Sourcing and supporting startup projects that meet French Tech Seed funding criteria through to fundraising: this is the objective of the consortium set up by six innovation players in the Grand Est region, which has just been selected and certified under the French Tech Seed call for projects launched by the French government. This collective initiative aims to increase both the volume and quality of business creation projects in the Grand Est region through structured and professional support across the entire value chain, and to provide access to new sources of funding.
Last July, the French government launched the AMI (call for expressions of interest) "Business provider for the French Tech Seed fund." With €400 million from the National Investments for the Future Program, this investment fund, operated by Bpifrance, aims to support tech startups less than three years old that are based on mature, innovative technology.
From idea to market, offering a chain of pro-startup expertise
To succeed, the government must be able to rely on "business development" structures capable of identifying, pre-selecting, and supporting promising innovative projects in the regions that show promise for high-potential startups in DeepTech. It is within this framework that a consortium of six key innovation partners in the Grand Est region has been formed: SATT Conectus, the SEMIA innovative business incubator, the BioValley France competitiveness cluster, and the Strasbourg University Hospital Institute (IHU) will select projects for the support program and prior to submission to Bpifrance, and will contribute their expertise to support future startuppers.
The following organizations will also contribute to the portfolio of projects throughout the Grand Est region by working with their partners to support business creation:
– SATT Sayens (formerly SATT Grand Est), which, in close collaboration with its incubator partners, Incubateur Lorrain and DECA BFC, aims to use this scheme to strengthen selection and support, and provide startup projects and their teams with a real springboard for their development,
– SATT Nord, which, in the Champagne-Ardenne region, is collaborating with the Innovact by SEMIA incubator to support business creation projects.
This initiative is a new concrete application of the tripartite partnership signed in March 2018 between the three regional SATTs (SATT Conectus, SATT Nord, SATT Sayens).
With a rich research ecosystem in the Grand Est region, the six partners, who already have 78 deep tech startups created at the regional level to their credit, have decided to join forces and pool their expertise to accelerate the startup movement. New tools will be implemented to provide even greater support to entrepreneurs. The consortium will also draw on the expertise of an investor committee and, above all, a selection committee made up of individuals with solid experience in business creation.