PROCOMER Impulso Tecnológico Costa Rica: Second Edition TIC Innovation Fund

PROCOMER Impulso Tecnológico Costa Rica: Second Edition TIC Innovation Fund

Historical reference: applications for the second edition are closed. PROCOMER’s official rules set the application window from 03 August through 30 August 2026. The current programs listing classifies Impulso Tecnológico as closed. Its program page retains general program information and links to the second-edition rules, but the official materials reviewed for this update do not announce a third edition or a new application window. The rules scheduled the announcement of selected companies and the start of project execution for October 2026; the official materials reviewed here do not confirm whether those milestones have occurred. Keep this page as an archive of the second-edition requirements, not as an open application notice. Check PROCOMER’s programs listing for a future call.

The second-edition operating rules set the maximum non-reimbursable award at CRC 7,000,000 per company. For a standard application, PROCOMER could cover up to 80% of an eligible project budget. At the ceiling, the company needed at least CRC 1,750,000 in counterpart, for a total project budget of CRC 8,750,000. The rules allowed a different split for qualifying companies that had previously received a PROCOMER non-reimbursable award.

At a glance

What the program actually funds

Impulso Tecnologico is narrow on purpose. It targets micro, small, and medium enterprises in the services sector, specifically the TIC subsector, which the bases define as including creative and content industries, fintech, data-based services, digital services, and firms specializing in emerging technologies. The company must already export or have demonstrable export potential.

The stated objective is productive transformation: adopting new or better technology and adding business innovation, so the firm can enter and hold ground in international markets. Every project must show a measurable positive impact in at least one of four thematic areas:

1. Operational efficiency — process optimization that cuts time and cost, raises capacity, or improves responsiveness.
2. Product design, development, or adaptation — more competitive or differentiated products through technology, design, and quality, or technical work that aligns products with international norms.
3. Commercial growth — tangible impact on customer acquisition or revenue, including entry to new markets or diversification.
4. Competitive differentiation — innovative features in the business model that strengthen international positioning.

Within those areas, three cost categories are financeable: digital transformation and technological infrastructure (digital tools, hardware, information systems, specialized software including licences); international certifications required for market access, including implementation costs and final audits; and professional services covering prototyping, commercialization work such as marketing strategy and sales-oriented website improvements, and technological development of systems, applications, or other digital solutions.

The certification route carries a trap worth flagging. A formal pre-audit evaluating what the certification requires is mandatory. Without that pre-audit, PROCOMER will not treat the certification work as financeable at all.

What the money cannot be spent on

The exclusion list in the bases is specific, and it eliminates a lot of what small firms would like to charge to a grant:

• Construction, remodelling, or expansion labour.
• Legal fees, stamps, or professional fees not directly tied to the funded project.
• Salaries or full-time outsourced personnel.
• Paid advertising or media placement of any kind. A marketing strategy or sales-oriented website work may qualify as professional service, but the rules exclude buying advertising space.
• Debt repayment, credit-card balances, dividends, share purchases, capital increases, bonds, taxes, or social charges.
• Administrative overhead — electricity, water, gas, waste, internet, telephony, accounting services, and administrative support staff.
• Rental or purchase of vehicles or real estate, with production equipment the only exception.
• Indemnities of any kind.
• Travel costs and per diems.
• Academic research and development at thesis, master’s, or doctoral level, and publications disconnected from project objectives.

If your budget leans on salaries, overhead, or travel, the project will not survive review in its current form.

Eligibility and the exclusions that quietly disqualify firms

Admissibility is documentary, and PROCOMER checks each item against a named proof. The second-edition rules added two export-development steps alongside the familiar corporate, tax, and social-security records: the company had to be registered on PROCOMER’s Ruta del Exportador and complete PROCOMER’s business development test. The program page also requires a colones IBAN account in the company’s name at a bank in the Sistema de Banca Nacional. Prepare the account certificate for formalization and keep records for each admissibility check:

• Cedula juridica — a company properly registered with the Registro Nacional. Proof: personeria juridica plus the legal representative’s ID.
• MIPYME status — a current PYME certification from the Ministerio de Economia, Industria y Comercio (MEIC).
• CCSS — registered as an employer and current on payments. Proof: a screenshot of the query at sfa.ccss.sa.cr/moroso showing the cedula and an up-to-date condition.
• Ministerio de Hacienda — the supported economic activity registered and payments current. Proof: a screenshot from atv.hacienda.go.cr showing registered status and no arrears.
• Project impact — verified through the technical description and justification, assessed by an external technician.
• Ownership structure — obtained through a lawyer or via the Banco Central de Costa Rica legal-person declaration summary.
• Ruta del Exportador and business development test — the company must be registered on PROCOMER’s Ruta del Exportador and complete the development test; the rules state that PROCOMER checks both online.
• Colones IBAN account — a certificate from a bank in the Sistema de Banca Nacional showing an IBAN account in the beneficiary’s name is required at formalization.

