According to the Spanish National Statistics Institute (INE), the Community of Madrid recorded a 36.8% year-over-year increase in company formation in March 2026. This increase reinforced an upward trend that had been ongoing since December of last year and which is attributed, in part, to the grants for starting a business that are available in Madrid.

Currently, numerous grants for entrepreneurship are available at regional and national levels. To help you find the ones that might be useful for your circumstances, this guide analyzes the grants available for starting a business in Madrid.

Key takeaways

• In Madrid, various forms of financial aid are available for starting a business, such as the Tarifa Cero (Zero Rate) program, Avalmadrid loans, and assistance with commercial premises rental.
  
• The national government also offers financial support for setting up businesses in Madrid, such as the flat-rate contribution for self-employed workers and the Digital Kit program.
  
• At regional and national levels, there’s nonfinancial advisory-based assistance available, such as the support services offered by E-Social Hub and Entrepreneurship Service Points (PAEs).
  

Regional grants for starting a business in Madrid

In 2025, Madrid was the autonomous community with the highest number of new businesses created. With the aim of sustaining this growth and fostering entrepreneurship, the Government of the Community of Madrid offers financial aid that reduces the initial investment required to launch a business. We’ve prepared a list of some of the most noteworthy grants.

Aid for self-employed workers

The Community of Madrid assists unemployed individuals who register as self-employed by reimbursing 80% of their documented expenses:

• Operating expenses, such as water and electricity for the business premises
  
• Fixed asset expenses
  
  • Tangible assets, such as tools and computers
    
  • Intangible assets, such as software-as-a-service (SaaS) licenses
    

When combining both types of expenses, self-employed workers can receive a maximum of €5,600—an amount that rises to €6,200 in certain specific cases, such as for unemployed individuals under the age of 30 or over the age of 45.

Tarifa Cero (Zero Rate) program

Tarifa Cero (Zero Rate) is one of the grants for starting up a business in the Community of Madrid. In this case, the subsidized expenses are the Social Security contributions that self-employed workers must pay, the full amount of which can be recovered if the self-employed worker meets the stipulated requirements.

Generally, the grant lasts for 12 months, and it could be extended up to a maximum of 60 months depending on the beneficiary’s circumstances. Let’s look at some scenarios:

• Earning an annual income below the Minimum Interprofessional Wage (SMI), which in 2026 is €17,094 gross per year
  
• Proving a disability of at least 33%
  
• Returning to self-employment after maternity leave, adoption, or guardianship
  
• Being a victim of gender-based violence
  

In addition, Tarifa Cero offers a grant program for individuals over the age of 52 that compensates for the unemployment benefit they lose upon becoming self-employed. In this case, the Community of Madrid provides a one-off payment equivalent to the full amount of the benefits the worker ceased receiving during their first year as a self-employed individual.

Promoting Collective Entrepreneurship

If your goal is to set up a worker-owned company or a cooperative, this grant program for starting a business in Madrid subsidizes a portion of the invested capital, such as entity incorporation costs and premises rental. The maximum amount that can be received is €12,000, a figure that rises to €15,000 in cases such as the following:

• Collective entrepreneurs operating in the new technologies sector
  
• Collective entrepreneurs under the age of 30
  
• Worker-owned companies or cooperatives located in Madrid municipalities with fewer than 2,500 inhabitants, such as Villar del Olmo and Villanueva de Perales
  

Avalmadrid loans for entrepreneurs

If you have a project in mind but lack the necessary funds to get it off the ground, you can apply for financial assistance offered by Avalmadrid. Specifically, its Entrepreneur Loan helps cover the costs required to launch the project, provided you can contribute at least 25% of the investment plan.

Social Housing Agency commercial spaces

If you want to start a business in Madrid but can’t afford to buy or rent commercial space, you can look into Social Housing Agency commercial spaces; these are rented out at affordable rates to foster entrepreneurship in Madrid.

This program offers a full rent waiver for the first six months. Starting in the seventh month, you pay 25% of the rental price, and the fee gradually increases until the third year, when the full amount becomes payable.

Economia social (social economy) grants

With the aim of facilitating generational renewal and strengthening cooperation, Madrid City Council periodically awards grants designed to promote the social economy. For example, the most recent call for applications offers up to €20,000 in funding for the creation of cooperatives.

E-Social Hub

E-Social Hub is the coworking space launched by the Department of Economy, Finance, and Employment of the Community of Madrid in 2019. From this space, which also serves as an Entrepreneurship Service Point (PAE), professionals offer in-person, personalized advice.

In addition to receiving guidance on developing your business plan, you can also get help with the administrative steps you need to take to start your business—for example, applying for an activity license.

ESA BIC (European Space Agency Business Incubation Centre)

The madri+d Knowledge Foundation, in collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA), acts as an incubator for space-sector startups.

To benefit from ESA BIC grants—which can reach up to €60,000—you must be in the process of creating the startup and the project must have high growth potential.

National grants for starting a business in Madrid

Apart from regional and municipal grants, entrepreneurs in Madrid also have access to the General State Administration’s national grants for starting a business in Spain.

