According to the quarterly report produced by the Directorate-General for Industrial Policy, Competitiveness and SMEs of MISE, in collaboration with MedioCredito Centrale, as of December 2020 the Guarantee Fund for SMEs has provided guarantees on € 2,5 billion of granted loans to Italian innovative start-ups and SMEs, guaranteeing over € 2 billion of those loans.
Funding for innovative start-ups and SMEs is increasing. In 2020, Italian innovative companies granted approx. € 750 million of loans, of which € 150 million towards innovative start-ups and € 600 million towards SMEs.
Indeed, innovative start-ups and SMEs wishing to apply for funding can benefit from the Guarantee Fund for SMEs coverage through a bank free of charge, following a highly simplified procedure (essentially, MedioCredito Centrale, the entity managing the Fund, does not make any additional credit assessment beyond what already carried out by the bank).
The guarantee covers 80% of the loan, which can amount to up to € 2.5 million per company. This amount can be used through one or more transactions, up to the set cap, without a limit to the number of transactions that can be made.
The guarantee rate and the maximum guaranteed amount have been temporarily increased by Law Decree 8 April 2020, n. 23 (“Liquidity Decree”) to support access to credit by enterprises in the Covid-19 emergency phase. Until 30th June 2021 the guarantee rate is 90% for all loans of up to 6 years, with the possibility of reaching 100% if certain conditions are met and the guarantee amount is € 5 million.
INNOVATIVE START-UPS
As of 31 December 2020, the Guarantee Fund for SMEs has managed a total of 11,183 operations toward innovative start-ups, representing a potential total amount of loans of more than € 2 billion.
Then, the total operations authorised by the Fund and resulted in a loan were 9,488, for a total fund coverage and disbursement of € 1,6 billion.
The innovative start-ups that have obtained bank loans through the Guarantee Fund were 5,183; some of them have received more than one loan (so the total number of operations is higher). Overall, the average amount per operation is € 185,896, with an average duration of the loans of about 60 months. However, guaranteed loans vary widely in duration, ranging from 3 to 240 months.
INNOVATIVE SMEs
As of 31 December 2020, the Guarantee Fund for SMEs has managed a total of 3,105 operations toward innovative SMEs, representing a potential total amount of loans of more than € 1 billion.
Then, the total operations authorised by the Fund and resulted in a loan were 2,769 (89.2% of the total). The operations involved 1,041 companies, with a total granted amount of € 900 million, of which € 700 in 2020 and € 112 in 2019.
The average value per operation is approx. € 320,000, while the average duration of the loan is around 52 months.
For more info on the Italian Innovative Start-up: Legal framework for innovative start-ups
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For the detailed analysis, the full Report (in Italian) is available at the following link: https://www.mise.gov.it/images/stories/documenti/26_rapporto_Fondo_di_Garanzia_-_startup_e_PMI_innovative_IV_trimestre_2020.pdf