VC Hub Italia, the Italian association of venture capital that reunites the main players in the financing of innovative start-ups, asks for a Start-up Emergency Act to support the Italian innovation ecosystem.
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The association, whose members have assets under management of more than € 1 billion and more than 250 innovative Italian companies in their portfolios, asks the Italian Government to put in place extraordinary measures to face the crisis as soon as possible.
After a survey with its associates and portfolio start-ups on the impact of the COVID-19 emergency on the Italian start-up ecosystem, VC Hub Italia believes that, in the absence of rapid and timely measures, a very significant percentage of defaults will occur, with consequent huge losses of capital, jobs and know-how accumulated over several years.
Therefore, VC Hub Italia is working together with numerous representatives of the Italian Government and Parliament to ensure that a package of measures dedicated to innovative start-ups and SMEs is also launched in Italy.
In general, VC Hub Italia proposes to extend the measures provided for in the “Cura Italia” Decree Law (“Healing Italy” Decree Law) to innovative start-ups and SMEs, which were largely excluded.
The main goal is to protect thousands of high-skilled jobs and know-how developed over many years of significant investments, which are more than ever essential for the competitiveness of Italy today.
The main required measures are the following:
- Possibility to postpone payments relating to VAT and profits taxes in the next months, suspension of charges for possible delays in payments, and in specific exceptional cases, cancellation of payments;
- Changes in the labour law in order to give the possibility to reduce the working hours of employees (instead of firing them), or alternatively, grant them a paid leave, with the financial support of the Italian Government;
- Specific funding structures for start-ups that are unable to complete capital raises due to the COVID-19 crisis;
- Subsidised loans, secured by the Italian Government, without considering the company’s turnover as a limit for getting the loan.
I will keep you posted on the developments, hopefully very soon!
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For more info on the asked VC Hub Italia’s measures (in Italian): http://www.vchub.it/post/proposte-vchub-per-misure-urgenti-a-sostegno-dell-ecosistema-startup-in-emergenza-coronavirus
Press release VC Hub Italia (in Italian) at this LINK.