A partnership to attract start-ups from the southern Mediterranean basin to Provence

ANIMA Investment Network and Provence Promotion start a 1-year collaboration

ANIMA Investment Network, an organization dedicated to economic cooperation between Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and Provence Promotion, an economic development agency for the Aix-Marseille-Provence Metropolis and Pays d'Arles, have signed a partnership agreement for 2021.

Their shared goal is to support high-potential innovators and entrepreneurs in North Africa and the Middle East who are interested in using Provence as a gateway to access French and European markets. Provence Promotion and ANIMA are offering their services to 150 start-ups that have received assistance from ANIMA over the last three years to set up soft-landing missions in search of new markets.

As the digital transformation and shifts in business models spread through our society, innovation is a decisive factor in the attractiveness of regions. The 2021 partnership agreed to by ANIMA Investment Network and Provence Promotion attests to the attention given to innovative companies to help them grow and explore potential collaborations between Africa, the Middle East and Provence.

With THE NEXT SOCIETY, an initiative backed by the European Union, ANIMA has spent three years monitoring 150 start-ups in the growth and globalization phases. For its part, Provence Promotion runs the "Start in Provence" program each year to help innovative companies find solutions to establish sites in the Aix-Marseille area. This year, the two organizations decided to generate synergies from their overlapping skill sets to jointly promote Provence and its entrepreneurial ecosystem, as well as the soft landing and peer learning tools made available by ANIMA.

The partnership is aimed at rolling out multiple actions to attract foreign start-ups with high growth potential to the region by offering them windows onto new markets and by sharing expertise.

Through its Cross Landing Méditerranée program, ANIMA will be able to subsidize short, exploratory missions to Provence for entrepreneurs from seven Mediterranean countries (Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine and Tunisia). With its intimate knowledge of the local ecosystems, Provence Promotion will make introductions to hosting and placement organizations and will provide operational guidance in all real estate, financial and mobility matters associated with setting up shop in Aix-Marseille-Provence.

Inaugural partnership event

The first event organized within the partnership will take place on Tuesday, March 23, 2020. From 8:30 am to 11:00 am, a joint webinar will be held to discuss the opportunities Aix-Marseille affords to growing start-ups from the southern Mediterranean basin.

The event, called "Soft Land in Provence", will convene multiple incubators and accelerators from the region, including Accélérateur M, Marseille Innovation, the Arbois Technopôle cleantech incubator, Factory 319, Inco, Zebox and the Belle de Mai incubator. These resources will give an overview of their programs and hosting capacities.

Provence Promotion and the Aix-Marseille French Tech group will provide an introduction to the start-up ecosystem in Provence and the innovation development assistance available. Provence Création d’Entreprises, then ANIMA, will describe their offering and the soft landing concept.

After the presentations, participants will be able to interact in five virtual break-out rooms, four of which are dedicated to specific topics of interest for different business sectors: Creative industries, e-commerce and EduTech; Green Tech, AgriTech and Energy; Mobility; and Health.

Other actions are envisioned to coincide with upcoming events such as Emerging Valley and Le Grand bRain, which are scheduled for early April.

> For more information about "Soft Land in Provence"