Marche region funding 2026: which one pays a software invoice

The Marche region has plenty of open funding windows. What it almost never has is a channel that reimburses the invoice for a piece of software bought by a business that is already trading.

Those are two different statements, and the second is the one that matters to anyone selling software. A business owner in Marche who opens a grants portal finds six or seven active regional measures and concludes that there are six or seven usable routes. Then, usually after getting a quote signed, they discover that two of them pay a fixed sum to people opening a new business, one pays municipalities, one pays for trade-fair stands and one pays for new hires.

As of 14 September 2026, the date on which the documents cited here were read one by one, the only regional channel that reimburses a software invoice for a business already trading in Marche is the Fondo Nuovo Credito, sezione Investimenti e Liquidità 2026, the regional New Credit Fund in its investment and working capital window. The line that separates it from the others runs between reimbursement of documented costs and lump sums, and between businesses and local authorities.

TL;DR

• Fondo Nuovo Credito, sezione Investimenti e Liquidità 2026: a chronological window open since 11:00 on 9 September 2026 (postponed from 1 September by directorial decree DDS IACR no. 405 of 24 August 2026), with 11,407,609.66 euros of funding. On 14 September the platform showed 506,189.31 euros of applications submitted, or 4.4% of the pot.
• Software is the third of the six categories in article 6: ‘software, brevetti e servizi nuovi di fabbrica’, software, patents and services ‘new from the factory’, the Italian term of art for something bought brand new and never used by anyone before. No 4.0 requirement, no sworn appraisal, no list of enabling technologies.
• Projects from 40,000 to 200,000 euros, at least 60% investment and at most 40% working capital. Underlying bank loan from 36,000 to 190,000 euros, term of 36 to 96 months.
• Four reliefs on the same transaction: a non-repayable grant of 10% of the project up to 10,000 euros, an interest subsidy on a schedule developed at 2.5% up to 7,000 euros, abatement of the Confidi guarantee cost up to 4,000 euros, and free regional reinsurance of that guarantee.
• VAT is eligible, under the exception in article 64, paragraph 1, letter c), point iii of Regulation (EU) 2021/1060: a quote of 40,000 euros plus VAT makes a 48,800 euro project, and the 10% is calculated on that.
• Invoices have to be issued and paid after the accredited Confidi grants the relief, a date that has to be asked for in writing. The application goes to an accredited Confidi, which uploads it to the platform for the firm.
• A reduction in spend above 10% costs the whole relief: a project carried out to 85% does not collect 85% of the grant, it collects nothing.
• The other regional measures open in the autumn pay lump sums to people starting a business, or pay public bodies. Marche Sicure admitted software, licences, OCR, video analytics and functions based on artificial intelligence at up to 100% and up to 45,000 euros, but only for municipalities and associated bodies: that window closed on 30 September 2026 at 13:00.

Cost reimbursement and lump sums: the line that decides

Public money reaches a business in two ways, and on one of the two a supplier’s invoice simply does not exist.

Under cost reimbursement the authority pays against documents. The firm declares in its application what it will buy, attaches the quotes, buys, pays, and when it reports the spend it produces invoices and proof of payment. A percentage of the documented spend comes back, and everything written on the invoice counts: the date, the description, the project code, the account the transfer left from.

Under a lump sum the authority pays against an event. The beneficiary opens the business and the first tranche arrives; twenty-four months later the business is still open and the second one arrives. There is no list of eligible costs and nobody checks what the money went on. This is the instrument set out in article 53, paragraph 1, letter c) of Regulation (EU) 2021/1060, and in Marche it is used by the self-employment start-up calls under PR Marche FSE+ 2021/2027, the regional ESF+ programme, the regional ESF+ programme.

For anyone selling software the consequence is sharp. On a cost-reimbursement channel the supplier sits inside the file: the quote becomes a document of the application, the invoice a document of the report, and a wrong date or a missing code on either one lands on the client as a reduced or revoked grant. On a lump-sum channel the supplier sits outside: those 40,000 euros can be spent on bespoke software or on an AI agent and nothing prevents it, but no line of the call pays for it. That money belongs to the client, like money drawn on a credit line, and describing such a call as ‘a grant that funds software’ creates an expectation no document supports.

