Italian start-up grants: software is an eligible cost

Someone in their early thirties opens a VAT number in Fano, wants to sell online, and needs an e-commerce platform built around their own catalogue rather than a theme bought and adapted. The quote comes to 22,000 euros. The question they put to the supplier, almost always with the air of someone expecting a no, is whether any public grant covers part of it.

The answer is wider than they expect, and it sits in two lines of the Italian interministerial decree of 11 July 2025 implementing the Integrated Self-Employment Plan. Among eligible costs the decree names, in full, the design and development of application software, digital platforms and apps. This is not an expansive reading of “equipment”: it is item b) of the list, written exactly that way.

And there is no percentage cap on that item. The only two limits on the composition of the spend concern building work, at 50%, and consulting delivered by third-sector bodies, at 30%. A 40,000 euro voucher can go entirely into software. This article sets out who qualifies, how much it is worth, which line items of an IT supply genuinely count, and which rarely-reported constraint forces a choice between this measure and every other one.

TL;DR

• Two twin measures born from the Cohesion decree (DL 60/2024, articles 17 and 18): Autoimpiego Centro-Nord for 12 regions, Marche included, and Resto al Sud 2.0 for the 8 southern regions. Implemented by the decree of 11 July 2025 (Official Gazette no. 193 of 21 August 2025) and the directorial decree of 8 October 2025.
• Who qualifies: aged 18 or over and under 35, not in work, inactive or unemployed, including GOL-programme unemployed and the working poor. The venture has to be started in the month before the application and must be dormant on that date.
• Voucher: 100% of the investment up to 30,000 euros in the Centre-North and 40,000 in the South, rising to 40,000 and 50,000 with the digital uplift.
• Investment-programme grant: up to 65% (Centre-North) or 75% (South) on programmes up to 120,000 euros, up to 60% and 70% between 120,000 and 200,000. It is an alternative to the voucher.
• Software is named in the decree: software licences, design and development of application software, digital platforms and apps. Plus, as intangible assets, the design and development of promotional web portals, visual or digital branding, and the creation of trademarks.
• No cap on digital spend. The only caps are 50% on building work and 30% on consulting delivered by third-sector bodies.
• Near-total ban on cumulation: these grants do not stack with tax credits or with any other national, regional or European aid, except the SME Guarantee Fund.
• The window opened at 12:00 on 15 October 2025, with no deadline, first come first served until funds run out. As of 13 September 2026 both measures show as active on the Invitalia pages.
• Invoices dated before the application cannot be claimed. File first, sign afterwards.

Who can apply

The age requirement is precise: from 18 up to the day before the thirty-fifth birthday. On top of that comes an employment condition, any one of these: never employed, inactive or unemployed, or unemployed within the GOL programme. The so-called working poor also qualify, meaning those whose gross tax is equal to or lower than the deductions under article 13 of the income tax code.

The definitions matter more than they appear to. The never employed are those with annual income below 8,000 euros from employment or quasi-employment, or below 4,800 euros from self-employment. The inactive and the unemployed are those not working, without an active VAT number, and not partners or directors of a company registered and active in the business register.

Four further points that move the outcome and that almost nobody reads:

• Residence does not count. What counts is where the venture’s operating site is. Someone from Rome opening a business in Marche falls under Autoimpiego Centro-Nord.
• The venture has to be started in the month before the application, and must be dormant on that date, meaning a VAT number with no transactions. Starting means opening the VAT number for self-employment and the professions, registration in the business register for companies.
• The activity code blocks repeat applicants: anyone who owns or is a partner in a business, including one wound up in the previous six months, whose ATECO code matches to the third digit, is not considered to meet the requirements.
• The eligible legal forms are broad: self-employment with a VAT number, sole trader, general and limited partnerships, limited liability companies, cooperatives, and professional practice including through a professional partnership.

Two instruments, and they are not picked at random

The decree offers two alternative instruments. They cannot be combined, and each venture may file a single application.

The practical test is the size and nature of the project. Below 40,000 euros of spend the voucher is simpler, is assessed without an interview and covers 100%. Above that, the grant opens up programmes to 200,000 euros, but requires a business plan on the Invitalia template and a remote interview with the legal representative and the partners, convened by certified email with at least five working days of notice: an unjustified absence leads to refusal.

Both come with tutoring services worth 5,000 euros, four mandatory meetings after the award, which count towards the de minimis ceiling alongside the grant.

The software is in the decree, not in an interpretation

This is the part that decides whether an IT project is fundable, and also the part generalist guides dispose of with the word “equipment”.

