What is meant by an innovative startup?

In collaboration with our partner F2D we explored the topic of what an innovative startup is.

“A young, highly technological company, with strong development potential and, precisely for this reason, one of the key points of Italian industrial policy.”
This is how the Ministry of Economic Development describes innovative startups. These are realities that, especially in recent years, have become increasingly fundamental in the production fabric of all advanced countries.
Startups, thanks to their ability to promote and incentivize technological transformation, speed up the response time to the new challenges and opportunities that all companies are facing in the new international economic scenario.

This is why even in our country it has been decided to promote and support the birth and development of startups through legislation that facilitates their birth and establishment and which provides various tax breaks.

Decdare we talk when we talk about innovative startups

Before addressing these aspects, however, it is good to delve deeper into what is meant by an innovative startup. According to the «identikit» identified by law, it is a company (Srl, Srls, Spa, Sapa, also established in a cooperative form and not listed on regulated markets or on multilateral trading systems) which stands out for the development, production and marketing of innovative products or services with high technological value.
The startup must therefore propose products or services that have a strong technological component and which are therefore capable of positively impacting the sector in which they operate or intend to operate.

What requirements must be respected

To fall into the innovative startup category, some fundamental requirements must be met:

• Constitution: to be able to register in the Business Register as an innovative startup, the company must have been legally established no more than 5 years ago at the time of the request;
• Head office: it must be located on Italian territory or at least one of its branches must be. In the latter case, the head office must be located in a foreign country belonging to European economic soil;
• Social object: the exclusive or main corporate purpose must be oriented towards the proposal or creation of innovative products or services with high technological value;
• Productivity: the value of annual production must not exceed 5 million euros and no profits must be distributed;
• New reality: the startup must not be the result of the merger, split or transfer of different companies or a business unit.

The “alternative” requirements

In addition to these requirements, the innovative startup must comply with at least one of these three requirements defined as «alternative»:

• At least one third of the members must have a research doctorate or two thirds of the staff must have obtained a master’s degree;
• THE R&D and innovation expenses must be equal to at least 15% of the greater value between turnover and production cost;
• The startup must be in possession (or custodian or licensee) of a registered patent or possess the rights relating to a software program registered in the public software register.

Therefore, to give life to a startup, various aspects must be taken into consideration, not just strictly bureaucratic ones. The ideal would be to be able to rely on experts capable of proposing, advising and supporting every decision right from the birth of these new entrepreneurial realities.
This is precisely the result that can be achieved by deciding to rely on F2D, the first Italian portal for outsourcing services in the HR and Administration & Finance areas specifically dedicated to small/medium businesses and start-ups. Thanks to the most advanced technologies and the best digital solutions, F2D can respond to all the needs of companies in the accounting and tax fields, through applications that are quick and easy to use. All through packages created ad hoc, which allow each company to find the preferred formula.