The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Enterprise, through a new edition of the program ICEX Next of ICEX Spain Exports and Investments, allocates 6 million euros to support Spanish SMEs and startups to boost their internationalization through advice and economic aid. This programme will cover 250 companies, and can be extended to a further 75 depending on demand, for which a total budget of 7.8 million euros would be mobilised.
The ICEX Next programme is co-financed by the European Union, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). It is aimed at companies that want to promote the internationalization of their business, addressing new foreign markets or consolidating existing ones.
Through the advice to SMEs of ICEX Next, it is intended to help define or adapt the international strategy of companies, and boost their growth in third markets.
To this end, ICEX makes two support mechanisms available to SMEs and startups: the first consists of specialized advice on foreign trade and, the second, subsidizes, for two years, the expenses that occur in the process of internationalization of the business, with a maximum of 24,000 euros.
Personalized advice
The beneficiary companies will have a minimum of 30 hours of specialized and personalized face-to-face and telematic advice, by an expert consultant approved by ICEX, to design and implement or review the international strategic business plan. In addition, you will have access to specialist consulting in other areas such as digital transformation, international procurement, international digital strategy or participation in international tenders.
It will also be able to obtain grants, up to 24,000 euros, to cover 60% of the expenses of the actions included in its international strategic business plan. These expenses include: prospecting and market studies; the international promotion of the brand, products or services; the development of a commercial network; the contracting of tools and technological solutions to implement international trade or the implementation of digital marketing strategies.
The conditions to participate in the program are, among others, being a Spanish SME or startup, having its own product or service and its own brand, not being a foreign commercial or productive subsidiary, not having a company in crisis, invoicing more than €300,000 in 2023 (not applicable to technology-based startups), having personal and material means to face internationalization, and having its own website. (https://icexnext.es/programa/a-quien-va-dirigido ).
By CCAA regional and sector
In the last four years, 1,748 Spanish companies have benefited from the ICEX Next program. Most of the participating companies have so far been from Catalonia (384), the Community of Madrid (284) and Andalusia (215).
The participating companies invoiced 4.6 million euros on average per year per annual call, with 29% coming from their exports. By sector, 32 per cent of the participants in the programme were industrial products and technology companies, followed by those in the service sector (31 per cent), the agri-food sector (16 per cent) and consumer goods (21 per cent). Likewise, these companies had an average of 25 workers at the time of requesting their participation in ICEX Next and of the total number of beneficiaries, in each call, 28 on average, were startups.
This new ICEX Next 2024 call, published in the BOE on August 19, has two registration periods: September and December. The first will begin on September 24, being able to submit applications until October 15, and the second will cover from November 25 to December 17, 2024.
All information and registration of applications in https://icexnext.es/