Public competition SeedMoney

‘Seed Money’ is a fund which aims to promote the spread of entrepreneurial initiatives in innovative or high-tech sectors and can be used to partly cover start-up costs. This fund is a part of the operational programme of the European Regional Development Fund – ERDF 2007–2013 – which finances investment in companies (in particular small- and medium-sized enterprises). ERDF programmes are not directly managed by the EU but rather by national and regional authorities, which are the points of contact for applications for finance and the selection of projects.

In the autonomous province of Trento, the service is managed by Trentino Sviluppo, which manages requests for financing. The procedures followed for the assessment of proposals can be in the form of public competitions or ‘over the counter’ procedures. Once the selection process has begun, Trentino Sviluppo is responsible for identifying the best entrepreneurial initiatives in innovative and high-tech sectors. In order to do this, it makes use of advice from a technical scientific committee for research and innovation and only after a positive evaluation of the initiative is financial contribution granted.

Practix Ltd participated in public competition 3/2009 “Sostegno alla creazione di iniziative imprenditoriali mediante seed money” promoted by the autonomous province of Trento in 2009, and was selected and consequently received financing earmarked for the launch of new ‘high-potential’ start ups.