It is now official, the first metropolis in France will be born on January 1, 2012. It will bring together the Nice Côte d’Azur Urban Community and three Community of Communes (those of Vésubie, Tinée, and Stations of Mercantour), comprising 545,000 inhabitants and 46 municipalities.
Its ambition: to make the future metropolis Nice Côte d’Azur an exemplary territory in terms of innovation, economic and social development, influence and sustainable development, an attractive and competitive territory, an exceptional place to live and work.
Nice Côte d’Azur offers a conducive environment for innovation, creation, and economic development, a favorable setting for initiative:
- 1st national airport after Paris;
- 1st congress city after Paris;
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A strong event activity with 64% more events between 2007 and 2011 (Carnival, Nice Jazz Festival, IronMan, Decanation, World Skating Championship in 2012, etc.).
With the creation of the Nice Côte d’Azur metropolis, a process of profound change, strongly involving entrepreneurs, has just been launched.
Nice Côte d’Azur supports entrepreneurs, encourages the establishment of new companies with a network of support for creation.
Before 2008, only a 300m² incubator housed a dozen very small businesses. In the summer of 2008, Nice Côte d’Azur created its own business incubator over more than 2,000m² and developed a real economic project with its partners.
In 2011, seven support organizations were funded by NCA, enabling them to assist more than 600 businesses
Seven organizations are supported and mobilized alongside the Urban Community, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the Chamber of Trades and Crafts of the Alpes-Maritimes.
This coordinated, coherent, effective network of actors has the role of:
advising creators in setting up their project; proposing financing methods to creators; offering them premises for the establishment of their structure at reduced prices (Business Incubator and future CAEI); advising them in their marketing, financial, and management development; supporting them throughout their entrepreneurial life.
These elements are key to the sustainability of a business.
Because if a business is supported for more than three years, its survival rate increases from 50% to 89% beyond these three years.
In 2012, in the heart of the future Eco-Valley, Nice Côte d’Azur will open its Innovative Business Reception Center (CAEI) which will group business incubators and a business hotel.
In the Nice Côte d’Azur territory, 5,000 companies are born each year, both different and complementary, providing as many new growth opportunities.
The seven organizations that finance, host, and support business creators
Organizations providing financing solutions
- Nice Côte d’Azur Initiative (NCAI): grants honorary loans to TPE – Zero Interest Loans, from €1,500 to €30,000;
Member of the national network of the 240 France Initiatives Platforms;
775 businesses financed since 1998; 1,300 jobs created; Survival rate at 3 years: 93%.
RESEAU Entreprendre PACA: grants honorary loans and supports high-potential SMEs
- Zero Interest Loans and without guarantees between €15,000 and €50,000 for creation and €30,000 to €90,000 for acquisition;
Individual support by an active business leader and collective support for 2 to 3 years (or longer if needed); part of 38 associations in the national Entrepreneurs Network;
30 awarded businesses in the 06 since 2005, year of the creation of the Côte d’Azur section in Nice, more than 200 jobs created
Mediterranean Investment (Business Angel) – Financing TPE/SME with high development potential
The Business Angel invests part of his personal assets in the creation of a company or its development, in the form of equity participation;
Association labeled by the Ministry of SMEs
- Organizations providing hosting and support solutions
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ACEC Management Boutique
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Facilitates the transition from idea to creation by welcoming and accompanying creation;
Member of the national network of management boutiques (400 locations) since 1976; 350 project initiators assisted every year on NCA, resulting in the creation of 400 jobs; Survival rate at 3 years: between 78 and 83%
IRCE (Regional Institute of Business Creation) – Accompanies entrepreneurs through training programs meeting company needs at every stage of their life (creation, acquisition, development, transmission);
Historically based in Aix-en-Provence and supported by the Region, the IRCE created a branch in Nice in 2007; 67 participants in 2010 in Nice (creators, entrepreneurs, acquirers) having created or maintained 210 jobs.
- The PACA East Incubator
Offers financial aid, accommodation (630m² now available), action-oriented training, personalized and joint advice. An agreement with NCA will also allow project initiators to be accommodated at the CAEI;
Incubees have projects in areas as varied as telecommunications, information technology, smart grids, microelectronics, optics, cosmetics, or biotechnology. All supported projects work closely with local scientific research;
Part of the 3 academic incubators in the PACA region;
85 projects incubated since April 2001, leading to the creation of more than 50 companies and 300 direct jobs in the 06 and 83;
82% survival of companies beyond 5 years.
– AVEC Business Incubator
Hosting, accommodation, support, and assistance structure for young business creators; provides “turnkey” premises at low cost (customized telephone line, Internet, cable, and WiFi…); offers shared services: mail, fax, and parcel, meeting room, reprography…; ensures networking and provides individual and collective support.
- The Nice Côte d’Azur Business Incubator (future CAEI)
Created in the summer of 2008, this powerful economic development tool, entirely financed by Nice Côte d’Azur, works to support business creation, among other complementary systems already supported by the urban community.
The Nice Côte d’Azur Incubator helps young businesses, optimizes their success rate, and promotes their sustainability.
With its strategic location (immediate proximity to the airport, A8 highway, and at the entrance to the future Eco-Valley), the Incubator, with its functional premises, is adapted to the demands of today’s companies.
It specifically offers:
A hosting, accommodation, support, and assistance structure for project initiators;
General and collective support: meetings, exchanges between creators, monthly animations, and collective training sessions, tailored press reviews, etc.;
Individual support: financial and commercial monitoring, networking, financing search aid;
Common spaces and shared services: lounge, documentation room, secretariat, mail collection, reprography, and equipped meeting room rental, etc.;
In 2012, the Nice Côte d’Azur Business Incubator will become the Innovative Business Reception Center, offering:
An accommodation, hosting, support, and assistance structure dedicated to new generations of innovative companies and existing companies in the territory wishing to modernize and innovate;
A “custom” system of integrated services for detecting, selecting, strategic orientation, and support of innovative projects;
The Nice Côte d’Azur business incubator has enabled, in three years, the support of 35 companies and the creation of 150 jobs.
