Romania’s government changes Start-Up Nation 2018 programme details to benefit creative services firms

The Romanian Ministry for the Business Environment, Trade and Entrepreneurship has changed on Tuesday the Start-Up Nation 2018 programme details two weeks after the project was launched. The new form of the programme favours creative services firms, which will now receive the highest number of points.

This year’s Start-Up Nation programme will have a budget of RON 2 billion, enough to finance 10,000 projects.

The government will pay 30 percent of the amounts granted to companies in advance in order to speed up investment and job creation.

“Under the “Start-up Nation – Romania” Programme, an advance of up to 30 percent of the total amount approved under the conditions set out in the de minimis aid scheme may be granted at the beneficiary’s request,” the project says.

Start-ups interested to apply for the government’s money are selected through a number of criteria, including points for economic sector.

In the first form of the project, released two weeks ago, 30 points were granted for manufacturing and services excluding IT, 20 points for creative industries and 10 points for commercial enterprises.

Under the new form, the programme gives 30 points to companies operating in manufacturing and “services including creative services”.

The programme also gives points for the number of jobs created (10 points for each additional job), for location (20 points for the companies located in Romania’s poorest counties) and for business history of owners (25 points for owners not previously involved in insolvent companies).

Through Start-Up Nation, launched in 2017, a newly established company receives financing of up to RON 200,000, which may cover up to 100 percent of the total value of the project. In the 2017 session about 8,600 business plans won the financing.