The Fondo Nuovo Credito, sezione Investimenti e Liquidità 2026

It is a financial instrument, meaning a measure built around a bank loan. The region reinsures the guarantee that a Confidi, an Italian mutual guarantee consortium, issues to the bank, and hangs three grants on top of that structure. Management is entrusted to the RTI Credito Futuro Marche (UNI.CO. as lead partner, Confidicoop Marche and a partner bank).

The window is chronological and runs while funds last, and it opened at 11:00 on 9 September 2026: the date comes from directorial decree DDS IACR no. 405 of 24 August 2026, which postponed the original opening of 1 September, and FAQ 20 confirms it. The published Regolamento operativo, the operating rules of the measure, has not been consolidated and article 2 still shows 1 September, so anyone reading only that PDF finds the wrong date. On 14 September the platform declared 506,189.31 euros of applications submitted against 11,407,609.66 euros of funding: after three days roughly 4.4% of the pot was committed.

What it is worth, and the four parts it comes in

The eligible project runs from 40,000 to 200,000 euros, made up of at least 60% investment and at most 40% working capital. The underlying loan runs from 36,000 to 190,000 euros, with a term of 36 to 96 months, including a grace period of no more than 12 months.

On a 200,000 euro project the theoretical ceiling of the three direct reliefs is 21,000 euros. On smaller projects the real figures come out lower, because the subsidy is worth whatever the interest on that schedule is worth: on a 40,000 euro loan that is a few thousand euros, and the 7,000 stays a ceiling nobody reaches. The non-repayable grant, by contrast, behaves linearly: 10% of the project, reaching 10,000 euros at the 100,000 mark.

Software is the third of the six eligible categories

Article 6 lists six types of project and the third one reads, word for word, ‘software, brevetti e servizi nuovi di fabbrica’, software, patents and services new from the factory. There is nothing else: no 4.0 requirement, no interconnection to demonstrate, no sworn appraisal, no enabling technology to cite. That is the largest difference from the chamber-of-commerce vouchers, where every item has to be traced back to a technology listed in an annex.

The operational detail sits in Allegato 1, the form headed ‘application for relief by the final recipient’, where the investment plan sets out the ‘Immobilizzazioni Immateriali’ heading, intangible fixed assets, as follows: ‘Software, diritti di brevetto e licenze, know how o altre simili forme di proprietà intellettuale; consulenze strategiche; rafforzamento dell’immagine aziendale o consortile e/o del brand, … spese di progettazione’. In English: software, patent rights and licences, know how or other similar forms of intellectual property, strategic consulting, strengthening of the company or consortium image and brand, and design costs.

Two expressions in that list change the way a quote is written. ‘Consulenze strategiche’ and ‘spese di progettazione’ sit among the items of the plan, so analysis and design work are not excluded by definition, while the Nuova Sabatini, the national scheme for capital goods, rules services out in express terms.

In a quote written for this measure Obsidian Technologies separates the items that end up among intangible fixed assets from those that stay a service, carries the CUP B39I23000190007, the national project code, on every line as article 12 requires, and keeps recurring fees out of the total until the Confidi confirms in writing that they qualify.

Investment or working capital: where software lands inside the 60/40 split

The 60% constraint decides whether a project stands up, and the practical question is where a software supply falls. The Regolamento does not say, but it says two things nearby. Article 12, point 8 establishes that the purchase of depreciable assets requires proof ‘che il bene sia inserito nel libro dei cespiti oppure in altra documentazione equivalente’, that the asset is entered in the fixed asset register or in equivalent documentation. FAQ 16 applies the same test to a different item, participation in trade fairs: the nature of the cost follows the accounting treatment, so an item that lands in the fixed asset register is investment and anything else is working capital.

Applying that test to software as well is a reasonable reading, not an answer from the Gestore, the appointed fund manager: no FAQ addresses the classification of a licence or of bespoke development, and it is worth having the Confidi confirm it. The reasoning is the same one behind the Nuova Sabatini, where everything turns on which balance-sheet line takes the supply.

