Innovation programs: how to navigate them?

In a constantly buzzing entrepreneurial ecosystem, support has become a strategic lever for turning an innovative idea into a sustainable business.

In Paris, throughout France and beyond, support structures are multiplying: incubators, accelerators, startup studios, digital factories, and even intrapreneurship programs. Today the innovation offering is dense, varied… and sometimes bewildering for entrepreneurs.

Faced with this proliferation of support services some genuine growth catalysts, others more opportunistic it is crucial to understand each mechanism’s objectives and choose the one that best fits your project. Below is an overview of the main innovation and support formats for creating and developing startups and new companies in 2025.

Incubators: Turning an Idea into an Innovative Business

Incubators occupy a central place in business-creation support in France, particularly in Paris and on university campuses. They assist entrepreneurs from the earliest stages of their project, aiming to transform an idea into an innovative, lasting startup. Through structured services, incubators help formalize the business model, build the founding team, provide training resources, and initiate a first growth trajectory.

There are several major families of incubators.

• Public incubators, often operated by SATTs (Technology Transfer Acceleration Companies), facilitate the commercialization of academic research by creating tech startups.
  
  
• Academic incubators, embedded in universities, engineering schools, or business schools—whether focused on arts, tech, or sciences—support students, researchers, and alumni in their entrepreneurial projects.
  
  
• Territorial incubators, backed by local authorities and competitiveness clusters, foster regional innovation.
  
  
• Private incubators, often founded by former entrepreneurs or linked to investment funds, specialize by sector or technology.
  
  
• Corporate incubators are initiatives by large companies wishing to energize their open-innovation strategies.
  
  
• Finally, CEEIs (European Business and Innovation Centres), certified by the European Union, are recognized support structures for high-impact startups.
  
  

Accelerators: Propelling Startup Growth

Accelerators target already-formed startups, often with a product in the commercialization phase. Their mission is to speed up these young companies’ development through intensive programs lasting a few months. Sometimes backed by Bpifrance, industrial groups, or investors, these structures provide high-value services: personalized mentoring, strategic coaching, networking with key ecosystem players (business angels, VC funds, sector experts), and access to financing solutions.

These acceleration programs are a crucial step in moving from an early-stage startup to a growth company, with a proven business model, a structured team, and a solid scaling strategy. In a competitive landscape, accelerators also boost startups’ visibility on platforms like LinkedIn and help capture the attention of large companies seeking external innovation.

Corporate Startup Programs: Innovating Together

Corporate Startup Programs are co-development schemes between large companies and startups, designed to foster collaborative innovation. In this type of program, the corporation provides resources, industry expertise, distribution channels, and market access, while the startup contributes its ability to innovate quickly and test new business models.

These hybrid structures encourage strategic partnerships with direct effects on participating startups’ growth: greater exposure, accelerated market validation, and access to technical or industrial infrastructure. For the corporation, the goal is also to reinforce its innovation culture, explore new technological or social domains, and adopt more agile work modes. Sometimes deployed on a large scale, these programs help build momentum for shared entrepreneurship.

Startup Studios: Industrializing Entrepreneurship

Startup studios also called company builders are unique support structures that do more than help external entrepreneurs: they create their own startups. Often located in Paris or major innovation hubs in France, these studios mobilize in-house multidisciplinary teams (design, development, product, marketing) to conceive, test, launch, and scale several entrepreneurial projects each year.

Three main types of startup studios exist. Independent models, driven by experienced entrepreneurs or investment funds, focus on rapidly creating high-potential startups. Corporate studios, integrated within large groups, develop innovative projects aligned with the company’s strategic goals. Lastly, “as-a-service” studios design projects on behalf of third parties companies, funds, or public institutions charging cash, equity, or both.

This model enables an industrialized approach to entrepreneurship, greatly reducing the time from idea to viable product while increasing the likelihood of success through a structured methodology.

Intrapreneurship: Innovating at the Heart of the Company

Intrapreneurship is a powerful internal-innovation lever that allows employees to carry an entrepreneurial project while remaining part of their company. Benefiting from a dedicated support framework, these “intrapreneurs” can explore new business models, experiment with innovative technologies, or develop disruptive services.

