Public Funding & Subsidies (Bpifrance, France 2030, EU)
In brief: the main channel for public funding of French startups is Bpifrance (France's state investment bank): from the €30,000 Bourse French Tech grant, to i-Lab/i-Nov innovation-competition subsidies, unsecured loans (PCE, Prêt d'Amorçage), and equity funds at every level (French Tech Souveraineté, Large Venture) — stacked on top of regional aid and the EU's EIC Accelerator.
TL;DR
- Bourse French Tech: a €30,000 grant (subvention) for startups under 5 years old with <€300k cumulative funding and no Series A; suspended in October 2024, relaunched on 2025-06-11; due to 2026 budget austerity, its continuation in 2026 is uncertain (source: Bpifrance, trade media). The "Scale-up tier (€50k)" no longer appears in the 2025 calls (to be verified).
- i-Lab (a France 2030 competition): for deeptech companies ≤2 years old, up to €600,000 in subsidies (roughly covering 60% of R&D costs); i-Nov: for startups/SMEs with outstanding innovation potential, subsidies + repayable advances, project budgets €600k–5M (sources: Bpifrance, entreprises.gouv.fr).
- Loans: PCE (a startup loan, no personal guarantee); Bpifrance Prêt d'Amorçage: €50k–100k, 8-year term (including a 3-year grace period), matched to own funds within caps (source: bpifrance-creation.fr, checked 2025-11).
- Equity: French Tech Accélération II (€10M per fund; direct checks of €1–10M / fund stakes up to €20M); French Tech Souveraineté (sovereign defensive co-investment); Large Venture (€2.5–3.5B-scale funds for growth-stage investments in >€20M rounds) (sources: bpifrance.com, presse.bpifrance.fr).
- EU: EIC Accelerator — applications by single companies, grants up to €2.5M + equity of €1M–10M (source: eic.ec.europa.eu).
Grants & competitions (Subventions & concours)
| Instrument | Amount | Target/conditions | Apply |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bourse French Tech (BFT) | €30,000 grant | French companies <5 years old; <€300k cumulative funding (excluding the BFT itself); product/service in development and at least one full-time founder; no Series A raised | Online via Bpifrance (bpifrance-creation.fr → Services en ligne); batch-based calls; 2025 batches opened 6/11 with results due end of July |
| Bourse French Tech Scale-up (former €50k second tier) | Discontinued (absent from the 2025 calls, to be verified) | Originally for companies with €300k–1M in funding | — |
| Concours i-Lab | Up to €600,000 grant (roughly ≤60% of R&D costs) | French deeptech startups (≤2 years old or being created); the 2025 27th edition: published 2/13, closed 3/11 | Online application on the Bpifrance website |
| Concours i-Nov | Subsidy + repayable advances; project budgets €600k–5M (<€1M limited to "transport/mobility/city/construction" themes) | Startups and SMEs (not ETIs), major innovation (innovation majeure), nearing commercialization | Batch calls under the France 2030 framework |
| i-PhD | Small grants for PhD founders (amount set per edition, to be verified) | PhD-founded deeptech projects | Same as above |
| French Tech 2030 | France 2030 dedicated funding (grants/repayable advances, multi-million-euro scale) | Startups in key (sovereign) technology fields (AI, quantum, bio, space, etc.); the third cohort has launched | Joint call by lafrenchtech/Bpifrance |
Loans (Prêts — mostly without personal guarantees)
| Instrument | Amount | Conditions |
|---|---|---|
| PCE (Prêt à la Création d'Entreprise) | €3,000–50,000 (to be verified; bpifrance-creation.fr governs) | Starting or taking over a business, alongside a bank loan, no personal guarantee |
| Bpifrance Prêt d'Amorçage | €50,000–100,000 (with regional matching/guarantees, up to €300k) | Startups/very small firms <5 years old with innovative or high-growth projects; 8-year term including a 3-year principal grace period; 0.40% fee (minimum €500) |
| Prêt Amorçage Invest (and the Invest EU variant) | €100k–1M (Invest EU version €50k–100k) | Quasi-equity loans paired with equity funding (angels/VC) |
| On-lending / green / industrial programs (various France 2030 AAPs) | Project-dependent | Batch calls |
Equity funds (Fonds propres)
| Fund | Size/ticket | Positioning |
|---|---|---|
| French Tech Accélération (generation 1, €200M; generation 2 FTA II, launched 2021-10, €100M) | Direct minority checks of €1M–10M (fund can take up to €20M) | Follow-on acceleration investments after the seed stage; invests in startup studios (sources: bpifrance.com, presse.bpifrance.fr) |
| French Tech Souveraineté (FTS) | Initially about €850M, now fully committed with a "top-up" announced (on the order of €1B, to be verified) | Defensive/backstop co-investment in technologies critical to national sovereignty (against foreign low-price takeovers, etc.) (source: entreprises.gouv.fr) |
| Large Venture | Funds at the billions-of-euros scale (about €2.5–3.5B), first tickets typically large | Growth stage in tech and life sciences, participating in >€20M rounds (co-investing with sovereign and international funds) (source: bpifrance.com) |
| Fonds Deep Tech (France 2030) | — | Deeptech startup equity (established by the state-Bpifrance agreement of 2023-08-22, legifrance.gouv.fr) |
| TATIN / new-fund vehicles (2024–2026) | — | Follow Bpifrance's latest announcements on its website (to be verified) |
Regions (Régions) and regional-level aid
- The regions (Île-de-France, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Occitanie, etc.) commonly offer: startup grants (innovation aid, "First" schemes under various names), regional guarantee funds (stackable with the Bpifrance Prêt d'Amorçage to enlarge loans), and regional innovation competitions.
- A classic instrument: Prêt à l'Innovation / IRDI (guarantee) — Bpifrance guarantees bank loans to innovative companies (the IRDI guarantee share varies by project; the official website governs, to be verified).
- Search entry points: les-aides.fr, and bpifrance-creation.fr filtered by region.
EU instruments
| Instrument | Amount | Key points |
|---|---|---|
| EIC Accelerator (Horizon Europe) | Grant ≤€2.5M (lump sum, TRL 6–8, within 24 months) + equity of €1M–10M (blended finance can total €12.5M–17.5M) | Single companies only: startups/SMEs (≤499 employees to receive equity) or small mid-caps, established in the EU/associated countries; the final 2026 deadline is November 4 (source: eic.ec.europa.eu) |
| EIC STEP Scale-up | €10M–30M equity | Scale-up phase for strategic technologies (STEP) (details per the EIC website) |
| InvestEU / EIF guarantees and fund-of-funds | — | Indirect support via local banks/VCs |
Application practice
- Most Bpifrance instruments run an online diagnosis + application at bpifrance-creation.fr (the startup-dedicated portal); competitions are called in batches (vagues) — miss one and you wait for the next edition.
- Grants (subvention) count as the company's taxable income; loans must be used compliantly and repaid in installments after the grace period.
- Suggested stack: BFT (€30k grant) + Prêt d'Amorçage (€50–100k loan) + CIR/CII tax refunds (see the tax-incentives chapter) — the French early-stage "three-piece set."
English edition draft · Data as of 2026-09-20 · Source: Europe Startup Playbook (Chinese edition)
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