Starting a business in Italy in 2026: who pays for the software

The Italian interministerial decree of 4 December 2020 lists, in article 15, the costs that ON - Oltre Nuove imprese a tasso zero (New Businesses at Zero Interest, the national scheme for young and women-led companies) is allowed to finance. Item c) reads: “computer programs and services for information and communication technology (ICT), proportionate to the production and management needs of the business, including those connected with emerging artificial intelligence, blockchain and internet of things technologies and applications”. There is no percentage cap on that item. Two lines below, at item e), specialist consulting is admitted “within the limit of 5 (five) per cent of the eligible investment”.

Anyone opening a business who needs to buy a management system, an e-commerce platform or an app therefore starts from a better position than they expect. The Italian state pays in full for building software and rations the selling of opinions, and it put that in writing in a decree.

The difficulty sits elsewhere, in which windows are genuinely open. Between 30 June and 13 July 2026 two of the national start-up measures changed, and almost none of the guidance in circulation has registered it: ON ran out of grant money, and the decree that rewrites Smart&Start was published without coming into force.

The most generous route for a new founder remains Autoimpiego Centro-Nord and Resto al Sud 2.0, the twin self-employment measures for under-35s, which have an article of their own. This piece covers the rest: what is left when age, legal form or sector shuts that channel.

TL;DR

• ON - Oltre Nuove imprese a tasso zero is open, and since 1 July 2026 it lends only. In a notice dated 30 June 2026 Invitalia declared the grant budget exhausted: applications filed from July onwards receive the zero-interest soft loan alone, under article 6 paragraph 5 of the decree.
• ON covers up to 90% of the spend programme, which is capped at 1,500,000 euros for companies incorporated no more than 36 months ago and 3,000,000 for those between 36 and 60 months. Zero interest, up to 10 years, no collateral required below 250,000 euros.
• Only companies reach ON, micro or small, incorporated no more than 60 months ago, with more than half the shareholders by head count and more than half the capital held by people aged 18 to 35 or by women. Sole traders are excluded.
• The ministerial decree of 13 July 2026 rewriting Smart&Start is not operative. Its article 2 paragraph 2 makes it conditional on publication of the implementing circular, which as of 13 September 2026 does not appear to have been adopted: circular 439196 of 16 December 2019 still governs.
• Smart&Start funds 80% of plans between 100,000 and 1,500,000 euros, rising to 90% where the shareholder base is made up entirely of women or of under-35s. The 30% that is never repaid applies only in eight southern regions, and the Marche is not among them.
• The Fondo Impresa Femminile has been closed since June 2022 because its budget ran out, and as of 13 September 2026 there are no official MIMIT or Invitalia communications about a reopening.
• Underneath everything sit microcredit and the SME Guarantee Fund: bank lending up to 75,000 euros, 100,000 for limited companies, terms up to 120 months, with a free public guarantee covering 80% below 50,000 euros.
• Costs incurred before the application is filed electronically are ineligible under every one of these measures. File first, sign afterwards.

Five national measures, and how many are genuinely open

As of 13 September 2026 three routes are usable: ON, Smart&Start and the microcredit plus SME Guarantee Fund pairing. Two measures that still appear in almost every list online have been shut for years, and the third lost the component that made it attractive halfway through this year.

The Fondo Impresa Femminile (the national fund for women-led businesses) deserves an extra line, because it is the entry that does the most damage in those lists. Its single window opened and closed between May and June 2022, on an allocation of roughly 298.8 million euros drawn from NRRP resources and the 2021 budget law. Invitalia readmits applicants periodically when revoked projects release money, but those readmissions only concern people who applied back then: the MIMIT page itself sends anyone looking for alternatives to Smart&Start and ON.

How much of a software project can go into ON?

All of it, for companies incorporated no more than 36 months ago. Item c) of article 15 carries no percentage cap: a spend programme can consist entirely of computer programs and ICT services, up to the ceiling of 1,500,000 euros, with aid of up to 90% of eligible costs. The caps sit elsewhere, and there are three of them: 30% on building work, 5% on specialist consulting, 20% on working capital.

The practical question is how the work gets characterised in the contract and on the invoice. The identical project, called specialist consulting, lands inside the 5% of item e). Described as a supply of computer programs and ICT services, with functional specifications, progress stages and acceptance reports, it sits in item c) and meets no limit on composition at all.

