International trade: the "Born Global" upset the codes

"Entrepreneurs, go to you see elsewhere" has been working with its customers for a month.The public bank of companies, which devotes 20 billion euros each year of export aid, no longer knows how to convince businesses to dive into the high bath of globalization.With a deconuting foreign trade (63 billion euros in deficit, when Germany has 252 billion € of surplus), the state wants to try everything to straighten the bar.Creation of an export single window in the regions, strengthening of sectoral sectors ... but evangelization takes time.The outcome will undoubtedly come from the new generation of entrepreneurs.They are called the Born Global.Sometimes industrial but more often of services, digital but not always, they do not yet enter the "administrative" boxes.Here are some of the characteristics that distinguish them.

The profile of the managers

Born global have often passed through large groups."They are enthusiasts," adds Delphine Cardi, an international expert for the Rhône-Alpes savings fund.With a first expatriate journey, they also have a solid network. "

At the head of Medelpharm, Bruno Villa checks all the boxes. The fifty, a computer engineer graduated from INSEAD, who passed by Compaq and Apple in the United States, then Olivetti PC in Turin, he is also married to a German. Its culture is naturally global. Designer, seller, distributor of simulators to test the production of tablets (pharmaceuticals, detergents and even waste), it includes from the resumption of this company that the hexagonal market will be too small. Backed by risk capital, he raised one million euros just before the 2008 crisis, and hires a France commercial director. But the latter, a former Air Liquide executive, detached for a few years in New York, goes very quickly outside the borders. And allows Medelpharm to find its market. The SAS generates 4.5 million turnover in 2017, increased from 19 to 22 employees in 2017, recruits three more this year. And for good reason, its growth increases from 20 to 25 % per year, increased to 70 % internationally - in China, Brazil, India, Germany. In 2019, a new generation of more connected machines should further accelerate its positions around the world.

Speed and "cash flow"

Born Global companies go quickly and have to lift "overfinancing cash" to set up projects with three strokes ahead."Because they will plant themselves, for sure, but with more than what it takes, they can bounce back," says Pedro Novo, director of export funding at Bpifrance.

This is the strategy adopted by Gabriel Della-Monica, a former executive at Stmicroelectronics, founder in 2015 of Hydrao, a connected shower head. The manager started by targeting the United States, via the CES in Las Vegas, then grafted a two-month business France mission in San Francisco. “We then received requests from several cities on the planet. And Singapore contacted us. Result: a contract signed with the local water agency to equip 10,000 dwellings. Nice blow for this "little start-up of 7 employees". Since then, Hydrao has signed an agreement with United Utilities, the company of English waters. "Standards for piping and health regulation are not always the same, which can represent significant additional costs", Tem. And a significant need for cash. Consequence: after a first lifting of almost a million, Hydrao prepares to complete an envelope of € 2 million by this summer. And hopes to double its turnover of € 500,000 at the end of 2018.

The American online crosshairs

L'Amérique d'abord : c’est l'objectif de Yannick Mathey, fondateur de Prototypo. Ce designer freelance, incubé en 2015-2016 chez BoostInLyon, puis dans celui l’Université Jean-Moulin-Lyon 3, vise les États-Unis… puis le monde. Diplômé de l’École des Arts Déco de Strasbourg, il a développé une application qui permet à des designers de créer des marques plus remarquables, grâce à des typographies faites sur mesure. La jeune pousse a décollé en juin 2017, lorsqu’elle a, avec le calligraphe Jean-Baptiste Levée, conçu la police responsive de Google Drive. Avec 12 salariés, nichés rue du Bât-d’Argent (Lyon 2^e), Prototypo est présent dans 130 pays, à travers 45 000 utilisateurs, dont 30 % sont aux États-Unis. « La France représente environ 15 % de nos clients ». Et pour cause, explique le dirigeant, « les pays anglo-saxons comprennent davantage la valeur de la typographie. Question de culture ! »

