These new results break 2020’s record of €45bn injected into French companies. 2021 has been a particularly successful year for Bpifrance activities too: from financing to guarantees, investment or export, the French public investment bank has deployed €50bn to support French companies. “We have the most complete toolbox in the world” said Nicolas Dufourcq, Bpifrance CEO, when presenting the report.

Key figures of 2021’s activities

Key figure for each Bpifrance activity:

• Guarantee: €7.12bn guaranteed loans allocated to 40,000 companies.
  €13,96bn of state-guaranteed loans (or PGE, for Prêt Garanti par l’Etat).
• Financing:  €1bn of green loans supported 900 French companies in their energetic & ecological transition</a>; €450M were granted to the tourism sector & €430M to support industrial investment and industry restructuration.
• Private equity: €4.4bn of investments, split as followed:
  – €657M invested directly by Bpifrance in 140 companies for innovation capital.
  – €2.2bn in development capital.
  – 76 subscriptions for a total amount of €1.5bn through Bpifrance status of fund of funds.
• Innovation: €4.4bn granted to 7,654 companies to support innovation.
• International: €20bn to support companies in their international development.
• Creation: €51M that allowed 8,000 company creations.
• Accompaniment: 916 new accelerated companies & 3,352 consulting missions.

A year of unicorns and soon-to-be global stars

2021 was “a particularly rich year” for Bpifrance, according to Nicolas Dufourcq. Bpifrance has been the main operator of France Relance (the French Recovery Plan) and France 2030, announced by the French President Emmanuel Macron in October. Following its Recovery Plan, Bpifrance has supported company creation through two new loans (Prêt d’honneur Création-Reprise & Prêt d’honneur Renfort), financing 8,000 company creations for a total amount of €51M. In 2021, the French public investment bank was also the central operator of the Future Investment Program, the fourth part of which, called the PIA4, was launched in January 2021. This program will make it possible to mobilize « tens of billions of euros to prepare for the metamorphosis of France« , said the CEO of Bpifrance.

A historical year for la French Tech allowed 2022 to get off to a flying start with a 25th unicorn. Bpifrance has a participation in 11 of them and 80% of them have benefited from its solutions since their creation. Deeptech financing has increased by 53% to reach €143M in 2021.

To further encourage companies’ development, Bpifrance has celebrated its 100th accelerator program. 37 promotions of accelerator benefited 916 new companies, with a focus on green transition with new program like the Decarbonization Accelerator. Internationally, 2021 has been the best year for the export development team since 2017. Export credit allowance has increased by 84%, and SMEs represent 85% of the financed projects. Team France Export, represented by Bpifrance, Business France, CCI France and French regions, has supported 3,000 companies through diagnostics and tailormade consulting. 261 of them have become international players thanks to international missions (a 60% raise compared with 2020 despite the crisis).

2021 was also the year that amplified the transformation plan of key sectors for the French economy: industry with the French Fab Plan, cultural & creative industries with the Plan Touch, ecological and energy transition with the Climate Plan and Deeptech with the Deeptech Plan.

The end of the year was marked by the recognition of a healthy working environment at Bpifrance, as Glassdoor ranked the company among the 25 Best Employers 2022 in France. Career prospects, company values, diversity & inclusion, and work-life balance were among the criteria that gave Bpifrance a high score of 4.3/5.