets new Italian businesses — companies registered for under five years — led by entrepreneurs aged under 36, or by women of any age, providing a combination of a zero-interest loan and a direct grant in a single application process.

Financing packages are structured as 75 percent zero-interest loan and 25 percent non-repayable grant, with total ticket sizes from EUR 100,000 to EUR 3 million per project. The zero-interest loan component is repayable over eight years with a grace period of up to three years; the grant portion is outright. Eligible projects must involve productive investment in tangible or intangible assets, and the applicant company must maintain operations and headcount commitments post-disbursement. There are no sector restrictions — the instrument is sector-agnostic — and eligible legal forms include sole proprietorships, partnerships, and limited liability companies.

For applicants, the key leverage point is the 25 percent grant component, which significantly reduces the effective cost of capital relative to standard state-backed loans. The program favors applicants who can demonstrate a viable business plan, a concrete investment program, and compliance with the age or gender eligibility criteria. Given the five-year company-age ceiling, this instrument is best suited to post-founding, pre-scale-up ventures that need growth capital but are too early for conventional bank financing and too late for seed grants.