As public investment banks with similar interests and strategies, the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) and Bpifrance have had a longstanding relationship based on the exchange of best practices and cooperation. This year, the two institutions took their collaboration one step further with the launch of an innovative pilot project, following the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding last April. The project, conducted over the second semester of 2024, aimed at facilitating targeted introductions between Canadian companies and their counterparts in France and Europe, thus opening new business opportunities for start-ups and aid access to advice from experts as well as funding.

“The question at the origin of this project was: ‘Is there a way for us to reinforce connections between startups, SMEs, investors and partners on both continents?,’” remembers Pascal Lagarde, Executive Director of International, Strategy, Research, and Development at Bpifrance. “The answer was ‘yes, there is,’ using Bpifrance’s digital platform EuroQuity.”

An online community on EuroQuity

Founded in 2008, EuroQuity is an online matchmaking platform designed to connect investors, companies and their partners. Over the years, it has expanded throughout Europe and spread to other continents like Africa: Today, about 23,000 companies are registered on EuroQuity, together with a network of some 3,000 investors and 3,000 support organizations such as incubators and accelerators.

EuroQuity is made up of about 40 online communities, bringing together entities around a specific interest or theme (Doing Business in Brussels, French Tech 2030, Culture & Creativity Africa, etc.). It also includes a label system, which allows companies to stand out from others and boost their visibility on the platform. “It has become a valuable tool for entrepreneurs, with a lot of weight – particularly on the European scene as we are backed by the European Commission,” explains Valentin Marin, head of operations at EuroQuity.

The pilot project with BDC included, this past summer, the creation of a community gathering 10 Canadian companies from the climate tech sector looking to expand to new markets and potential investors in Europe. “This way, we were able to put them in relation with each other and relay information. But it was also important for us to animate this new ecosystem, so the pilot project also involved the launch of some services last September,” says Marin. These included pitch sessions with investors, as well as webinars on specific topics such as how to apply for certain European programs.

Morgan Solar: learning valuable insights on the European market

Morgan Solar was one of the 10 Canadian companies selected for the pilot project. Founded in 2007 in Toronto, the company specializes in solutions for integrating solar energy into urban environments, offering a variety of light management products and services. On the back of successful pilots with large-scale organizations in the U.S. and Canada, Morgan Solar has its eye on the other side of the Atlantic, where it aims to sell some of its products – in particular its Energy Blinds.

John Paul Morgan, the company’s president and CTO, says the BDC-Bpifrance’s pilot project piqued his interest from the get-go: “We believe the European market could be a fit for this product, so we wanted to figure out more concretely what it would take to enter it, either through partnerships or by finding distribution channels.”

With the pilot phase now over, Morgan says he is grateful to have participated; and although the company hasn’t found a partner in the process, the meetings allowed him to learn some valuable insights: “We now have a clearer understanding of what the steps are. I learnt more for instance about what it would take to access government subsidies, or that it’s better to first prove that your solution can work in Europe before going there to expand – which is something we didn’t fully appreciate previously.”

The meetings also put the company in touch with the Europe-based venture groups of its customers in the U.S., therefore opening potential opportunities for future collaborations. “We are still following up with the people we met through the pilot project, but now we have a clearer strategy, which includes leveraging our existing customer relationships. Now it’s just about figuring out when we pull out the trigger. The European market is very competitive, but also interesting for us – there’s a lot of growth in the solar sector at the moment,” says Morgan Solar’s CTO.

Deploying the project further in 2025

While Bpifrance and BDC still need to formally assess the outcome of the project, the first results are satisfactory. “We estimate that about 40 connections were made in the process, so on average between three and four per Canadian company, with European investors, investment funds or other companies for potential partnerships or commercial development,” says Valentin Marin. The EuroQuity team, he adds, is currently conducting a satisfaction survey of the participants and according to Marin, the “first feedback is positive.”

Both institutions are now working on the future of this collaboration, with the hope to strengthen the community and to include other sectors, while increasing the number of services and organizing a delegation of Canadian companies next year. “The goal is to scale up and create a snowball effect. The more qualified partners we add on the platform, the more connections will be made,” says Pascal Lagarde. “The development of such a project is in line with the core of Bpifrance’s international strategy to connect the French and European entrepreneurial ecosystems with those around the world.” As part of this strategy, Bpifrance also hopes to open up EuroQuity to other geographical zones including, in the near future, South America and the Middle East.