French Tech grant (Bourse French Tech): amount, eligibility and application in 2026

In its first year, a startup pays for feasibility studies, mock-ups and early tests before it has raised a single euro. Bpifrance's French Tech grant (Bourse French Tech) is one of the few public aids designed for exactly that moment. The amount looks modest, but the way it is calibrated (cap, coverage rate, payment in two instalments) directly affects your cash position, your taxable profit and your future tax credits. This guide breaks down those three effects.

Quick answer. In 2026, the Bourse French Tech is a Bpifrance grant capped at €30,000, covering at most 70% of the eligible costs of an innovative project at the maturation stage. It targets companies registered in France for less than one year with fewer than 50 employees. The company itself must fund at least 30% of the programme.

The Bourse French Tech (BFT) is a Bpifrance innovation aid, created in 2014 and paid as a grant (subvention), that funds the maturation and techno-economic validation of an innovative project. Among the items it can finance, Bpifrance lists the business model, technological feasibility, changing usage patterns, ergonomics and interface, service design, testing and marketing.

The BFT is not reserved for deeptech. Bpifrance presents it as an aid to launch and fund the first costs of a company creation project "based on any type of innovation", whatever the business sector. It is the Emergence variant, covered below, that requires a project with strong technological content.

A grant is non-repayable aid, provided the programme set out in the agreement signed with the funding body is carried out and documented. That is what distinguishes the BFT from a repayable advance (avance remboursable), which must be paid back if the project succeeds.

If you are looking for an overview of the schemes (France 2030, European programmes, tax credits), our overview of public innovation funding compares them. This article focuses on the BFT alone: its conditions, the application and its accounting and tax effects.

The Bourse French Tech is capped at €30,000, within a limit of 70% of the eligible costs accepted by Bpifrance. Both caps apply together: the grant equals the lower of the two amounts.

The €30,000 cap is therefore only reached with a programme of about €42,860 of accepted costs (€30,000 divided by 0.70). A €20,000 programme gives entitlement to at most €14,000 of aid and leaves €6,000 for the company to fund.

The following table shows the effect of the double cap on three programme sizes.

Our view. The BFT is worth less for its €30,000 than for what it sets in motion: a first file assessed by Bpifrance, an ongoing relationship with an account manager and a track record of innovation aid that other funders will look at later. At the firm, we advise sizing it on a real, tightly scoped programme rather than inflating costs to reach the cap. An oversized programme increases the share you must fund, complicates the end-of-programme report and puts the payment of the balance at risk.

The Bourse French Tech is available to a company registered in France for less than one year, with fewer than 50 employees and an innovative project with real growth potential, in any sector. Bpifrance also states that it is intended for entrepreneurs supported by accelerators.

The age criterion is the most selective. A company registered fourteen months ago falls outside the BFT, even if its project has not started: it should look instead at Bpifrance's innovation project aid, whose logic and sizing differ.

The equity question works differently from what founders often expect. The public BFT factsheet, as Bpifrance presents it, does not mention a figure for minimum equity (fonds propres): the expected level is assessed during the review and confirmed with the account manager. The co-funding constraint, however, follows mechanically from the rate: since the grant covers at most 70% of the programme, the company must fund at least 30% through a capital contribution, an honour loan (prêt d'honneur) or love money, and pre-finance costs until the balance is paid.

The Bourse French Tech covers costs directly linked to the design, definition and feasibility studies of the innovative project. Bpifrance places in this category external support or study fees, training, the project founders' own costs and internal costs.

To be accepted, forecast costs must, in Bpifrance's wording, be part of the overall project, serve it and be consistent with it. By way of illustration, a BFT programme may include:

• a technical feasibility study commissioned from a laboratory or engineering firm;
• a usage study or a series of user tests on a mock-up;
• interface and service design;
• training directly useful to the project;
• time spent on the programme by the founders and first employees, documented by timesheets.

The BFT Emergence factsheet states that no cost incurred before the date the application is filed can be accepted. At the firm, we apply the same caution to the standard BFT: do not sign any significant quote for the programme before filing, unless your account manager confirms otherwise in writing.

