The “i-Nov innovation competition”, a support system financed by France 2030, returns for a 13th wave! Entrepreneurs in the cultural and creative industries specializing in digital, this competition can help you finance your research and development phase. Apply before April 2, 2024.

Continuing with previous editions, the 13th wave of the i-Nov Competition is open until April 2, 2024. This competition of excellence selects projects with high potential for the French economy, innovative single-partner projects led by startups and SMEs, and aims to make winning companies leaders in their sector. Projects must fall into one of these 4 themes:

– Digital
- Health
– Sustainable transport, mobility, cities and buildings
– Energy, resources and natural environments
Within the digital theme, the Cultural and Creative Industries (CCI) sector is specifically addressed. The ICCs include the sectors of cinema and audiovisual, video games, books, the press, live performance in all its disciplines, music in all its components (including instrumental making), museums and heritage (including archival heritage, leisure) of architecture, visual arts, design, crafts, as well as the creative aspect of fashion and communication.
In the cultural and creative industries, many technologies are increasingly structuring: immersive technologies, artificial intelligence, blockchain, holochain, 3D printing, etc. which have a major impact in the creation and production processes and, on the other hand, the diffusion and the relationship with the public and therefore in the new cultural economy.

Are you developing digital technologies for the transformation of the CCI sector and would like to apply? La French Touch has collected for you the testimony of two winning companies of the i-Nov Competition.

The testimony of Fabien Barati, co-founder and CEO of Emissive

The Horizon of Cheops, Eternal Notre-Dame, Vanished Worlds, An Evening with the Impressionists… these ultra-realistic immersive general public expeditions were designed by the company Emissive, winner of wave 7 of the i-Nov Competition. The company, present in Paris, Lyon, Bordeaux, also exported to China, in the United States and Canada.
To develop, the company relies on three pillars: the production of new content (heritage and culture are always valued), the development of its distribution and broadcast network, and the development of its technology, a software suite that it created and enabled it to become a leader in the field of immersive expeditions, which bring together many visitors and require managing large flows.
« It is for the development of our technology that we needed subsidies and loans, before becoming a profitable economic model and truly creating a new leisure model. We have been constantly developing and improving our software for years, to stay ahead and remain competitive. Concretely, this involves new technological bricks that fit into our platform, new functionalities. It is in this phase of digital development, one of our three pillars without which we could not have developed, that we benefited from the i-Nov Competition. This also benefits other creators, because our positioning is to tell ourselves that our technology will not only be useful to us, but also to our partners such as performance or exhibition venues, which are also operators, or other studios who would like to broadcast their own content », explains Fabien Barati.

© Eternal Notre-Dame

© Follow Paris

The testimony of Julie-Sarah Marguet, co-founder and CEO of Pictia

The genesis of Pictia comes from the observation of the fraudulent use of images on the web for commercial purposes and the resulting loss of income for creators. The service offered, providing solutions for artistic creation, uses new technologies, including blockchain and artificial intelligence. Pictia aims to better protect and monetize copyright and guarantee maximum exploitation of works. The innovation lies mainly in automated monitoring, automatic dispute management, and the sale of licenses and NFTs.
« Pictia's participation in the i-Nov Competition came two years after the start of the project. We already had an alpha version of our platform and we wanted to allow it better scalability. Our platform needs to support several hundred million images, to achieve this we needed funds to co-finance the recruitment of IT engineers. Applying for the i-Nov Competition takes time and requires having a clear vision of its development over the next three or four years, we have therefore detailed our entire R&D program in our file », explains Julie-Sarah Marguet.

François Rossigneux and Julie-Sarah Marguet © Pictia

Eligibility and selection criteria for the i-Nov Competition

• File submitted complete and on time
• Domain covering one of the following themes: Digital, Health, Transport, mobility, sustainable cities and buildings, Energy, resources and natural environments
• Total eligible expenses between €1 million and €5 million
• Be supported by a unique SME
• Innovative character and added value of the project
• Economic impact
• Ability of the leader to carry out the project successfully
• Environmental performance of the project

Financing modalities

Public intervention is carried out in compliance with European Union regulations applicable to state aid.
The maximum intervention rates are 45% for small businesses and 35% for medium-sized businesses.
The funding provided as part of the Innovation Competition will be in the form of state aid consisting of 75% grants and 25% recoverable advances.

Deposit application

Submission deadline: April 2, 2024 (noon Paris time)
Application files must be submitted exclusively online on the Bpifrance platform.

Contact: concoursinnovation@bpifrance.fr or concoursinnovation@ademe.fr