Such programs energize talent, build an impact-oriented culture, and generate concrete projects aligned with the organization’s overall strategy. They are also a powerful tool for managerial transformation, mirroring large organizations’ cultural shifts.

Hackathons: Sparking Innovation at Record Speed

Hackathons are short but intense events that bring together diverse profiles around innovation challenges. Popular in tech, design, and business circles, these formats stimulate creativity, enable rapid prototyping, and uncover high-potential ideas or projects.

Used by many companies and schools as support levers, hackathons also help identify budding entrepreneurs, strengthen collective dynamics, and test solutions under real-world conditions. They often serve as the starting point for startups or substantial intrapreneurial projects.

Innovation Labs: Hybrid Spaces for Experimentation

Innovation Labs have become indispensable in corporate innovation strategies. These hybrid structures located on campuses, research centers, or within industrial groups promote open innovation by gathering actors from diverse fields: internal teams, tech experts, researchers, customers, or partners. They represent a new generation of entrepreneurial-support mechanisms focused on rapid experimentation and co-creation.

These spaces rely on quick prototyping and the famed “test & learn” approach, combined with agile methods. By mixing design, business, engineering, and arts expertise, they explore innovative projects directly linked to field needs. Integrating end-users from the earliest phases strengthens the tangible impact of developed solutions and boosts the growth of high-potential ideas. Their presence is rapidly increasing particularly in Paris and French metropolitan areas committed to supporting startups.

Digital Factories: Industrializing Digital Innovation in Companies

Digital Factories provide a structured response to companies’ growing need for digital transformation. Often created within groups or large organizations, these structures aim to industrialize digital production while speeding up operational-solution development. Sitting at the crossroads of tech, business, and innovation, they turn ideas into viable digital products delivered at record speed.

Designed as internal accelerators, Digital Factories gather multidisciplinary teams developers, designers, data scientists, product managers focused on high-impact projects. They rethink business models, integrate innovative technologies (AI, IoT, blockchain, etc.), and translate corporate innovation strategy into concrete results.

Their success relies on agile organization, strong internal engagement, and continuous support from piloting to industrialization. Increasingly present within large French organizations’ innovation offerings, they often collaborate with startups or students from top schools.

Fab Labs: Moving from Idea to Prototype with a Maker Mindset

Fab Labs are support structures that give entrepreneurs, students, or project leaders direct access to digital-fabrication tools to bring their ideas to life. Found on many university campuses, engineering schools, innovation centers, or Bpifrance-backed venues, these spaces foster a very hands-on approach to entrepreneurship: learning by doing and experimenting through prototyping.

3-D printers, CNC milling machines, laser cutters… Fab Labs enable rapid creation of physical products in a collaborative setting. This maker mindset blending arts, tech, and design stimulates creativity, on the ground innovation, and encourages moving from concept to action. They complement incubators and accelerators by emphasizing rapid prototyping, direct experimentation, and learning by doing. Increasingly supported by public policy and funding actors, they are key venues for bringing tomorrow’s industrial gems to life.

Choosing the Right Support Structure

In a context marked by an abundance of innovation programs, selecting the right support is strategic. Each structure addresses a specific moment in a project’s life cycle, from ideation to industrialization.

The key to success lies in the ability to combine speed, method, network, and ambition. Innovation, the driver of growth, depends on tailored services and committed actors at every stage of the entrepreneurial journey.

321: An Innovation Catalyst for Companies and Startups

This is precisely the logic behind 321’s services. Our mission: accelerating innovation and new-project development for ambitious companies.

Our Services

Strategy – Identifying Innovation Opportunities
321 supports companies in defining their innovation strategy. Based on business challenges, we pinpoint concrete opportunities to create high-potential new activities in Paris, across France, and beyond.

Studio – Creating Startups Quickly and Efficiently
We turn validated technological-innovation opportunities into scalable products or standalone companies by combining startup agility with corporate strengths, ensuring your long-term competitive advantage.

Partnering – Co-Developing with the Right Partners
We build bridges between large companies and startups, establishing strategic partnerships to boost both partners’ sales and profitability.

Scale – Accelerating Growth
321 supports startups’ scale-up: structuring, market launch, financing. We guide every development stage through to go-to-market.

By blending startups’ agility with large companies’ power, 321 offers a unique model designed to foster durable, concrete innovation rooted in real-world economics.