Last January, Nicolas Dufourcq, CEO of Bpifrance, and Guillaume Mortelier, Executive Director in charge of support at Bpifrance, attended InvestEU’s launch in Paris. Both the European Investment Bank (EIB) Group and the European Commission organized this event to present the new financing opportunities available to businesses and to illustrate them through the testimony of the first beneficiaries. The objective is to mobilise more than €372bn between now and 2027 to promote green reindustrialization, innovation, and inclusion in Europe.

The Commission’s new spearhead, InvestEU, aims to provide more than €26bn in guarantees to financial intermediaries across Europe. It will also co-finance advisory services, which are essential to identify the needs of entrepreneurs and support them in implementing their projects.  At least 30% of the funding will be devoted to investments aimed at combating or mitigating the effects of climate change. This program follows on from the « Juncker Plan » which has already enabled Bpifrance, alongside the EIB and its subsidiary the European Investment Fund (EIF), to make more than €7bn available to French businesses through dedicated solutions (advisory services, guarantees, equity) since 2015.

Serving European priorities

Under InvestEU, Bpifrance confirms its role as a central operator of European financing in France by continuing its cooperation with the EIF, with two guarantee agreements already signed for a total of 276 million euros in support of innovative SMEs, industry and the creative and cultural sectors. But the new program goes further by allowing national promotional banks like Bpifrance to be direct managers of the European budget, in the same way as the EIB Group. It is within this framework that Bpifrance launched last spring, with the direct support of the Commission, advisory services to upgrade industry and support businesses affected by the war in Ukraine for a total budget of €15m and more than 2,000 beneficiaries by 2027. Because innovation and business growth are naturally European, Bpifrance is relying on InvestEU to strengthen its activities in bringing together start-ups and European investors through its EuroQuity platform.

These new cooperations, and the others that will follow, are an essential milestone in Bpifrance’s strategy. More than ever, Europe is financing the roadmap of Bpifrance, the bank for climate and reindustrialisation.