Start-Up Nation Romania 2026: the grant, your website and your brand

Start-Up Nation in 2026: what is in force

The programme now running is officially “Start-Up Nation România”, the 2024 edition, which the ministry presents as the fourth edition. It is funded through Romania's Education and Employment Programme 2021-2027, and its rules sit in a single implementation procedure, approved by Order no. 328/2025 and amended several times since, most recently by Order no. 922/2026. In short, on 3 October 2026:

• The first session for companies is being contracted. On 4 June 2026 MEDAT published the lists of the companies that applied, for more than 5,800 fundable places, and on 28 September 2026 it began signing 3,140 contracts.
• The second round of courses opens on 6 October 2026, at 10:00, on minimis.imm.gov.ro: 17,600 places on free 40-hour entrepreneurship courses, online or in person, with 113 training providers, for people aged 18 to 29. Enrolment stays open for 30 days, with a possible extension, and finishing the course is a condition of the grant.
• The grant for graduates comes after the course. Whoever wants the money sets up a company at the Trade Register (ONRC) and enters it in the second stage. The date of that stage had not been published by 3 October 2026; once it opens, the procedure keeps it open for 45 working days, with a possible extension.
• The amount. At most 250,000 lei per company and at most 90% of the eligible costs; the remaining 10% or more is your own contribution. Once the contract is signed, up to 50% of the grant can be paid in advance into the programme's dedicated account at the partner bank.

Can a foreign founder apply?

The procedure sets no citizenship condition for its target groups; the only mention of Romanian citizenship defines a returning emigrant. What it asks for, on the under-30 pillar, is a Romanian personal numeric code (CNP) and a domicile in Romania, and it checks the CNP against the population register (DGEP) or the General Inspectorate for Immigration (IGI). Whether your residence permit counts as the domicile it asks for is a question to put to the programme before you enrol, not after.

The second pillar, only for companies outside Bucharest-Ilfov, is for people over 30: those under 35 whatever their situation and, with no upper age limit, groups the procedure lists such as job seekers, the unemployed, the economically inactive and people from disadvantaged groups. The October 2026 course round is for the under-30 group only. Two rules hold for everyone. The company's registered office and work points must be in the development region where you are domiciled, for the whole implementation and sustainability period. And the paperwork is Romanian: the reimbursement request is filled in in Romanian, and payment documents from abroad must be translated and legalised. Consulting is an eligible cost, capped at 10,000 lei, if you need help with it.

Is there still a business plan?

Not as a separate document. The procedure in force does not ask for a business plan: the company fills in an online application form, and the score is calculated automatically as the form is completed. Once submitted, the form cannot be changed.

The closest thing to a plan is the form's expense table, “Dimensionare/Plan de cheltuieli”. Each cost has a category, a description, a quantity, a unit price before VAT, the part funded and your part, a justification and an attached document. And every cost must be tied to the activity of the CAEN code (Romania's classification of economic activities) you are applying for.

The score runs to 100 points, with 50 as the minimum. It rewards an own contribution above the minimum, the share of technological equipment in the costs, investment in renewable energy and in saving resources, partners who held no shares in another Romanian company before the procedure was published, keeping the jobs for 30 months, and the manufacturing activities listed in the procedure. Nothing in the grid concerns marketing or branding.

One effect to know before you set a budget: the equipment criterion is a share of the total eligible costs. Money put into the website and its promotion counts in the total but not in the share, so a large website line lowers it.

Which website and brand costs the grant covers

The list of eligible costs is at point 5.2 of the procedure. These are the ones that touch the brand and the company's presence online:

Two rules decide the order in which you buy. First, the procedure names only three costs that can be incurred before the contract is signed: setting up the company, the electronic signature and consulting. Everything else, the website included, happens in the implementation period: at most 12 months from the contract coming into force, and no later than 8 December 2027. Second, after the contract is signed every purchase needs a file with at least three requests for quotes, the quotes received and a signed note justifying the choice. Only costs under 1,000 lei including VAT can go with a single quote.

Your company's brand, in the programme's order

The form does not ask for a brand plan, but the company needs one, and some decisions come before you apply while others wait for the contract:

1. 01The name, before the company. After the course you register the company at the Trade Register, and the name you register is the one on the contract and on everything that follows. Check it as a company name at the ONRC, as a trademark at OSIM and as a .ro domain before you register; the method is in how to name a brand.
2. 02The positioning, on one page. Who you sell to, what you promise and how you differ. It helps with the justifications in the form and with everything after it; how to write it is in the brand brief.
3. 03The visual identity, from your own budget. The logo, colours and typefaces are not on the list of eligible costs, and the website is built on them, so they have to exist first. The steps are in how to build a brand from scratch, the market prices in how much does a logo cost.
4. 04The trademark, once the name has settled. The programme neither requires it nor lists it as an eligible cost. OSIM's 2026 fees for the company name as a word mark in one class come to about 1,000 lei; the procedure is in trademark registration in Romania.
5. 05The website, after the contract. A company website or online shop, its domain and its promotion are eligible. Write one specification (pages, features, who writes the copy, whose name the domain and accounts are in) and send the same one to three suppliers, so that the quotes compare. What a good one contains is in the company website guide.
6. 06Print. Business cards, flyers and a shop sign are not named among the eligible costs; the programme's plaques are, and they are mandatory. How to prepare a business card for print is in business card design.

The brand line of your budget

Put on one page what the grant pays for and what you pay for yourself. A model, to fill in with real quotes:

The figures come from quotes, not from averages found online: on the form, each line has a unit price, a justification and a document, and at reimbursement, the procurement file.