France is launching the third phase of the Tibi programme, one of Europe’s most important initiatives supporting the financing of technology companies. At the VivaTech conference in Paris, the French Ministry of the Economy announced that it had secured €13 billion in new investment commitments from institutional investors. The aim is to increase this figure to €15 billion by 2030.
The Tibi programme was established in 2020 on the initiative of economist Philippe Tibi. Its aim is to channel a larger proportion of the capital managed by pension funds, insurers and large financial institutions into the technology sector. Since its launch, the initiative has already mobilised over €15 billion, and following the implementation of the new phase, the total value of funds is set to approach €31 billion.
The new phase of the programme will focus primarily on deep-tech companies developing advanced technologies based on scientific research. The French government has announced that half of the new investments will be directed towards this segment. Among the areas identified as strategic are, amongst others, quantum technologies, the space sector, biotechnology, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity.
New participants in the programme include the insurance company Carac, the rail operator SNCF, the public transport operator RATP, the defence contractors Naval Group and MBDA, and the satellite operator Eutelsat. The government hopes that greater access to capital will help European start-ups progress to the next stages of their development without having to seek funding outside Europe.
The new iteration of Tibi also has a distinctly European character. France aims to support funds operating across national borders, capable of conducting larger funding rounds and building technological leaders on a continental scale. This is a response to a problem frequently highlighted by European entrepreneurs – the shortage of large-scale growth capital in Europe compared with the US market.
The programme forms part of a broader strategy to strengthen Europe’s technological sovereignty. Faced with growing competition from the United States and China, the French authorities are focusing on the development of local companies that will be able to scale up their operations and remain rooted in Europe even after going public.