Costs eligible for the voucher (article 11 for the Centre-North, article 21 for the South, identically worded) are four, provided they are strictly connected and functional to the venture’s production needs:

• a) factory-new machinery, plant, equipment and furnishings;
• b) IT programmes and information and telecommunications technology services, including software licences, the design and development of application software, digital platforms and apps;
• c) intangible assets, with particular reference to acquiring skills aimed at developing high-technology products, services and processes, to the design and development of promotional web portals and visual or digital branding, and to the creation of trademarks and names;
• d) technical and specialist consulting for designing innovative solutions, prototypes and environmental or energy certification, which must be delivered by third-sector bodies and is eligible up to 30%.

For the investment-programme grant (articles 13 and 23) the list is the same, with building work added up to 50%.

Translated into the line items of an IT quote: a bespoke e-commerce build is a digital platform, an app is named verbatim, a vertical management system is application software, a promotional portal is named at item c). On a booking system handling 400 reservations a day, the agent developed by Obsidian Technologies brought average response time down from 8 minutes to under 2, tripling the volume handled with the same headcount: that is the same kind of work the decree classifies as development of application software and digital platforms.

The right door for IT consulting

There is a trap here worth thousands of euros. Item d), technical and specialist consulting, is reserved for third-sector bodies registered with RUNTS and capped at 30%. A normal limited company doing IT consulting does not go through that door.

It goes through items b) and c). Invitalia’s official FAQ says so explicitly: consulting delivered by parties other than third-sector bodies, provided it is capitalisable and functional to implementing innovative or digital processes, belongs in the categories “IT programmes and information technology services” and “Intangible assets”. With no percentage cap.

The difference between writing “IT consulting” and writing “design and development of the digital platform” in the technical description of costs is, quite literally, the difference between 30% and 100%.

The extra 10,000 euros, and how to trigger them

The uplift takes the voucher from 30,000 to 40,000 euros in the Centre-North and from 40,000 to 50,000 in the South. It is not automatic: it has to be requested explicitly in the application, and one of two conditions has to hold.

1. At least 20% of the costs approved by Invitalia relate to capital goods, tangible or intangible, or to services that are innovative in technological and digital terms, or aimed at environmental sustainability and energy saving.
2. The venture buys, for an amount no lower than 50% of the uplift itself so at least 5,000 euros, technical and specialist consulting delivered exclusively by third-sector bodies registered with RUNTS.

The first condition is within reach of anyone buying software. On a 40,000 euro spend programme, 8,000 euros of development is enough to trigger it, and the arithmetic is immediate: 8,000 euros spent on a management system or an e-commerce build brings in 10,000 euros more of grant.

Paying out the uplift requires a sworn declaration by the legal representative, with a technical and economic report issued by a tutor from the National Microcredit Agency attached. The absence of that declaration is grounds for revoking the uplift alone.

What stays outside

The exclusions sit in article 11(3) and in articles 14 and 24, which pick up the European Social Fund eligibility rules:

• purchase of land, buildings and infrastructure, and renovation of buildings in the case of the voucher;
• consulting for preparing the grant application itself;
• legal, tax and fiscal advice;
• costs for raw materials and semi-finished goods, staff, utilities, rent, non-specialist consulting and leasing;
• interest charges and taxes;
• any other cost not directly and exclusively aimed at the venture’s activity.

Three notes on what this means for an IT supply.

The application does not get paid for out of the grant. Consulting to write and file the paperwork is excluded by law, and no supplier can invoice it inside the project. Obsidian Technologies says up front which line items of a software project fall under items b) and c) of the decree and how they need to be described in the quote, and does so without invoicing it, because the grant would not allow it.

Goods have to be factory-new, and that applies to licences too.

VAT is eligible only where it is not recoverable, which for a beneficiary under the Italian flat-rate regime means the VAT on the supplier’s invoice does count towards the spend.

Two grey areas are worth declaring rather than resolving in the reader’s favour. Advertising spend and campaign management appear neither among eligible costs nor among excluded ones: the capitalisation test points towards no, but no official source says so. And recurring subscription fees sit between software licences, which are allowed, and utilities, which are excluded: the treatment of a multi-year fee is not clarified by any official document, and should be put to Invitalia before it goes into an application.

The cumulation ban, which changes every calculation

This is the harshest constraint in the measure and the one guides almost always skip. Article 15(1), and its twin article 25, is categorical: these grants are not cumulable with tax credits or with any other national, regional or European aid, with the sole exception of the SME Guarantee Fund.

In practice: anyone taking the Autoimpiego voucher cannot, on the same project, add a chamber-of-commerce Double Transition Voucher, a regional ERDF call, or a tax credit. It is a choice.

The only two exceptions are the SME Guarantee Fund guarantee and unemployment benefit paid as a lump sum, which GOL-programme unemployed can request and contribute as start-up capital to the funded venture. The second is the normal route to building the own-funds share that the priority scoring on the escrow account rewards.

