One-liner: the Spanish state's innovation-finance company — offers participatory loans (no collateral, no equity dilution) and runs the official "empresa emergente" startup certification that unlocks the Startup Law's tax benefits. A double gateway: money and legal status from the same door.
What a founder gets
- Préstamo participativo (participatory loan): €25,000–€1,500,000, no collateral required — the guarantee is the project and team. Up to 7-year term, up to 2-year grace period (interest-only, no principal). Interest = 12-month Euribor + a variable differential tied to the company's profitability (a second interest tranche only paid if the company is profitable that year). 0.5% opening commission, quarterly settlement.
- Specialist loan lines: Emprendedoras Digitales (women-led tech SMEs), AgroInnpulso (tech-focused agrifood value chain), Audiovisual e Industrias Culturales y Creativas (digital-focused audiovisual/games/creative industries).
- Startup certification ("empresa emergente") — free, ~2-month resolution, unlocks: 15% Corporate Tax rate (vs standard 25%), deferral of tax debts, and easier attraction of investment/talent (stock-option treatment under the Startup Law).
- Interest paid on the loan is tax-deductible; the loan itself counts as patrimonio contable (equity-like on the balance sheet), strengthening the company's financial structure without diluting founders.
- Acts as a trust signal to business angels and VC — ENISA backing is treated as a quality filter by private investors.
Who it's for
- Loan: SMEs/startups with a viable, innovative, competitive project; company must be domiciled and mainly active in Spain; own funds (equity) must be ≥ the loan amount requested. Applicable from seed through growth stage.
- Certification: companies (sociedad mercantil or cooperative) ≤5 years old (≤7 years for biotech/energy/industrial-sector companies), HQ/permanent establishment in Spain, ≥60% of workforce on Spanish contracts (if it has employees), an innovative & scalable project, not listed on a regulated market, has not distributed dividends, and turnover ≤€10M.
- Sector-agnostic; open to any niche.
How to engage
- Loans: self-check eligibility via ENISA's online test → apply at portaldelcliente.enisa.es (SSO login, register, complete form, attach documentation) → ENISA evaluation (may request more info) → resolution in under 2 months; if positive, formalize the loan.
- Certification: gather NIF, escrituras de constitución, business plan, and proof of innovative-project status → submit via the certification platform at enisa.es/servicios/certificacion → ENISA analysis (may request more documentation) → resolution; if favorable, certified as "empresa emergente" — no cost to the applicant.
- Note: the older
/es/certifica-tu-startupURL is a JS-SPA that 404s to scrapers — the live, working path is enisa.es/servicios/certificacion.
Key facts
Legal form: a state-owned public business entity ("Empresa Nacional de Innovación, S.A., S.M.E."), reporting through Spain's Ministry of Industry/SEPI ecosystem; recently relaunched its website/brand identity (2026).
Cumulative figures (per enisa.es, 2026): 2,299 startups certified · €1,516M invested (cumulative loan volume) · 9,806 loans disbursed · 8,496 companies financed.
Audited accounts required for loans >€300,000; deposited (Registro Mercantil) accounts sufficient for loans ≤€300,000.
Legal basis for certification: Ley 28/2022 (Ley de Fomento del Ecosistema de las Empresas Emergentes — the Spanish Startup Law).
Cooperatives can be certified as "empresa emergente" if duly registered in the Registro de Cooperativas and meeting Ley 28/2022 criteria — relevant cross-link to the social-economy track (FEVECTA, ESCREA).
Autónomos (sole traders) cannot be certified — certification requires incorporation as a sociedad mercantil or cooperative.
New dedicated envelope (2026): beyond the standard line and the three specialist lines above, ENISA now operates Innovacion x Clima — commercial name for the state's Mecanismo Reinicia+ FEPYME DANA PLUS — a €300M-ceiling participatory-loan facility for climate-resilience SMEs and companies hit by civil-protection emergencies. Same €25k–€1.5M band and same own-funds gate as the standard line, but with explicit priority for disaster-affected territory — i.e. the Valencian DANA footprint. Rolling intake, no window. Verified 2026-09-08.
Relations
- Runs: Startup Certification (regulation)
- See also: Startup Law (regulation)
- See also: Seed Stage (phase)
- See also: FEVECTA
- See also: ESCREA
- Runs: ENISA Prestamo Participativo
- Runs: ENISA Startup Certification
- Runs: Innovacion x Clima