The restrictions section rules out several categories outright. Companies that won other SBD-funded seed capital programs in the previous two years cannot participate. Neither can related companies in the same economic control group applying simultaneously, nor companies related to a large enterprise. The second-edition rules also name beneficiaries of PROCOMER grants such as Alivio, Descubre, Desarrollo de Proveedores, The BluePrint, Crecimiento Verde, Cultiva+, and the first edition of Impulso Tecnológico, as well as related companies in the same business line. The general restriction applies unless at least two years have elapsed since the end of the relevant PROCOMER program edition.

There is a narrow door for repeat participants: a maximum of two slots are reserved for firms previously funded by a PROCOMER non-reimbursable program. They compete under the same scoring, but must have finished the earlier project satisfactorily, wait the full two years, contribute at least 30% counterpart instead of 20%, propose a project in a different area at a more mature stage of the business, and report concrete results from the earlier grant. For those firms PROCOMER covers up to 70% rather than 80%, meaning a CRC 7,000,000 award requires a CRC 3,000,000 contribution.

How projects are scored

The second-edition bases publish a 100-point technical rubric. It makes the project’s clarity and measurable impact central, and gives a larger explicit weight to women-led representation than the first-edition rubric:

Impact and coherence together carry 65 of the 100 points. The Ruta del Exportador registration and business development test are admissibility requirements in this edition, not a separate 10-point scoring bonus. A proposal therefore needed both a clear technical plan and a direct explanation of how its outputs would strengthen exports or links to exporters.

Evaluation runs in two stages. A technical evaluation team named by PROCOMER, made up of experts in the program’s areas, scores each admissible project. A high-level specialized jury then picks the winners, weighing scores alongside associated risks. That jury is composed of PROCOMER directors: Consolidacion de Exportadores, Creacion de Nuevos Exportadores y Acceso a Financiamiento, and Encadenamientos, or their designees. The jury also names a waiting list in case a selected company withdraws.

How the application was submitted

Applications for the closed second edition used PROCOMER’s online platform at capitalsemillaprocomer.charly.io/spar/programs/Impulso2edicion. Applicants opened “Participe Aquí,” created a user, read the second-edition rules, and completed all five required sections of the online form. The form requested general company details, legal representative and contact information, export and financing information, project design, and a timeline and budget. After completing the form, the legal representative had to download the application, sign it physically or digitally, and upload the signed document to complete registration. A saved online form without the final signed upload was not a complete application. The official window ran from 03 August to 30 August 2026, so this process is a record of the closed edition and is not a route to submit now. The operating rules list [email protected] for application questions.

Winners then formalize: a contract and a promissory note (pagare) with PROCOMER, a separate contract with INA for the training scholarship, and a sworn declaration confirming no conflicts of interest.

Execution: reimbursements, not a cheque

Nothing is paid up front. The company buys the good or service, pays for it, and then requests reimbursement across three dated windows. The second-edition rules shifted the reimbursement calendar into 2027:

The 10% “Partida Ajuste” inside the third tranche is not extra money — it is part of the same 100%, and the company may pull it forward into an earlier reimbursement, leaving at least 25% for the final one. The rules schedule project start for October 2026 and set 31 August 2027 as both the last date to request the third reimbursement and the deadline to finish the project. The first and second reimbursement deadlines are 31 January 2027 and 31 May 2027. These dates belong to the second edition and should not be mistaken for current application deadlines.

Each request requires a progress report against the approved action plan including the PROCOMER advisers’ logs and an asset registry, a signed reimbursement form, an expense liquidation with supporting documents, and quotations or justifications for goods and services. PROCOMER pays in colones within a maximum of 30 business days after a complete and satisfactory submission.

Expenses are proven with original invoices authorized by the Direccion General de Tributacion for domestic purchases; foreign and online purchases need transaction records, receipts, payment proofs, and import documentation where applicable. Dollar purchases convert at the BCCR sell rate on the invoice date. Invoices must be issued in the beneficiary’s name and be free of alterations.