Their fundraising in 2017 (700,000 euros in dilutive and non-dilutive from Family Office as CoFina Finances and Vox Capital) must now allow them to invest massively in marketing.The next capital opening in 2019 will install salespeople in New York."To address the American market, it takes a million euros minimum," approves Pedro Novo.The specialist did the calculation, "one commercial on site is $ 300,000.You add a little communication, two or three employees and a rent, the account is good!While waiting for this next lifting, the Lyon team is working on typographies of other alphabets like Chinese, which has 40,000 signs, against 750 in Latin."Our goal: to generate a typography for all languages with a unified design in one click".With less than 100,0000 euros in turnover, Yannick Mathey aims at 800,000 euros at the end of 2018.

An international team

"Global born is a challenge from the start," sums up Antoine Leroy, president of Koelis (Meylan, 40 employees), "an old growing start-up" which has developed and sells an imagery and surgical navigation deviceFor the prostate.Over the past five years, it has believed an average of 50 %, reaching € 4.30 million in 2017, 75 % of which are export."Each of our employees speaks at least two or three languages".He also knew how to make the most of his establishment in France: “We had access to aid and tax credit programs for research, which allowed us to invest on average € 1 million per year10 years ".

To accelerate, Antoine Leroy still had to go through a fundraising of one million euros in 2011, with a fund of entrepreneurs in the medical sector.His main challenge?Regulations and certifications that may differ within each country, including in Europe."Koelis had from the start the ambition to meet urologists who share their knowledge worldwide," said Antoine Leroy.With nearly 200 customers across 30 countries, the company has quickly protected itself by filing patents, for some fellow prisoners with scientific laboratories, on its three major activity zones: Europe, North America and the'Asia.

A solidarity ecosystem

The loneliness of leaders?Marie-Hélène Gramatikoff, founding leader in 2015 of Lactips has never known it.Located in 2014 on the collaborative innovation platform "Axel'one PMI" in Saint-Fons, she grew up with other start-ups until she takes off in her Stéphanois establishment.This young shoot of 27 employees transforms the milk protein (casein) into thermoplastic pellets.In the end of the year, it will tackle the global detergence market, in particular that of the dishwasher.

While the giants directly deliver to the end customer, Lactips will go through local processors to whom he will provide the raw material.Marie-Hélène Gramatikoff, who hopes to reach € 20 million by 2020, targets, at first, the English, Belgian markets, but especially the countries of northern Europe "where there is a very special appetitefor our product ”.Global suppliers are currently almost monopolistic, and are mainly Japanese giants, such as Kuraray ($ 2.5 billion) or even Nippon Gohsei ($ 1 billion).Lactips wants to rush into their faults (problems of dissolving the material at low temperature and non-degradable material)."As soon as we become visible, we will have to take all possible places so as not to be exceeded by bigger than us," describes the manager.

"Today's businesses are no longer exporting, but international"

Can the deficit balance of the France 'foreign trade balance (-62.3 billion in 2017) experience a curve reversal?Observers are circumspect.And call to play down the weight of this index to better consider the value of Born Global.

And if we had to sweep our old concepts and, once and for all, accept France's weaknesses in terms of export?To better value our assets.Because companies that succeed out of the domestic market are not all exporters.They immediately propel around the world without going through customs.They are called Born Global.She buys a business in Germany, this one sets out in Singapore, another concludes a JV in Abidjian."A French start-up that opens its office in New York and attacks the American market will not put its products made in France in a container," describes Pedro Novo, director of export funding at Bpifrance.She will create a business unit, recruit, develop.»»

From now on, the best observers of the balance (deficit) of France's foreign trade are turning to these Born Global.They point to the "low margins in the industry", an "aging productive apparatus", "industrial production chains which do not have the bandwidth to invest" and believe that the ecosystem "French export" would haveEverything to gain to reconsider the weight of these Born Global."Export is a concept of 15 or 20 years ago," said Pedro Novo.Besides, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Jean-Yves Le Drian, also in charge of foreign trade, says it itself: the trade balance will not improve anytime soon.