An applicant’s business is a ‘sole enterprise’ if it holds no more than 25% of the capital or voting rights (whichever is higher) in one or more other businesses; and/or other businesses hold no more than 25% of the capital or voting rights (whichever is higher) in the applicant’s business; and nor is it linked to another business according to the criteria for “linked enterprises”.
In addition, certain investors may individually have a stake of up to 50% in the business and it may still be considered a sole business: public investment corporations, venture capital companies and business angels (provided the investment is less than €1.25 million), universities and non-profit-making research centres, institutional investors, (including regional development funds) [11], or autonomous local authorities (with an annual budget of less than €10 million and fewer than 5,000 inhabitants).