Bpifrance, a Key Player in the Ecosystem: A Review of the Deeptech Plan and Future Challenges
The full podcast
Pascale Ribon
The entrepreneur is a bit like the lone hero of our modern age. But just like a top athlete, he’s the one out there on the field, but in reality, there’s a whole team behind him.
An engineer by training and a recognized expert in innovation management, Pascale Ribon has led Bpifrance’s Deeptech strategy since the initiative’s launch in 2019. With a diverse professional background, she has moved between the academic world (as director of ESTP at Paris-Saclay University) and the infrastructure sector.
Today, she works to build bridges between public research and the business world, with a mission to turn France’s scientific assets into industrial and economic successes.
Program Summary
Review of the Deeptech Plan: From Concept to Acceleration
Launched in 2019, the Deeptech Plan aims to boost startups emerging from academic research, a sector that has historically received less support than the digital sector (SaaS/French Tech).
Over the past six years, approximately 15 billion euros in public funding has been allocated to build this ecosystem. The quantitative results mark a significant shift: the number of deep-tech startups created has risen from 160 to nearly 380 per year.
Beyond the numbers, a cultural paradigm shift is taking place, bringing together two worlds—research laboratories and venture capital—that previously collaborated only marginally.
The Structure of University Innovation Hubs (PUI)
To bring France in line with the international standards of leading entrepreneurial universities, the government has spearheaded the creation of University Innovation Hubs (PUI).
This initiative addresses the fragmentation among technology commercialization stakeholders (SATTs, incubators, research subsidiaries), which often operated side by side without optimal coordination.
The PUI is not a new legal entity, but rather a collective organization operating at the university campus level. It aims to professionalize and streamline the technology transfer process—from identifying an invention to launching a startup—by integrating all innovation support functions.
The Evolution of Programs: The Cornerstone of the French Tech Lab
The agility of public policies is measured by their ability to iterate. The "Bourse French Tech Lab" (BFT Lab) program was recently redesigned to correct an inherent flaw: the outsourcing of market research.
The new version refocuses funding on the founding team and the researcher-entrepreneur. The goal is to fund the validation of product-market fit by the project leaders themselves, or to facilitate the partnership with a business professional (CEO).
This approach encourages a direct engagement with economic realities even before the company is officially established, thereby improving the quality of the proposals subsequently submitted to investment funds.
Industrialization and regional roots
Unlike digital startups, deep tech projects require heavy infrastructure (factories, demonstration facilities) and are long-term endeavors. Calls for proposals, particularly through France 2030, now provide funding for the critical "first factory" phase.
This trend is accompanied by a decentralization of innovation: regions and major manufacturers are playing an increasingly important role by providing technical platforms and supply chain expertise. This regional presence helps revitalize the local industrial base while giving startups the production resources they need to scale up.
Deep In Tech by Dynergie
Deep in Tech is driven by a core belief: to understand Deeptech, you have to listen to the people who are building it.
Behind every disruptive innovation lie demanding journeys, difficult trade-offs, and successes that often go unrecognized.
The podcast gives a voice to entrepreneurs, researchers, investors, and industry leaders at the intersection of science and the market.
At the heart of the Deeptech ecosystem’s challenges, Deep in Tech lifts the veil on the behind-the-scenes of a world as complex as it is strategic. Industrialization, financing, the transition from lab to market…
These journeys, often fraught with obstacles, are recounted candidly by those who experience them firsthand.
The podcast offers an authentic look at the inner workings, tensions, and collaborations that shape both the successes and failures of French Deeptech.
A space to understand the reality on the ground, from the perspective of those involved, far from formulaic narratives.
Florence Caghassi Jouni
With Deep in Tech, I meet the people who are shaping the deep tech landscape every day. They share their journeys, struggles, challenges, and successes with me—unfiltered. I created this podcast to help everyone understand and navigate the complex and exciting ecosystem that is deep tech.
Check out our other podcasts
Follow us on various streaming platforms: