We are constantly told that taxes, supposedly, would scare away foreign companies when, on the contrary, there are many tax measures that have convinced companies with foreign capital to settle in France. Over the year 2021, there are 1,222 implementation projects in France, far ahead of the United Kingdom and Germany. And that’s 25% more than in 2019. The South region is not the most dynamic but, still in 2021, it still rebounded and regained its pre-COVID level. And 61 new companies have chosen to set up in the Alpes-Maritimes, half of them supported by Team Côte d’Azur.
What is Team Côte d’Azur?
It is an agency commissioned by local authorities, “dedicated to prospecting for exogenous investment”. In short, its role is to attract companies that are not established there to the Alpes-Maritimes. We are talking about foreign companies of course, but also French companies. About ten people work at Team Côte d’Azur, they often go abroad, to trade fairs for example, to promote the Côte d’Azur, and once the companies are on board, they help them, here on place on different aspects, such as finding premises.
We can cite Symphony, which has created, to put it simply, an ultra-secure communication platform for the financial markets. Today it’s what we call a unicorn (it’s a term we hear a lot, it means that it is valued at more than a billion dollars). It was created in the United States in Silicon Valley by a Frenchman, David Gurlé, and in 2018 opened a research and development center in Sophia Antipolis. They chose Sophia because labor is cheaper than in Silicon Valley, because they find all the skills they need there and also because of the Research Tax Credit, which is a tax reduction applied companies doing R&D in France.
Four years later: Symphony employs 150 people in Sophia, it has become its largest site in the world. We can speak of a success…
Symphony won an Impact Award on September 14, 2022, this is one of the prizes awarded by Team Côte d’Azur to companies they have supported and which have succeeded.