Startup in France
Every startup record the directory holds in France.
Showing 1–20 of 99 Startup · France
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Aircall
Aircall is a Paris-based fintech-adjacent software company founded in 2014 that provides a cloud-based business phone and call-centre platform, integrating voice calling with CRM and helpdesk tools and adding AI-powered conversation intelligence. It serves sales and support teams at thousands of companies and reached unicorn status in 2021.
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Alan
Alan is a Paris-based health insurance and digital health platform founded in 2016 by Jean-Charles Samuelian-Werve (CEO) and Charles Gorintin (CTO) — the only new independent health insurer licensed in France since 1986. It combines group and individual health insurance with a mobile super-app offering reimbursements, telemedicine, mental-health support (Alan Clinic) and Mo, an AI health assistant delivering doctor-reviewed answers. By early 2026 Alan served over one million members across France, Belgium, Spain and Canada, with €785M ARR in 2025 (up 53%) and operational profitability in France. Alan has raised roughly €754M across eight rounds. It reached unicorn status in 2021 with a €185M Series D led by Coatue, and in March 2026 a €100M Series G led by Index Ventures — a backer since its Series A — valued the company at €5bn. Other investors include Temasek, Teachers' Venture Growth, Coatue, Lakestar, Partech, Belfius and DST Global.
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ALBUPAD
Developed a proprietary biomaterial made from albumin — fully biocompatible and biodegradable — engineered for next-generation drug delivery and tissue engineering, with natural tumour tropism and built-in imaging visibility. Founded 2023.
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Ankorstore
Ankorstore is a Paris-based B2B wholesale marketplace founded in 2019 that connects independent brands and makers with independent retailers across Europe, handling discovery, ordering, payment terms and logistics. It aims to help local shops compete with large chains and reached unicorn status in 2022.
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Aqemia
Aqemia is a Paris-based pharmatech company building an AI-driven drug discovery platform that combines quantum-inspired physics and machine learning to generate and prioritise novel drug candidates at scale. Founded in 2019 by quantum physics researcher Maximilien Levesque and former BCG consultant Emmanuelle Martiano, the company aims to design new molecules faster and cheaper than traditional methods. It raised a 60M euro Series A and later a $38M round led by Cathay Innovation in December 2024, bringing total funding past $100 million as it moves toward clinical trials and global expansion, including a London office.
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Arcads
Arcads is an AI-powered platform for creating video advertisements, primarily UGC-style ads featuring AI actors and avatars. Users provide a script, choose or customise an avatar, and the platform generates polished video ads with localisation across 30+ languages. It targets performance marketers, direct-to-consumer brands, and marketing agencies. Founded in 2024 by Dylan Fournier and Romain Torres, the company raised a $16 million seed round in December 2025 led by Eurazeo and said it was already profitable, with more than half of its users based in the United States.
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AstraNICE
Develops a patented near-infrared fluorescent coating (NICE) for surgical instruments, letting surgeons visualise tools inside the body during minimally invasive procedures. Spun out of Strasbourg's Laboratory of Bioimaging and Pathologies.
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Back Market
Back Market is a leading European marketplace for refurbished electronics, connecting certified refurbishers with consumers looking for affordable, sustainable alternatives to new devices. The platform covers smartphones, laptops, tablets, and other consumer electronics, with quality grading and warranty guarantees. Valued at $5.7 billion after its 2022 Series E, Back Market operates across Europe and the US and is a flagship example of the circular economy model.
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BIENESIS
Develops a smart robotic canopy system that protects vineyards from climate hazards — hail, frost, excess heat and heavy rain. Solar-powered actuators deploy a retractable, recyclable fabric over vine rows on demand, controllable remotely.
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Bioptimus
Bioptimus is the self-proclaimed "Mistral of Biology," spun out in early 2024 by a team of alumni from Google DeepMind and Owkin, including CEO Jean-Philippe Vert. The company is building what it calls the first universal foundation model for biology. Where large language models were trained on text to learn human language, Bioptimus trains on biological data—DNA sequences, protein structures, cellular imagery, and clinical phenotypes—to infer the underlying rules of life. The ambition is not just better predictions but a unified biological reasoning layer that can simulate outcomes before expensive lab work happens. By 2026, Bioptimus has moved from a research thesis to early commercial traction. After a $41M Series A in 2025, the company released its first commercial model that can predict how a specific molecule will interact with a human cell with unusually high accuracy. This enables in-silico screening that reduces wet-lab costs and improves hit rates for drug discovery. French pharma leaders such as Sanofi have begun using these models to prioritize compounds and compress early-stage discovery timelines. The product value is immediate: fewer failed experiments, faster candidate selection, and deeper mechanistic insight. Bioptimus' roadmap focuses on "multi-scale biology," connecting the micro level (genomics and proteomics) to the macro level (patient outcomes and clinical data). Rather than being limited to protein folding, the models aim to bridge across data modalities so a genetic mutation can be linked to disease pathways, tissue behavior, and potential therapeutic interventions. This requires data breadth and regulatory trust, and Bioptimus is building a defensive moat through European data sovereignty. It leverages partnerships with European research hospitals and biobanks to access high-quality patient data that is difficult for US competitors to acquire under GDPR constraints. That compliance burden becomes a competitive advantage: safer access, better provenance, and stronger alignment with European health data governance. The company remains deeply embedded in the Paris ecosystem. It was incubated inside Owkin before spinning out, maintains a presence around Station F, and benefits from the cross-pollination between French AI and biotech communities. Its investor base reflects that positioning: Sofinnova Partners, Bpifrance, Cathay Innovation, Xavier Niel, and Frst provide a blend of life-science expertise, sovereign capital, and deep-tech conviction. In 2026, Bioptimus is the clearest European bet that foundation models can unlock biology at scale—and a contender to become the default AI layer for drug discovery in Europe.
