You have no track record to show yet. All the funder can read is your project — so, your file. This is the one case where the file does not complete reality: it replaces it. It had better be beyond reproach.
Five grounds for refusal come up on almost every start-up file.
Below 20% of the requirement, the file does not get past the first filter. But many founders understate their own contribution: the director’s loan account, the honour loan and love money all count. Properly reconstructed, a contribution often clears the threshold.
No accounts, no trading statements, nothing to verify. Everything rests on the forecast — so on its credibility. Unsupported assumptions, turnover that ramps up too fast, and the file is filed away without being discussed.
Most funding plans fund the investment and leave the business to start with no cash. The funder sees it immediately — and it is also one of the leading causes of failure among young businesses.
Applying to a network is a first financial examination — the franchisor checks your contribution and the viability of your outlet before granting you the territory. A weak file loses the location before you have even seen a banker, and the best territories do not come round again.
A personal guarantee on its own worries as much as it reassures: it signals that no third party agreed to share the risk. A guarantee from a public body changes how the file reads and lightens your personal exposure.
A committee does not judge your enthusiasm. It checks four things, in this order.
A start-up funding plan rarely rests on a single source. Combining them is often what tips a file over — an honour loan strengthens the contribution, a public guarantee lightens the personal security.
Usually over five to seven years, secured against the investment. It is the central piece, and the one that demands the most complete file.
Granted to the person, interest-free and unsecured, by business support networks. It counts as equity, which mechanically improves your contribution ratio.
Bpifrance, France Active, SIAGI and the regional funds can guarantee part of the loan. The bank then shares the risk, and your personal exposure falls.
Benefits maintained during the start-up phase, or part of them paid as capital. That capital feeds the contribution.
Often tied to the sector, the location or the jobs created. They have to be prepared in advance: most can no longer be claimed once the investment is committed.
Money from friends and family, properly documented, counts as equity. Badly documented, it counts as debt.
Novaris is not a broker. This page describes the schemes that exist, it recommends no institution. The funding search, should you want one, is carried out by an intermediary registered with ORIAS, and Novaris receives no commission on the funds obtained.
Investment, working capital requirement, start-up cash, and the real timetable of receipts. The funding plan covers everything, not just the equipment.
Ratios and stress tests: what happens if turnover starts more slowly, if a customer pays late, if the margin is thinner. That is what makes a forecast credible.
The same file in a bank version and a public-body version, plus the memorandum explaining why the numbers hold up. And we stay until the money is released.
A start-up carried by a single entity calls for the complete file. See the packages in detail — or start with the Score, which will tell you which one fits your situation.
Ten questions, no document to provide, no appointment. A score out of 100 that measures one thing above all: whether your project is feasible — what is blocking it, and what has to be put right before you present yourself.
Un consultant vous rappelle, sans attendre le résultat d’un test. Réponse sous 48 heures ouvrées, comme pour toute demande.
