Have you heard that the Spanish Government is preparing a series of grants for SMEs and self-employed professionals to help them digitize their businesses, and are you wondering what the Digital Kit is?
In this article, we’ll walk you through everything you need to know about the grants for digital transformation available to freelancers, small businesses, and micro-enterprises, offered by the Spanish Government.
We’ll cover the eligibility requirements, the different business segments that can benefit from these grants, the categories of digital solutions you can apply for, and the maximum amounts available through these digital vouchers.
Let’s dive in and break down exactly what the Digital Kit is all about.
What is the Digital Kit?
First things first.
To understand what we’re talking about, it’s best to start with the basics.
The Digital Kit is a program aimed at SMEs and self-employed professionals, launched by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, to support you in the digital transformation of your business. The goal is to help you leverage technology to grow, improve your results, and stay competitive.
In short:
If you don’t yet have a website, an online store, social media presence, or efficient customer management—this grant, funded by the European Union and managed by Spain, can help you achieve your digital ambitions and boost your online presence.
The Digital Kit is a grant for SMEs and freelancers, provided as a digital voucher with a set monetary value. You can use this voucher to choose one or more digital solutions from a catalog of services delivered by certified digital providers.
If you want to know how to apply for the Digital Kit, you can go straight to our dedicated article by clicking here, or keep reading to learn about the available funding amounts and whether your business is eligible.
What are the requirements to apply?
Check out the minimum requirements your SME or freelance business must meet to qualify for the Digital Kit grant:
- Be a small business, micro-enterprise, or self-employed professional.
- Meet the financial and staffing thresholds that define your business category.
- Be officially registered and meet the minimum period of activity specified in the call for applications.
- Not be classified as a business in crisis.
- Be up to date with tax and social security obligations.
- Not be subject to any pending recovery orders from the European Commission regarding illegal or incompatible state aid.
- Not fall under any of the prohibitions listed in Article 13.2 of Law 38/2003, General Law on Subsidies.
- Not exceed the maximum limit for de minimis (minor) aid.
Who can benefit from the Digital Kit?
The grants offered by the Spanish Government to freelancers, small businesses, and micro-enterprises for digitalization depend on the segment your business falls into.
Your eligibility and the maximum grant amount are determined by the number of employees in your company.
Here’s a simple breakdown of the Digital Kit beneficiary segments:
Segment I
Small businesses with between 10 and fewer than 50 employees. Maximum digital voucher: €12,000
Segment II
Small businesses or micro-enterprises with between 3 and fewer than 10 employees. Maximum digital voucher: €6,000
Segment III
Micro-enterprises with between 1 and fewer than 3 employees, and self-employed professionals. Maximum digital voucher: €2,000
What types of digital solutions are covered by the Digital Kit grant?
The Digital Kit voucher for companies, micro-enterprises, and freelancers covers various aspects of digitalization, divided into different solution categories.
These categories are designed to help businesses of all sizes implement market-ready digital solutions to improve their operations and embrace new technologies.
The main categories covered by the Digital Kit include:
Website and Online Presence
This category aims to help businesses, micro-enterprises, and freelancers establish a professional website and boost their online visibility.
Key features and services include:
- Domain: Includes your website domain for at least 12 months, with ownership belonging to the grant recipient or their company.
- Hosting: Web hosting for a minimum of 12 months.
- Website design: Includes a website structure with at least three sections, such as homepage, company presentation, contact form, product descriptions, contact details, site map, etc.
- Responsive design: Your website will be fully optimized for all devices—mobile, tablet, desktop, etc.
- Accessibility: The website will meet AA level compliance with WCAG-2.1 accessibility guidelines.
- Basic online visibility: Your business information will be indexable by major search engines (On-Page SEO).
- Self-management: You’ll have a content management platform to update your website content independently.
- Basic SEO optimization: Includes keyword analysis, On-Page SEO for two pages or sections, content indexing, and hierarchy.
Maximum grant amount for SMEs:
- 0 < 3 employees: €2,000
- 3 < 9 employees: €2,000
- 10 < 50 employees: €2,000
E-commerce
This category supports the creation of an online store for selling products and/or services digitally. In addition to increasing your brand’s visibility, you’ll have a fully functional e-commerce platform.
Key features and services include:
- Online store setup and product catalog: Your online store will include a product catalog, with at least 100 product listings (or fewer if you have less than 100 products).
- Payment methods: Your chosen digital provider will configure and integrate payment options for your store.
- Responsive design: Your e-commerce site will be accessible on all devices.
- Accessibility: The online store will comply with AA level of WCAG-2.1 accessibility guidelines.
- Basic online visibility: Your store will be indexable by major search engines (On-Page SEO).
- Self-management: You’ll have a content management platform to update your store independently.
- Shipping options: Both digital and physical shipping methods will be configured and integrated.
Maximum grant amount for SMEs:
- 0 < 3 employees: €2,000
- 3 < 9 employees: €2,000
- 10 < 50 employees: €2,000
Social Media Management
This category is designed to help your business promote itself on social media platforms.
