3.9 Start-up funding for young entrepreneurs
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Access to information
The Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth (Tillväxtverket) is a central actor for providing both general and youth-tailored information, with the following services:
- a telephone service with free of charge information and guidance, the 'Starting Line' (Startlinjen)
- a podcast specifically targeting young people in order to reach out with information about entrepreneurship in new ways
- a number of different web services with information regarding start-up of new businesses and information about the EU-support in Sweden.
Another actor providing both general and youth-targeted information is the Swedish Tax Agency (Skatteverket). The Agency offers advice on their website for young entrepreneurs. The Tax Agency even provides information linking to Junior Achievement Sweden and their educational programme the Company Programme (UF-företagande), which targets pupils at upper secondary schools (see section 3.8 for more information on Junior Achievement Sweden)
It is also common that universities provide information services through innovation and advisory centres. In these centres, researchers and students can receive information and support on how to commercialise their ideas and knowledge, either by starting new companies or incorporating them into existing operations.
See for example:
- Liu Innovation – University of Linköping
- KTH Innovation – Royal Institute of Technology
- SU Inkubator – University of Stockholm.
There are also different public web services with directed information about entrepreneurship.
Some examples of these services are:
- Verksamt.se provides aggregated information from the Swedish Tax Agency, the Swedish Companies Registration Office and the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth on funding opportunities, how to start, develop or shut down a business.
- Eufonder.se provides information on the EU Structural and Investments Funds and the existing possibilities to gain grants. The website has been developed in collaboration between the Swedish Board of Agriculture, the Swedish ESF Council and the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth.
Access to capital
Most of the public start-up funding in Sweden is available for the population in general. However, there is some public funding specifically tailored for young people.
Below is a list comprising both general funding and targeted public start-up funding for youth.
The Public Employment Service provides:
- In some cases, financial support to young people participating in the Job Guarantee and who are considered to have good prospects to start a business. Support can be given for up to six months and is either provided through activity support or development allowance.
- In some cases, special start-up funding support for people with disabilities that impair capacity to work.
The Swedish Board of Agriculture (Jordbruksverket) provides:
- Agricultural start-up support for people up to 40 years old who have started a farm for the first time.
- Compensatory support for farmers in areas where farming conditions are unfavourable.
Almi Enterprise Partner (Almi företagspartner) provides:
- Preliminary-study support to verify innovative ideas in the project phase.
- Innovation loans focused on innovation projects in the development phase.
- Microloans for entrepreneurs who want to start a new business.
- Microloans with EIF guarantee aimed at those who want to start and develop a micro-enterprise. The loan is offered in cooperation with the European Investment Fund.