Above all of it sits the de minimis ceiling of 300,000 euros per single undertaking over three years, which takes in the grant, the voucher and the 5,000 euros of tutoring.

The mistakes that keep repeating

1. Signing the quote before filing. Only costs documented by invoices dated after the application are eligible. This is the error that burns the whole grant, and it comes from the enthusiasm of getting started.

2. Confusing Resto al Sud 2.0 with the 2017 measure. The old Resto al Sud paired a zero-interest loan with the grant and has been closed to new applications since midnight on 14 October 2025. Resto al Sud 2.0 is all grant, with no loan component.

3. Looking for the deadline. There is none. It is a rolling window until funds run out, with two separate chronological queues for Centre-North and South, and closure is announced in the Official Gazette. Guides quoting a date are inventing it.

4. Believing the course is compulsory. The National Microcredit Agency training path, up to 100 hours mostly delivered remotely, is not compulsory in order to apply: it earns priority points. What is compulsory is the four tutoring meetings after the award, and unjustified absence is grounds for revocation.

5. Taking the uplift for granted. Buying “digital stuff” does not automatically bring 10,000 euros: it needs the explicit request in the application, the sworn declaration and the tutor’s report.

6. Picking a connected supplier. The supplier has to be a third and independent party. An invoice to a company the beneficiary or one of their partners belongs to is the fastest route to revocation.

7. Filing twice. Applications after the first one for the same venture are cancelled, and the owner or partner of a venture cannot take part in other applications within the Integrated Self-Employment Plan at the same time.

FAQ

Can I pay for an e-commerce site with the Autoimpiego voucher?

Yes. The decree allows the design and development of application software, digital platforms and apps at item b) of eligible costs, and promotional web portals at item c). A bespoke e-commerce build qualifies as a digital platform. There is no percentage cap on that item.

Exactly how much is the voucher worth?

100% of the investment up to 30,000 euros in the 12 Centre-North regions and up to 40,000 euros in the 8 southern regions. With the uplift requested in the application, the two limits rise to 40,000 and 50,000 euros respectively.

How do I obtain the 10,000 euro uplift?

It has to be requested explicitly in the application, and at least 20% of approved costs must relate to goods or services that are innovative in technological and digital terms, or at least 5,000 euros of technical and specialist consulting must come from third-sector bodies registered with RUNTS. At award stage a sworn declaration and a technical and economic report from a National Microcredit Agency tutor are required.

Do I have to live in the region where I open the business?

No. The territorial requirement concerns the venture’s operating site, not the applicant’s registered residence.

Can I add the voucher to a chamber voucher or a tax credit?

No. Articles 15 and 25 of the decree rule out cumulation with tax credits and with any other national, regional or European aid. The only exceptions are the SME Guarantee Fund guarantee and lump-sum unemployment benefit for GOL-programme unemployed.

When can I start spending?

After the application is filed. Only costs documented by invoices dated afterwards are eligible, and funded assets have to stay on site, unsold and unrepurposed, for three years after the spend programme completes.

Is there a deadline to apply?

No. The Invitalia platform opened at 12:00 on 15 October 2025 and stays open until funds run out, which are 219.6 million euros for the Centre-North and 356.4 million for the South. Exhaustion is announced through separate notices in the Official Gazette.

How do supplier invoices get paid?

Two routes. Under ordinary reporting you request a progress payment three months after the award, on invoices amounting to between 30% and 70% of approved costs, then the balance. Alternatively you open an escrow account at a participating bank, and Invitalia pays suppliers directly against unpaid invoices under an irrevocable payment mandate: for the supplier, that is the safer route to getting paid.

Application first, signed quote second

The order of operations is the one thing worth memorising, because it is the only one that cannot be fixed afterwards. Open the VAT number, keep the venture dormant, prepare the technical description of costs with quotes in hand, file the application, and only then sign and let the invoicing start. An invoice dated the day before submission is worth nothing, however good the project is.

If you are weighing up an e-commerce build, an app or a bespoke management system and want to know which item of the decree each part of the quote lands in, get in touch: it is a half-hour conversation, and it exists to settle the question before any paperwork moves.

For the rest of the map: the 2026 Double Transition Voucher is the measure for companies already trading, with nearly opposite rules on what qualifies, and the AI agents and custom software for regulated sectors pages describe the kind of work that falls under items b) and c).

Sources: the interministerial decree of 11 July 2025 in the Official Gazette, the official pages for Autoimpiego Centro-Nord and Resto al Sud 2.0 with their FAQs, and the directorial decree of 8 October 2025 published in the regulatory section. Information verified against the legal texts on 13 September 2026: the window can close for exhaustion of funds at any time, and the status should be rechecked on the Invitalia pages before filing.