Updated on

Promoting the French start-up ecosystem

The French Tech Mission has 3 missions that guide all its actions. Promoting the French start-up ecosystem means highlighting the fact that French Tech start-ups are a major advantage for France on the international economic stage.

Start-up solutions by and for French people and businesses

French Tech is developing essential technological innovations for everyone.

Making an appointment with a healthcare professional on Doctolib, buying second-hand clothes with Vestiaire Collective, paying for lunch with your Swile card, carpooling with Blablacar, booking holidays with Campings.com, having fun with Voodoo… The usefulness of these services is well proven!

These solutions are for everyone because they are designed by men and women just like “everyone else”. French Tech start-ups are supporting new uses by offering innovative products and services that can be integrated into people’s daily lives, but that’s not all.

These solutions are also proving their worth to businesses, helping them to meet the challenges of digital transition in all areas: personnel management with Skello, cash management and finance with Agicap, CSR assessment with Ecovadis, etc.

These start-ups also aim to use innovation to respond to the challenges we will all face tomorrow: alternatives to animal products with Algama, decarbonising heating and air conditioning with Accenta, recycling and reclaiming waste from the photovoltaic industry with ROSI Solar, etc.

3/5 of French people

use the solutions of a French Tech start-up every month

70 million users

of Doctolib in 3 countries

25 000

French start-ups meeting the challenges of today and tomorrow

100 000

EcoVadis client companies in 175 countries

Je choisis la French Tech”, an initiative designed to promote the use of French start-up solutions in the development of public administrations and the economic fabric.

Launched by the French Government and supported by the French Tech Mission, the “Je choisis la French Tech” initiative aims to integrate French Tech innovations more fully into the everyday lives of French citizens, public administrations and businesses.

This new initiative encourages public administrations and the economic fabric (VSEs, SMEs, ETIs, major groups) to choose French Tech solutions. Its aim is to double the use of start-up solutions by public and private sector players by 2027.

French technological sovereignty

The French Tech Mission emphasises the sovereignty of its mission.

In line with the government’s priorities, the French Tech Mission aims to promote an independent and sovereign economy, technology and industry, capable of ensuring France’s position on the international stage and responding to new and increasingly pressing social, environmental and economic challenges.

The French Tech Mission aims to support the French Tech ecosystem in :

  • Helping to reindustrialise France. France is aiming to be not only at the forefront of innovation, but also of industrial production, in order to revitalise its regions, contribute to full employment and benefit from the social and environmental spin-offs

  • Innovation for sovereignty. Innovation means progress! French Tech has a role to play in defining France’s economic and social model for the years ahead, and deploying technological solutions to meet the major challenges facing our society

French Tech’s industrial revolution is promoted and nurtured by Mission French Tech, which supports the development of France’s industrial champions of tomorrow, to promote and spread the influence of tech ecosystems throughout the country.

As a result, 2,500 industrial start-ups are planning to set up production sites in the medium term, with the first projects underway (Ynsect in Amiens, Innovafeed in Nesle, Afyren in Carling, Aledia in Champagnier, Microphyt in Baillargues).

French Tech 2030, the programme of 125 emerging players in innovation that meet the challenges of technological, industrial and social sovereignty.

The French Tech Mission is rolling out the French Tech 2030 support programme, which is at the heart of the France 2030 roadmap. This programme is unprecedented in terms of its scale and the support mechanisms put in place thanks to the collaboration of Mission French Tech, Bpifrance and the General Secretariat for Investment.

This ambitious acceleration programme is aimed at around a hundred emerging innovation players, with the aim of creating French technological and industrial leaders with disruptive innovations. DeepTech solutions (from research laboratories) aim to provide answers to the major societal challenges of today and tomorrow, particularly in the key priority areas defined by the government: digital, health, industry, ecological transition and agriculture. Here are just a few examples of the winners and their solutions:

  • Hoffman Green creates zero-carbon cement

  • Smart Immune develops a cell therapy against cancer and infection

  • Sencrop designs and manufactures connected sensors for real-time access to ultra-local agro-meteorological information

  • Pasqal builds quantum computers from neutral atoms ordered in 2D and 3D arrays with the aim of providing a practical quantum advantage in simulation and optimisation

  • Unseenlabs is the world’s leading provider of data and radio frequency (RF) solutions for maritime surveillance

An innovative and committed economy

The only viable and innovative economy today is the committed one.

Start-ups are targeting key sectors of our economy by proposing effective solutions to make our future more virtuous. The French Tech Mission aims to help this ecosystem to become more responsible, with more diverse talent, but also by demanding more parity.

To achieve this, 3 postulates guide the actions towards this innovative and committed economy:

  • The global ecological transition must be accelerated. The French Tech Mission is working with start-ups to help them build a virtuous model and offer them the tools they need to make the most of these new challenges, so that they become levers rather than constraints.

  • Tomorrow’s economy must be inclusive. The French Tech Mission is positioning itself as an accelerator on this issue and wants to set an example for the entire ecosystem by making diversity a strength, notably through the French Tech Tremplin programme.

  • The tech sector is cruelly lacking in parity. The French Tech Mission is convinced that start-ups have the will and the ability to change this through fairer initiatives, such as demanding greater parity on company boards or job descriptions that are open to both men and women.

+80 startups supported

are working on the ecological transition, in the GreenTech and AgriTech sectors

+200 signatories of Pacte Parité

These companies are monitored by the French Tech Mission to achieve the objectives of the 5 commitments

1000 entrepreneurs

from remote areas have been supported by the French Tech Tremplin programme to create or consolidate their start-up with innovative solutions.

The Pacte Parité, an initiative aimed at making parity the norm in business.

The French Tech Mission is taking the issue of parity head on and working hand in hand with entrepreneurs, driven by the conviction that no start-up will be a world leader in the coming years without this approach. Together, the French Tech ecosystem is working to promote gender equality in the tech industry, where the gaps are still glaring and the players involved are largely unaffected by existing legislation.

The Pacte Parité, launched in May 2022 and co-created with companies from the French Tech ecosystem, has resulted in a pact that brings together five commitments. Based on feedback from the French Tech Next40/120 start-ups, they aim to take concrete action on structural issues in terms of governance, management, recruitment, representation and parenthood.

French Tech Tremplin, a programme that gives everyone a chance.

Our ecosystem is not yet representative of the wealth and potential of the French population.

The French Tech Mission is taking action on this issue and setting up the French Tech Tremplin programme in 2019, aimed at people who are far removed from the entrepreneurial ecosystem and held back by socio-economic factors. The aim of the programme is to support entrepreneurs in creating and developing their start-up, by enabling selected participants to benefit from essential tools for their project.

It is deployed locally by the Capitales French Tech, the French Tech Mission’s national relays.

This programme won the European Prize for the Promotion of Entrepreneurship in the “Responsible and Inclusive Entrepreneurship” category in 2022.