New "Starting a Business" Program: Supporting New Entrepreneurship for Higher Education (AEI/TEI) Graduates.

The Call for the "Starting a Business" Action under the "Competitiveness" Program (ESPA 2021-2027) has been officially announced. This €70 million program subsidizes new businesses established by Higher Education (AEI/TEI) graduates who acquired their first degree after January 1st, 2016.

The subsidy provides a lump sum of €13,000 for the 18-month operation of the new enterprise, with an additional €15,000 available upon the creation of a new job position. In the case of a corporate or multi-shareholder structure, the €13,000 grant is increased to a total of €21,000.

• Applications are open from May 6, 2026, to June 30, 2026 (comparative evaluation, no strict priority order).
• The funded new businesses can operate in any eligible NACE (KAD) code - there is no requirement for the degree to be related to the business sector.
• Catering and Retail Trading businesses (e.g., retail stores, e-shops) are not eligible.

The funding application (investment proposal) must be submitted exclusively online through the OPSKE Information System, and the evaluation is comparative (based on scoring criteria).

The initial grant amount of €13,000 is paid in three installments:

• 1st installment: €4,400 (1st semester).
• 2nd installment: €4,300 (2nd semester).
• 3rd installment: €4,300 (3rd semester).

In the case of a corporate structure, the total amount of €21,000 is disbursed in 3 corresponding installments of €7,000.

The Investment Center [Blackbird Group] provides comprehensive support: rigorous eligibility checks, precise scoring estimations, and the professional preparation and submission of your application to ensure the highest probability of approval.

Our unrivaled success rates in recent subsidized programs are your guarantee of premium support.

For more information, contact us at 2108028330, 2810823002, or via email (info@kei.gr).

☆ Years of proven experience in business upgrade subsidies ☆
*ESPA Consultants: PEP, OAED, Tourism ESPA, DYPA, Development Law

⬢ Basic Conditions

To apply for the program, a beneficiary must strictly meet the following prerequisites:

• Be a holder of a tertiary education degree (AEI/TEI), a degree from Higher Schools of Artistic Education (recognized by the Ministry of Culture), or musical educational institutions/conservatories (recognized and supervised by the State) obtained after 01/01/2016 (first degree).
• The individual income for the latest available tax year must not exceed €30,000. In the case of a dependent member (not required to file a tax return), the total family income must not exceed €75,000.
• Must not have been approved for or applied to other subsidized entrepreneurship programs (from 01/01/2025 onwards).
• The business must operate in an independent, strictly professional space. This means having autonomy of use without being functionally dependent on other spaces, exclusively serving the business's activity. Furthermore, it must not co-locate with another business (to prevent cross-benefiting from the subsidy).
• The location of the investment implementation must not be identical to the residence of the Beneficiary or any other relative.
• Beneficiaries must not have participated in companies with a share exceeding 25% (or exercised dominant influence in other enterprises of any legal form) from 01/01/2025 onwards.

*Potential beneficiaries/partners must not be in a salaried employment relationship and must not be receiving an old-age pension at the start of the business and throughout the entire implementation period of the business plan.

⬢ Eligible Business Types

Almost all new business activities are included, as detailed in the eligible NACE (KAD) codes. It should be noted that the new businesses to be funded can operate in any field, regardless of the beneficiary's degree discipline.

Category A. Businesses under establishment, which will be legally formed after the submission of the Application. The business initiation can take place up to 1 year after the Approval date.

Category B. Newly established businesses, which have been formed from 01/01/2025 up to the date of the Application submission. They must maintain continuous operation exclusively in eligible NACE codes from the date of business commencement at the tax authority (AADE) until the final repayment of the investment.

The enterprises must operate legally, in accordance with applicable legislation (holding the appropriate licensing documents), while franchise businesses are completely non-eligible.

⬢ Grant Amount & Allocation

The grant amount for a natural person is a lump sum of €13,000 (or €21,000 in the case of a corporate structure) and is paid out in 3 installments:

• 1st installment of €4,400 (or €7,000 for corporate structures) after the end of the 1st semester from commencement, following successful administrative verification (Milestone A).
• 2nd installment of €4,300 (or €7,000 for corporate structures) after the end of the 2nd semester from commencement, following successful administrative verification (Milestone B).
• 3rd installment of €4,300 (or €7,000 for corporate structures) after the end of the 3rd semester from commencement, following successful administrative verification (Milestone C).

⬢ Subsidized Expenses

Under this program, there is no requirement to submit expenditure vouchers or invoices to control individual expenses. Verification is carried out through an Income-Expense Summary extracted from the A.A.D.E.'s myData digital platform (electronic books) to seamlessly prove the consumption of the subsidy for the business's needs during the subsidized operational period.

Indicative operational expenses that are eligible for the Action, within the framework of applying simplified costs and calculating a lump sum, include the following:

• Operational costs such as commercial space rent, electricity bills, professional landline and mobile telephony, water supply, heating, other shared building expenses, incubation hosting costs, etc.
• Expenses for third-party fees (legal, consulting, accounting support, business plan preparation and monitoring, incubator services, specialized professional training seminars, etc.).
• Promotion, networking, and exhibition participation expenses (indicatively including: design and production of corporate identity, trade fair participation fees, corporate website design and construction).
• Supply of consumables (indicatively including: costs of procuring consumable materials directly related to business operations, procurement costs of raw materials and intermediate products for manufacturing businesses).
• Equipment supply / Equipment leasing / Depreciation of fixed assets.
• Insurance contributions of the beneficiary (entrepreneur/partners).
• Wage costs for new job position(s).

⬢ Integration Process

Applications are accepted until June 30, 2026. The evaluation process is strictly comparative: applications are integrated based on their scoring rank, starting from the highest scorers.

The business can officially commence operations after the application submission and no later than 365 days from the approval date.

The business is required to complete a minimum of two (2) semesters of verified operation (two milestones), at which point it will receive the proportionate subsidy (€8,700 or €14,000 in the case of a corporate multi-shareholder scheme).

• There is absolutely no obligation to maintain the business after the final payoff of the subsidy.
• No on-site inspections are planned (except for random sample checks); only administrative verification will be conducted.

The established business must operate exclusively within Greece.

The program, with a total budget of €70,000,000, is co-financed by the European Social Fund + (ESF+) of the European Union. An amount of €15,000,000 is allocated to the regions of Attica & the South Aegean, while the remaining €55,000,000 is distributed across the rest of Greece.

⬢ Program Guide / Forms