A few weeks after the launch of Prêt Touch 2, Anne-Sophie Laytou, Product Development Manager at Bpifrance, presents this product dedicated to companies in the Cultural and Creative Industries (CCI).
Created to support CCI companies, the Touch Loan has already benefited 300 companies, with nearly 100 million euros deployed. This loan is intended for businesses in music and performing arts, visual arts and lifestyle, video games, cinema and audiovisual, fashion and design, publishing, architecture and more generally to companies with “excellent know-how”. To amplify Bpifrance's action with creative industries, a new version of this loan has just been marketed. Anne-Sophie Laytou, Product Development Manager in the Intangible Financing Department at Bpifrance, tells us more about the Ready Touch 2.
La French Touch: A few years after the launch of the Prêt Touch, what conclusions can we draw from it?
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Anne-Sophie Laytou: When it was launched, this loan was not very popular. It must be said that at the end of the 2010s, the business models of ICCs were still little known to the Bpifrance Network and their cost was significantly higher than today. But with the creation of Map Touch and the orange rooster community in 2020, there has been a real acceleration. Our teams in the regions have been made more aware of this business fabric and have adopted the Prêt Touch. And the results are there: its first version made it possible to support 300 companies up to a hundred million euros.
LFT: What are the characteristics of the Touch 2 loan?
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ASL: The Touch 2 Loan is implemented with the guarantee of the European Investment Fund (EIF) which allows us to take even more risks to support CCI players. It is aimed at VSEs and SMEs of La French Touch over 3 years old. It can finance intangible investments as well as development expenditure, external growth operations, or even cash requirements and increased working capital requirements generated by exceptional economic difficulties, etc. But the novelty of this 2nd version of the Touch Loan is its maximum duration raised to 10 years against 7 years previously.
LFT: Do you have examples of projects financed by this loan?
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ASL: The first example that comes to mind is that of the Clermont society Picture Organic Clothing. This French brand of outdoor and lifestyle clothing is now present in more than 40 countries. Its leitmotif since its creation in 2008: to establish itself as a responsible company working for the protection of the environment. To act in this direction, it must constantly develop its business model: setting up its production sites as close as possible to raw material suppliers, setting up regular audits of its partners... Proof of its commitment, these actions have earned B-Corp certification. Obtaining the Touch Loan allowed him to finance expenses necessary for his development, such as the improvement of his website or his computer equipment.
The second example I'm thinking of is that of Plug In Digital. This Montpellier-based company specializes in the distribution and independent publishing of video games on PC, mobiles, consoles and cloud gaming platforms. Since its creation in 2012, it has experienced very strong growth in its turnover, ranking it among the French and European companies with the strongest growth rates. In this case, our support made it possible to finance marketing, HR and sales expenses so that the company could continue to grow and respond to the prospects offered by the market.
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