Gear change. In 2020, French Tech has demonstrated its resilience: according to the EY venture capital barometer, funding grew by 7%, despite an 8% recession in the country’s economy. In 2021, as growth returned to 7%, the Startup Nation moved into hypergrowth, with raised funds raised by 115% to €11.6bn out of 784 operations (up from 620 in 2020).
This billion-dollar flow is primarily due to the flows of cash poured in by central banks to deal with the Covid crisis, which has increased the opportunity and appetite of investors. But it also marks a threshold effect: France has become place to be for venture capitalists International. “The country has clearly succeeded in reshaping its image in the eyes of foreign investors, as evidenced by the latest EY attractiveness barometers, with France ranked first in Europe,” said Frank Sebag, who is associated with EY reputation, business-oriented government policies and influence. Paris, France is now seen as a stronghold of global innovation capable of producing Success stories with estimates that remain relatively reasonable.”
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This is evidenced by the explosion of financing rounds over 100 million euros (growth equity), which grew by 194% to 5 billion euros. For the first time in France, fundraising exceeded 500 million for Sorare (586 million), followed by Mirakl (473 million), ContentSquare (408 million), ManoMano (323 million) and Ledger (312 million). Last year, there were at least twelve new unicorns (companies worth more than €1 billion), compared to three in 2020 and three in 2019. Eight of them were supported by foreign funds,” notes Frank Sebag.
american appetites
France has become a popular hunting ground for major US funds such as Tiger (collective of Vestiaire, Dataiku, Qonto, Ankorstore, Spendesk), Coatue (Alan), BlackRock (ContentSquare), as well as Japanese SoftBank, a leading global technology investor whose international events led by the Frenchman Michel Combe, who multiplies the tricolor tickets (Collective dressing room, ContentSquare, Swile, Sorare). “Deals are closing within weeks, the amounts are rising to levels that we could not have imagined five years ago and that French investors have a hard time following,” admits Benoît Grossmann, CEO of Eurazeo, one of the leading funds in Europe with 6 billion capital. technology assets under management. But it’s a recognition that our ecosystem has matured: our first digital champions have spawned savvy angels and successful serial entrepreneurs, fund investments like accelerator incubators have increased… It’s a virtuous circle. “
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The good news is that in 2021, unlike 2020 (where there is no escape but the stars), this bounty has seeped into the young shooters in search of the first grain of fresh money, those who Problems supports “100 startups where to invest”. Their progress, however, is more modest, at 27% for those fees under 10 million (seed and series A), only 1.5 billion for 584 operations. “In terms of value, the surge comes from mega deals, but in terms of volume, 80% of transactions are made in the first two rounds. The ecosystem works well, both at the base and at the top,” analyzes Arthur Porre, co-founder of the business bank Avolta Partners. This may explain the opposite results of our 100 startups from the class of 2021.
However, young shoots are benefiting from increasingly generous government support through Bpifrance, which provided $4.4 billion (+45%) in loans and subsidies in 2021 and invests across the board in funds or directly in the capital of eleven unicorns. Under the France 2030 plan, new loans are irrigating deep tech and industrial start-ups that are more capital-intensive.
new scale
Cambon Partners research also shows that international funds are ready to bet on French Tech from the upstream: 62% of the rounds they participate in are in the seed or Series A round, up from 49% in 2017. Venture capital funds continue to be created to help get started: the Galion project, a transatlantic think tank that brings together 400 French entrepreneurs who have raised at least $3 million, thus launching Galion.exe, a fund ranging from 60 million to 80 million (30 million has already been invested by one hundred participants). “We have noticed that France is still lagging behind the United Kingdom in seed funding and we want to bring our experience and our money to contribute to the ecosystem,” explains Agatha Vautier, project manager for Galion. Our goal is to invest 500,000 tickets. up to 3 million euros in young digital nuggets.”
This is a good omen for 2022. The year started off fast, with 3.7 billion collected in January and February, compared to 913 million in the same months of 2021 (Eldorado database). On March 15, Doctolib raised €500m, becoming the largest French unicorn (estimated at €5.8bn). “The economic turmoil associated with the war in Ukraine and the presidential election may create a certain wait and see attitude,” said Guillaume Teboul, partner at Cambon Partners. ups and it’s not a bubble: French Tech has proven it has a pool of promising young shoots and manages to turn them into unicorns.” What soothes our 100 startups in this thirteenth edition.
Selection Method Problems
Under the shy sun, on Wednesday, March 9, a jury consisting of professional partners from the startup ecosystem and journalists from Problems met in the editorial garden in Paris. He selected seven favorites from among 100 startups – one winner per sector – who were invited to present their project on Wednesday, March 23rd at our 7th Startup and Innovation Summit at the Palais Brongniart in Paris (also visible online). The 2022 selection was based on an online call for applications open from December 20 to January 31, with about 800 startups registered. The editors also contacted incubators (large schools, research organizations, regional), investment funds, specialized investment banks to recommend start-ups to us. Application criteria? Establish your company less than four years ago, be headquartered in France, be independent of a large group and not listed, not appear in previous releases, achieve turnover (except biotech, diptech, industry), seek funding by March 2023. With your On the other hand, the Audencia Junior Conseil team withdrew 100 of our startups from the 2021 edition to see what became of them.