VAT counts inside the cost of the project

Article 6 states that ‘l’imposta sul valore aggiunto (IVA) è ammissibile in considerazione dell’eccezione prevista dall’art. 64, paragrafo 1.c.iii del Reg. UE n. 1060/2021’, VAT is eligible under the exception in article 64, paragraph 1, letter c), point iii of Regulation (EU) 1060/2021, the exception reserved for financial instruments.

That changes two numbers. A quote of 40,000 euros plus VAT makes a 48,800 euro project, so a firm sitting just below the eligible minimum gets there by counting the tax. And the 10% is calculated on that total, meaning 4,880 euros rather than 4,000. In the other calls that pay for software VAT is almost always excluded, except where the beneficiary cannot recover it.

The application goes through a Confidi, which files it for you

The firm submits its application to an accredited Confidi, which uploads it to the platform on the firm’s behalf. On 14 September 2026 five Confidi were accredited: Confidicoop Marche, FIDER, UNI.CO., Confidi Macerata and Cosvim.

Three consequences follow. The position in chronological order is fixed the moment the Confidi uploads the file to the platform. The firm’s signature buys no place in the queue: on a window that runs while funds last, a slow Confidi costs places that nobody recovers. Two approvals have to be in hand when the application is filed, the loan approval from the bank and the guarantee approval from the Confidi; FAQ 20 clarifies that the loan request and the bank’s approval may be dated 9 September 2026 provided they come after 11:00, and article 2 requires the underlying loan to be applied for after the window opens. The supplier cannot put the client in the queue: there are no lists of accredited suppliers, no qualification process and no cap on the number of applications, and the word ‘fornitore’, supplier, appears zero times in the Regolamento, in Allegato 1 and in the agreement with the Confidi.

The date from which invoices count

This is the clause that costs the most, and it lands on whoever issues the invoice. Article 6, as amended by directorial decree DDS IACR no. 396 of 6 August 2026, reads:

‘Le fatture devono essere emesse e pagate successivamente alla data di concessione dell’agevolazione da parte del Confidi convenzionato; nel caso di utilizzo del c.d. Regime di Esenzione, l’obbligazione giuridicamente vincolante deve scaturire successivamente a tale data.’

In English: invoices have to be issued and paid after the date on which the accredited Confidi grants the relief, and where the so-called exemption regime is used, the legally binding obligation has to arise after that same date.

Decree 396 replaced the previous wording, which anchored the window to the date of the request for relief made to the Confidi. Its explanatory document observes that the granting ‘sovente’, often, coincides with the Confidi’s guarantee resolution, and ‘often’ does not mean ‘always’: the operational definition of that date is written down nowhere.

One rule follows from this. The date of the grant has to be requested from the Confidi in writing before any invoice is issued, because an invoice dated even one day earlier is ineligible spend and drags with it the share of the project it represents.

The other five regional measures, and why they do not pay a software quote

The measures below were all active or about to open on 14 September 2026, and none of them reimburses a software supplier’s invoice issued to a trading business in Marche.

START&INNOVA Giovani (directorial decree DDS no. 177 of 18 June 2026, PR Marche FSE+ 2021/2027) pays 40,000 euros as a fixed amount in two tranches: the first when the business starts trading, the second after 24 months. The first window is worth 480,000 euros, meaning twelve grants, and closes at 17:00 on 9 October 2026. The applicant is an individual: under 36, holding a degree or an ITS Academy diploma, unemployed within the meaning of Legislative Decree 150/2015 and registered with a public employment centre, resident or domiciled in Marche, who sets up a start-up entered in the special section of the business register provided for by Law 221/2012.

Marche per le imprese, the Over 36 line (directorial decree DDS no. 247 of 2 September 2026, 6,905,000 euros of funding) pays 20,000 euros as a lump sum to people starting a business: unemployed for at least 180 days with a service agreement at a public employment centre, aged between 36 and 65, resident in Marche. The first window runs from 16 September to 16 October 2026.

Measure 1.3.4.1 on internationalisation lives on an agreement between the region and the Camera di commercio, the Marche chamber of commerce, running to 30 April 2027: the formal beneficiary is the chamber, the manufacturing firm takes part in fairs and workshops by paying a participation fee, and there is no reimbursable software cost. Marche Giovani, a 487,800 euro incentive for qualified employment that closed on 30 September 2026, pays the cost of labour.