The underestimated risk. The BFT balance is paid on the basis of a summary statement of costs paid (dépenses acquittées), meaning costs actually settled. An invoice received but unpaid at the date of the end-of-programme report justifies nothing. A startup that negotiates long payment terms with its suppliers therefore delays its own balance: schedule payments before the programme closes.

The Bourse French Tech application is filed online via Mon Bpifrance, with the regional office (direction régionale) responsible for the company, after an initial meeting with a Bpifrance account manager. The typical process has six steps:

1. Present the innovation project to an account manager at the Bpifrance regional office.
2. Build the cost programme line by line, supported by quotes and costed internal expenses.
3. Draw up the financing plan for the uncovered share (contributions, honour loan, love money) and the cash plan until the balance is paid.
4. File the aid application via Mon Bpifrance.
5. Sign the aid agreement and satisfy any conditions precedent, which triggers the first instalment.
6. Carry out the programme, then submit the end-of-programme report and the summary statement of costs paid to receive the balance.

Bpifrance describes the procedure as simple and quick, but does not publish a guaranteed review time. The BFT is paid in two instalments: the first on signature of the contract, once any conditions precedent are lifted, and the balance on completion of the work. The split between the two instalments is set by the agreement: read it before building your cash plan, and never count the balance in your cash position for the first months.

In practice. The balance file is prepared from day one of the programme. Keep quotes dated after the filing date and linked to a line of the programme, keep monthly timesheets for internal costs, track spending in a table by line reconciled with bank statements, and file the agreement together with proof that conditions precedent were lifted. Feed the end-of-programme report template as you go rather than in the final week.

The Bourse French Tech Emergence is still listed in Bpifrance's catalogue of offers: it is a grant of up to €90,000 for a deeptech project run by a small company registered in France for less than one year. The project must have strong technological content and be qualified under Bpifrance's Deeptech framework in force. That framework rests on four criteria: a link with research, the ability to overcome technological barriers, a strongly differentiating advantage and a long, complex and therefore capital-intensive route to market.

The Bourse French Tech Lab does not fund a company but the business development of a deeptech project from a University Innovation Hub (Pôle universitaire d'innovation, PUI), already supported at the maturation or pre-maturation stage by a founding member of the hub (SATT, technology transfer office, incubator, laboratory, university hospital). According to the Bpifrance sheet, the grant is paid to the research and knowledge-dissemination organisation (organisme de recherche et de diffusion des connaissances, ORDC) that sits on the hub's technology transfer committee, not to a company. According to Bpifrance's launch press release, the aid ranges from €20,000 to €60,000 for a team combining researchers and a co-founder, and can cover up to 100% of eligible costs.

In Paris, the Paris Innovation Fund (Fonds parisien pour l'innovation, FPI), co-funded by the City of Paris and Bpifrance, has an Incubation strand: a grant of up to €30,000 at the seed stage, reserved for Paris-based organisations (head office or secondary establishment in Paris) hosted by an FPI-labelled incubator, for a highly innovative project, not exclusively technological, with a positive impact. Bpifrance's catalogue also includes a "Bourse French Tech FPI" factsheet: how these aids fit together should be checked with the incubator and the account manager. Finally, a "Bourse French Tech Innovation créative" variant targets young companies in the cultural and creative industries, with its own parameters set out in its factsheet.

The Bourse French Tech is in principle recorded as an operating grant (subvention d'exploitation), in account 74 of the French chart of accounts (plan comptable général), because it funds expenses: studies, services, training and internal costs. An operating grant is aid awarded to offset insufficient operating income or to meet certain operating expenses.

If part of the BFT funds a fixed asset, for example development costs the company chooses to capitalise, that portion is rather an investment grant (subvention d'investissement), recorded in account 131 and then released in line with depreciation. Our article on accounting for and spreading an investment grant explains the mechanics; the classification is decided by reading the agreement.

