Financing innovation projects

Innovation projects represent a high-risk investment for a company which, more often than not, does not have sufficient self-financing capacity to ensure this investment. Recourse to external financing, or more broadly to a partnership, is generally essential to launch and manage an innovation project, without jeopardizing the company's financial resources.

From the outset of this adventure, therefore, you need to take steps to find the necessary funding from a wide variety of sources, and be familiar with the arcane procedures and funding deadlines for the instruments you can use.

The financial engineering of the innovation project must also be carried out, in particular by establishing a certain number of valuations based on assumptions that will need to be revised at each stage of the project, carrying out frequent re-evaluations and planning financial resource requirements throughout the project to avoid a cash flow shortfall, in particular by estimating the dates on which financial aid will be paid so that cash flow can meet these requirements.

The aim of this article is therefore to provide an overview of the aids and funding available, to situate them within the framework of a country's national innovation system, to detail them in the case of France, and to give recommendations for the use of these instruments according to the constraints that may be encountered and the varied situations of companies.