Women’s Enterprise Fund
The incentive for women-led businesses
WHAT IT IS
The Women’s Enterprise Fund is the national incentive that supports the creation and consolidation of women-led businesses, promoted by the Ministry of Enterprises and Made in Italy.
Investment programmes are financed in the areas of industry, crafts, processing of agricultural products, services, trade and tourism.
The Fund makes available to women-led businesses, new or already established, € 290 million.
Another € 110 million will be added for innovative start-ups and new companies, to be used within the Smart&Start Italia (10 million) and ON - Oltre Nuove Imprese a Tasso Zero (Interest-free loans for New Enterprises) (100 million) incentives.
The incentives are financed by the resources of the 2021 Budget Law and by those of the NRRP, in the context of the interventions envisaged in Mission 5 “Inclusion and Cohesion”, Investment 1.2 “Creation of women-led businesses”.
Invitalia is the managing entity of the measure.
UPDATE ON AVAILABLE FUNDS: New funds on resources from the NRRP have been assigned, for a total of € 90 million (€ 82 million for new companies - Chapter II - and € 8 million for already consolidated companies - Chapter III).
WHO IT IS FOR
The fund targets four types of women’s enterprises:
- cooperatives or partnerships with at least 60% women members;
- limited companies with at least two-thirds women as shareholders and members of the Board of Directors;
- sole proprietorships with a woman owner;
- self-employed women with registered VAT.
WHAT IT FINANCES
In the case of new companies
If you are a freelancer who wants to set up a new company, or your company has been established for less than 12 months, you can submit investment projects of up to € 250,000. The Fund provides a non-repayable contribution that varies according to the size of the project:
- for projects up to € 100,000, the contribution covers up to 80% of the expenses (or up to 90% for unemployed women) up to a maximum of € 50,000;
- for projects up to € 250 thousand, the contribution covers 50% of the expenses, up to a maximum of € 125 thousand.
In case of an already constituted company
If you have a company that has been active for more than 12 months, you can submit investment projects of up to € 400,000 to develop new activities or expand existing ones. In this case, the Fund provides a mix of non-repayable contribution and interest-free financing, covering up to 80% of eligible expenses, for a maximum of € 320,000. The interest-free financing is to be repaid in eight years.
In both cases, a minimum value of the investment project is not required, which must be implemented in 24 months.
For more information, see the link on the mini site.
Stato incentivo o strumento
Closed
