The Kit Digital is the public grant that has digitised more small businesses in Spain than any other, and also the one most people lose for the same reason: starting to look into it the day the call opens. This guide explains how it really works and what you can leave done today.
What the Kit Digital is, in short
It is a Spanish government grant programme, funded with European money and run by Red.es, for freelancers, micro-businesses and SMEs to digitise their business. Its rules are in the regulatory bases published in the official gazette, and the official portal is acelerapyme.gob.es. It is a grant: you do not pay it back. And you do not receive it in your account: it is awarded as a digital voucher that can only be spent on specific solutions from an official catalogue.
How the Kit Digital voucher works
The mechanics take four steps, and they are worth understanding before requesting anything. First you apply and, if you meet the requirements and there is money left, you are awarded the voucher. Second, you choose what to spend it on within the catalogue: a website, an online shop, a CRM, cybersecurity. Third, you sign an agreement with a registered digitising agent, who is the one doing the work. And fourth, the agent collects the voucher directly from Red.es: you assign the payment right to them and never advance that part.
There is one exception that surprises everyone: VAT is not included. The voucher covers the solution, not the taxes, so the VAT on the invoice is paid by your company as in any purchase. That has been in the programme's fine print from day one; it is not a surprise added by the agent.
Who can apply for the Kit Digital
The programme's usual requirements fit in four lines: having a tax address in Spain, being up to date with the tax office and social security, having completed the self-assessment test at acelerapyme.gob.es and staying within the de minimis aid limits. Size matters too: the programme sorts companies into segments by headcount, and that segment determines how much voucher you get and which solutions you can request. The exact terms are set by each call when it is published.
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What the voucher can pay for
The catalogue is organised by category, and these are the ones we request and deliver most. Website and online presence: the site built, published and findable, with domain and hosting —we already wrote about what a website costs without the grant in how much a website costs—. E-commerce: the online shop with catalogue and payment gateway. Social media management: the plan and the posts done by professionals. Customer management: a CRM where contacts and quotes live. Process management: automating the paperwork that is copied by hand today, which is exactly our home ground in process automation. Plus cybersecurity, electronic invoicing, business intelligence and virtual office.
The usual trap is not picking the wrong category, it is requesting for the sake of it: a solution nobody will use is not free just because the voucher pays for it, because it spends your right to request the one you actually needed.
Why it runs out: the queue matters here
Previous calls were resolved on a non-competitive basis. Translated: the best project does not win, whoever arrives first meeting the requirements gets in, until the budget runs out. There is no committee grading proposals; there is a queue with a time of entry. That is why the advice we repeat most is the least glamorous: the application is prepared before the deadline exists, and filed on day one.
A case we watched up close in the last call: two businesses on the same street, both entitled to the grant. One started on opening day: did the test that morning, discovered a bounced social security payment from a changed direct debit and, by the time it was fixed, the budget for its segment was gone. The other had spent weeks with the test done, the certificates requested and the solution decided; its application went in on the first morning and the voucher arrived. The difference was not the project or the size: it was who had done the homework while the call was still closed.
What you can leave done today, with no call date
Four things, all free. Complete the self-assessment test, a questionnaire that takes a few minutes and is mandatory. Check that you are up to date with the tax office and social security, because fixing an overdue payment takes weeks and you will not have them on opening day. Decide which solution you will request, with numbers rather than hunches. And choose who you will do it with, which is the decision most people leave for last and the first one that shapes everything else.
A note on the certificates: they are free to request through the online portals and arrive in minutes, but they expire. Requesting them once and keeping them in a drawer for six months is no use; knowing you can pull them clean, and requesting them again when the call is announced, is.
We have turned all this into a Kit Digital waiting list: you leave your details once, we tell you which segment you fall into and what you qualify for, we get the test and the paperwork ready, and we file your application the moment the call opens. Joining costs nothing and binds you to nothing.
The digitising agent: what it is and how to choose one
A registered digitising agent is a company signed up with the programme to deliver catalogue solutions and collect payment from the voucher. Without an agent there is no Kit: the grant can only be spent with them. We are one, so this advice goes against our own interest too: do not pick the first one that calls you. Ask to see their websites or projects in production, ask who will do the work —their team or a subcontractor—, and distrust anyone promising you the voucher before knowing your headcount or your tax situation, because that cannot be known in advance.
The mistakes we see every call
Starting on opening day, which means joining the queue when it already turns the corner. Requesting a solution with no plan to use it, which spends the voucher and changes nothing. Discovering an outstanding social security payment that very day. And the quietest one: winning the voucher and letting it expire, because the Kit runs on phased deadlines for choosing an agent and delivering the solution, each call sets them, and a voucher not used in time is simply lost.
There is a fifth, subtler mistake: treating the voucher as loose change and handing it to the first sales rep who calls. The voucher is spent once. If the website that comes out of it is no good, there will be no second grant to redo it, and the cheap voucher ends up costing the price of a new website paid out of your own pocket.
We work from Palamós for Girona and Barcelona
We are a registered digitising agent and also the ones delivering the solutions: the websites, the shops and the automations are built by our own team, with published prices for everything outside the grant. If you want to know what you would qualify for and reach the next call with your paperwork done, write to us or join the list: we reply the same day, tell you your segment and which solution makes most sense in your case, and the day the call opens your application waits for nobody.
Tell us what you need and we'll give you a price
We reply the same day. No commitment, no sales pitch.