10 years of the French Tech: the vitality of the French environment of startups

As explains the website fully dedicated to this governmental initiative, the French Tech is an initiative for French startups creating a special environment including startups, but also investors, decisionmakers and community builders. The mission of the French Tech is clear: to turn France into “one of the most attractive country for startups trying to get into business, conquer international markets and build a future that makes sense”.

France, land of entrepreneurship

10 years. 25,000 startups. 500,000 direct jobs, 1 billion euros raised in 2012, and 13.5 billion euros in 2022. These figures were announced by president Emmanuel Macron when he received at the Elysée Palace players of the French Tech, startupers, investors and decisionmakers from the public and private sector, from the associative world and research world.

Even though, “figures are not everything”, Macron stressed that such good figures “confirm the results, a growth and a strength” proving “the vitality of the French environment, which experimented a deep change” and shows that France is again “a major land for entrepreneurship”. In addition to such positive results, president Macron chose to particularly salute the 2023 promotion of young and most promising French start-ups . They are part of the French Tech Next 40/120 programme that fosters the “emergence of world-class technologic leaders thanks to improved support by the French government”. The “young sprouts” of this programme are chosen using economic performance criteria (fund raising or hypergrowth of revenues) and additional broader criteria including commitments in terms of equality, inclusion and ecological transition.

A new acceleration phase

Reminding the current “very hard” context, Macron declared he wanted to bet on Europe to face new challenges. “There is a European reflex to be had”, continued Macron, citing new major strategies to be developed on this scale, “whether in space, the cloud, hydrogen”, but also “new areas of geopolitical confrontation” such as “the deep sea or cyber industry, the two major segments of artificial intelligence innovations, quantum” and “everything relating to the response to climate change”. 

This acceleration phase will be based on the France 2030 plan, with European and national research credits to support around a hundred technology companies that are in line with the objectives of the new France 2030 plan. The President therefore called for a “general mobilisation to concentrate instruments and accelerate by the end of spring”, thanks to the national plan but also thanks to the major research organisations and universities “which are concentrating funding by experimenting with new forms of support for innovation and research, by mobilising a European and national niche to move forward”. 

Everything the French Tech puts in place for startups and startupers

On its website, French Tech develops some of the emblematic public schemes (projects, programmes or public policies) proposed by the State’s players “that make the French Tech ecosystem grow and shine”.

These include new programmes and specific projects:

• French Tech Health20, a programme that aims to bring out French technological champions who propose disruptive innovations in the health sector;
• French Tech DeepNum20, designed to support French startups in the digital, electronic and robotic sectors;
• French Tech Agri20, created to help technological champions emerge who propose innovations that meet the challenges of food and agriculture;
• French Tech Attractiveness Scholarship, a grant aimed at supporting projects in France that promote the ecosystem and the best startups to the target audience of foreign talent, investors, entrepreneurs and/or executives in charge of international development;
• French Tech Visa, a device that allows a simplified and accelerated procedure for non-European investors, founders and employees of startups who want to settle in France.