Winners of the Bpifrance call for SIA [SATT – Incubator – Accelerator] projects:
Atlanpole, the Regional Innovation Hub and leader of the Pays de la Loire network of technology hubs
(Angers Technopole-49, Laval Mayenne Technopole-53, Le Mans Innovation-72, Atlanpole-44&85)
and Ouest Valorisation, the Technology Transfer Acceleration Company (SATT)
operating in Pays de la Loire and Brittany,
have established a joint consortium in order to better respond to this call in the interest of the region’s businesses.
Out of all the national applications, this consortium was selected, thereby confirming the state’s recognition of its role as a leader in supporting Deeptech start-ups.
A new programme has been developed specifically for Deeptech entrepreneurs and will reinforce existing support, based on 4 new initiatives to be implemented in early 2021:
- Deeptech Day: a dedicated event for start-ups and, more broadly, the regional Deeptech ecosystem
- Deeptech Sourcing: a programme to strengthen new business projects originating from research centres and led by researchers
- Deeptech Matching: a tool for consolidating project teams within Deeptech start-ups, at all stages of development
- Deeptech Acceleration: a programme to support the directors of Deeptech start-ups during the post-seed phase in moving towards growth
Strengthening the pathway for Deeptech companies
As well as supporting the creation and development of start-ups based on highly innovative technologies (known as “Deeptech” start-ups), the aim of the SIA initiative is to “encourage existing stakeholders within the regions to structure the ecosystem providing support for the development of “Deeptech” companies.” To this end, the state will provide financial support to the winners of the call for projects, to enable them to offer further support within their region or to reinforce their existing offers, to help drive the creation and growth of “Deeptech” businesses.
Building on existing support services
Innovative entrepreneurs have benefited from the expertise of Atlanpole and other regional technology hubs, from the start-up phase to the acceleration and growth phases, for more than 20 years. They have also benefited from the valuable technology transfer know-how of SATT Ouest Valorisation for almost 10 years. They have access to a certain number of schemes. For example, the consortium is piloting the Ouest Valorisation post-seed fund and an intermediary for the French Tech Seed fund, and is the beneficiary of the French Ministry of Research, Higher Education and Innovation’s iLab schemes, as well as this same Ministry’s Regional Incubator label. With these new tools, which focus more on “the Human” at the heart of the innovative project, Deeptech entrepreneurs now have a complete range of tools at their disposal for safeguarding their innovative projects, from their inception to their growth.
The human factor: critical to success
Too few start-ups are growing beyond mid-cap companies despite the plethora of services proposed (accelerators, private incubators, etc.) and increased funding from the public or private sector. The identification of a project owner or pair (CEO/researcher), as well as structuring a mid-cap company management team, is still the weak point for many start-ups and the leadership qualities of senior management are central to the success of a company. The challenge thus lies in establishing researcher/entrepreneur pairs, as well as improving the entrepreneur’s level of training, to enable him/her to manage the growth of his/her business.
*The key strengths of the Pays de la Loire consortium:
· a dedicated team of experts focused on sourcing and identifying projects with researchers
· solid expertise based on over 30 years’ experience in providing certified support services on an international scale
· advisors skilled in supporting business establishment-scale-up-development with dual expertise in science and technology / entrepreneurship and a corporate background (innovative start-up or SME)
· region-wide links to all stakeholders in the academic research sector
· a network of around 1,000 innovative companies brought together within Technopolis networks
· a special relationship with industrial networks, competitiveness clusters and Key Accounts
· a strong international link via our partners, our networks such as EBN and IASP and our partnerships with Key Accounts