These are times of decisions that affect everyone. And among them, entrepreneurs. Intelectium, through Patrick Hunt, one of the managing partners, wanted to express his opinion in a Tribune in the diary Expansion. In it, we provide alternatives to the cuts that the administration is applying to the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Spain. We believe that hasty measures are being taken to intensify the negative effect we are trying to avoid. A counterproductive “boomerang effect” at a key moment for entrepreneurs.
In the last decade, the evolution experienced by the entrepreneurial world has been remarkable, with support from both the public sector (training of technicians) and the private sector (capital, network of mentors, specific training in niches, entrepreneurs who become investors, successful investors who reinvest). A positive circle that needs the help of the State to generate a critical mass that, in turn, supports that circle (Silicon Valley is a good example of this).
Public funding of Start up and R&D gained in efficiency and fluidity. And it was very important the Elimination, in 2010, of the request for guarantees from small businesses, both for the CDTI Research and Development Loans (PIDs) and for the Plan Avanza Program of the Ministry of Industry. Thousands of innovative small technology companies accessed soft public equity loans without the need to submit bank guarantees. However, preventive measures were not taken and many of these companies do not repay those loans.
With the crisis, the Ministry of Industry And the CDTI (under the Ministry of Economy) revised the exemption from guarantees with two different approaches:
- Industry has listened to the suggestions of entrepreneurs and you have taken steps to achieve an orderly transition.
- The Ministry of Economy, however, it has eliminated all exemptions from guarantees from loans allocated to SMEs from the CDTI, reduced the amount loanable and imposed a Liquidation Preference absurdity in the Neotec I initiative (designed for the creation of Startup technological), and has eliminated the Neotec II initiative (designed for the consolidation of companies that had received Neotec I).
These last decisions They penalize an entire group for errors of definition, turn a deaf ear to the proposed alternatives, And they ignore that private venture capital needs public funding to invest in technological projects (even, in many cases, entrepreneurs are required to have access to the equivalent in public capital).
Intelectium believes that there are alternatives, rules that generate sustainable growth for both the Administration and the private sector. We propose Omit the request for guarantees in exchange for five requirements:
- Always charge interest, between 6% and 8%
- Reduce grant periods to five years with a grace period of two
- Limit credits to maximum amounts of 500,000 euros
- Eliminate subsidized tranches that should not be returned by entrepreneurs
- Require that the loan granted does not exceed the company's own funds by more than four times.
We call on the bodies involved to rectify and not let them die Startup scientifically and technologically based, companies that position Spain in an expanding international context and generate high-quality employment. The opposite is to frustrate entrepreneurs and force them to migrate to more mature ecosystems, as is already beginning to happen.