The rest of the requirements are worth checking before growing attached to the idea:

• Company form is compulsory, micro or small, incorporated no more than 60 months ago (article 5). Individuals who intend to incorporate may also apply, provided they do so within the deadline set in the admission letter. More than half the shareholders by head count and more than half the capital must belong to people aged 18 to 35 or to women.
• Eligible sectors (article 6): manufacture of goods in industry, craft trades and processing of agricultural products; supply of services to businesses and to individuals; trade in goods and services; tourism and tourism-related cultural activities.
• A chronological window under article 5 of legislative decree 123/1998, with no ranking and no deadline, assessed in two stages: first the skills of the team, then economic and financial sustainability and the eligibility of costs.
• Delivery within 24 months of signature, extendable by up to 6 months. Mentoring comes on top, worth 5,000 euros up to 250,000 euros of eligible costs and 10,000 euros above that, under de minimis rules.

Past 36 months of trading the rules change, and half the software drops out

Chapter III of the decree, reserved for companies incorporated between 36 and 60 months ago, raises the spend ceiling to 3,000,000 euros and narrows what can be bought. Article 19 admits tangible and intangible fixed assets only, and item d) speaks of “computer programs, patents, licences and trademarks”: ICT services disappear from the list, and consulting with them. Paragraph 2 adds three cumulative conditions, namely that costs be depreciable, bought from unconnected third parties on market terms, and carried as balance-sheet assets for at least three years.

Maintenance, subscriptions and support do not get through here. A development contract has to be framed as the acquisition of a capitalisable intangible asset, with title passing to the client, or the cost stays outside even where the work is identical to something Chapter II would fund in full.

Did Smart&Start change on 13 July 2026? Yes, and it is not in force yet

The ministerial decree of 13 July 2026 rewrites Smart&Start Italia and was published on the MIMIT website on 2 September 2026. Its article 2 paragraph 2 provides that “the provisions of this decree apply from the date of publication of the circular” implementing it. As of 13 September 2026 that circular does not appear to have been adopted, and the notice of the decree is still shown as pending publication in the Official Gazette. Anyone filing this week is assessed under circular 439196 of 16 December 2019.

This is where search results go wrong systematically, and the reason is worth understanding. The MIMIT page describing the measure has already been updated with the content of the new decree: eligibility widened to medium-sized enterprises, mentoring worth 10,000 euros for companies incorporated no more than 36 months ago, a new requirement to be up to date with natural-catastrophe insurance obligations. All of it is written in a published act, and none of it produces any effect today. On mentoring, for one, the rule in force is still point 9.4 of the 2019 circular, which reserves it for companies incorporated no more than 12 months ago.

The conditions that apply right now are these:

• A business plan between 100,000 and 1,500,000 euros of eligible costs, working capital included (point 8.5), to be delivered within 24 months of signature with a single extension of up to 6 months, paying through a restricted current account or dedicated accounts in the company name (point 10.3).
• An interest-free loan equal to 80% of eligible costs, rising to 90% where, at the application date, the shareholder base consists entirely of women or of under-35s, or includes a research doctor who obtained the title no more than six years earlier and has worked abroad in research or teaching for at least three years. Term up to 10 years, repaid half-yearly, no collateral required.
• The 30% that is never repaid exists only for start-ups based in Abruzzo, Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Molise, Puglia, Sardinia and Sicily. For a company in the Marche, Smart&Start is a zero-interest loan rather than a grant, and that is worth knowing before a financial plan gets built on top of it.
• Conversion into a grant where risk capital is raised, which the MIMIT page puts at up to 50% of the sums contributed by external investors and in any case no more than 50% of the aid awarded.

On software, point 10.1 item c) is as explicit as the ON decree, citing “costs for the design, development, customisation and testing of IT architecture solutions and production technology systems, specialist technological consulting and related corrective and adaptive work”. The whole life cycle of a software supply, named in full.

The cap that actually bites is at point 10.7 item b): “costs relating to marketing and/or web marketing services may not exceed 20% (twenty per cent) of the total approved amount of the business plan”. In a project that combines a platform with a commercial launch, keep development invoices separate from campaign, SEO and promotional content invoices, because a single combined invoice risks dragging everything inside that 20%.

What is left without under-35 shareholders, female shareholders or an innovative start-up registration

Microcredit under article 111 of the Italian Banking Act, up to 75,000 euros and up to 100,000 for limited liability companies, with terms up to 120 months. This is permanent bank lending rather than a call with a window that opens and shuts: you approach a bank or an operator on the register supervised by the Bank of Italy, and the applicable rules are those of ministerial decree 176/2014 as amended by decree 211/2023, in force since 12 January 2024.

