SIMEST certifications and consulting soft loan

What it funds

SIMEST lends at a subsidized rate the money for specialist consulting and feasibility studies that help a company go abroad, or innovate its products, processes and digital tools with that aim, including to compete better at home. Technology innovation consulting counts, as do the costs of obtaining digital certifications and the consulting that prepares for them, for instance toward ISO 27001. The money is paid back after two years of pre-amortization.

The company picks the rate as a share of the reference rate, among three options set by the operating circular, and the current month's value is on the SIMEST page. Part of the loan becomes a grant only for companies meeting at least one of the circular's requirements, such as an operating site in the South or being a youth-led, women-led or innovative company.

Requirements and what is left out

• Anyone relying on a freelancer or a partnership: the consulting firm must be a corporation (società di capitali), active for at least two years in the field it consults on.
• Anyone who neither exports nor sells to exporters: a supply-chain applicant must show a minimum share of turnover toward exporting clients, each with a minimum export turnover of its own.
• Anyone who cannot tie the project to a market abroad: the application itself needs a report on the activity abroad, naming at least one country of main interest, and on the project's role in it.
• Anyone with fewer than two filed balance sheets, a scoring class among the worst, or an exposure to the Fund already high against average revenue.
• Anyone who has exhausted the de minimis allowance: the financing consumes it, loan and grant together.

How to apply

The application and digital signature go through the SIMEST portal; the Comitato Agevolazioni decides after the assessment. If the project is an investment in software and infrastructure rather than consulting, the right line is Transizione digitale o ecologica; for an online store, there is E-commerce.

What this budget builds

I prepare the company for a security or data management certification: an inventory of systems, a risk analysis, technical controls and documentation that holds up in an audit. What stays is a management system the in-house staff can maintain.

This entry is informational and is not advice: I do not handle grant applications, and before committing to a purchase it is worth reading the official source above or talking to whoever files the application.