Paris (AFP)
Emmanuel Macron invites Tuesday evening at the Elysium the gratin of tech and finance to call on French investors to bet more on innovative young companies and avoid their departure to other skies.
The executive has worked in recent months to convince insurers and bankers to direct more money to young, fast-growing technology companies through large venture capital funds.
Emmanuel Macron will announce the commitments made by investors, which will amount to billions of euros, according to the Elysee.
"We need investors who are willing to take more risks, as an extension of the efforts that have been made for two years" to create a more favorable environment for investment in France, said the Elysee.
Objective: to stimulate job creation in the technology sector and in the economy in general, says the same source.
"In the United States, between one third and half of net job creations are directly or indirectly related to technology", while in France, the ratio is probably closer to 10%, repeats often the secretary of Digital State Cédric O.
In recent years, French investment funds able to bet up to several million euros in a start-up have multiplied. But those who can bet several tens, even a hundred million euros on a promising company are very rare.
In June, a report by Philippe Tibi, former president of the French Association of Financial Markets, estimated that there should be created in France a dozen funds each with a billion euros in three years, to meet needs.
Without finding capital in France, growing young French growth often turns to US investment funds, with larger pockets.
- European Nasdaq -
Experts also regret the absence in France or Europe of a dynamic stock market for technology stocks, like the US Nasdaq.
Several French or French companies have chosen in recent years to go public in New York and not in Europe, because they knew they could find experienced investors and much more willing to value them than their European counterparts.
This is the case, for example, of the French specialist in targeted advertising Criteo, introduced on the Nasdaq in 2013, or the Talend software company, which launched it in 2016.
"The last IPO of a French technology company to more than one billion euros [valuation] is Dassault Systèmes in 1996", recently regretted Cédric O.
To cope with this shortcoming, the President of the Republic must launch an appeal to institutional investors to constitute in Paris teams of stock investors in the tech sector.
These teams would begin by learning the trade on the Nasdaq before returning in a few years in Europe to launch a European market.
After speaking to French companies, Emmanuel Macron will be dining at the Elysée with about forty representatives of major international investors, to whom he will present the efforts made in France to develop the technology sector.
Other announcements will be made by the executive on Tuesday evening or Wednesday, on the occasion of France Digitale Day, a large gathering of start-ups and investment funds at the Musée des Arts Fair in Paris.
The government will unveil the list of companies selected for inclusion in Next 40, bringing together the 40 most promising young startups who are most likely to become "unicorns", fast-growing companies whose value exceeds billion dollars.
These companies will benefit from increased visibility within the government of the administration: they will be for example favored to join the official trips of the president and government officials abroad, explains one at the Elysée.
The government must also announce measures to help companies find the engineers and technicians they need. The government estimates that there are about 80,000 digital vacancies at the moment and that this figure could rise to 200,000 in the next few years.
© 2019 AFP