French start-ups with a high degree of technological innovation, the “deeptech”, raised 2.3 billion euros in capital in 2021, 16% of which was directly provided by Bpifrance, according to a report released Tuesday by the public bank. .
The subsidiary of Caisse des Dépts has invested 375 million euros in the capital of these young shoots, on which the government is counting in particular to contribute to the industrialization of the country.
Bpifrance’s financial participation in these technological hopes does not stop there, since it has also injected 401 million euros into investment funds specializing in deeptech, which represents around a quarter of the total envelope available to these funds.
And Bpifrance also granted 559 million euros in non-capital financing (aid for innovation, calls for projects, innovation competitions, etc.) to these companies in 2021, an increase of 80% over 2020.
This financial effort is part of the deeptech plan announced by the government in 2019.
The objective is in particular to achieve 500 creations of start-ups of this type per year in 2025 (compared to 250 in 2021), an objective that Paul-Franois Fournier, executive director of Bpifrance, considers to be on track. If we continue the current trend, the objective of 500 will be reached by the end of 2024, he estimated.
The State, Bpifrance and other public players are also seeking to stimulate entrepreneurship among research laboratories and researchers.
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The i-PhD competition, which aims to reward young researchers with entrepreneurial projects mobilizing breakthrough technologies, saw the number of candidates increase by 75% in 2021, according to Bpifrance.
Among the examples of deeptech nuggets, Bpifrance cites in particular Exotec (warehouse robots), Owkin (artificial intelligence applied to medical research), Navya (autonomous vehicles), Ledger (secure keys for cryptocurrencies), Afyren (biosource chemistry) or Ynsect ( insect-based diet).
The 2.3 billion euros raised in 2021 by deeptech represent around 20% of the 11.6 billion euros raised by all start-ups.