Scaling Impact: Strengthening Support for Refugee-Led Businesses in France

Since its creation in 2017, The Human Safety Net has been working to support the professional integration of refugees. In France, it particularly promotes entrepreneurship, alongside its partners La Ruche and SINGA, with the support of a network of 12 incubators. To date, nearly 1,200 refugees have participated in incubation programs, leading to the creation of 425 ventures.

The Human Safety Net accelerates refugee inclusion
To accelerate the creation of sustainable economic opportunities and strengthen access to funding, The Human Safety Net has partnered with SME. The association, supported through the Rivière Family Endowment Fund, assists refugees and legally residing migrants in France in developing and growing their businesses, notably through the granting of interest-free honorary loans.

Established in 2021, SME supports entrepreneurs across the entire country through a network of 45 volunteers with complementary skills. The Rivière Family Endowment Fund finances projects via interest-free, unsecured honorary loans of up to €10,000, and provides long-term support, from project structuring to post-launch follow-up. Since its creation, the Fund has supported 100 entrepreneurial projects and granted approximately €590,000 in honorary loans.

A €1 million honorary loan target by 2028
With the support of THSN, SME plans to assist more than 300 entrepreneurs between 2026 and 2028, with the aim of enabling all beneficiaries successfully create or develop their businesses. The partnership also seeks to strengthen the Fund’s financing capacity, with a target of reaching €1 million by 2028 in order to support more entrepreneurs and larger-scale projects.

Today, SME operates in Paris–Île-de-France, Nantes, Annecy–Grenoble, Toulouse, and Marseille, and continues to expand into other regions (Bordeaux, Lille, Lyon, Strasbourg).

Beyond financial support, this partnership also enables Generali employees to actively engage alongside the entrepreneurs supported by SME by putting their skills to work in support of these projects.