Who, five years ago, would have bet that private investment funds would agree to invest 850 million euros in a French start-up proposing to produce electric batteries in a factory in Dunkirk? Not many people. However, this is the tour de force achieved by Verkor in September 2023. “Deep tech” companies, resulting from fundamental research, and sometimes with a strong industrial component, are now on the rise. In 2023, when French Tech fundraising collapsed (– 38% compared to 2022), those of French deep tech start-ups experienced the exact opposite movement (+ 38%), to capture they alone accounted for half of the amounts raised (4.1 billion euros out of 8.3 billion).
At Bpifrance, the French public investment bank, it is estimated that the Deeptech plan begun in January 2019, for which it was responsible, is not unrelated to this movement. The observation made at the time was that these research companies were struggling to attract capital, due to a distant return on investment and risky scientific bets. To reassure investors, the establishment then released an envelope of 2.5 billion euros to promote this type of start-up. Gradually, the objectives of the program were refined: to bring out five hundred new start-ups and fifty industrial sites per year by 2030, and to create ten start-ups valued at more than $1 billion.
Five years later, the results are encouraging: the number of new start-ups in this segment created per year increased from 168 in 2018 to 340 in 2023, private financing was quadrupled, twenty-six industrial sites were created last year, and eight unicorns were recorded. The France 2030 plan and the concerns that have emerged in recent years around the subjects of reindustrialization and sovereignty in sectors linked to energy transition (Verkor), health (Amolyt Pharma), food (Ynsect) or artificial intelligence (Mistral AI) have also meant that the resources entrusted to the Deeptech plan have been increased to 3.7 billion to date.
“Second wind”
However, Paul-François Fournier, executive director of Bpifrance, admits that a “second wind” is necessary. Firstly to continue to give birth to new disruptive innovation start-ups. A program (University Innovation Centers) was launched in 2023 to allow universities to provide financial support to scientific projects even before they are converted into a business project upon leaving the laboratories. With the objective of multiplying by 2.5 the number of young shoots emerging from their walls.
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