Bpifrance and Aichi Prefectural government in Japan signed a Memorandum of Understanding to reinforce their economic cooperation.

Two public institutions, Bpifrance and Aichi Prefectural government cooperating to support innovation

On February 2, 2021, Bpifrance, the French public investment bank, and Aichi Prefectural government in Nagoya (Japan) signed a Memorandum of Understanding to increase economic relations between both institutions.

Pedro Novo, Bpifrance’s Executive Director in charge of Export, and Hideaki Ohmura, Governor of the Aichi Prefecture, met last Tuesday during a videoconference to sign this MoU. The cooperation agreement mainly focuses on startups ecosystems, and aims to develop export support and innovation activities between France and Japan.

“We want our startups to be connected to the most advanced and competitive environments in the world in terms of technology and innovation, and we are convinced that Station Ai will be soon one of them. We are also sure that this cooperation will encourage our companies to export and exchange with their counterparts in Japan and benefit of the knowledge and dynamism of this highly developed region in particular in the 4.0 industry” said Pedro Novo.

With this MoU, Bpifrance and Aichi Prefectural government commit to support startups, and more generally all kind of businesses, through:

• Training, networking and consulting activities.
• Connections and meetings between French and Japanese startups in order to share best practices, and potentially build business partnerships.

It will also foster entrepreneurship by boosting the development of tools focused on startups creation and development. Finally, Bpifrance and Aichi Prefectural government commit to promote common export and business support activities through financing.

 

Bpifrance teams up with foreign institutions to boost France’s startup ecosystem

Bpifrance regularly agrees on new Memorandum of Understanding with all kinds of international institutions to boost its startups ecosystem, La French Tech. The French public investment bank mostly partners with sovereign wealth funds and major international institutional investor, further developing international opportunities for French companies. Through the EuroQuity digital platform, Bpifrance also contributes to connect project owners with partners, and thus encourages collaborations between major companies, investors and advisory structures.

Aichi Prefectural government launched the “Aichi-Startup Strategy” in October 2018. This strategy aims to build a startup ecosystem, and to collaborate with overseas startups support organization, such as Bpifrance.

In line with both institutions’ goals, this Memorandum of Understanding will further develop innovation, entrepreneurship and economic cooperation between France and Japan.