Financing SMEs and Entrepreneurs 2026: France
Table of contents
France has approximately 4.9 million small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which account for 99.8% of the total business population. The total number of firms has increased with a 6.2% CAGR between 2019 and 2022.
The stock of outstanding business loans to SMEs stood at 674 343 million in 2024, a decline of 2.22% compared to 2023 but an increase of 30% relative to 2019. As a result, the share of SME outstanding loans in total business loans has fallen slightly, below pre-crisis average by 3.1 percentage points.
The proportion of non-performing loans increased between 2023 and 2025 in line with the number of insolvencies (+6.0% year on year, reaching 68 000 insolvencies in 2025), but remains at historically low levels (2.1% in 2025, of which 2.3% for households and 3.7% for NFC, compared with an average of 3.5% between 2014 and 2020).
Interest rates for SMEs and large companies were stable around 4,3% in 2023 and 2024, following an increase in 2021 and 2022 from historical lows in 2020.The interest rate gap between SMEs and large companies narrowed in 2024 and access to financing for SMEs has become slightly more difficult as indicated by the rising rejection rate exceeding pre-crisis levels (1.6% of rejection rate against 1.2% for 2015-2019).
In 2024, private equity investments increased by 38%, following a strong decline in 2023. Nonetheless, the number of companies funded through private equity continues to grow, marking a 4% increase compared to 2023 despite the high-rate environment and exceeding by far the average level observed between 2016 and 2021 (941 vs an average of 635). Investments in venture and growth capital in 2024 stood at EUR 4.9 billion, an increase of 38% vs. 2023, while expansion capital stood at EUR 3.9 billion invested in 2024, a decline of 14% vs. 2023. The sub-total of venture capital, growth capital and expansion capital investments has grown 2 times in 8 years.
Crowdfunding declined for the first time in 2023 due to a deteriorated environment and rising interest rates. But, since 2015, annual volume of equity crowdfunding provided through the platforms grew 12.5 times.
Factoring volumes decreased by 12% in 2024 as well as the number of ongoing operations (-4.3%). Activity development has been important since the pandemic crisis, with a 30% increase of volumes compared to 2020.
With a budget of EUR 54 billion, the France 2030 plan seeks to position France as a global leader in future innovations. Having moved past the post-COVID recovery phase, the initiative has accelerated significantly: as of the 2024 activity report, EUR 40 billion have already been committed across more than 7 400 projects. Today, strategic investments are primarily focused on artificial intelligence, quantum computing, space, and industrial decarbonisation, aiming to build lasting technological sovereignty.
Source: Banque de France.
In 2025, French non-financial corporations (NFCs) saw their indebtedness rise, with aggregate credit dynamics increasing (+2.6% in September 2025 vs. +1.7% in September 2024, to EUR 1.736 billion), due to an increase for all type of companies, and especially for large companies, while corporate indebtedness decreased when compared to GDP.
This trend is mainly linked to a fall in demand for credit, while access to credit for businesses (excluding micro-businesses) remained stable at around 89%, expressing difficulties in accessing credit that remain limited to pre-pandemic levels, albeit on the rise. The rise of interest rates, that are stagnating at high level (3,45% in September 2025 for NFC) is also making companies increasingly turning to their internal resources to finance their activities or investments.
In 2022, France registered around 4.9 million small and medium enterprises (SMEs), constituting 99.8% of the total business landscape. Micro-firms accounted for 96.3% of the total business population and 96.4% of SMEs. French SMEs employed 47% of the workforce and contributed to 40% of the total value added.1 The total number of firms has increased with a 6.2% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) between 2019 and 2022.
By firm size
Source: INSEE, Les entreprises en France, Edition 2024.
The Central Credit Register of the National Bank of France collects monthly data on loans over EUR 25 000 granted to enterprises (legal units). The data include both, loans drawn (utilised) and undrawn (not utilised), for enterprises resident in France. Data is available for both loans to all firms as well as on loans to SMEs (both independent and belonging to a group, but excluding individual entrepreneurs).
In 2020, outstanding loans to SMEs experienced a remarkable growth (+24%) due notably to the government's loan guarantee system aimed at mitigating the economic impact of the pandemic crisis. By 2024, the level of outstanding business loans to SMEs had decreased to a level lower than in 2022 (EUR 674 343 million in 2024 vs EUR 686 464 million in 2022), remaining however significantly above levels in 2019 (516 691). This trend stems from the deterioration of SMEs' cash flow since 2021, which initially increased their need for loans to finance operations. However, the subsequent rise in interest rates forced them to fall back on internal resources. The share of SME outstanding business loans in total business loans slightly increased until 2021 (43.7%) following assistance by the French state, and decreased to 39.4 % in 2024.
France has detailed data on drawn loans and undrawn loans as a key indicator of credit conditions. An increase in the proportion of all drawn loans to all loans (both, i.e. the sum of drawn and undrawn) indicates a higher degree of utilisation and hence tighter lending conditions, as well as a worsening of credit availability as has been observed in 2008-09 (87.5%), and again at the end of 2011 (87%), though less severely. Since 2012, however, the credit conditions measured by these trends show a relative stabilisation until 2024 despite the increase of interest rates (87.7% on average and 89,1% in 2024).
