Aid for innovative companies 2024
Your identification tool

Dynge is a tool designed to help you quickly and easily find the tax, public and bank assistance for which you are eligible.

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Assistance for which you are eligible

The identification of grants is based on general filtering criteria, which do not guarantee your company's eligibility. Our experts are at your disposal for a free audit to better understand your needs and work out a strategic financing roadmap with you.

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What do we mean by support for innovative French companies?

Definition

Aid for innovative companies is a set of measures providing financial resources to support the creation, development and sustainability of companies and their innovation projects.

Background and challenges in France

In the current context, support for innovative companies in France has become a major challenge for economic, social, environmental and technological transformation. Indeed, over the last few decades, funding for innovation and R&D projects has grown steadily, in order to support key sectors of French and European sovereignty. Concrete examples of this trend are the 4th Programme d'Investissement d'Avenir (PIA4) and France 2030. These initiatives underline the importance of innovation to economic development, ecological transition and the country's competitiveness.

Types of support for innovative companies in France

The different categories of aid

Today, there are a large number of aids available at local, national and European level to start or take over a business, but also to support the maintenance and development of the activity.

These aids can be grouped into 3 main categories:
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1.Tax incentives. These tax incentives encourage French companies to invest in research, innovation and the ecological transition of our economy. First of all, they help reduce the cost of research, by exempting certain personnel costs under the Young Innovative Company (JEI) statute and its variants (JEU, JEIC and JEIR statutes). They also enable us to Fund part of our research, innovation and investment expenditure on green industry, via various tax credits (Crédit Impôt Recherche, Crédit Impôt Collaboration de Recherche, Crédit Impôt Innovation and Crédit Impôt pour l'Industrie Verte). Finally, they help to reduce the cost of valorizing research results, via the reduction in the tax rate made possible by the IP Box scheme.
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2. Direct public aid. This category first includes generic aid (i.e. independent of the targeted sector), in the form of grants, recoverable advances and loans, which are offered by Bpifrance in its now-famous financing continuums (the Bourse French Tech and its variations, the Bourse French Tech Lab and Émergence, the innovation grant, R&D and FEI innovation loans as well as seed loans). It also includes calls for projects, which are the operational outlines of major funding programs (France 2030, Horizon Europe, etc.), aimed at providing financial support, mainly in the form of subsidies, repayable advances and equity investments, to companies operating in certain sectors of the future and seeking to meet some of the challenges of our time.

3.Banking leverage. These levers enable companies to benefit from financing without capital dilution. They are generally combined with support (in the form of financing and/or financing guarantees) from Bpifrance, and can be activated mainly as a complement to fund-raising (generally less than 6 months after fund-raising).

Financing programs

In France, we have two types of funding programs, national (e.g. France 2030) and European (e.g. Horizon Europe).

As introduced earlier, these programs provide funding to boost companies and their innovation and R&D projects. Organized around certain key sectors, they aim to respond to the challenges of our time (e.g., the ecological and digital transition).

These programs can also be adapted on a smaller scale via regional initiatives, depending on the specific needs and issues of a given region.

Procedures for obtaining aid for innovative companies

Application process

The steps you need to take to benefit from these aids vary from one type of aid to another.

While the steps involved in identifying the aids available, analyzing and understanding them, and validating eligibility (of the company and the project) are common to all aids, the steps you need to take to benefit from them then vary:

Here is a summary of the different steps for each category of aid:

1. To take advantage of tax incentives, start by identifying the work, expenditure or income that can be valorized. Next, set up the right internal processes (including time tracking and structuring collaboration contracts) and calculate the amounts to be included in the declaration. Finally, prepare all the supporting documents (whether technical, administrative or financial) needed to comply with the application rules and procedures for each scheme. Note that for certain incentives, you can apply via a rescrit to guarantee that you will obtain them and limit the severity of tax audits.

2. To benefit from direct public funding, start by structuring your project and, where appropriate, your consortium, so that the results can be fully exploited. Identify the strengths and weaknesses of your project and your company. Make up for any weaknesses (as far as possible). Build the most impactful storytelling. Follow the response templates and formatting required to write your dossier, while ensuring that you present your project as best meeting the requirements of the call for projects.

3. In the case of bank leverage, the steps are as follows: calibrating the need, selecting and preparing the bank, drafting the bank note, negotiating and monitoring the agreement. This presents a certain complexity, so call in an expert to simplify your dealings with the banks.
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In general, unless you have experts in non-dilutive financing fs in-house, we recommend that you call in a consultancy firm specializing in obtaining such aid and financing. The supporting documents are often complex, and the advice you obtain will help you improve your project, but above all maximize your chances of success and the amounts obtained.

2024 timetable and deadlines

Each category of aid has its own timetable. Tax incentives are subject to the tax calendar. The generic public aids described above are available either on specific dates each year, or on a continuous basis. Calls for projects generally have a very short lifespan (with start and end dates usually separated by a few months) and high selection rates, which means that applications should be made as early as possible. For bank leverage, the procedure is slightly different, and must be initiated either at least three months before the fund-raising, or within six months of it.

Our tool will provide you with a precise calendar of all the grants for which you are eligible.

You can expect the average time taken to evaluate and award grants to be between one month and one year, depending on the scheme.

Resources and support

All grants and financing are described on the Internet. You'll find many details on the websites of platforms or support organizations such as Bpifrance, Ademe or the European Commission.
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At Dynergie, in addition to helping you with all the aids and financing previously listed, our experts decipher all the workings on our blog.

Case studies and testimonials

Examples of companies that have benefited from assistance and financing

Elcia is a perfect example of a company that has understood how to maximize tax incentives thanks to a combination of CIR, CII and IP Box(See case study)

Lynx, pioneers in autonomous mixed reality (AR+VR), have obtained over 1.3M€ of subsidies to consolidate their financial position and their capacity for innovation(See the case study)

Thanks to bank leverage, Affiliz succeeded in achieving a 1:1 leverage effect and thus doubling the amount of their fund-raising by obtaining a further 1M€(See the case study)

Tips and best practices

As Bertrand LALLEMAND, CFO at ELCIA, points out in a customer testimonial, "The whole point was to pool thoughts and follow-ups".

Indeed, the best advice Dynergie can offer is to define a financing strategy that capitalizes on all the grants and funding for which you are eligible. This not only allows you to pool them, but also to activate them at the best time for the development of your company and your projects.

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