Funding your innovative healthcare project: how do you do it?
A Healthcare Ecosystem Undergoing Major Transformation
The first part of the webinar highlighted the advantages of the Nantes Saint-Nazaire region for healthcare companies. Sandrine Gauvry, Healthcare & Real Estate Development Manager at Nantes Saint-Nazaire Développement, highlighted the agency’s role in supporting businesses and presented several key infrastructure projects, including Skylab, Algosolis, and Arronax. These facilities help make the region a favorable environment for the development of healthcare innovations.
Joëlle Martin-Gauthier of Nantes Métropole then presented Archipel S, a program designed to support innovative health projects. Her presentation also provided an overview of the real estate and land offerings dedicated to the sector, including facilities such as Bio Ouest Île de Nantes, Nantes Biotech, Gina, Rosa, and Saint-Herblain Biotech. As a result, a fifth business incubator—Saint-Herblain Biotech—will soon open in Saint-Herblain. She also announced the return of the Global Health Innovation Fund by the end of the year. Historically, “these have been grants—since 2020, nearly 3 million euros in grants, with 3 to 8 recipients per year— with grants ranging from 25 to 220,000 euros per recipient, which we distribute to local stakeholders who contribute to improving overall health in the region, whether in biotech, medtech, digital health, prevention, or healthy eating.”
In Nantes, 1.6 billion euros in public investment have been allocated to the health district, which now includes this new 220,000-square-meter hospital—the largest university hospital construction project in Europe— new health research institutes—including the IRS Loire Santé—a new health campus, a new health sciences faculty led by Franceline Ribart, which will open in 2031 and accommodate 7,000 health sciences students, and finally Archipel S, spanning 130,000 m².
Etienne Bendjebbar, head of innovation and development at Nantes University Hospital, explained how the Health Innovation Factory fosters collaboration between the hospital sector and businesses, “with the goal of supporting health innovations across the entire value chain.” Several examples of partnerships were cited during the webinar, such as the strategic partnership with Doctolib to develop a parenting support tool. All of these examples illustrate this commitment to bringing together healthcare providers, researchers, startups, SMEs, and large corporations to accelerate the emergence of new solutions.
Funding Innovation: Programs for Every Stage
The second session focused on financing, a key issue for any innovative company. Sébastien Grastilleur, a consultant at Mood Conseil, provided an overview of available funding sources, ranging from local and regional programs to national and European funding. In his presentation, he emphasized the importance of developing a coherent and phased funding strategy.
Johann Dion, scientific and technical director at Atlanpole Biotherapies, discussed the role of competitiveness clusters. Having a project certified as part of a competitiveness cluster is often an asset in gaining credibility and strengthening a funding application.
For her part, Morgane Huet, an innovation business engineer at Bpifrance, outlined the main eligibility criteria and the programs offered by the public investment bank. In particular, she shed light on the opportunities offered by the Health Plan to support innovative projects.
An ecosystem that supports healthcare entrepreneurs
To wrap up, the webinar featured two entrepreneurs based in Nantes. “What’s great about Nantes is that you can benefit from a rich ecosystem, and you really receive personalized support. At Gina, you can meet other entrepreneurs to exchange ideas,” said Soumeya Ben Aïssa, founder of OptimPharma, who received extensive support to get her business off the ground. Arnaud Lecleve, CEO of Bio Logbook, echoed this sentiment, noting that he “was able to rely on honor loans from Réseaux Initiative to conduct his feasibility studies. This allowed us to increase our equity and move toward industrialization.” Their testimonials provided concrete examples of the benefits of an environment in Nantes that combines scientific expertise, specialized infrastructure, support, and financing solutions.
See you on October 7 for the open house
The Nantes region now has all the necessary ingredients to support and accelerate innovative healthcare projects: a rapidly evolving healthcare district, centered around the new university hospital set to open in 2028; a network of committed stakeholders; a variety of funding options; and companies ready to share their experiences.
Following this webinar, a day-long event to explore Nantes’ healthcare innovation ecosystem will be held on October 7, the day after the CityHealthcare event.
>Watch the full replay on our YouTube channel
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