Jeune Entreprise Innovante, JEI (Young Innovative Company status)
Employer social-contribution and local-tax exemptions for young R&D companies.
Bpifrance funding — grants and aid
Bpifrance funds more than 100,000 companies a year. You still have to aim at the right scheme, at the right stage of maturity, and file before you have committed a single euro of spending.
In brief
Key figures
€50,000
Bourse French Tech (French Tech Grant), up to 70% of costs.
€90,000
French Tech Émergence (French Tech Emergence Grant), for deeptech projects, up to 70%.
25 to 65%
funding rate, Aide au Développement de l'Innovation (Innovation Development Grant).
3 months
of review at the very least, for a complete file.
The scheme
What is it?
Bpifrance is the French public investment bank. Unlike the CIR or the CII, which are entitlements once the criteria are met, Bpifrance aid is awarded on application, in competition with other projects, and after review.
It takes four main forms: the grant, which is never repaid; the repayable advance, repaid if the project succeeds; the unsecured loan; and the equity stake. Which one fits depends less on your sector than on how mature your project is.
The quality of the application decides the outcome. A Bpifrance file turns on the fit between the technical ambition described, the financing plan presented and the company's capacity to carry the project. Our job is to build that fit, and to tell you honestly when a file is not ready.
No spending committed before filing is eligible
This is the most expensive rule to ignore. An invoice dated before your application drops out of the base, permanently. So you have to go to Bpifrance before you start the work, not during it.
Overview
Which scheme for which stage?
| Stage | Scheme | Type | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Incorporation (< 1 year) | Bourse French Tech (French Tech Grant) | Grant | Up to €50,000, capped at 70% of costs |
| Deeptech maturation | French Tech Émergence (French Tech Emergence Grant) | Grant | Up to €90,000, capped at 70% of costs |
| R&D feasibility | Aide à la Faisabilité de l'Innovation (Innovation Feasibility Grant) | Grant or repayable advance | Amount varies with the project |
| R&D development | Aide au Développement de l'Innovation (Innovation Development Grant) | Repayable advance or loan | 25% to 65% of project costs |
| After a funding round | Prêt d'amorçage (Seed Loan) | Loan | €50,000 to €300,000 |
| Commercial launch | Prêt Innovation (Innovation Loan) | Loan | €50,000 to €5,000,000 |
| SME development | Contrat de Développement Innovation (Innovation Development Contract) | Unsecured loan | €40,000 to €600,000 |
Amounts and funding rates are indicative and vary with the project, the region and the budgets available.
Access
Conditions of access
- Be registered in France.
- Be up to date with tax and social security obligations.
- File the application before committing any spending.
- Present a defined innovation project, with a budget and a timetable.
- For the Bourse French Tech (French Tech Grant): have been registered for less than a year, have fewer than 50 staff or turnover below €10m, and show growth potential.
- Project holders not yet registered must be supported by a recognised structure, such as an incubator, an accelerator or a support network.
- Each scheme carries its own conditions, set out when the application is reviewed.
How we work with you
From funding diagnosis to tracking the payments
Funding diagnosis
We map the schemes open to you given your stage of maturity, your region and your project.
Choosing the scheme and the timing
We settle on the best combination and the order of the applications, before any spending is committed.
Building the file
We write the technical section, build the financing plan and the business plan, and gather the accounting records.
Filing and review
We file, answer the Bpifrance account manager's questions and defend the project through to the decision.
Tracking the payments
We produce the spending evidence each payment depends on, and track repayment dates where they apply.
How they fit
Bpifrance and the CIR: two different logics
Bpifrance aid and a tax credit do not conflict, but they cannot be stacked freely: public grants received for a project are in principle deducted from the base of the corresponding CIR. Building the two together, in the right order, stops you winning on one side what you lose on the other. That is exactly the point of having one firm on both subjects.
Frequently asked questions
FAQ
Non-repayable financial aid awarded on application to support an innovation project. It is granted after review, in competition with other projects, and covers part of the costs budgeted for the project.
The grant is never repaid. The repayable advance is repaid only if the project succeeds, on an agreed schedule. The loan is repaid in every case, but without a personal guarantee or surety.
Mainly the Bourse French Tech (French Tech Grant), up to €50,000 for companies registered for less than a year, and French Tech Émergence (French Tech Emergence Grant), up to €90,000 for deeptech projects in the maturation phase.
Costs committed before the application is filed are not eligible. If the project has started, it is sometimes still possible to carve out a later phase and present it as a separate project, which has to be scoped case by case.
Count on three months at the very least for a complete file, and longer depending on the scheme, the region and the exchanges with the account manager.
A presentation of the project and its technical ambition, a detailed budget and timetable, a business plan and a financing plan, the tax returns for recent financial years, and the company's legal documents.
Yes. Article 244 quater B, III of the French tax code provides that public grants received in respect of operations qualifying for the credit are deducted from its base, whether they are definitively acquired or repayable. A repayable advance is therefore deducted when received, then added back to the base in the year it is repaid. The same spending is never funded twice, so the order in which the two files are built decides what you keep.
A refusal is not final. It usually comes down to a project that is not mature enough, a fragile financing plan or the wrong scheme. We look at the reasons given, rework the file and put it forward again, sometimes under a different scheme.
Related schemes
Explore the other levers
Convention Industrielle de Formation par la Recherche, CIFRE (Industrial PhD Funding)
€42,000 of funding over three years to hire a PhD candidate on your R&D work.
Crédit d'Impôt Recherche, CIR (French Research Tax Credit)
30% of your R&D expenditure refunded, up to €100M of eligible spend.
Benjamin Chemoul & David Jian
Partners & chartered accountants
Information provided for guidance only, up to date as of 2 September 2026. It does not constitute tax advice.