The Ministry of Economy, Commerce and Business, through the Secretary of State for Commerce and the Official Credit Institute (ICO), has launched the ICO Exporters Growth line, endowed with 750 million euros to finance investment projects and the modernization of the productive capacities of small and medium-sized companies affected by changes in the global tariff environment.
This measure of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR) has been designed to strengthen the resilience of Spanish SMEs with international activity, improving their access to financing. To this end, the ICO Growth Exporters line has an aid component of 181 million euros, coming from Next Generation funds, which the ICO will channel to SMEs through two channels: incorporation of a non-refundable tranche in operations and partial interest rate bonus. In any case, the aid component will comply with the provisions of the European Union regulations.
ICO Growth Exporters aims to enable SMEs with international activity to carry out a comprehensive strategy, which includes investment in material and intangible assets, to strengthen their current position or begin prospecting for new markets. In this way, it will be possible to finance, among others, the services provided by ICEX advising SMEs in their internationalization process or participation in trade fairs. To encourage SMEs to undertake the design and deployment of a strategy that allows them to be more resilient in the context generated by tariff uncertainty, loans may have a non-refundable tranche of up to 30% of the nominal amount of the operation, with a limit of 200,000 euros.
Characteristics of the ICO Growth Exporters line
The ICO Growth Exporters line is aimed at exporting and importing SMEs directly affected by changes in the global tariff environment, with foreign activity that represents more than five percent of their turnover.
SMEs indirectly affected by the commercial context will also be able to access this line, either by being relevant suppliers to companies based in Spain in directly affected sectors, or by being part of global value chains.
In all cases, SMEs must have been at least four years old.
The fundamental objective of the ICO Growth Exporters line is to encourage investment projects that promote the resilience of SMEs in the current commercial and geopolitical context. Within the framework of this program, financing may be used to promote investments in machinery, facilities and equipment as well as in new technologies, organizational capabilities, brands and intellectual property, among others. The possibility of financing a portion of working capital is also contemplated, always associated with the investment project.
The minimum amount of operations is 50,000 euros, with no maximum amount established, and they have long repayment periods, between 5 and 10 years.
SMEs interested in accessing this line of financing can make their application 100% digitally from today on the ICO online channel.
date: 2026-02-09 16:05:00