After weeks of political limbo, France has a new prime minister, former Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier, but parliament remains deeply divided, creating uncertainty for many sectors of the economy, including the country's dynamic startup ecosystem that has so far benefited from popular support.
French Tech is not just a term referring to 25,000 startups in France, but also an initiative supported by the French Tech Mission, a French government agency. The mission's director, Clara Chapaz, is stepping down this month at the end of her three-year contract, she told Les Echos. The timing is coincidental, but noteworthy: Chapaz told TechCrunch in late August that she wants her successor to be someone who is “not afraid of change” and sees it as an opportunity.
This position is definitely unique: we are attached to the Ministry of Economy and Finance, but in a small team based at Station F, with a big mission: to help French and international startups build and grow the French startup ecosystem. We need someone who can speak equally to civil servants, politicians, big companies and journalists.
It's too late to apply now, but there should be plenty of candidates, given that the job has been described as a “dream job.” Chapaz, who will not be on the judging panel, said she was receiving several calls a day from potential candidates when we spoke in August. Presumably, she told them much the same thing she told TechCrunch and her LinkedIn followers: that France is “incredibly lucky” and that her experience leading the French tech mission has been “extraordinary.”
But what has happened in the past is not indicative of the future, and whoever succeeds Chapaz will be operating in a very different script than when she took the helm in 2021. That's because French Tech itself has changed during those years, driving new priorities for the French Tech mission.
Chapaz has seen a lot of change over the past three years, and not just because there have been three secretaries of state for digital in that time, as is typical for many government agencies. Most of the change has to do with technology itself and the macro situation, and 2024 will be very different from 2021.
Like other countries, French startups experienced the ups and downs of the pandemic and the ensuing fundraising frenzy that followed before returning to reality a few months later, followed by geopolitical uncertainty and a realization that the country needed industry leaders it could rely on.
For the French Tech Mission, which celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2023, this meant aligning with the strategic France 2030 Agenda. And so French Tech 2030 was born, with a focus on deep tech spinouts and economic impact, rather than on unicorns. For unicorns, France is not to blame. It was President Emmanuel Macron who set “25 French unicorns” as a goal to be achieved by 2025. (After reaching this milestone in 2022, Macron called for 100 unicorns by 2030.)
It's no small feat that France now has scaleups like BlaBlaCar and Doctolib, and sharing that with the world has certainly helped improve France's image. But it's been a decade since the “unicorn” moniker was coined, and the world of technology has evolved. With the rise of companies like Mistral AI and Pasqal (and the fall of others like Luko), it's time for France to acknowledge that French startups have changed too.
The French Digital Association, which represents start-ups and investors in the French digital ecosystem, has witnessed this evolution among its members since it was founded in 2012. 1725817786 “We support startups in all sectors, including manufacturing and healthcare, which I consider to be strategic priorities for French competitiveness and for French and European sovereignty,” the company's CEO Maya Noël told TechCrunch.
In keeping with this evolution, Noel said it might be interesting to see Chappas' successor come from one of these strategic sectors, but this isn't a criticism of her background (Chappas joins from second-hand fashion marketplace Vestiaire Collective) or her predecessor. From speaking with Noel, he found the two organizations “pretty well aligned” and in “constant dialogue.”
Several initiatives adopted under Chappaz’s leadership reflect the industry’s ongoing lobbying efforts, including “Je Choisis La French Tech,” an initiative by 300 companies and 80 institutional investors to double the number of public contracts and purchases from startups. “We’ve been asking for this for 10 years,” Noel said.
France Digital had hoped things would move faster, for example, regarding the hot topic of an exit (or lack thereof). Having someone with first-hand knowledge of scaling up and going international at the helm could add value, but Noël said a new director with a civil service background could pull the strings on the management side if France Digital can't get government backing.
The French Tech Mission has a case that will be accepted by many political quarters: startups directly and indirectly create 1.1 million jobs and contribute to the reindustrialization of France. Many also support the parity agreement that Chapaz and his team are promoting to promote gender equality in the tech industry. His successor will need to play these cards well, and we wish him the best of luck. This also applies to Chapaz, who is expecting her second child and hasn't yet decided what to do next, but says it will be in tech innovation.