State concludes initial evaluation of “I choose French Tech” program

The French Tech Mission, a public administration responsible for setting up support programs for French start-ups, carried out a progress update on the “I choose French Tech” initiative on May 23. This program was announced last June by Jean-Noël Barrot, then Minister Delegate in charge of the Digital Transition, to overcome the difficulties of many French start-ups in marketing their solutions.

524 private companies involved, including 20% ​​large groups

This plan notably plans to double public and private orders for start-ups by 2027, to reach 12 billion euros, and to organize meetings and connections between young start-ups and buyers. The program also consists of designating dedicated referents within each organization and establishing a regulatory framework favorable to the conclusion of such contracts.

For this first year, 524 private companies committed to the program, beyond the initial objective of 500 companies. 61% of them are start-ups and 20% are large groups. Air FranceCapgemini, Docaposte, Eviden, EDF, The post office, Orangethe SNCF, Thales or even Vivendi are among these large groups. These companies can be “partners”, to the extent that they commit to doubling their purchases from start-ups by 2027, or “support”where they designate a start-up referent, set up an accelerated purchasing process or double the number of start-ups listed as suppliers.

Contracts concluded in logistics, training or user experience

Some contracts have already seen the light of day in recent months, such as the charging station supplier Electra, which has joined forces with Stellantis, MG and Honda, or Anycommerce, a French Tech 120 start-up, which signed a contract with Chronopost to simplify the sending of parcels. Contentsquare, present in the Next40, has concluded contracts with BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole, Adecco, Afflelou and the South region to analyze the behavior of their online users, while Decathlon has chosen the 360Learning training platform to train 80,000 employees .

The French Tech Mission also notes the commitment of 87 institutional partners, including different ministries, Bpifrance, CNES, France Travail or Station F. It notes the efforts made by the State Purchasing Directorate (DAE) – which was committed to doubling the State's orders from SMEs by 2027 – and from various purchasing centers.

More than 70 events, half of which were in Île-de-France, were organized by these institutional partners. This is the case of the French Association of Private Companies (Afep), where 113 companies registered via the French Tech mission were able to meet 40 CEOs of large groups during 150 meetings. In total, 5,000 individual sales meetings took place over the year, involving 2,000 different start-ups.

Eight large companies commit to deploying 685 million euros

On the occasion of the first anniversary of the program, eight large companies (ADP group, AXA, BPCE group, CMA-CGM, FDJ, EDF, Orange and SNCF) have committed to deploying 685 million euros for the purchase of solutions from French start-ups, within one to two years. More than 30 events, supported by institutional partners, are also planned between now and the end of the year.

Finally, the administration highlights the lack of knowledge of purchasing processes by start-ups, and of the constraints specific to start-ups on the part of large groups. It observes that 70 private buyers and 451 start-ups were trained in private ordering via partner training, including Bpifrance, and that 880 public buyers and 659 start-ups were trained in purchasing processes relating to public ordering. .