Definition of Start-up, Small- and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and Non-governmental Organisation (NGO)
A Start Up is an independent, organisation, which is younger than five years and is aimed at creating, improving and expanding a scalable, innovative, technology-enabled product with high and rapid growth.
1. Age, Independence, and Scalability
- Age: A start-up is younger than five years and develops into a small medium size company before becoming a cooperation
- Independent: Start-ups are businesses set up, and at one point, owned and run by the founders
- Scalable: A scalable product or service has a small cost associated to growth compared to the potential revenue gain
2. Organisation & Innovation
- Organisation: At an early stage, a start-up can be a legal entity or not, depending on different circumstances.
- Innovative: Start-ups use opportunities such as new technologies to find new and often more efficient solutions to problems and create new products that better satisfy needs of both individuals and corporates
3. Technology-based & High growth potential
- Tech-based: The start-ups we are targeting are based on information technologies – utilising software and/or hardware.
- High growth potential: To achieve scale, start-ups must be able to operate in a good potential market. This market must be big enough and/or growing fast enough to provide ongoing demand for a start-up’s product.
Criteria based in large parts on the definition of the European Start-up Network (ESN).
Definition Small- and Medium Enterprises
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are defined in the EU recommendation 2003/361. The main factors determining whether an enterprise is an SME are staff headcount and either turnover or balance sheet total.
- A Medium-sized SME has less than 250 staff headcount and either ≤ € 50 m Turnover or ≤ € 43 m Balance sheet total.
- A Small-sized SME has less than 50 staff headcount and either ≤ € 10 m Turnover or ≤ € 10 m Balance sheet total.
- A Micro-sized SME has less than 10 for the staff headcount and either ≤ € 2 m Turnover or ≤ € 2 m Balance sheet total.
Definition Non-governmental Organisation (NGO)
Our definition of an NGO is a voluntary group or institution with a social mission, which operates independently from the government. NGO stands for non-governmental organization. NGO may be called nonprofit, charity, non-profit organization (NPO), civil society organization (CSO), citizen sector organization (CSO), social benefit organization (SBO), an advocacy organization, voluntary organization, grassroots support organization (GSO), and non-state actor (NSA).
Based loosely on the definition of the platform NGO Source.
Other non-governmental organizations
An organization of persons with disabilities, or OPD (also referred to as a Disabled persons’ organization, or DPO), is a representative organization or group of persons with disabilities, where persons with disabilities constitute a majority of the overall staff, board, and volunteers in all levels of the organization. It includes organizations of relatives of persons with disabilities (only those representing groups without legal capacity to form organizations, such as children with disabilities and persons with intellectual disabilities) where a primary aim of these organizations is empowerment and the growth of self-advocacy of persons with disabilities.
Definition taken from Disability Rights Fund (DRF).
