Start your business in France with the Young Enterprise Initiative

The Young Enterprise Initiative (YEi) Start in France program, founded in 2005, is an accelerator for young science-based companies interested in growing their business in France and Europe. The 2020 call for applications for the YEi is now open to start-ups from Finland, Norway, and Sweden and is open until October 31st. Apply now!

The YEi Start in France program in a nutshell

Founded in 2005 and organized by the French ministry of foreign affairs and its partners, the YEi Start in France initiative offers its laureates an intensive training and a one-week immersion program in France. This year the immersion program will be held in Paris.

This year, deep tech start-ups from 3 Nordic countries are eligible to the YEi program: Finland, Norway, and Sweden. It is organized by the Office for Science & Technology and Business France.

• Application for start-ups from Finland
• Application for start-ups from Norway
• Application for start-ups from Swedish (organized with the support of the Swedish Agency for Innovation Vinnova)

A one-week immersion program in Paris

The one-week immersion will take place between March 9-13th 2020. See the program below:

• March 9 – How to start a business in France- intensive training at Station F
• March 10 – Business Day
  An entire day dedicated to corporate meetings with the leaders in the deep tech network.
• March 11 – Investors Day
  An entire day dedicated to investment meetings with 200 of the most prominent VCs and CVCs in the world.
• March 12-13 – Hello Tomorrow Global Summit
  2 days to share your vision of the future with the deep tech community. Benefit from a tailored program guiding you through visionary keynotes, experts’ panel interactive sessions and immersive workshops. Get the chance to pitch your project to the community

Why choose France?

• France’s research tax credit ranked 1st by the OECD. The research tax credit covers 30% of eligible annual R&D expenses incurred in France;
• For every sector, there is a specialized competitiveness cluster that fits your business;
• 4 of the top 15 institutions on Reuters 2017 “World’s Most Innovative Research Institutions” list: CEA (2nd), CNRS (8th), Inserm (9th), Pasteur Institute (15th);
• Opportunities for partnerships with research labs and academic teams. CNRS works with more than 1200 start-up and CEA has more than 500 Industrial Partnerships and 187 spinoffs.

Are you eligible?

• You are looking to explore the French innovation ecosystem, with a focus on R&D;
• You are established in Finland, Norway or Sweden;
• You are young – your project is in its early stage of development (seed-phase or series A);
• You are deep tech – your project is based on scientific discovery, an advanced technology, a complex engineering process or an innovative application of existing technology- Your idea is innovative in the way that your project lies in the latest international state of the art;
• You are developing a new technology based on Artificial intelligence in any industry;
• You are not a giant yet – a team of at least two working on the project but fewer than 30 employees and less than $2 million in annual revenue.