France's 2027 budget cuts La French Tech's state funding by 74%, as MPs vote to restore it

31/10/2026
3
Abstract illustration of glowing bar columns, one shrinking and partly rebuilt in outline, over network maps of connected nodes on a dark blue background

France's draft 2027 budget leaves start-up tax breaks untouched but slashes the credits of the Mission French Tech from €6.8m to €1.8m and drops funding for its regional hubs from the budget documents. A group of MPs has won a committee vote to put €10m back, but the money is not yet secure.

France's government kept its promise not to touch the tax credits and exemptions that start-ups rely on in its draft 2027 budget. But, as Les Echos reported this week, the same bill quietly cuts the operating budget of the Mission French Tech, the state agency that runs the country's start-up label, by almost three quarters.

Under the draft finance bill (projet de loi de finances, PLF) for 2027, the credits of the Mission French Tech, which sits inside the economy ministry's Directorate General for Enterprise (DGE), fall from €6.8m to €1.8m, a drop of 74%. According to the explanatory statement of an amendment tabled in the National Assembly, the same line stood at €11.5m in the 2025 budget, meaning it would have been divided by more than six in two years.

Regional hubs and diversity programme drop out

The cut goes further than the headline figure suggests. An amendment filed by Daniel Labaronne (Ensemble pour la République), drafted with the French Tech Val de Loire hub, says the remaining €1.8m is reserved for the Mission French Tech alone. Funding for the "Capitales" and "Communautés French Tech", the network of local start-up hubs in more than 40 territories, no longer appears in the budget documents, and the French Tech Tremplin programme, which since 2019 has supported founders from under-represented backgrounds, disappears from the text.

The amendment notes that the state relabelled these hubs for 2026–2028 only six months ago, signing multi-year agreements, and that state support makes up close to a fifth of some hubs' budgets. "Removing these credits would contribute only marginally to restoring public finances," it argues (translated), calling the cut "a very negative signal" to regional innovation ecosystems (translated).

Les Echos, which headlined its story with the quote "Going to zero is a lot all at once" (translated), reported that the cut shook the agency's team. According to the paper, Mission French Tech director general Julie Huguet cancelled a planned radio appearance in mid-October a few hours before it was due; she cannot comment on budget matters.

Committee votes €10m back

On 28 October the Assembly's finance committee adopted amendment II-CF547, tabled by Paul Midy (Ensemble pour la République) and co-signed by MPs including Éric Bothorel, Nathalie Coggia and Violette Spillebout. It adds €10m in commitments and payments to the digital and telecoms action of programme 134 ("business development and regulation"), aiming to restore the mission's funding to the level planned in the 2025 budget.

"Faced with competition from China and the United States, we cannot afford to reduce credits so strategic for the future of our country," the authors write (translated), crediting the Mission French Tech with helping build an ecosystem of 18,000 start-ups across France.

Budget rules require the extra money to be offset, so the amendment takes €10m from the economic and financial policy action of programme 305 ("economic strategies"), with the stated expectation that the government will lift that offset. A fallback amendment, II-CF552, would have restored €5m, matching the 2026 level.

The committee vote is only one step. The budget is at first reading and still has to pass the full National Assembly and the Senate, so the restored funding is not guaranteed. Les Echos describes a mood of gloom in the start-up scene a few months before France's presidential election.

The sums are small next to France's start-up funding, but La French Tech is one of the country's best-known tech policy brands, and its regional network is how many founders outside Paris first connect with investors and public support.

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France's 2027 budget cuts La French Tech's state funding by 74%, as MPs vote to restore it

31/10/2026
3
Abstract illustration of glowing bar columns, one shrinking and partly rebuilt in outline, over network maps of connected nodes on a dark blue background

France's draft 2027 budget leaves start-up tax breaks untouched but slashes the credits of the Mission French Tech from €6.8m to €1.8m and drops funding for its regional hubs from the budget documents. A group of MPs has won a committee vote to put €10m back, but the money is not yet secure.

France's government kept its promise not to touch the tax credits and exemptions that start-ups rely on in its draft 2027 budget. But, as Les Echos reported this week, the same bill quietly cuts the operating budget of the Mission French Tech, the state agency that runs the country's start-up label, by almost three quarters.

Under the draft finance bill (projet de loi de finances, PLF) for 2027, the credits of the Mission French Tech, which sits inside the economy ministry's Directorate General for Enterprise (DGE), fall from €6.8m to €1.8m, a drop of 74%. According to the explanatory statement of an amendment tabled in the National Assembly, the same line stood at €11.5m in the 2025 budget, meaning it would have been divided by more than six in two years.

Regional hubs and diversity programme drop out

The cut goes further than the headline figure suggests. An amendment filed by Daniel Labaronne (Ensemble pour la République), drafted with the French Tech Val de Loire hub, says the remaining €1.8m is reserved for the Mission French Tech alone. Funding for the "Capitales" and "Communautés French Tech", the network of local start-up hubs in more than 40 territories, no longer appears in the budget documents, and the French Tech Tremplin programme, which since 2019 has supported founders from under-represented backgrounds, disappears from the text.

The amendment notes that the state relabelled these hubs for 2026–2028 only six months ago, signing multi-year agreements, and that state support makes up close to a fifth of some hubs' budgets. "Removing these credits would contribute only marginally to restoring public finances," it argues (translated), calling the cut "a very negative signal" to regional innovation ecosystems (translated).

Les Echos, which headlined its story with the quote "Going to zero is a lot all at once" (translated), reported that the cut shook the agency's team. According to the paper, Mission French Tech director general Julie Huguet cancelled a planned radio appearance in mid-October a few hours before it was due; she cannot comment on budget matters.

Committee votes €10m back

On 28 October the Assembly's finance committee adopted amendment II-CF547, tabled by Paul Midy (Ensemble pour la République) and co-signed by MPs including Éric Bothorel, Nathalie Coggia and Violette Spillebout. It adds €10m in commitments and payments to the digital and telecoms action of programme 134 ("business development and regulation"), aiming to restore the mission's funding to the level planned in the 2025 budget.

"Faced with competition from China and the United States, we cannot afford to reduce credits so strategic for the future of our country," the authors write (translated), crediting the Mission French Tech with helping build an ecosystem of 18,000 start-ups across France.

Budget rules require the extra money to be offset, so the amendment takes €10m from the economic and financial policy action of programme 305 ("economic strategies"), with the stated expectation that the government will lift that offset. A fallback amendment, II-CF552, would have restored €5m, matching the 2026 level.

The committee vote is only one step. The budget is at first reading and still has to pass the full National Assembly and the Senate, so the restored funding is not guaranteed. Les Echos describes a mood of gloom in the start-up scene a few months before France's presidential election.

The sums are small next to France's start-up funding, but La French Tech is one of the country's best-known tech policy brands, and its regional network is how many founders outside Paris first connect with investors and public support.

Sources

Recent

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