I left France 14 years ago, for a long a time, Paris felt a bit less “startup-friendly” than other capitals. One of the things that helped give France visibility of its startup ecosystem is La French Tech. It’s a government initiative, so it’s not as spontaneous as organising a meetup for example, but it really has some merits, especially for helping already mid-stage startups get to the next bigger levels.
I realllllly like this part of their website, which reminds me of Crunchbase or… Dealroom… and it’s actually a Dealroom.co “light” filter:
https://ecosystem.lafrenchtech.com/intro
There you can also find things like the Next40, an index of the top performing startups:
https://ecosystem.lafrenchtech.com/lists/12624?showGrid=true
Here is the list:
- Alan (Digital Health insurance company)
- Back Market (Online marketplace dedicated to refurbished products)
- Believe Digital (fully independent digital distribution)
- Bioserenity (Smart clothing that monitors health)
- Blablacar (Connects drivers with empty seats to people looking for a ride)
- Blade Shadows (high-end gaming PC in the cloud)
- Cityscouts (electric scooter rental)
- ContentSquare (optimize UX)
- Deezer (online music streaming)
- Devialet (high-end audio hardware)
- Doctolib (appointment online to a doctor or dentist)
- Evaneos (connects travellers to local travel agencies)
- Finalcad (mobile apps and predictive analytics)
- Frichti (Homemade dishes with fresh, seasonal ingredients. Delivered to you in 30 minutes in Paris every day, for your lunch or dinner)
- HomeExchange.com (swap vacation homes around the world)
- HR Path (Human capital management technology)
- iAdvize (conversational marketing platform that connects customers or prospects in need of advice with experts via real-time messaging)
- Ivalua (spend management solution, procure to pay suite)
- JobTeaser (job portal for students)
- Klaxoon (Facilitates interactivity within a group, teamwork board)
- Ledger (security and infrastructure solutions for cryptocurrencies and blockchain applications)
- Manomano (gardening and DIY community)
- Meero (Matches professional photographers with top notch clients to produce beautiful images in a snap)
- Mirakl (helps retailers launch their marketplace)
- October (SME landing platform)
- Open Classrooms (online education platform)
- OVH (Webhosting, cloud and dedicated servers)
- Payfit (simplify payroll management)
- Recommerce Group (buyback, refurbishing)
- Sendinblue (Marketing Platform for growing businesses)
- Shift (Fraud-detection technology designed for insurance industry)
- Sigfox (Low-throughput communication for connected objects)
- Talentsoft (SaaS-based integrated talent and competency management solutions)
- Vade Secure (security features against sophisticated email scams)
- Veepee (members-only online shopping destination)
- Vestiaire Collective (curate and connect the world’s most desirable wardrobes, buying and selling pre-loved items)
- Voodoo (casual games developer)
- Wynd (Develops unified commerce platform empowering retailers to address new consumer needs)
- Ynsect (farms insect to make high quality premium natural ingredients for aquaculture and pet nutrition)
- Younited Credit (platform to facilitate financial transactions between lenders and borrowers)
I found interesting how different the ranking among these 40 startups looks like if you sort by employee growth, funding or valuation.