Because SBD public funds are involved, Ley No. 9986 procurement rules apply. Before any purchase the company runs a quote-validation process: search the market, send a formal quotation request to at least two suppliers, submit at least two received quotes to the assigned adviser for analysis and supplier selection, notify suppliers by email and allow a 24-hour appeal period, then buy only after the adviser authorizes it. Physical assets must carry labels reading “Donado por Sistema de Banca para el Desarrollo” and “Programa Impulso Tecnologico PROCOMER”, and the company must keep a verifiable registry of tangible and intangible assets acquired. Misuse of funds triggers a demand to repay the reimbursements received.

Savings generated in the first and second reimbursements accumulate and can only be spent at the third, to cover an activity that turned out more expensive than quoted, to expand an approved activity, or to add a new one that supports the project objective. Savings cannot be returned to the company as a refund of its counterpart.

The advisory component

Beyond the cash, each winner receives specialized technical advisory funded through an INA scholarship worth CRC 2,800,000. The company pays 10% — CRC 280,000 — during the first project stage, and may count that payment toward its counterpart. Advisory begins with interviews and diagnostics to identify company gaps, followed by a tailored action plan with SMART objectives, indicators, activities to address at least three gaps, milestones, and deliverables. The edition-specific rules describe three advisory cycles, with sessions of up to two hours, for a total of 12 hours per company. Sessions combine knowledge transfer and hands-on work, use a hybrid format, and require at least 30% in person. The advisory cycles must be completed to PROCOMER’s satisfaction before the final reimbursement can be approved. PROCOMER’s general program page currently describes six personalized cycles of two hours each; this archive follows the second-edition rules, which give the terms for this closed call. Check the rules linked for any future edition if its advisory format differs.

What to do now that the window is closed

If your firm fits the profile, use the closed edition’s requirements as a preparation checklist while monitoring PROCOMER for a new announcement. Do not assume that the second-edition platform will accept another application or that a third edition will use identical terms:

• Obtain or renew the MEIC PYME certification and confirm it is current before any future application.
• Clear any CCSS or Hacienda arrears and keep the query screenshots current.
• Register in PROCOMER’s Ruta del Exportador and complete the business development test, both of which the second-edition rules treated as admissibility requirements.
• Order the ownership-structure documentation through a lawyer or the BCCR.
• Build a project around one of the four thematic areas, with measurable indicators, a coherent timeline and budget, and an export or exporter-supply-chain outcome. For the second edition’s maximum standard award, the total project budget was CRC 8,750,000, including at least CRC 1,750,000 in company counterpart.
• If you are pursuing an international certification, commission the pre-audit early — without it the certification cost is not financeable.

For questions about the second-edition application process, its operating rules list [email protected]. For a future opportunity, use PROCOMER’s main programs listing to see whether another Impulso Tecnológico edition or a better-matched non-reimbursable program is available. Program availability and terms can change between editions, so confirm requirements, counterpart amounts, links, and dates in the newly published rules before preparing a submission.

FAQ

What was the second-edition award ceiling? The official maximum was CRC 7,000,000 per company. For a standard application, that amount represented no more than 80% of the project budget, so the company had to provide at least CRC 1,750,000 in counterpart funding. Previous PROCOMER non-reimbursable beneficiaries admitted under the reserved places had a 30% counterpart requirement.

Can I still apply? No. The second-edition application period ended on 30 August 2026, and PROCOMER lists the program as closed. The official materials reviewed for this page do not announce a third edition.

Does PROCOMER pay the full project cost? No. It covers up to 80% of the total project budget, capped at CRC 7,000,000. The company funds at least 20%, or 30% if it was previously funded by a PROCOMER non-reimbursable program.

Do we get the money before spending it? No. All three tranches are reimbursements paid after the company has paid the supplier and the good or service has been delivered.

Is the program open to any Costa Rican SME? No. It is restricted to the services sector, TIC subsector, and to firms that export or have credible export potential.

What if we already won a PROCOMER grant? The rules reserved a maximum of two places for qualifying prior beneficiaries, subject to a two-year gap since the prior program ended, satisfactory completion, a 30% counterpart, a new project in a different area and a more mature business stage, and evidence of results from the earlier project. Related firms and other restrictions also applied.

Official links

• Programa Impulso Tecnologico
• Official second-edition bases, norms and conditions (August 2026)
• Official announcement of the August 2026 application window
• Second-edition application platform
• PROCOMER programs listing