According to the Bpifrance observatory, industrial start-ups inaugurated 35 factories or industrial demonstrators in 2022. To promote French tech, in 2022 Bpifrance injected 410 million euros in aid and loans, and 358 million euros have been invested in equity…
Cocorico, French industrial lifts increased by 36% in 2022, while the global trend is downward. With €3.78 billion raised, France is ahead of Germany. The number of fundraisings over €100 million has doubled and of these fundraisings, 28% were by industrial start-ups.
Launched 6 years ago, the development of “French Tech” is bearing fruit if we are to believe the Bpifrance observatory which manages the various systems: Industrial start-up plan launched in January 2021 (2.3 billion euros), deeptech plan launched in 2019 (3 billion euros) and replenished in January 2023 (500 million euros).
To measure the effects of its financing, Bpifrance has just published its observatory of industrial start-ups that develop, during an R&D phase, product or process innovations that ultimately involve mass production of material goods.
First industrial unicorn
According to this study, France has 1,900 industrial start-ups, including 35% in health (Biotech and Medtech), 17% in electronics and photonics and 10% in energy. The others are in robotics, agro-industry, industrial chemicals, consumer goods…
While the bankruptcy of the Silicon Valley Bank, which specializes in venture capital, might weaken American start-ups (the SVB presenting itself as the partner of half of the American start-ups financed by venture capital), start-ups up French manufacturers are raising more and more funds to finance their growth and industrialization.
Their fundraising has increased by 36% in 2022, bucking a downward global trend. This acceleration allowed, among other things, the advent of the first industrial unicorn (Exotec). Its Skypod system deploys robots to bring items directly to operators in warehouses.
This solution thus enables its customers to quickly adapt to consumer demand and fluctuations in the supply chain, while alleviating labor constraints, increasing workplace safety and optimizing profitability.
Of the 197 industrial start-ups that raised funds in 2022, 60% are Deeptech, of which 40% are Greentech seeking to improve the environmental impact of businesses or end consumers.
These fundraisers have enabled the creation of 76 industrial sites in 2022. Among these inaugurations, 35 come from start-ups belonging mainly to the sectors of agro-industry, waste recovery and pollution control devices and industrial chemistry. and materials.
We can cite the case of the Lacroix Electronics factory in Beaupreau-en-Mauges (Pays de la Loire). Inaugurated in September 2022, this 19,000 m² electronic assembly line is described as a “concentrate of innovations”: artificial intelligence for counting components, robots for order preparation, cobots for handling coils and new machines installation of large components.
Another significant example is the Madic Group plant in Saint-André-de-Cubzac (New Aquitaine). Inaugurated in December 2022, this 18,000 m² production line makes it possible to integrate new production: prefabricated service stations, high-power electrical terminals and devices dedicated to hydrogen for future distribution stations.
Finally, the geographical distribution of these companies is quite homogeneous, even if we note a particularly important fundraising dynamic in Île-de-France, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Nouvelle-Aquitaine and Occitanie.