Interest rates for both SMEs and large companies have been rising in recent years, marking a change from the downward trend started in 2009. Following a significant decrease in 2020, rates have been stabilising at a higher level than before the COVID-19 crisis (4.5% in 2024 compared to 1.6% in 2019 for SMEs and 4.7% in 2024 compared to 1,4 % in 2019 for large companies). The interest rate spread between SMEs and large companies is comparable to before the pandemic, decreasing to approximately 0.40% in 2025.
Source: Banque de France.
While the post-Covid period saw a marked dip in demand for loans from businesses, this demand picked up again from mid-2022 onwards, although the phenomenon was more marked for SMEs (around 4% in 2021 compared with 6% in 2024 of demand for cash loans) than for Very small enterprises (VSEs), whose demand rates remained low and unchanged (4% of demand for cash loans at the end of 2021 compared with around 4% at the beginning of 2024). Demand for investment loans remains structurally lower than before the crisis, but has stabilised (19% of SMEs asked for an investment loans against 23% in 2015-2019).
Rejection rates for investment stood at historically low levels of 3% in 2024 compared to an average of 5% between 2015 and 2019. Acceptance rates are high at around 85% for cash loans for SMEs and 70% for VSEs2, while investment loans acceptance rate is at 97% and 87% respectively.
Source: Banque de France.
The private equity amount invested (excluding infrastructure funds) in French firms increased by 16% in 2024 following a strong decline in 2023, reaching EUR 26.0 billion. 2021 was an exceptional year after the pandemic crisis, which saw a53% increase compared to 2020., This was followed by two years of decrease in 2022 and 2023 due to the rise of interest rates. In 2024, the number of firms financed via private equity increased to reach 2 881, which is a 4.4% increase compared to 2023.
Investments in venture capital stood at EUR 2.7 billion, rising 23% year-on-year in 2024, while expansion capital stood at EUR 3.9 billion, decreasing 14% in 2024. The sub-total of venture capital, growth capital and expansion capital investments has doubled in 8 years, from EUR 4.7 billion in 2016 to EUR 8.9 billion in 2024.
By stage of investment, in EUR million
Source: France Invest/Grant Thornton, June 2025 | (o) Old method (n) New method. The New method consist of having a more detailed segmentation of private equity financing types. Since 2022, the growth capital segment has been added in France Invest studies and turnaround capital is included in LBO. Historical data have been restated as follows.
Source: France Invest/Grant Thornton, June 2025 | (o) Old method (n) New method
Since 2022, the growth capital segment has been added in France Invest studies and turnaround capital is included in LBO. Historical data have been restated as follows.
In 2024, the invested amounts by business angels increased by 33% year-on-year. Since 2017, business angel investments have been experiencing a remarkable growth, doubling the volume of investments. In 2024, digital, healthcare and other sectors3 account for 74% of the total investment.
Source: France Invest/Grant Thornton, March 2022 and March 2023.
Crowdfunding continues to grow in recent years with a small decline after 2022. In 2024, it decreased by 18% reaching EUR 1 731 million transacted. This type of finance demonstrates great resilience despite the rise of interest rates, and is becoming an increasingly common source of finance for firms. Between 2015 and 2024, annual figures have grown to reach 10 billion in cumulative funding in France, across all transactional models such as donation, loan, investment. Crowdfunding platforms benefit from a specific regulatory framework since 2014 which enables them to operate without a minimum amount of equity. However, activity is regulated in order to guarantee transparency and investors protection.
Note: Data includes crowdfunding, crowdlending and gift.
Source: France FinTech, Baromètre du crowdfunding en France 2024.
Factoring volumes increased by 1.3% in 2024 to EUR 431.4 billion compared to 2023. The number of ongoing operations (-0.5%) decreased. The development of factoring has been important since the pandemic crisis in 2020, with an increase of 33% in factoring volumes compared to 2020.
Source: Association française des sociétés financières (ASF), L'activité des sociétés d'affacturage en 2024.
Payment delays, defined as any payment made beyond the contractually agreed term, and measured in terms of late payment days, including payments on time, reached 12.9 days at mid-20244. After a downward trend in customer and supplier lead times observed in 2021, after the interruption in 2020 due to the health crisis, the rise of interest rates and the economic environment have put a strain on company cash flow. However, there is some heterogeneity in payment delays, which vary depending on the size of the firm or the sector it operates in. On average, the larger the firms, the longer the payment delay period: while the average late payment days are 12.7 days for SMEs, it increased to 14.5 days for ETI and even 17.8 for large enterprises5.
In 2024 and 2025, the number of SME bankruptcies increased and reached a historical level of 68 000, due to the end of government subsidies and a resurgence of deferred insolvencies. In 20256 alone, year on year bankruptcies increased by +6,0% and remains above the average number of bankruptcies between 2015 and 2019 (56 200).