The comparison with the other channel in Marche deserves a line of its own. The Voucher Doppia Transizione 2026 from the Camera di commercio covers 70% of the spend for micro and small firms up to 8,000 euros, 50% for medium-sized ones up to 6,000, and funds consulting and training as well: it is the channel for a small project. With a warning about the date, because the submission window shuts at 12:00 on 7 October 2026, the day after this article goes out, and anyone reading later has to wait for the next edition. The Fondo Nuovo Credito starts at 40,000 euros and runs through a bank loan: it is the channel for a large one.

Marche Sicure pays for software and AI, but the beneficiary is the municipality

The call on local security comes from regional government resolution DGR no. 1065 of 31 August 2026 and directorial decree DDS no. 51 of 4 September 2026, drawing on POC 2014-2020 resources. The window on the SIGEF platform, the regional grants system, was open from 08:00 on 7 September 2026 to 13:00 on 30 September 2026, so by the date this article goes out it has closed. Funding of 1,200,000 euros split into two rankings of 600,000, one inside the earthquake reconstruction area and one outside it, with a contribution of up to 100% of the costs and a maximum of 45,000 euros.

Article 2.5 admits, word for word, the ‘costs of acquisition, configuration and first activation of software, licences, application modules, digital platforms and advanced functions, including OCR systems, video analytics, automated analysis of video streams and functions based on algorithms or artificial intelligence’, and excludes ‘fees, renewals, support, warranty, maintenance, software updates and user licences relating to periods after the completion of the intervention’. It is the most explicit description of software and artificial intelligence spend to be found in a Marche call published in 2026. And the beneficiaries, according to article 2.1, are ‘provinces, individual municipalities with their own local police force or service, unions of municipalities, mountain unions and associated public bodies’. No businesses.

For a software house this is not a call for its clients: it is a client. The next edition is worth watching on SIGEF, because a three-week window is not recoverable.

The two measures that could reopen on top of this article

BEI Blending Marche is the channel that names software better than any other. Paragraph 5.5, letter b), point 1 of the call admits ‘intangible assets: 1. digitalisation costs (software, hardware)’, and it is the only intangible category admitted at full cost, with no percentage cap, while patents, licences and know-how stop at 10% of the project and design work and external consulting at 4%. Loans from 40,000 to 2,000,000 euros, with 4,570,342.61 euros of grants that can be raised to 5 million. The window opened on 2 March 2026 and was suspended from 18:00 on 27 March 2026 by IACR decree no. 129. Refinancing has already been approved and reopening requires only 15 calendar days of notice, which is exactly how long it takes to miss it by standing still. On 14 September 2026 no reopening measure had been issued, and that comes from reading all 201 decrees the department published from March onwards.

The Fondo Credito per le Cooperative has its application criteria approved by regional government resolution DGR no. 1046 of 10 August 2026, funding of 2,031,394.71 euros plus 500,000 euros from the chamber of commerce, and its manager already appointed. What is missing is the public call that article 14 makes mandatory in order to open, and the implementing contract that has to come before it. It concerns only worker cooperatives and social cooperatives, and the word ‘software’ appears in no document of the measure: the way in runs through ‘investments in tangible and intangible assets’ in article 7, which is an interpretative link.

What the call does not say

The most useful part of the Regolamento is the part that is missing. There are four genuine gaps, and none of them closes by reading another document.

SaaS fees and subscriptions. No primary source names them, either to allow or to exclude them. Two things count against them: the ‘new from the factory’ requirement recalled by the application criteria of DGR 917, and the reasoning of FAQ 1, which excludes leasing instalments partly because they might not close inside the 12 months. One thing counts in their favour: article 20, paragraph 1 of Presidential Decree 66/2025, which preserves ‘the eligibility of expenditure for simple leasing or rental, provided it is directly connected to the operation’. The question has to be put to the Confidi before signing.