Key features and services include:
- Social Media Plan: A tailored social media strategy aligned with your company’s mission and vision, designed to engage potential customers and retain existing ones.
- Social media monitoring: Regular tracking and analysis of your social media activity to measure results and ensure your strategy is on track.
- Network optimization/Social Media Audit: Performance optimization through analysis of various social channels.
- Management of one social network: Your chosen digital provider will manage at least one of your social media profiles.
- Weekly post publishing: The provider will publish a minimum of 4–8 posts per month on your social networks.
Maximum grant amount for SMEs:
- 0 < 3 employees: €2,000
- 3 < 9 employees: €2,500
- 10 < 50 employees: €2,500
Customer Management
This category focuses on digitizing and optimizing your customer relationship management processes.
Key features and services include:
- Customer management: Store and access customer data, track new business opportunities, and simulate product purchases or service contracts.
- Lead management: Add new leads manually or via file import. Manage leads to convert them into customers, and set business rules for lead assignment.
- Opportunity management: Manage all business opportunities, send offers and quotes to leads, and track their status (analysis, offer sent, negotiation, won, cancelled, etc.).
- Commercial actions and tasks: Create and manage commercial tasks and actions, both manually and automatically.
- Reporting, planning, and sales tracking: Monitor KPIs, opportunity lists, and more, with customizable information levels. Generate reports to track and analyze your sales activity, including efficiency ratios, pipeline status, and other measurable attributes by channel, profile, role, or sales stage. Reports can show monthly, cumulative, or comparative data across different periods.
- Alerts: Visualize customer alerts in various formats (icons, pop-up messages, etc.).
- Document management: Centralized document management software to store and link documents related to your business activity or provided by customers.
- Responsive design: Functional interface on all device types.
- Integration with other platforms: APIs or web services for consolidating company-wide information and data.
Maximum grant amount for SMEs:
- 0 < 3 employees: €2,000 (includes 1 user)
- 3 < 9 employees: €2,000 (includes 1 user)
- 10 < 50 employees: €4,000 (includes 3 users)
Business Intelligence and Analytics
This category enables you to leverage your company’s data to improve decision-making processes.
Key features and services include:
- Data integration with other databases: Access and compare data from other databases.
- Data storage: At least 1 GB of storage per user.
- Creation of structured and visual data dashboards: Personalized dashboards with relevant data and various visualization options.
- Data export: Export data to images or Excel documents, ensuring compatibility with your existing software.
Maximum grant amount for SMEs:
- 0 < 3 employees: €1,500 (includes 1 user)
- 3 < 9 employees: €2,000 (includes 1 user)
- 10 < 50 employees: €4,000 (includes 3 users)
Process Management
This category is designed to digitize and/or automate your business processes, especially operational or production-related tasks.
Key features and services include:
- Digitization and/or automation of processes and workflows: Automate processes such as:
- Accounting/Finance: Accounts receivable/payable, asset management, closing and balance generation, etc.
- Invoicing: Automate invoicing processes, including quotes, delivery notes, and invoices.
- Project management: Budget control, cost tracking, resource optimization, etc.
- Inventory: Forecasting, stock levels, shipping, distribution, returns, cancellations, etc.
- Purchasing and payments: Manage purchase orders and suppliers.
- Human resources: HR management, payroll, etc.
- Logistics: Fleet and route management, among others.
- Integration with other platforms: APIs or web services for integration with other tools.
- Upgradable: Access to solution updates and new versions.
- Scalable: The solution adapts as your business grows or changes structurally.
- Compliance: Ensures compliance with applicable regulations, including Spain’s Royal Decree 1619/2012 on invoicing obligations and any other relevant legislation.
Maximum grant amount for SMEs:
- 0 < 3 employees: €500 (up to 1 user)
- 3 < 9 employees: €2,000 (up to 3 users)
- 10 < 50 employees: €6,000 (up to 10 users)
E-invoicing
This category focuses on digitizing your invoicing process for clients.
Key features and services include:
- Structured invoices: Issue invoices in structured formats, at least in FACTURA-E format, to enable automated processing.
- Unlimited invoices: Issue an unlimited number of invoices.
- Unlimited clients: Send invoices to an unlimited number of clients.
- Unlimited products or services: Create an unlimited number of billable products and/or services in your catalog.
- Email invoice delivery: Send invoices directly by email through your chosen digital provider’s solution.
- Invoice customization: Personalize invoices, including your logo.
- Regular backups: Perform backups, with daily options available.
- 1GB storage/invoice history: At least 1GB of storage for invoices.
- Integration with other solutions: APIs or web services for integration with other tools, plus manual data upload options.
- Invoice due date tracking: System for monitoring invoice due dates.
- Compliance: Ensures compliance with applicable regulations, specifically Royal Decree 1619/2012 on invoicing obligations and any other relevant legislation.
Maximum grant amount for SMEs:
- 0 < 3 employees: €500 (up to 1 user)
- 3 < 9 employees: €1,000 (up to 3 users)
- 10 < 50 employees: €1,000 (up to 3 users)