Kit Digital awards more than 300,000 grants to Spanish SMEs and the self-employed for their digitalization

Red.es -an entity attached to the Ministry of Digital Transformation through the Secretary of State for Digitalization and Artificial Intelligence- has granted to date, more than 310,000 grants from the Kit Digital program, which is equivalent to 1.400 million euros from the Recovery Plan, from the NextGenerationEU funds. Thus, these funds are already in the hands of the country's small companies, microenterprises and the self-employed with the aim of boosting the digitalization of their businesses.

In total, since the start of the program, more than 350.000 digital transformation projects have been launched in companies.

Kit Digital has reached 100% of Spanish provinces

In its almost two years of evolution, Kit Digital has become the most demanded aid program for the digitalization of SMEs in the history of Spain. Its capillarity has been such that 80% of Spanish municipalities in all provinces have received some of the Kit Digital grants.

Red.es has spent almost two years touring the entire national territory with the aim of informing SMEs and self-employed first hand of the Digital Kit grants. The Entity has visited around 30 cities, has been in all the autonomous communities, along with the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla. In all these events, the total number of attendees was 9,600, both online and in person.

There have also been events focused on specific sectors such as the trade sector or the one dedicated to entities that advise companies and self-employed. In addition to these events, Red.es has participated in more than 300 infodays, seminars, webinars and meetings with the sector to inform about the Program and the webinars focused on answering the most recurrent queries of the digitalizing agents regarding the justification of agreements.

Two years and four open calls

Since its presentation, Red.es has launched four calls for applications for the Kit Digital program, which are currently active in parallel, allowing all companies and self-employed workers with fewer than 50 employees who meet the requirements to apply for the aid.

This year, in addition, on September 12, Red.es launched the fourth call aimed at entities that, due to their legal form, could not apply for the aid in the previous open calls. This is the call aimed at communities of property, professional civil societies, civil societies with commercial activity and jointly owned farms.

The deadline to apply for the aid in all the calls will be open until December 31, 2024.

The beneficiary companies will be able to use the aid in a catalog consisting of up to 12 solutions: website and internet presence, social network management, e-commerce; customer management; virtual office services and tools, business intelligence and analytics, process management, electronic invoicing, secure communications, cybersecurity, advanced internet presence and marketplace. The catalog can be consulted on the Acelera pyme website (www.acelerapyme.es).

A new call for proposals aimed at medium-sized companies is expected to be launched soon, thus broadening the spectrum of potential beneficiaries of Kit Digital.

Simplicity in the application and agility in the granting process

Kit Digital is based on an innovative processing system that uses robotization and artificial intelligence tools, reduces the bureaucratic burden, reduces the number of documents to be submitted and shortens the granting period.

This system has allowed checks to be carried out in just 3 minutes, compared to the 3 hours required by previous procedures. This has made it possible to achieve very fast granting deadlines; if the application is correct, the aid is granted in only 15 days.

The company will be able to apply for the aid without providing any documentation; it will be sufficient for the businessman to authorize Red.es to consult ex officio the requirements and obligations required to obtain the status of beneficiary, safeguarding transparency and legal certainty.

In addition, in order to facilitate access to aid as much as possible, and to avoid increasing the workload of potential beneficiaries, the figure of the "voluntary representative" has been created. Any duly authorized third party, whether an individual or a legal entity, may apply for aid on behalf of the company. More than 50% of the applications have been made through a voluntary representative.

Nearly 11,000 digitalizing agents, 98% of which are ICT SMEs, and more than 8,700 with signed agreements.

For its part, the catalog of digitizing agents, the only ones authorized to sign "agreements for the provision of digitization solutions", is made up of nearly 11,000 agents (10,890 ADa), 98% of which are small companies in the ICT sector. ICT SMEs have been given a leading role to ensure that digitization is sustained over time and to improve the productivity of beneficiaries and digitizing agents. In addition, they are the ones who submit all the supporting documentation and receive the payment of the digital voucher assigned by the beneficiary, once their justification has been accepted.

The deadline for new digitalizing agents will remain open throughout the duration of the Program, so the catalog will be expanded as applications are resolved.

If the justification is correct, Red.es makes the payment in 60 days, an unprecedented period in the management of public aid in Spain and Europe.

All the service and communication channels at the service of SMEs and the self-employed

This year, Red.es has created a new service channel dedicated exclusively to the queries of the Digitalizing Agents.

It has been in operation for 10 months and has already handled more than 200,000 contacts. For its part, the user service channel dedicated to SME applicants and beneficiaries has handled a total of 700,000 contacts in these two years. In addition to receiving queries or doubts, Red.es makes proactive contacts, a total of 80,000 in all.

Kit Digital, an example of management through public-private collaboration

Capillarity has been one of the most important challenges for the Program, since the objective was to reach as many SMEs and self-employed as possible. To achieve this, Red.es has led a management based on public-private collaboration. It has relied on numerous collaborators such as the Spanish Chamber of Commerce and its territorial chambers; the General Council of Notaries; and the Association of Property Registrars, among other entities and organizations. In addition, Red.es has a network of more than 150 Acelera pyme offices, of which 58 are rural, spread throughout the country that advise and accompany SMEs and the self-employed in their digital transformation process. Kit Digital is a program of the Government of Spain and managed by Red.es.

It has a budget of 3,067 million euros, financed by the European Union through the NextGenerationEU funds, within the framework of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, the Digital Spain 2026 agenda and the SME Digitalization Plan 2021-2025, and aims to digitalize SMEs and the self-employed in all productive sectors throughout the country.

More information: prensa@red.es