It is open to self-employed people and sole traders with at most 5 employees, and to partnerships, limited companies, simplified limited companies and cooperatives with at most 10 non-member employees, including businesses still being set up. The loan covers capital goods and services, wages, training, rebuilding working capital and liquidity, with debt restructuring excluded: a software development contract or an e-commerce build falls under capital goods and services without any need to stretch the wording. The SME Guarantee Fund covers 80% up to 50,000 euros of lending and at most 60% above that threshold, free of charge to the borrower, with collateral prohibited and the lender obliged to provide at least two ancillary support and monitoring services. All of it under de minimis rules, inside the 300,000 euro ceiling over three financial years.

The SME Guarantee Fund is also useful outside microcredit, on ordinary bank lending, with the 2025 operating rules extended through 2026 by article 14 paragraph 1 of decree-law 200/2025: 80% coverage on investment-backed lending against 50% on liquidity lending. That difference is worth thirty points and is won on documentation, because a capitalisable software project supported by a quote and an investment plan qualifies as investment. You do not apply to the Fund directly: the bank requests the guarantee alongside the loan, or a mutual guarantee consortium does.

Can bespoke software count as an innovation requirement?

Yes, and it opens a door it then fails to hold open. Article 25 paragraph 2 item h) number 3 of decree-law 179/2012 grants the requirement to a company that is “the holder of the rights to an original computer program registered with the special public register for computer programs”. Commissioning software, acquiring title to it and registering it is therefore a route into the special register of innovative start-ups, as an alternative to spending 15% on research and development or to holding a patent, and from there to Smart&Start and the free SME Guarantee Fund cover.

The asymmetry almost nobody mentions sits in MIMIT circular no. 72022 of 30 July 2025: staying in the special register beyond the third year requires one of the criteria in paragraph 2-bis, and title to a registered computer program is not enough there, because item e) asks for a patent held by the company. Software opens the door and does not hold it open indefinitely, which is something to tell a client while the plan is being shaped, not at the third set of accounts.

The same circular closes another route. Since 18 December 2024, law 193/2024 requires the company to fall within the European definition of an SME and not to carry on agency or consulting as its main activity, and the circular identifies ATECO codes 70.2 and 74.99.1 to 74.99.4 as disqualifying consulting. A company that develops its own software, code 62.01, stays eligible; one that in practice sells consulting hours does not. The area keeps moving: law 34/2026, in force since 7 April 2026, empowers the government to consolidate the rules into a single text.

What these measures do not pay for

• Costs incurred before the application is filed electronically. Article 15 paragraph 2 of the ON decree and point 10.8 of the Smart&Start circular both say so. It is the most frequent ground for exclusion and the most mundane.
• VAT, under both measures.
• Turnkey contracts under Smart&Start (point 10.4). The project has to be broken into distinct, verifiable line items.
• Invoices with a taxable amount below 500 euros, again under Smart&Start, again at point 10.4.
• Under ON Chapter III, meaning past 36 months of trading: maintenance, subscriptions, support and anything else that cannot be capitalised.
• Invoices to related parties. Smart&Start and article 19 paragraph 2 item c) of the ON decree both require purchase from independent third parties on market terms.
• Specialist consulting above 5% under ON, and marketing and web marketing above 20% under Smart&Start.
• Hosting, colocation and cloud subscriptions are not investment costs under Smart&Start: they belong to the working capital of point 10.9, which carries its own 20% cap.
• Debt restructuring under microcredit.

A quoting rule follows from that. In a project with a subscription component, the recurring part lives in a different box from development, with a cap of its own, and it should be priced and invoiced separately from the outset.

The mistakes that lose the grant

1. Signing and being invoiced before filing the application. True of ON and Smart&Start alike. This is the error that burns the whole award, and it always comes from being in a hurry to start.

2. Calling development what is development, and calling it consulting instead. Under ON, the distance between item c) and item e) is the distance between no cap at all and 5% of the eligible investment.

3. Selling the project as a turnkey package. Under Smart&Start, costs incurred wholly or partly on that basis are ineligible. A quote with distinct modules, deliverables and acceptance tests gets through; the same work sold as a single package does not.

4. Reading the MIMIT Smart&Start page as though it were the law in force. Until the implementing circular appears the 2019 rules apply, and a plan built on the new decree gets assessed against criteria other than the ones it was written for.

5. Applying to ON as a sole trader. Company form is an eligibility requirement, not a detail that a declaration can work around.

6. Taking the grant element for granted. A first-come-first-served window empties without warning, and ON has just demonstrated it from one day to the next.

7. Turning up with old credentials. The Invitalia platforms were migrated on 3 November 2025 for Smart&Start and on 11 December 2025 for ON: anyone who held an account has to register again, with a digital identity, a digital signature and a certified email address. Discovering that on the day of submission costs time, and in a chronological window time has a price.