The aim is to foster entrepreneurial spirit: In 2025, 13.8% of Spaniards intended to start a business within the next three years, according to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) report. We’ve compiled a list of some of the most useful government grants:

Flat-rate contribution for self-employed workers

This is a subsidy that reduces the amount of the Social Security contribution paid by self-employed workers. This government aid for starting a business is available only to new self-employed workers who meet the requirements, such as not being a “collaborating self-employed worker” and having no outstanding debts to the Spanish Tax Agency (AEAT) or Social Security.

On January 1, 2023, the reduced monthly contribution increased from €60 to €80, effective through December 31, 2025. In 2026, the reduced monthly contribution is €80, plus 0.9% (corresponding to the Intergenerational Equity Mechanism) of the self-employed worker’s contribution base. Social Security uses as a reference a contribution base of €960.60 (the minimum base for Bracket 1 at the time the flat-rate increase was approved), so while the self-employed worker avails themselves of this assistance, the final monthly contribution amount comes to €88.64.

According to data from the Secretary of State for Labor, in April 2026, 12.6% of self-employed workers were benefiting from the flat-rate contribution.

Lump-sum payment of unemployment benefits

This measure allows you to receive the remaining amount of your unemployment benefits in advance, provided that this lump-sum payment is used for one of the following purposes:

• Starting a business as a self-employed worker
  
• Contributing capital to a newly established company or a company that was registered in the Spanish Commercial Registry no more than 12 months prior
  

According to data from the State Public Employment Service (SEPE), there were 49,596 beneficiaries of the lump-sum payment of unemployment benefits in 2024.

Digital Kit program

This is a digital transformation program for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and self-employed professionals that helps established businesses make the move to setting up an online presence. For example, if you sell products in a physical store, you can use the Digital Kit to create an online store in Spain and offer those same items to customers throughout the country—and even abroad, if you decide to expand your business outside of Spain.

With the aim of providing as much assistance as possible, Order TDF/39/2026 was published in early 2026, extending the application time frame by removing the application deadline for this grant. Therefore, calls for applications will continue until the available budget of €3.067 billion is exhausted.

According to the latest government report, more than 126,000 beneficiaries in Madrid have received Digital Kit grants totaling €493 million.

NEOTEC

This is a program of the Center for Technological Development and Innovation (CDTI) that promotes the formation of companies whose professional activity is based on new technologies. For example, you can benefit from these grants if you decide to open a business to sell online services or digital products in Spain.

Since the program began in 2002, a significant portion of the annual budget has been allocated to supporting the formation of technology companies in Madrid. In fact, in one of the most recent calls for applications, the Community of Madrid was the second-highest recipient of funding among Spain's autonomous communities, demonstrating the CDTI’s strong commitment to innovative projects in the region.

Enisa equity loans

Enisa (a public company dedicated to financing entrepreneurial projects, operating under the Ministry of Industry and Tourism) offers equity loans with no age requirements for creating startups and SMEs. The minimum amount for these loans is €25,000; however, to qualify, Enisa requires that the company’s equity be at least equal to the amount requested.

In 2025, Enisa awarded €86.2 million to 514 companies, with the Community of Madrid benefiting significantly: it was the second-highest recipient of funding among the autonomous communities.

Entrepreneurship Service Points (PAEs)

While these in-person and online information centers do not provide financial assistance as such, they offer key support for starting a business in Madrid, as they help entrepreneurs with many of the procedures necessary to create a limited liability company (SL). Of the more than 4,500 PAEs in Spain, 1,008 are located in the Community of Madrid.

Women Entrepreneurs Program

This program of the Ministry of Equality, cofinanced by the European Social Fund, provides aid—in the form of unsecured microloans of up to €30,000—to help women entrepreneurs start a business in Madrid. According to data from the Chamber of Commerce, this program enabled the formation of 1,100 women-led companies in 2025.

How Stripe makes it easier to launch your business

With the company formation grants available to them, entrepreneurs in Madrid face fewer barriers when launching their projects, whether they’re in-person or digital. To ensure the success of either of these business models, you need a reliable payment system that adapts seamlessly to the business.

If you’re developing an ecommerce or m-commerce business, these grants can help cover the initial costs. Once the online store has been created, implementing a robust payment system is key. Stripe Payments is a global, integrated payment solution that allows businesses of all sizes—from SMEs and startups to large multinational corporations—to accept payments from customers around the world. With Payments, you’ll save thousands of hours of development work thanks to prebuilt payment interfaces, allowing you to focus your efforts on getting your project off the ground. As your revenue grows, you’ll be able to scale your business on an infrastructure designed to grow with you.

If you decide to open a brick-and-mortar store in Madrid, you can take advantage of grants to help pay for the services you need in your establishment, such as water and electricity, security systems, internet service, and POS and card terminals. If you want to accept card payments or digital wallets without using devices provided by the bank, you can opt for a bankless card terminal; for example, with Stripe Terminal, you can use state-of-the-art card readers that integrate with your online store, allowing you to manage all payments—both in person and online—from a single platform.

FAQs about grants for starting a business in Madrid