Agnès Pannier-Runacher, Minister of Industry, and Cédric O, Secretary of State for Digital Affairs, highlighted the importance of startups to the French economy: in addition to being a genuine source of jobs and creating wealth, they are in line with the government’s ambitions, such as supporting innovation to advance the country’s ecological and energy transition. They are “a lever for transforming the production system, increasing digitalization, combating global warming, and preserving scarce resources.” (Agnès Pannier-Runacher). To support the industrial growth of startups, and as part of its “Industrial and Deep Tech Startups” strategy in the France 2030 investment plan, the government announced that it has set up €2.3 billion in funding. The objective is to finance innovative French startups to create 100 industrial sites per year and make the French Tech ecosystem one of the main drivers of the country’s reindustrialization. This strategy is based on three pillars:
Providing financing to enable innovative startups and SMEs to finance their projects
In this context, numerous organizations, such as Bpifrance, are issuing calls for projects (https://bit.ly/3AxpzQ1
). Loans are being granted to finance industrial demonstrators and pilot plants (€150 million), and equity financing is being offered from the demonstrator to the plant (€1,000 million). Along the same lines, a national industrial venture fund is planned to foster industrial venture capital funds (€350 million).Supporting the emergence of “deep tech”The aim is to increase the number of industrial projects by accelerating the emergence of technology-intensive startups, to support the creation of research-based startups and the development of deeptech startups (€275 million).
Strengthening government support for startups in their industrialization phase
With this in mind, the Government plans to create a “One-Stop Shop,” led by the “French Tech Mission,” to enable startups to mobilize coordinated government support for innovative projects. The one-stop shop is open at the following address:
https://bit.ly/3fZPDcZ
Given the strategic lever and wealth creation that French Tech represents, the government aims to strengthen this dynamic through new strategies aimed at supporting innovative French startups and SMEs in their industrialization. It is with this same objective in mind that the Greentech Innovation initiative was launched in 2016. The latter’s objective is to select innovative projects from French startups and SMEs based on ambitious, innovative, and sustainable methodologies, technologies, services, or industrial solutions. Since its launch, 215 greentech startups have been awarded prizes, and in addition to benefiting from the Greentech Innovation label, they can benefit from comprehensive support, structured around four major boosters: visibility booster, commercial and network booster, digital booster, and public procurement booster. Moreover, many Greentech Innovation startups are developing industrial sites and employment, often during the reconversion of historic industrial sites such as AGreenCulture in Rodez (Bosch site under reconversion) or Ynsect in Amiens (former WorldPool site). They have already developed more than 75 production sites and workshops, which employ and create industrial jobs: on average, Greentech Innovation startups create one job every six months, and some (InnovaFeed, Entech Smart Energie, Urban Canopée, etc.) much more. Ultimately, this support for the industrialization of startups, provided for in the France 2030 plan and announced by the government, should strengthen the annual support provided by the Ministry of Ecological Transition to 500 companies by 2025. The goal is indeed to “make France one of the most attractive countries in the world for startups looking to launch, conquer international markets, and build a meaningful future” (La Frenchtech).