Romania Start-Up Plus is the title of the new program aiming to solve the problem of limited access to funding in Romania. The program is designed by The Ministry of European Funds (MFE) and is also part of the Human Resources Operational Program (POCU) 2014-2020. Its main objective is to stimulate entrepreneurship and job creation in Romania through financial support amounting to €105 million. In the focus for receiving the finance are domestic startups with a proven record of soaring sales.
The funding mechanism for Romania Start-Up Plus is designed in an efficient way which includes payments in two installments. “This funding mechanism in installments is a step towards more clever funding, adapted to economic realities. The support is not only a quantitative numeric indicator, it becomes an instrument to boost entrepreneurs that record results in the initial phase of their business,” explains Dan Barna, State Secretary at MFE.
As further detailed in the official press release, the entrepreneurship and funding scheme of the program is to be coordinated by an administrator. The role of the administrator could be assumed by any of the following bodies: public local authorities, Chambers of Commerce, lifelong learning and vocational training service providers, universities, or NGOs. The administrator is responsible for signing contracts with eligible entrepreneurs and tracking their performance records.
During the first phase, the entrepreneurs sign the contracts and receive the first installment worth €24,000. In order to continue to the second phase, startups are obliged to obtain a gross revenue which equals to €12,000, i.e. half the value of the installment they have already received. If this requirement is satisfied, they could receive up to €16,000 in additional funding as part of the second installment.
According to the program developers, upon successful implementation of Romania Start-Up Plus, the optimal results would involve: funding of 1,500 new SMEs, opening 2,000 new job positions, and training more than 10,000 citizens. Proposals and recommendations on the guidelines of the program can be submitted by July 25, 2016, at the following e-mail address: rsup@fonduri-ue.ro. The starting date for the project submission is August 12, 2016. For further details, you can access the official program calendar.
