When you have identified your financial needs,
Several resources are available to you to balance your financing plan.
The list is long and one could think that there are plenty to choose from.
It is nevertheless far from being the case, as the granting of several of these resources
abide by rather strict conditions, as for example your future ability
to self-finance, and how much capital you have and your cumulative outcomes
which constitute the capital of your company.
The overall credibility of your development plan and of the team in charge of
implementing will be examined.
An entrepreneur generally dedicates a lot of time looking for
financing in the thicket of available resources.
We are going then to review the main sources of funding
which are available to the creators of innovative companies.
Even before the creation of a company, some technologies are developed
for years, in public or private research laboratories,
and you will benefit effectively from these laboratories resources.
Some innovation support can also be granted before the actual
creation of your company, for example via the Concours National d'Aide à la
Création d'Entrepises Innovantes.
Finally, if you are lucky enough to be accepted,
the technological incubators often take care of the hefty expertise and
guidance fees of the entrepreneurs.
But sooner or later it will be necessary to take money out of savings to create the company
and divide the initial capital between the main founders.
This personal contribution is usually of some thousands or tens of
thousands euros.
This allows to trigger the fund and realise your involvement in the
project, beyond the time and energy that will have to be spent on it.
From that point, your financial strategy is a function of your development
path and of the corresponding financial needs,
which we have mentioned in the earlier sessions.
It comes back basically to the following paths: Some technological
companies manage to develop into pure self-financing from the beginning,
and they just call for extra resources like grants,
refundable advances and bank loans to finance possible
gaps in cashflow.
Once it is up and running, your main room to manoeuvre is then linked to
your available cashflow and to your ability to self-finance.
Other entrepreneurs however increase their capital straight away
as the initial relationship is not enough to face the expenses and
to the necessary investments before achieving the self-financing.
These capital increases could be carried out by several types
of investors which can include your family and friends,
but also Business Angels and the start-up and capital funds-risk
we will talk about at a later stage.
Self-financing in time is of course an objective,
unless your company was bought in the meantime.
If you develop in pure self-financing,
besides nothing stops you from speeding up the growth by
raising in turn capital at a later stage.
It will not be a capital-risk any longer,
but a capital-development, because these investments are made to finance
the growth of an already profitable company.
We have already drawn your attention on the fact that on of the main stakes of an
entrepreneur was to synchronise the fund raising with the large technical
and commercial steps of the development of his company.
It is necessary therefore to raise enough funds to achieve at least the
next step which will reinforce your technical and commercial credibility and not
find yourself in midstream, like some entrepreneurs
who are having to throw in the towel, because of a lack of capital.
At the launching of an innovative company,
the regular bank financing is very limited, even non-existant, as your
ability to generate cash to reimburse your loans are far from being established.
Some organisations exempt from this rule by providing loans to the
creators directly,
thanks to the expertise of the structure such as Scientipôle or the Réseau Entreprendre.
Bpifrance is, furthermore,
an essential financing player of innovation in France,
knowing that same structures exist in the other countries.
The young innovative companies are indeed likely to benefit from
grants or refundable advances at a )% rate with the establishment which
benefit from a large range of financial tools to support the creation
and the development of the inovative companies.
You can, besides, benefit from tax credit and a decrease in
the charges linked to the status Jeune Entreprise Innovante,
at the Crédit d'Impôt Recherche or the Crédit d'Impôt Innovation.
The labour margins the creator has from an innovative company
to finance its development are numerous,
but justified by a series of criteria and ratios which will limit
the propensity of a banker or of a public organisation to make ends meet.
In effect, only one source of financing is potentially unlimited,
it comes to increases in capital, especially with companies of
capital-risk which can bring in several tens of thousands euros
to launch and develop an innovative company.
A biotechnology company such as Cellectis has raised more than 100 millions
euros since its creation and its initial public offering.
The company was therefore able to finance a development programme which
aspires to revolutionise the engineering of genomes.
What matters in this case,
is to present the important growing perspectives with, at the end,
considerable benefits which will pay the capital expenditures.
I must also mention a device which at the moment is changing the financing
of companies in general, and of young innovative companies in particular.
It is what is still called crowdfunding.
Thanks to these funding platforms, you can pre-sell innovative
products, request loans and even find capital investors.
The phenomene is still emergent,
but it is developing rapidly and many innovative companies have been able to
find there a valuable source of funding and of commercial visibility.
The finance sector itself cannot escape therefore disruptive
innovation.
One last exercise to conclude.
The personal contribution of the founders of an innovative company allows above all,
1: To finance the technical development of a new product.
2 : To pay the first commercial fees.
3 : To trigger the fund and to show the involvement of the founders.
4 : To obtain grants to pay the team.
The right answer is the third suggestion,
as the initial contribution of the founders allows to set a spiral of good development
into motion by self-financing or via subsequent
fund raising.