Website and e-commerce. They appear as a cost item in no document. The only occurrence of ‘sito web’, website, in the Regolamento sits in article 14.1, inside the obligation to publicise the grant. The only possible hook is the ‘strengthening of the company or consortium image and brand’ item of the investment plan, and that is interpretative.

Training. Zero occurrences across every document of the measure, neither as an eligible cost nor as an excluded one.

‘New from the factory’ applied to an intangible asset. No FAQ explains what the phrase means for something that never leaves a factory. The defensible reading is that software developed from scratch or a first licence are new and that a renewal is not. It remains a reading.

There are then three documentary inconsistencies worth knowing about before someone raises them against you.

• The operating base in Marche, for a firm that does not have one yet, comes with three different deadlines in three documents of the same measure: completion of the project in article 5, approval by the Gestore’s committee in the application form, and the first payment of the grant in article 13.7. Three incompatible deadlines for the same obligation, to be confirmed with the Confidi.
• The figures do not match. The funding is 11,412,250.11 euros in the opening of article 4 and 11,407,609.66 euros in the table of that same article. The loan ceiling is 185,000 euros in DGR 917 and 190,000 euros in the Regolamento.
• The closing date appears in no primary document. The platform declares 31 December 2029, incentivi.gov.it declares 9 September 2030, and the Regolamento provides only for a regional decree closing the measure once the pot is exhausted.

There is finally a rule that binds like the call while sitting outside the call. Article 9 provides that the FAQ published on the page of the measure are ‘tempo per tempo, parte integrante del presente regolamento’, from time to time an integral part of these rules, and they can change without notice. The ban on invoicing through connected parties sits precisely in FAQ 15: it excludes costs invoiced by connected or controlled companies, by the legal representative, by the shareholders, by anyone holding office in the corporate bodies, by the spouse, by relatives and relatives by marriage up to the third degree, and by companies in whose ownership those people appear.

The mistakes that cost the grant

1. Issuing an invoice before the Confidi grants the relief. The most frequent and the most expensive, because it comes from the hurry to get started on the work. The date is neither that of the application nor that of the bank’s approval.

2. Forgetting the CUP. Article 12 requires every expense document to carry the CUP B39I23000190007 and the project reference in the description. Where it is missing, the same article points to the regularisation service of the Agenzia delle Entrate, the Italian revenue agency, set out in circular no. 1/2026. This is the question of what a supplier’s invoice has to carry for the grant to survive.

3. Paying badly. Payments have to be traceable, made through current accounts dedicated to the project even on a non-exclusive basis under article 3 of Law 136/2010, and the bank statement has to show the invoice number in the payment reference. Cash and cryptocurrency are expressly prohibited.

4. Counting delivery instead of the last payment. The project has to be completed within 12 months of the notice of grant, and completion is the date of the last payment. The report has to be submitted within 60 days of that date.

5. Invoicing through a connected company. See FAQ 15: a supplier in which one of the client’s shareholders holds a stake makes the cost ineligible.

6. Getting the composition of the project wrong. At least 60% has to be investment: a project whose capitalisable part is a minority share does not pass, however good it is.

7. Choosing the Confidi out of habit. On a chronological window the position is fixed by the upload to the platform, so it is worth asking two or three Confidi how long they take.

FAQ

Does software qualify for the Fondo Nuovo Credito?

Yes. Article 6 of the Regolamento operativo lists six types of project and the third one is ‘software, brevetti e servizi nuovi di fabbrica’, software, patents and services new from the factory. There are no technological requirements to demonstrate and no appraisal is needed. The investment plan in Allegato 1 details the intangible fixed assets heading by naming software, patent rights and licences, know how, strategic consulting and design costs.

When can I issue the first invoice?

After the date on which the accredited Confidi grants the relief. Directorial decree DDS IACR no. 396 of 6 August 2026 rewrote article 6 to that effect and observes that the date ‘often’ coincides with the Confidi’s guarantee resolution, without defining it. It has to be requested from the Confidi in writing, because an invoice issued early is ineligible spend.

Does an annual SaaS subscription qualify?

