France launches national competition for the creation of innovative start-ups
French Minister for Research, François d'Aubert, has launched the seventh national competition for the creation of innovative start-ups With a total budget of 30 million euro (18 million from the research ministry, five million from the French national agency for innovation (ANVAR) and seven million from the European Social Fund (ESF)), the competition is aimed at helping the creation and development of young innovative start-ups. The competition is divided into two categories. The first category, called 'emerging', provides entrepreneurs with promising projects the opportunity to validate a project that is still at the idea stage. Those laureates will be provided with 40 000 euro each. The second category, 'creation-development', provides 270,000 euro to entrepreneurs about to establish a start-up. This money is aimed at financing up to 50 per cent of the entrepreneur's innovation programme. Since the launch of the first competition in 1999, 600 start-ups have been created and 94 per cent of them are sill active today.
Kraje
France