ENISA STARTUPS CERTIFICATION SERVICE

Startups are booming. Since at the end of last year the Spanish Congress gave green light to the Law 28/2022, aimed at boosting the startup environment (also known as the Spanish “Startup Law“), the entire business community has been eagerly awaiting for ENISA (Empresa Nacional de Innovación S.A.) to start the certification process for startups.

Therefore, from Letslaw by RSM we inform you below about the process of accreditation as a startup and its requirements to take advantage of all the benefits offered by this Law.

What requirements must my company meet to be considered a Startup?

• Have a company based in Spain, either through a registered office or permanent establishment.
• Be a newly created company or, not being newly created corporation, have been in existence for up to 5 years. That is to say, that no more than five years have elapsed since the date of registration in the Spanish Mercantile Registry.
• Your company must not have arisen from a merger, spin-off or transformation of companies that are not considered emerging companies.
• Not be listed on a regulated market, nor distribute or have distributed dividends.
• Have a turnover of less than 10 million euros.
• Have 60% of the workforce with an employment contract in Spain.
• Develop an innovative entrepreneurship project with a scalable business model.

What are the benefits?

Once the Startup in question obtains the Emerging Company certification, it will be able to benefit from the incentives and advantages detailed below:

• Corporate Income Tax rate is reduced to 15% for 4 fiscal years.
• Possibility of deferral of the IS debt.
• It will not have to make the fractioned payments of the IS.
• The presentation of the annual accounts will be exempt of payment of taxes.
• No cause for dissolution is incurred for losses that reduce the net worth to less than half of the capital stock until three years have elapsed since its incorporation.
• Notary and registry fees will be 60 and 40 euros respectively.
• Reduction of guarantees.
• Self-employed workers with control of a start-up company and simultaneously working for another employer, receive a one hundred percent bonus on the contribution during the following periods. first three years.
• Tax advantages for investors
  • Increase of maximum deduction base (100k)
  • Increase of the deduction rate (50%).
  • Deduction for founding partners
• Other advantages
  • Promotion of innovative public procurement
  • Advantages in public/private collaboration
  • Boost to talent (expatriates, digital nomads…)

Certification procedure

Electronic registration of the company’s certification application on ENISA’s web portal accompanied by the following documentation:

• Supporting documentation of the applicant company.
• Tax identification number.
• Public deed of incorporation.
• Closed annual accounts of the last fiscal year.
• Certificate of being up to date with payments to the Treasury and Social Security.
• Declaration of compliance with the requirements of Articles 3 and 6 of Law 28/2022, of December 21.
• Business plan.

The resolution and notification will be made within a maximum period of three months.

Memory Documentation

1. Enisa Loan. Having signed a credit policy with ENISA is considered as a direct approval factor.

2. Degree of innovation.

a. Objective criteria for assessing the innovative nature of the project.
b. Development or use of patents.
c. Use of proprietary technology.
d. Differentiation in the company’s processes, product or service or business model.

3. Scalability

a. Degree of market attractiveness
b. Analysis of product or service demand
c. Existing entry barriers
d. Product or service scalability
e. Life stage of a company: product name, start of commercialization and description (1,000 characters)
f. Business model (next 4 years forecasts: number of customers, employees, amount of turnover, amount of sales, amount of sales, amount of sales (1,000 characters).
g. Description of the company activity
h. Company background
i. Objective of the investment, details of the planned investments and quantification.
j. Financing scheme for the planned investments
k. Competition (name, estimated market share, difference with respect to the applicant company).
l. Management team (name, position, function + supporting documents if any)
m. Partners and shareholders (name, years of experience, capital, VAT number…)
n. Suppliers (name, explanatory text 500 characters) and Customers.

At Letslaw by RSM we are lawyers specialized in Commercial law and advising startups. Do not hesitate to contact us to find out more details about the Spanish certification of Startups and apply for the certification of your company as soon as possible!