Fondo perduto: what a non-repayable grant is and how it works

Fondo perduto (in full, contributo a fondo perduto) is public money your business never pays back, as long as it spends it on the approved project and can prove it. The words mean “lost fund”: lost for the state, not for you. Lombardy’s call for innovative startups, open until 25 November 2026, is a clean example. It covers 80% of eligible costs up to €1 million, and the company pays the other 20%.

The trouble is usually in the small print. Who pays the suppliers first? What if your final report is a day late? The calls we found open on 17 October 2026 are further down. Just starting? The map from zero to a first round shows where grants fit.

Fondo perduto vs subsidised loan, tax credit and guarantee

Italian founders hear all four in the same breath. On your balance sheet they behave very differently.

Tool	What you get	Do you pay it back?	Italian example, checked October 2026
Contributo a fondo perduto (grant)	Cash for a share of approved costs	No, if you keep to the rules	Lombardy startup call: 80% of eligible costs, up to €1 million
Finanziamento agevolato (subsidised loan)	A loan at zero or low interest	Yes	Smart&Start Italia: zero-interest loan for 80% of costs, repaid over 10 years; in eight southern regions 30% of it becomes a grant
Credito d’imposta (tax credit)	A credit you offset in the F24 tax form	Nothing to repay	R&D tax credit: 10% of eligible costs, up to €5 million a year, usable from the following tax year
Garanzia (guarantee)	The state backs part of a bank loan	Yes, you repay the bank	Fondo di Garanzia per le PMI: up to 80% of the loan for startups and innovative startups in 2026

The difference shows when a project goes badly. A loan still has to be repaid. A grant doesn’t, provided you spent it as approved and can document every euro. The lines also blur: Smart&Start lets part of its loan turn into a grant when qualifying outside investors come in, and in the South 30% of it is a grant from the start.

How does a fondo perduto grant work? From call to final report

1. Start with the call (bando). It sets who can apply, which costs count, the grant share, the ceiling and how files are ranked: first come, first served (sportello) or a ranking after the deadline (graduatoria). Lombardy ranks. Brevetti+ and Autoimpiego Centro-Nord go in order of arrival.
2. How much de minimis room is left? Add up the de minimis aid received in the last three years by your company and by any company linked to it by control.
3. Apply before you spend. Costs signed or paid before the application don’t count.
4. Your own share. Say the grant covers 80% of a €500,000 project. That still leaves €100,000 for you to put in. Then there’s timing: suppliers get paid now, the reimbursement comes later, and the gap is yours to fund.
5. Getting paid. Some measures pay an advance against a bank or insurance guarantee: Smart&Start allows up to 40% of the aid. Others reimburse what you’ve already paid, like Lombardy: up to 40% midway, once 40% of costs are reported, then the balance.
6. Then the report (rendicontazione). Invoices, proof of payment, evidence the project happened. In the Lombardy call, a balance request filed after the deadline means losing the grant.

Grants open in Italy in autumn 2026

All checked on the official pages on 17 October 2026. None is a promise: calls are competitive, or close when the money runs out.

• Lombardy, startup innovative. 80% of eligible costs, up to €1 million (€1.5 million in assisted areas), for projects of €150,000 to €1.25 million by innovative startups registered up to 36 months ago. Closes at 15:00 on 25 November 2026, then a ranking. Our guide to the Lombardy startup grant has the detail.
• Brevetti+ 2026. €20 million for SMEs with a recent patent or application: up to 80% of eligible costs, at most €140,000, and 100% if the patent is shared with a university or public research body. Opens at 12:00 on 25 November 2026, first come, first served (see our Brevetti+ guide).
• Autoimpiego Centro-Nord and Resto al Sud 2.0, for founders aged 18 to 34 who are out of work, inactive or among the working poor. In the Centre-North that’s 65% of investments up to €120,000 and 60% up to €200,000. The South gets 75% and 70%. Both decide within 90 days, in order of arrival.
• ON, Oltre Nuove imprese a tasso zero. A warning more than an option: since the notice of 30 June 2026, the grant money has run out and new applications get only the zero-interest loan.
• Abroad, the EU’s EIC Accelerator offers startups and SMEs a grant below €2.5 million. The last 2026 cut-off is 4 November.

The wider list is in what’s open for startups in Italy this autumn. If you’d rather talk a call through before applying, see our public funding service for Italy.

De minimis and state aid: the ceiling founders forget

A lot of small grants are given as de minimis aid. Regulation 2023/2831 caps it at €300,000 per “single undertaking” over any three-year period, assessed on a rolling basis, so every new grant is added to what you received in the previous three years. Companies linked by control count as one. Since 1 January 2026, member states must record this aid in a central register. In Italy you can see what’s already on file in the public “Sezione trasparenza” of the Registro nazionale degli aiuti di Stato.

Bigger schemes use other EU rules. The Lombardy call rests on article 22 of the General Block Exemption Regulation (651/2014), the article on aid to start-ups. Its FAQ allows stacking with other aid on the same costs only within the maximum intensity, never with PNRR money, and Smart&Start beneficiaries can apply only for separate costs.

Is a grant taxed? For a company, as a rule, yes. Under the TUIR, operating grants due by law count as revenue (article 85), and other cash contributions are income in the year you collect them (article 88, as amended from 2024). Grants for buying depreciable assets follow a different route. Ask your commercialista how your call will be treated.

Mistakes that cost founders the grant

• Signing an order the week before you apply. That cost won’t count, in Smart&Start or in Lombardy.
• No cash for the gap. Without an advance you pay suppliers first and see the grant months later.
• A business plan built on a grant you haven’t won yet. ON’s grant money was declared exhausted on 30 June 2026.
• Did a linked company get de minimis aid? The ceiling counts it together with yours.
• Treating the final report as paperwork, when it’s the step where the money is actually paid (or lost).

Related terms

• Your co-financing share has to come from somewhere. For a company bootstrapping on its own revenue, that’s the sales it already makes.
• If a grant is stretching your first outside money, you’re in pre-seed funding territory.
• Bigger tools, the EIC Accelerator for one, tend to come up later, once you’re a scale-up rather than a startup.
• Looking at Smart&Start instead? Our Smart&Start Italia guide tells you whether you qualify and how much you could get.
• Grant, in our startup glossary: the short definition, with the other 49 terms.

This page is general information, not legal or tax advice, and no grant is guaranteed. Rules and calls change: check the official source or ask a professional before you act.