Startups & Open Innovation

The new law has also added flexibility to the special regime for workers assigned abroad, enhanced the tax treatment of carried interest from the management of private equity entities and set out new rules on the obligation to disclose corporate income tax information.

The European Commission has just published its proposal to regulate digital services in two texts which even it considers ambitious: the Proposal for a Regulation on Digital Markets (analyzed here) and the  Proposal on a Regulation for Digital Services (DSA) which we address below. In forthcoming articles, we will take a close look at the many changes that lie ahead. Today, by way of introduction, we provide a summary of the main obligations (and rights) contained in the Proposal for a Regulation on Digital Services.

In the previous five articles in this series (see here) we saw the reasons and setbacks associated with startups’ exclusive dependence on equity, and the advantages of debt, in what is also a favorable scenario for debt. We saw the difficulty to provide general recipes for getting debt and a few not very promising routes for startups. And looked at venture debt as a suitable mechanism for startups. Together with discussing the importance of security interests and of thinking up ways of using new intangibles, and in the latest article we suggested pledges of future revenues.

In the previous four articles in this series (see here) we looked at the key role of professional investors at startups, though also at the setbacks of the exclusive dependence of these types of companies on equity and the advantages debt would have for them. The environment, as we saw, is also a favorable one for borrowing. We described the difficulty to provide general recipes for getting debt and a few not very promising routes. In search of more successful mechanisms, we examined venture debt as a suitable route for startups. Our latest article researched routes going beyond venture debt and determined in particular the importance of security interests for raising debt. In view of the characteristic structure of startups’ balance sheets we also saw the need to find innovative security interests within the reach of these companies, especially in certain new types of intangibles.

In earlier articles in this series (see here) we looked at the key role of venture capital funds, the reasons and setbacks associated with startups’ exclusive dependence on equity rounds, together with the advantages that debt would have for them. We also determined that this is a promising environment for borrowing. Then we looked at the difficulty with providing general recipes for raising debt finance and a few routes that do not seem very promising for startups, such as commercial banks and their ordinary channels and conventional bond issues. In our latest article we explored venture debt as a suitable debt financing mechanism for startups. And here we analyze the importance of security interests and of thinking up ways to use new intangibles.