BPIFRANCE

Their core work

Bpifrance is the French national public investment bank, supporting SMEs and startups through financing, guarantees, and innovation services. Within EU projects, they operate as a key node in the Enterprise Europe Network (EEN), delivering innovation management capacity-building services to SMEs across French regions and overseas territories. They also support access to risk finance, help deep-tech companies scale up through EIC-related programs, and facilitate EU-Africa innovation cooperation through accelerator and soft-landing services.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In 2015-2018, Bpifrance focused heavily on Enterprise Europe Network service delivery and establishing NCP cooperation for SME access to risk finance, with an early interest in energy efficiency financing. From 2019 onward, their focus shifted toward the European Innovation Council ecosystem — supporting EIC beneficiaries in scaling up, facilitating cross-border investment, and expanding into EU-Africa innovation cooperation. The trajectory shows a clear move from regional SME support infrastructure toward international scale-up acceleration.

Bpifrance is moving from domestic SME support toward international deep-tech scale-up services and EU-Africa partnerships, making them increasingly relevant for projects needing investment readiness and market access beyond Europe.

How they like to work

Bpifrance participates exclusively as a partner, never as coordinator, which reflects their role as an institutional contributor bringing financial expertise and SME networks to consortia led by others. With 64 unique partners across 31 countries, they are a high-connectivity hub — rarely working with the same partners twice and instead plugging into diverse European networks. This makes them a versatile consortium member who brings institutional credibility and a direct pipeline to French SMEs and investors.

Bpifrance has collaborated with 64 unique partners across 31 countries, giving them one of the broadest geographic networks for an innovation finance institution. Their reach spans the EU member states and extends to sub-Saharan Africa through the ENRICH platform.

What sets them apart

Bpifrance is not a consultancy or research organization — it is France's national investment bank with direct authority to finance, guarantee, and co-invest in companies. This gives them unmatched credibility in projects involving access to finance, investment readiness, and SME scale-up. For consortium builders, having Bpifrance as a partner signals institutional weight and opens doors to the French innovation ecosystem that academic or consulting partners simply cannot.

Highlights from their portfolio

• EIC - ScalingUp
  Largest single EC contribution (EUR 417,812), directly supporting investment partnerships for EIC deep-tech beneficiaries — the closest to Bpifrance's core investment bank mission.
• EiA
  Extends Bpifrance's reach to Africa through a multi-sided platform combining accelerator, incubator, and soft-landing services — a significant geographic expansion.
• Access2EIC
  Positioned Bpifrance at the heart of the European Innovation Council NCP network, building transnational capacity for EIC Pathfinder and Accelerator programs.