Banks continue to finance young innovative companies, but investors now want to know when they will be profitable, Marguerite Bérard, director of Banque Commerce France at BNP Paribas, told AFP on Thursday.
Currently, the tension experienced by innovative companies is not at all linked to access to bank financing, it is a question of access to capital, to equity, said Mrs Brard on the occasion of the renewal of a partnership between BNP and the Initiative France entrepreneurship support network.
When (interest) rates were negative, equity investors did not have the same view of investments that are deferred return, she says.
In recent years, they fed a lot of innovative companies so that they grow as quickly as possible, but without first asking them questions about their profitability, relates the banker.
But today, simply winning audiences is no longer enough and start-ups must show that they have a business model that can be profitable at a fixed chance in advance, she continues. They must find not mere users or users, but customers willing to pay for their services.
You also see it in the evolution of tech stocks, including the biggest stocks in American tech today, according to the director of BNP Paribas.
For the bank, understanding the nature of innovation is important.
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We have a lot of bankers at the moment who are starting to become very, very specialized in the hydrogen sector, assures Ms. Brard, according to whom, more generally, bankers who specialize in innovative companies have a good touch of the ball on technological issues, a good knowledge of the ecosystem, of what is happening in France but also elsewhere.
For the Initiative France network, which distributes honorary loans that then allow companies to find other financing, this knowledge of technological innovations is also important.
We have specialized associations, but we want these specialized associations to disseminate know-how to the rest of the network, adds Guillaume Pepy, president of Initiative France.