Unknown, and that is the correct answer as of 14 September 2026. No primary document of the measure names SaaS fees or software subscriptions: the only occurrence of ‘canoni’ is in FAQ 1, and it concerns leasing instalments. Counting against: the ‘new from the factory’ requirement, and the reasoning of that same FAQ on instalments that might not close inside the 12 months. Counting in favour: article 20, paragraph 1 of Presidential Decree 66/2025 on simple leasing and rental connected to the operation.

Do I have to be an accredited supplier to work on this measure?

No. There are no supplier lists, no qualification process and no cap on the number of applications in which the same supplier may appear, and the word ‘fornitore’, supplier, appears zero times in the documents of the measure. The only constraint on who may invoice is the one in FAQ 15 on connected parties.

Does a software-only project reach 40,000 euros?

Rarely, for a micro-business. The minimum threshold is 40,000 euros of project and at least 60% has to be investment, meaning at least 24,000 euros of capitalisable spend. The combination that holds is capitalised bespoke software plus hardware, or software and machinery inside the same project to digitalise a process. A 10,000 or 15,000 euro job belongs on the chamber-of-commerce channel.

Can this measure be combined with the Nuova Sabatini or with tax credits?

Article 7 expressly names compatibility with the Legge Sabatini and with other measures of a tax nature, subject to the ban on double funding. The choice between the de minimis regime (Regulation (EU) 2023/2831) and the exemption regime (articles 17 or 22 of Regulation (EU) 651/2014) is made in the application. The operational limit is that the sum of everything, including the nominal amount of the loan, must not exceed 100% of the cost of the project.

The quote that holds, and the number not to inflate

Paragraph 13.2 of the Regolamento is the other clause to read twice, after the one on invoice dates, and it says two things in sequence.

The first: variations are allowed up to a maximum of 10% of the initial value, and in that case the non-repayable grant applies to the share of the project actually carried out. So far this is the rule everyone expects.

The second overturns the expectation. Above 10%, in order to keep the relief the firm has to have incurred further eligible investments which, added to the costs actually incurred on the original project, bring the reduction back within 10%. Failing that, ‘il Soggetto Gestore procederà con la revoca dell’intera agevolazione’, the Gestore will revoke the entire relief.

With figures underneath: an approved project of 100,000 euros carries a right to 10,000 euros of grant. Carry out 92,000 and the reduction is 8%, so the grant falls to 9,200 euros. Carry out 85,000 and the reduction is 15%, at which point the firm either finds another 5,000 euros of eligible investment to report within the deadline, or loses the whole 10,000 euros. Not 8,500. Zero.

From this follows how you write a quote for this measure, and it runs against commercial instinct. Write it tight: every optional item, every module marked ‘if it turns out we need it’, every price range quoted at the top of the band becomes a spending commitment to be honoured within 12 months. A 90,000 euro project carried out in full beats a 110,000 euro one that stops at 88,000.

Uncertain items stay out. A fee whose eligibility nobody has confirmed, a phase two that depends on how phase one goes: inside the plan they add to the shortfall if they never happen, outside the plan they can at best become the ‘further eligible investments’ that save the situation.

Plan the dates backwards. First invoice after the Confidi grants the relief, last payment within the 12 months, report within the following 60 days. A project with acceptance testing at month eleven has no margin, and the extension is one only, three months at most, and has to be requested at least 30 days before the deadline.

If you have a management system, integration or artificial intelligence project that might fall under this measure and you want a quote already written in this form, get in touch: half an hour is enough to work out whether it sits above 40,000 euros and whether the 60% investment share holds. For the technical context, the legacy modernisation pillar and the AI in the ERP page describe the kind of work that ends up among intangible fixed assets.

Sources: the page of the measure on the Credito Futuro Marche portal, from which the Regolamento operativo, Allegato 1 and the FAQ updated to 9 September 2026 can be downloaded; on norme.marche.it the DDS no. 51 of 4 September 2026 on Marche Sicure, the DDS no. 177 of 18 June 2026 for START&INNOVA Giovani and the DDS no. 247 of 2 September 2026 for Marche per le imprese; the regional page on BEI funding. Figures verified against the primary texts on 14 September 2026: these are windows that run while funds last or stay open briefly, they can close earlier than expected or reopen on 15 days’ notice, so the state of the funds should be reread on the page of the measure before committing spend.