Authors: Carlos Carvajal, R&D Consultant and Patricio Hunt, Managing Director of Intelectium Startup Accelerator.A technology company must innovate with the objective set on the market, or it is doomed to die slowly. Ecosystems such as ICT, Health or Transportation, among others, are constantly evolving, leaving technologies obsolete with astounding speed and rapidly disrupting previously omnipresent business models. In just a few years, the Cloud has redefined the rules of software as a service, advances in genomics give rise to personalized medicine, adapted to each patient, and new logistics agents rely on Artificial Intelligence to reduce time, costs and achieve greater efficiency. In this context, SMEs and startups have a great opportunity, since due to their size and speed of adaptation, they are closer to what happens in the market, are more flexible and better able to lead change. And in recent years, public bodies are starting to adapt their innovation aid programs, commonly referred to as R+D+i, to make more room for startups. However, of the more than 2.5 billion euros that were made available to finance R+D+i in 2016, the budget aimed at companies and startups is still very low, This makes grants for R+D+i a highly valued and, therefore, highly competitive financing instrument. For this reason, in order to access funding instruments, with greater chances, It is important not only to know well what are the R&D grants available but which of them are the best fit with our project or innovation, in such a way as to invest the scarce time of technologists and managers in the most effective way, with the highest possible return. [bctt tweet=” Which public #ayudas are the best fit for our #proyecto? #startups #emprendimiento "username="intellectium"]
Optimize the effort: request the most appropriate funding
While it is true that each specific case requires an ad-hoc analysis, there are a number of essential criteria which can be very useful to understand what we need and what is the most suitable instrument for each startup depending on your industry, business model and stage of development. From Intelectium we propose a methodology structured in four axes to understand which instrument best suits the strategy and possibilities of each startup:
- Analyze what type of accounting items are financed by each instrumentIt is important to consider What exactly do we want to finance to maximize the success of obtaining funding. Wanting to finance all the items of a project (human resources, purchase of equipment, or working capital) is not the same as just some of these items. It is important to understand that each instrument has been designed to finance some of these items and not others, just as there are other more general instruments that finance all of them. There are instruments specially designed for the financing of subcontracts or material (PID or AEESD), others that finance the hiring of personnel for the creation or expansion of research units (Torres Quevedo or Emplea), others that finance the acquisition of new equipment (specific lines in the CDTI), and other more general ones that finance the company globally without discriminating items (ENISA, regional instruments).
- Define if you want to finance innovation, development or researchThe concept of innovation is broad and this means that sometimes the terms Research and Development (R&D) are confused with innovation, a confusion that can lead to the denial of the request. We must be very clear about what type of innovation we are proposing and if this is what the instrument to which we want to apply is intended. Thus, aids such as Challenges-Collaboration, AEESD or Torres Quevedo offer better conditions for R&D, that is, projects closer to “the laboratory” than “to the market”, such as conceptually designing a new communication protocol. Aids such as PID of the CDTI, on the other hand, they allow us to focus on experimental development, but also on the development of projects that are more market-oriented, such as work on the development of new functionalities for an existing product. In the European context, this proximity to the market is known as Technology Readiness Level, and a clearly defined scale between 1 and 9 allows us to understand quite easily what point of maturity the project is at.
- Consider the stage/size of your companyBoosting SMEs is a priority at the Spanish and European levels. However, an SME can be at a very different stage of growth, from a very incipient startup to a medium-sized company with a team of more than 100 people and a turnover of more than 10 million. Therefore, it is essential to understand if aid is aimed at one type of SME or another, because often the bases of the calls are a little ambiguous. Thus, Do you help like Neotec, Emplea or Torres Quevedo can provide a good boost for startups and microenterprises and on the other hand others, such as Challenges - Collaboration or AEESD, although they offer very good conditions for small businesses and in the past they have financed numerous startups, these are currently grants that are being approved mostly in the case of more mature and consolidated companies.
- Identify which industries the company's internal projects are aimed atFor companies that sell flights or book hotel rooms online, it is not difficult to interpret that grants such as Emprendetur are a very certain possibility for them. However, for other companies that are working in more generalist environments such as “Internet of Things”, the latter is not so obvious. However, an IoT company that is working on a project to reduce energy consumption in hotels, will be able to apply to Entrepreneurship with certain chances of being approved. Therefore, for the entrepreneur or the CFO, it is very important to make a detailed analysis of all the projects that are being developed or to be developed in their company and to understand what industry they are focusing on. In short, sectoral grants such as Emprendetur for tourism or the State Health Agency, for companies in the health sector, can be very attractive for companies that are orienting their business or are developing part of their turnover with companies in these sectors.
How we can collaborate with you
In Intelectium We have more than 7 years of experience helping innovative startups and SMEs in their leverage processes with private and public instruments. We have mobilized resources of more than 70 million Euros for this type of company, always working for success, in this period. We know and master all grants for Spanish and European R+D+i. But, above all, before we commit to anything we carry out in-depth and systematic studies of companies, their projects, their financial statements, and growth stages, to determine as precisely as possible which aids are best suited to each case. In this way, in addition to our way of working where we prepare the memories ourselves, trying to reduce the involvement of the company's managers to the minimum possible, what we achieve is Optimize the time of the company's resources — your scarcest asset, like no one else can get it in the market.Contact us by clicking hither and finance your company in the most effective, efficient and expeditious way.
