“Ten years ago, I probably wouldn’t have chosen to launch my project in France. But today, institutions have made it an exceptional melting pot, in particular to support deeptech projects (based on a technological breakthrough developed in connection with research, editor’s note)”, says Sarah Lamaison, CEO and co-founder of the French start-up. Dioxcycle, which is developing a disruptive industrial technology that recycles carbon emissions by turning them into sustainable chemicals. An engineer by training, Sarah Lamaison carried out doctoral and postdoctoral studies on CO2 conversion at the Collège de France and Stanford University in the United States, and launched her start-up in France with David Wakerley, a British engineer.
Dioxcycle is not an isolated case: France has more than 2,000 Greentech (environmental start-ups), 47% of which have industrial issues. They were 800 in 2021. Many of them are deeptech. These new companies are a crucial breeding ground as the government relies on start-ups, and not only on established companies, to reindustrialize France. “We are now at a key moment when the reindustrialization of France is directly linked to climate issues. France has undoubtedly partly missed out on the digital age, which is why it must be there on the subject of reindustrialisation”, underlines Jean-François Fournier, executive director of the management of the innovation of Bpifrance. Knowing that the industrial sector today represents 10% of GDP in France against 24% in 1980.
In early February, Emmanuel Macron asked French Tech to contribute to the country’s reindustrialization effort with the opening of 100 sites by 2025. Start Industrie, the little sister of France Industrie (industry federation) , counted 35 site openings by start-ups in 2022.
At the same time, the Green Industry law adopted at the end of July 2023 allows the acceleration of administrative procedures for reindustrialisation. “The facilitation of industrial establishments brought about by this law is very important to us. A start-up, even an industrial one, lives in a chronology which is of the order of a month. Speed is a key to success – and it’s the very strength of start-ups. Dealing with bureaucracies, potential blockages lasting several months or even years, is the very enemy of the start-up: it must have answers quickly, to make decisions quickly, to conquer markets quickly”, reacts Romain Moulin co-founder and CEO of Exotec, supplier of robotic solutions for warehouses and the first French industrial unicorn.
France has progress to make in this area. “The time of companies, imposed by the rapid evolution of the market and the positioning of Asian and American competition, is rarely in phase with that of the administration in charge of public aid”, warns Thibault Tallieu, marketing and communication director of EODev, French start-up which develops hydrogen generators.
With France 2030, the plan which aims to create new industrial and technological sectors, the State has also given itself financial resources. The amount granted amounts to 54 billion euros over 5 years, including 3 billion to invest in the start-ups and unicorns of tomorrow. Bpifrance, which invests alongside private players, plays a key role in this ecosystem. “We are a lever for industrial start-ups, through loans, grants, direct investment in equity, and by participating in investment funds. The goal is for one public euro to become three or four private euros,” illustrates Jean-François Fournier.
But financing nevertheless remains a difficulty for industrial start-ups. In the first half of 2023, fundraising by start-ups fell by half compared to the first half of 2022, all sectors combined. French start-ups have raised 4.3 billion euros, according to the EY barometer unveiled last July. For the moment, industrial start-ups are not too penalized. Those who had raised funds in 2022 have time to see it coming. And some use another option: they join larger companies, being fully or partially acquired.
“There is a whole system of support for start-ups via Caisse des Dépôts or Bpifrance, but public aid must above all be reinforced for the acceleration phrases of companies after a few years of existence”, warns Thibault Tallieu. , from EODev. This is when start-ups need the money the most. And this is particularly true for those in industry, which then enter the industrialization phase (construction and running-in of factories).
Today, French industrial start-ups are mostly very young. They are in the start-up phase or have just completed a Series A fundraiser (the first major fundraiser after the start-up). But we have to prepare for the future. “A large number of these companies are in the pre-industrialization phase, the future potential is considerable. These start-ups will be behind the opening of many factories throughout France in the coming years. A lot has already been done by the State – via France 2030 in particular – but tailor-made support must be reinforced to facilitate the realization of projects carried out by industrial start-ups”, insists Jean-Philippe Thierry, Director of Start Industrie.
“Today, the ecosystem of industrial start-ups exists in France. But it is not completely successful, in particular because of the more modest private funding than elsewhere,” concludes Sarah Lamaison, of Dioxcycle.