Obsidian Technologies prepares the quote with development items kept separate from marketing and subscription items, writes the technical description in the form the reporting requires, and says in advance which item of the decree each line falls under: that is the information needed to work out whether a project qualifies, and asking for it commits you to nothing.

FAQ

Can I fund a bespoke management system with ON - Oltre Nuove imprese a tasso zero?

Yes. Article 15 paragraph 1 item c) of the interministerial decree of 4 December 2020 admits computer programs and services for information and communication technology, with explicit mention of artificial intelligence, blockchain and internet of things, and sets no percentage cap on that item. For companies incorporated no more than 36 months ago the spend programme can reach 1,500,000 euros.

Does ON still award grants?

No. In a notice dated 30 June 2026 Invitalia announced that the budget set aside for the grant element had run out: from 1 July 2026 aid is awarded as a zero-interest soft loan alone, as article 6 paragraph 5 of the decree provides in the event of exhaustion. Before that date the grant was worth 20% of machinery, computer programs and patents alone for companies up to 36 months old, and 15% of fixed assets for those between 36 and 60 months.

Which rules apply to Smart&Start Italia today?

Those of circular 439196 of 16 December 2019. The decree of 13 July 2026, published on the MIMIT website on 2 September 2026, provides at article 2 paragraph 2 that the new provisions apply from the date of publication of the implementing circular, which as of 13 September 2026 does not appear to have been adopted.

What can someone trading as a sole trader apply for?

ON is out, because it requires company form, and Smart&Start requires registration in the special section for innovative start-ups, which a sole trader cannot obtain. That leaves microcredit with the SME Guarantee Fund, up to 75,000 euros, and the Autoimpiego channel for anyone who meets the age and employment conditions.

How much is the Smart&Start 30% grant worth in the Marche?

Nothing. Partial repayment at 70%, with the remaining 30% kept as a grant, applies only to start-ups based in Abruzzo, Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Molise, Puglia, Sardinia and Sicily. Outside those eight regions Smart&Start is a zero-interest loan repayable in full, save for the conversion tied to risk capital investment.

Is the Fondo Impresa Femminile still active?

Not for new applications. The single window closed between May and June 2022 because the budget ran out, and as of 13 September 2026 there are no official communications about a reopening. Payment claims from beneficiaries already admitted have been filed through the new online platform since 30 December 2025.

Can I combine two of these measures on the same project?

Within the aid intensity limits of European state aid rules: ON says so in articles 17 and 21, and Smart&Start operates under the exemption in article 22 of the GBER. The constraint applies to the same costs, so combining aid across two different items of the same project causes no problem, while combining it on the same invoice almost always does.

Which door to knock on first, by what you are starting

Three profiles cover nearly every real case, and the deciding factor is legal form before the project itself.

A company with more than half its shareholders and capital held by under-35s or by women, incorporated less than 36 months ago. ON is the right door: no cap on the ICT item, up to 90% of the spend and up to 1,500,000 euros of programme, all of it as a zero-interest loan since July 2026.

A company registered in the special section for innovative start-ups with a plan above 100,000 euros. Smart&Start, assessed under the 2019 rules, with attention to the 20% cap on marketing and web marketing and to the ban on turnkey contracts.

A sole trader, a freelancer or a small company with a project below 75,000 euros. Microcredit with the free SME Guarantee Fund cover, documenting the spend as investment to obtain 80% coverage instead of 50%.

If the project is an e-commerce build, an app or a bespoke management system, and the question is which item of the decree each line of the quote lands in before any paperwork moves, get in touch: it is a half-hour conversation, and it exists to settle the question rather than to commit anyone.

To finish the map: Autoimpiego Centro-Nord and Resto al Sud 2.0 covers people aged 18 to 35 who are out of work, with genuine grant vouchers; the 2026 Voucher Doppia Transizione, the chamber-of-commerce double transition voucher, and the Nuova Sabatini, the national capital goods scheme, both address companies that are already trading. The AI agents page describes the kind of work that item c) of article 15 names in full.

Sources: the interministerial decree of 4 December 2020 on ON, the Invitalia notice of 30 June 2026 on the exhaustion of the grant budget, circular 439196 of 16 December 2019 on Smart&Start, the MIMIT page for the decree of 13 July 2026 and the microcredit section of the SME Guarantee Fund. Information verified against the legal texts and the agency pages on 13 September 2026: these are first-come-first-served measures, budgets can run out without notice and the Smart&Start implementing circular can appear at any moment, so the status should be rechecked on the Invitalia and MIMIT sites before committing spend.