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BlaBlaCar
BlaBlaCar is the world’s leading long-distance carpooling platform, often hailed as France’s flagship startup success. Founded in 2006 by Frédéric Mazzella (along with Francis Nappez and Nicolas Brusson), BlaBlaCar was born from Mazzella’s realization that countless car journeys had empty seats. The platform (named after users’ self-described chattyness level – “Bla”, “BlaBla”, or “BlaBlaBla”) connects drivers with spare seats to passengers traveling the same way, so they can share the ride and costs. Today, BlaBlaCar has a 100 million-member community across 22+ countries, serving over 25 million travelers per quarter pre-pandemic. It operates in most of Europe and parts of Latin America and Asia, having successfully localized carpooling in markets like Germany, Russia, Brazil, and Turkey. The company also branched into bus travel: in 2018, BlaBlaCar acquired Ouibus from SNCF, rebranding it BlaBlaBus, to offer intercity bus routes alongside carpool rides. BlaBlaCar’s business model charges a roughly 10–20% booking fee from passengers in mature markets, though in new markets it often launches free to build liquidity. Known for its strong community culture, BlaBlaCar emphasizes trust – it introduced verified profiles, ratings, and even an optional “Ladies Only” carpool option. The company achieved unicorn status in 2015 when it raised $200 million at a $1.6 billion valuation and later was valued around $2 billion. Despite the pandemic’s impact on travel, BlaBlaCar rebounded by 2022, even reporting profitability. In 2023, it raised €100 million in financing to fuel growth. BlaBlaCar is often cited in case studies (Harvard, etc.) as a pioneer of the sharing economy in Europe, proving that a people-powered platform can transform intercity transport. By bringing cost-effective travel to millions and fostering new friendships on the road, BlaBlaCar has truly brought “ridesharing” into the mainstream – and stands as one of Europe’s few consumer-tech unicorns with global reach.
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Bloomineral
Creates carbon-negative materials using biomineralisation — permanently storing CO2 as a limestone filler derived from cement-industry waste. Founded in 2024 at the LSCE in Paris-Saclay, targeting industrial decarbonisation.
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Brevo
Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) is a Paris-founded marketing automation and CRM platform serving over 500,000 businesses worldwide. Founded in 2012 by Armand Thiberge, the company rebranded in 2023 to reflect its expansion beyond email marketing into a full suite covering email, SMS, chat, marketing automation, sales CRM, and transactional messaging. Brevo has raised over $190 million and competes with Mailchimp and HubSpot in the SMB segment, with a strong emphasis on affordability and ease of use. The company maintains a large London presence and is one of France's most successful B2B SaaS exports.
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Brigad
Brigad is a French gig-economy marketplace connecting hospitality businesses with self-employed freelance staff such as waiters, chefs, and bartenders for short-term missions. Businesses can post a mission in minutes and only pay for completed work, while freelancers choose their own hours, get paid weekly, and have Brigad handle their contracts, invoices, and tax returns. The platform, active since 2016 in both France and the UK, reports more than 23,000 freelancers, over 12,000 businesses served, and 300,000+ missions accepted. Legally BRIGAD SAS, it is led by president Florent Malbranche.
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Circlemind
All-in-one e-learning platform co-built for neuroatypical people (ADHD, dyslexia, autism). It offers structured short learning paths, live workshops, peer communities and a customisable neuro-friendly interface designed to reduce cognitive overload. Incubated by Le Perqo, the Île-de-France inclusion-and-disability incubator.
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Clever Cloud
Clever Cloud is a French Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) company founded in 2011 and headquartered in Nantes, enabling development teams to deploy and run web applications with automated scaling and fully managed infrastructure. The company is one of France's leading independent cloud providers and a prominent participant in the European cloud sovereignty movement, operating data centers across multiple European regions. Clever Cloud serves as a Platinum sponsor of Sunny Tech 2026.
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Cocon
Free French collaborative platform for organising interior-design and home-renovation projects. It centralises inspiration images, product selections with prices, room-by-room budget tracking and delivery management in one place — replacing the usual scatter of Pinterest boards, spreadsheets and chat threads — and lets users share the workspace with a partner or artisan.
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Comand AI
Comand AI is a Paris-based defence-tech startup founded in 2023 that builds AI software to support military command and decision-making. Its product, Prevail, helps command-centre officers plan and execute manoeuvres under time and resource constraints, using AI simulations and analysis of operational data to speed up planning. CEO and co-founder Loïc Mougeolle previously spent nearly a decade at Naval Group, and the team includes people from companies such as Palantir and OpenAI as well as the French armed forces. The company raised 8.5M euro in seed funding in December 2024 led by Eurazeo, and has worked with the French and German militaries.
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Combo
Combo (formerly Snapshift) is a Paris-based HR software company for deskless workforces in hospitality, retail, food service, and other frontline industries. Its platform covers staff scheduling and time tracking, leave management, digital time clocks, contract generation with electronic signatures, HR dashboards, and payroll preparation exports. Combo reports more than 10,000 companies and 150,000 employees using the platform daily, and it operates from offices in Paris and Madrid.
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Contentsquare
Contentsquare is a Paris-based digital experience analytics company founded in 2012 by Jonathan Cherki that captures how users interact with websites and apps and turns that behaviour into insights for product, marketing and UX teams. It grew into one of France's most valuable software companies, acquiring rivals such as Clicktale and Heap, and serves thousands of global brands.