However, non-performing loans (NPLs) reached 2.1% of all loans in 2025, which is lower than the historical average of 3,5% between 2014 and 2020, of which NPL represent 2,3% of household loans and 3,7% of corporate loans. In particular, NPLs has been reduced by 1.5 points between 2018 and 2022 before increasing again with the high numbers of bankruptcies, following the action plan to combat NPLs introduced by the European Commission in 2018 and implemented by Banque de France but also due to an effect of the guaranteed state loans.
After the economic crisis experienced as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent volatility, several measures had been implemented to facilitate SMEs access to finance and to boost business growth.
In March 2025, 26.4% of Prêts Garantis par l’Etat (PGE) granted since 2020 remained to be repaid, for a bit less of 550 000 companies.
The deployment of the France 2030 plan (EUR 54 billion) aims to make France a leading industrial nation in strategic sectors, to become a leader in key sectors in the global race for innovation. The choice of sectors supported is based on 4 main objectives: support the transition of long-established sectors of excellence (automotive, aeronautics, space), foster the emergence of tomorrow's strategic sectors (new renewable energy production technologies, small nuclear reactors etc.), establish the conditions for France’s strategic autonomy and support emerging players with an ambitious long-term vision.
By April 2025, EUR 37.8 billion had already been committed, which 55% of total beneficiaries are SMEs.
In particular, Startups and innovative SMEs benefit from several kind of financial supports (loan, subsidies, repayable advances) through different structural mechanisms: “aides guichet”, i-Lab, i-Nov, i-Demo, Première Usine. As part of France 2030 plan, this structural support for SMEs accounts for EUR 4.2 billion committed between 2021 and 2024 distributed as follows: 39% loans, 25% repayable advances,36% subsidies). In parallel, France 2030 also provides substantial equity financing through dedicated investment vehicles operated by Bpifrance — including the FNA (Fonds National d'Amorçage), the Multicap Croissance fund and sector-oriented deeptech instruments — which collectively aim to strengthen the availability of early-stage and scale-up capital and to crowd-in private investors across the entire life cycle of innovative companies.
In parallel, equity and quasi-equity financing have been bolstered by the "Tibi" initiative, which has secured commitments from institutional investors targeting EUR 15 billion to finance late-stage technology companies. This is complemented by Bpifrance’s sovereignty initiatives, notably featuring a specific EUR 500 million envelope dedicated to Artificial Intelligence and strategic digital assets in 2024–2025, alongside the existing French Tech Souveraineté vehicle. For dual-use technologies, the Defence Innovation Fund (Fonds Innovation Défense) has been increased to EUR 275 million to fuel start-ups, while the second cohort of the French Tech 2030 programme now actively supports 80 strategic scale-ups, providing them with privileged access to public procurement and regulatory acceleration.
On the industrial side, reindustrialisation efforts are supported by the "Green Industry Act" (Loi Industrie Verte), which introduced the C3IV tax credit. This key instrument covers between 20% and 45% of CAPEX for new factories producing batteries, wind power, heat pumps, and solar panels, and is projected to trigger EUR 23 billion in investments and create 40,000 direct jobs by 2030. Complementing this tax incentive, direct financing for industrial start-ups has accelerated through the "Première Usine" (First Factory) call for projects: as of April 2025, this initiative has supported 91 industrialisation projects with EUR 392 million in public aid, successfully leveraging nearly EUR 5 billion in total productive investment.
To ensure these developments benefit the entire country, the "Territoires d'Industrie" programme entered its second phase (2023–2027), now covering 183 certified areas (lauréats) and supported by a dedicated EUR 100 million annual envelope from the "Green Fund" (Fonds Vert) to finance sustainable industrial sites and land recycling (Fonds Friches). Furthermore, to bridge the gap between small firms and industrial champions, the government’s "ETIncelles" programme has significantly expanded its scope, providing administrative fast-tracking to 252 high-growth SMEs as of mid-2025, with the strategic goal of helping 500 companies scale into mid-sized enterprises (ETIs) by 2027. These measures sit alongside the Relance Industrie plans, which continue to subsidise decarbonisation and strategic supply chain reshoring.
Backed by the Banque de France, credit mediation, set up in November 2008, remains a central part of the financing landscape for French SMEs: companies encountering difficulties with their bank or their credit insurer can file a request online to start the mediation process. The mediation services assess the eligibility of the requests and contribute to finding a solution between the requesting firms and the financial institutions at local level, or if necessary, at a national level.
In 2024, credit mediation received 1287 requests, representing a 7% drop compared with 2023 despite the increase in bankruptcies in France.
Source: See Table 8.
References
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Ministère de l'Économie, des Finances et de la Souveraineté industrielle et numérique. Initiative Tibi: phase 2 et perspectives
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← 1. Insee, Les entreprises en France, Edition 2024.
← 2. In 2023 only for VSEs, 2024 data are not available.
← 3. Excluding consumer goods and services, industrial goods and services, maritime economy, energy and transportation
← 4. Rapport Altares, 1er semestre 2024.
← 5. Banque de France, Rapport de l’Observatoire des délais de paiement 2024
← 6. Latest available figures are from august 2025