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Funding & grants

France Num: the free entry point to your digital transformation

Many companies believe France Num "hands out money". Its role is in fact more useful still: helping you know what to do, with whom, and with what funding.

A shopkeeper working on a laptop in a clothing boutique

Illustrative photograph — Vitaly Gariev / Pexels. The people photographed have no connection with the schemes mentioned.

In brief — France Num, the State initiative run by the Directorate General for Enterprise, is not a grants desk: it is a signposting platform. It offers a free digital maturity assessment, a directory of about 5,000 listed "Activateurs" (first meeting free), a funding search engine and a bank loan guarantee through Bpifrance. It is the recommended starting point before any digitalisation or AI project.

The free assessment

On francenum.gouv.fr, a self-assessment rates your company's digital maturity and points you to concrete actions. It is an excellent preliminary to an AI agent project: it makes your starting point objective.

The France Num Activateurs

About 5,000 experts (advisers, agencies, integrators) listed by the State after verification and signed up to a charter: first meeting free, transparency, reply within 48 working hours. The directory is filterable by region and by need.

The funding search engine

France Num lists national and regional schemes (grants, loans, tax credits, funded training) — filterable by region and project type. It is the source to consult first, because it is kept up to date, unlike many blogs.

The France Num guarantee (Bpifrance)

For projects financed by a bank loan, Bpifrance can guarantee a substantial share of the loan (of the order of 80%, up to €50,000), which helps unlock a bank's agreement for a digitalisation investment.

France Num and your AI agent project

The path we recommend: France Num assessment (free) → Blue Lemon Agent free audit (15 minutes: identifying the most profitable use case) → checking the funding available (regional, Diag Data IA, sector training funds) → starting the project. At each step you know what you are doing, why, and with what funding.

The takeaway: France Num does not give money: it tells you what to do, with whom, and with what funding — which is more useful.
Caution — The arrangements (guarantee, directory, schemes listed) change; francenum.gouv.fr prevails. Blue Lemon Agent is not a financial adviser.

Official sources: francenum.gouv.fr · entreprises.gouv.fr (DGE) · bpifrance.fr

Editorial responsibility. This article is reviewed and approved before publication by the publication director, Ronan Le Boulaire, who bears editorial responsibility for it (see the legal notice). Writing-assistance tools may be used beforehand; no text is published without that human review.

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