For tax purposes, grants that benefit from no special regime are included in taxable profit for the financial year in which they are acquired, under article 38 of the French tax code (CGI) as commented in the official tax guidance (BOFiP). The spreading mechanism of article 42 septies of the CGI is reserved for equipment grants: it does not apply to a BFT that funds expenses. For a startup that is loss-making in its first year, taxing the grant mainly reduces the tax loss carried forward.

For VAT, a grant that is neither consideration for a service provided to the funder nor a price supplement falls outside the scope of the tax. Our analysis of VAT on grants sets out the distinguishing criteria.

The Bourse French Tech works alongside an honour loan, young innovative company status (jeune entreprise innovante, JEI) and the research (crédit d'impôt recherche, CIR) and innovation (crédit d'impôt innovation, CII) tax credits, each combination following its own rule.

Honour loan and seed loan#

An honour loan is an interest-free personal loan, with no guarantee, granted to the project founder, who then contributes it to the company. It addresses precisely the share not covered by the BFT and strengthens the equity that Bpifrance and the bank look at. Networks, amounts and conditions are detailed in our article on the Initiative France and Réseau Entreprendre honour loan.

Bpifrance's seed loan (prêt d'amorçage) aims to strengthen the cash position of companies that have received public innovation support, ahead of a fundraising round. A BFT can therefore prepare that step: its criteria are set out in our article on Bpifrance seed loan conditions, and preparing the round itself is covered in our guide to getting ready for a pre-seed raise.

Young innovative company status#

The young innovative company (JEI) is a tax and social security status, not a payment: an SME under eight years old qualifies in particular if its research spending reaches at least 20% of its tax-deductible expenses, a threshold raised from 15% to 20% by the 2025 Social Security Financing Act. For a company created on or after 1 January 2024, JEI status no longer provides a corporate profits tax exemption. Recent changes are summarised in our article on what the 2026 Finance Act changes for JEI status.

CIR and CII: deducting the grant#

Public grants received for operations eligible for the CIR are deducted from the credit's base, whether they are definitively acquired or repayable (CGI, art. 244 quater B, III). The BOFiP includes in this notion aid paid by private-law entities entrusted with a public service mission, a status it recognises for Bpifrance. The innovation tax credit (CII), provided for by the same article, has been calculated at 20% since 1 January 2025 and was extended to 31 December 2027 by the 2025 Finance Act.

Example: if €10,000 of BFT funds the design of a prototype included in the CII base, that base falls by €10,000 and the credit by €2,000. The full method, including the pro rata applicable to mixed projects, is set out in our article on deducting grants from the CIR base.

Points to watch. Keep the BFT agreement: it normally specifies the State aid regime on which the grant is based. If the aid falls under the de minimis regime, it counts towards the European ceiling of €300,000 over three years set by Regulation (EU) 2023/2831, which other funders will ask you to evidence.

• Registration date checked: less than one year at the time of the application
• Headcount below 50 people
• Cost programme tied to project maturation, line by line
• No significant quote signed before filing
• Uncovered share (at least 30%) funded and documented
• Monthly cash plan that allows for the wait for the balance
• Timesheets ready for internal costs
• Right variant identified (BFT, Emergence, Lab, FPI)
• Accounting treatment and CIR or CII impact anticipated

• The Bourse French Tech is a Bpifrance grant capped at €30,000, within a limit of 70% of eligible costs.
• It targets companies registered in France for less than one year with fewer than 50 employees, in any sector.
• At least 30% of the programme must be funded by the company, and the balance only arrives after the end-of-programme report.
• The BFT Emergence (up to €90,000) is still listed in Bpifrance's catalogue for deeptech projects.
• The grant is taxable in the year it is acquired and is deducted from the CIR or CII base for the relevant portion.

Informational content reviewed by a chartered accountant (expert-comptable) registered with the Ordre des experts-comptables d'Île-de-France. The award decision rests with Bpifrance and each factsheet's parameters may change: a decision specific to your situation requires a review of your file and of the rules in force.