France just put another €13bn into the funding model the rest of Europe wants to copy

France has found another €13bn for its tech sector. And it barely cost the state a thing.

The money comes through Tibi, a programme that nudges French insurers and pension funds to back venture and growth funds instead of safer, lower-yield assets. The finance ministry announced this third phase at VivaTech on Friday. The goal is to reach €15bn by 2030.

How Tibi actually works

The clever part is that Tibi is not a state fund. It creates no new public money pot. Instead, Paris persuades big institutional investors to commit their own capital, then labels the funds that qualify. The Treasury picks which funds get the Tibi stamp.

So far it has worked. The first phase, from 2020 to 2022, targeted €6bn and drew €6.4bn. A government audit found the scheme nearly tripled annual investment in French tech, at little cost to the budget. That cash helped scale-ups such as Doctolib, Exotec and BlaBlaCar.

New money, new backers

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This phase widens the net. Alongside private insurers like AXA and Groupama, the ministry has pulled in state-linked names: rail operator SNCF, Paris transport group RATP, satellite firm Eutelsat, and defence companies Naval Group and MBDA.

That last bit matters. Institutional investors have long steered clear of defence tech. Bringing them in marks a real shift. Half of the new funding, meanwhile, is earmarked for deeptech.

The pan-European turn

The biggest change is geographic. The first two phases stayed mostly inside France. Phase three is built to back pan-European funds that can write bigger cheques across several countries.

The logic is familiar by now. Europe is good at starting companies, then loses them when they need serious growth capital. So Paris wants small and mid-sized firms to scale and list while staying in Europe, rather than getting bought or moving abroad. TNW has covered why public money keeps chasing this gap, and the structural reasons it is so hard to close.

Tibi versus Brussels

France is not alone here. The EU has its own answer: the European Tech Champions Initiative, run by the European Investment Fund. The EIF also launched a €3.75bn fund of funds to keep scale-ups on the continent, and a separate Scaleup Europe Fund that backs companies directly.

The difference is who holds the wheel. Tibi is run by the French Treasury and leans on French money, so Paris decides. ETCI gathers commitments from many governments through an EU body, which then picks the funds. France is betting one government can move faster than 27. Brussels argues only a supranational scheme can be truly pan-European.

Why it matters

Both now chase the same prize: growth-stage European firms that need more than €50mn, the exact point where US investors usually step in. That overlap raises an awkward question France has not fully answered. Some Tibi backers could also join the EU’s effort, so the two may end up competing for the same euros.

Still, the core lesson is hard to ignore. Over five years, France has shown that institutional capital will invest at home if the state sets the right conditions. Phase three is the real test. It will show whether that money will also cross borders, and whether Europe’s push for tech independence is one coordinated plan or just two similar ones running side by side.