Innovation & Entrepreneurship Institute

From Tech to Deep Tech, HEC Paris startups make their stand in major rankings

For more than a decade, dozens of rankings and indexes have been shaping the world of entrepreneurship and innovation. For the startups, being featured in these rankings is one of their great achievements: it validates their trajectory, they gain immediate visibility and attract potential investors.

Every year, we take great pride in seeing startups from the HEC Paris ecosystem featured in prestigious startup rankings, with some even achieving unicorn status. In 2024, two new startups from our ecosystem reached this milestone: Pennylane and Evidation. They join the growing list of French unicorns 'made in HEC Paris', which includes: Doctolib, Qonto, Ivalua, Mirakl, Younited.

As our ecosystem grows and strengthens, we also notice more and more HEC Paris startups establishing themselves in Deep Tech rankings. 2024 made it clear that the spotlight would be on Deep Tech with new rankings emerging and traditional ones integrating even more Deep Tech startups.

Let’s take a tour on all majors 2024 French and European rankings, their respective specificity, and see how the HEC Paris community is represented within them. 
 

IEI Rankings 2024 infographic

In the French radars

French Tech Next40/120: The Highest Potential French Startups

Launched in 2019, the French Tech Next40/120 is a government program supporting French scaleups with the potential to become global technology leaders.  Including 28 of France's unicorns and 31 companies reporting net revenue exceeding €100 million, it represents one of the most looked-at rankings in France. Selection criteria focus on revenue growth and fundraising success.

2024 witnessed a real shift in this program with two new selection criteria being integrated. All 2024 Next40 and French Tech 120 winners had to commit to two key areas:

  1. Environmental transition: Provide a carbon assessment conducted between 2021 and 2024.
  2. Gender equality: Share their professional equality index, which must score at least 75 or include an action plan to reach this target.
     
FT120/Next40

 

In 2024, HEC Paris stands out as the top business school for producing promising startups, with 25 startups founded or co-founded by HEC Alumni. 21% of the startups featured in FT120 were founded or co-founded by HEC Alumni.

Among the newcomers: Flowdesk, Foodles, Greenly, La Fourche, Lifen, Madbox, Mooncard, Seyna, SWAP Food, Volta Medical, Worldia. These startups join 2023’s laureates: Agryco (ex agriconomie), Descartes Underwriting, Le Collectionist, Libon, MEDADOM, Ornikar, Ÿnsect, Zeplug.

About the NEXT40, Ankorstore, Doctolib, Mirakl, Qonto and Younited are once again part of the list, with Pennylane joining the NEXT40 for the very first time.

Collectively, these 25 startups have created over 10,000+ highly skilled jobs, making a significant contribution to the economy.

Find out more about the 2024 Edition of the French Tech Next40/120

Challenges 100: Startups Where To Invest

Published by the magazine Challenges since 2010, Challenges 100 is the annual ranking of the top 100 French startups to invest in. To be eligible for the ranking, startups must be headquartered in France, have launched after 2020, be actively seeking funding to accelerate their growth, operate independently, without being part of a larger corporation, and remain privately held. Most importantly, they should generate revenue, with exceptions made for promising startups in biotech, Deep Tech, and industrial sectors.

In 2024, out of 100 startups, 19 are from the HEC Paris community, including startups founded by HEC Alumni, participants of our Deep Tech programs: CDL-Paris and Challenge+, and startups from the Incubateur HEC Paris:

Future 40 Station 2024: Station F’s most promising startups

Launched in 2019, the Future 40 Station F annual ranking highlights the top 4% of the most promising startups from over 1,000 hosted at the Station F campus in Paris. The selection focuses on innovative companies demonstrating strong growth, traction, and impactful solutions, with this year's cohort emphasizing AI-driven technologies and international diversity. So far, these 40 selected startups have also collectively raised €93 million, with 88% of the investments coming from international investors.

Inclusion in the Future 40 provides startups with increased visibility, networking opportunities with investors, and a platform to accelerate their business development.

With some of our flagship programs being hosted at Station F: Incubateur HEC Paris, Creative Destruction Lab-Paris, HEC Paris Startup Launchpad, META AI Startup program, L’Oréal Beauty Tech, TotalEnergiesOn, KISED, KOSME, etc., startups from our ecosystem were well-positioned to make it onto this list.

In 2024, 17 startups (representing 42,5% of the ranking) from our program portfolio are included in the ranking:

FUTURE40 2024

 

LinkedIn Top Startups: French Most Dynamic Tech Startups [NEW IN 2024]

The LinkedIn Top Startups 2024 ranking lists the 20 most dynamic tech startups in France, based on LinkedIn exclusive data. From AI to combating climate change and employee mental health, these startups stand out by developing innovative solutions that shape the future of their sectors.

To establish this ranking, LinkedIn evaluated startups based on four criteria: Employee headcount growth, company and employee LinkedIn engagement, job listing interest and talent attractiveness. To be eligible, startups must be totally independent and private companies, have at least 30 full-time employees, have a minimum of five years of existence and be based in France.
ench headquarters

20% of the selected startups are part of the HEC Paris ecosystem. This includes four startups: Pennylane, Greenly, Resilience (founded by two HEC Alumni), and Beyond Aero.

Find out more about the ranking

Vivatech: The HEC Paris community stole the show

At Viva Technology, Europe’s biggest startup and technology event, students and startups from the HEC Paris ecosystem made a lasting impression in three different categories.

Next Startup Challenge: Resilient, a startup focused on enhancing climate resilience for industrial companies, has achieved significant recognition in the 2024 Next Startup Challenge. The team, consisting of Tom Verheyde, Lucas Letellier, Matthieu Haguenauer, and Louise Éon, was among the seven finalists selected from over 200 projects to pitch their innovative idea.

LVMH Innovation Award: Japanese startup HERALBONY, which participated in a Guest Program within the HEC Paris Incubation and Acceleration Center, was selected as one of the 18 finalists for the 2024 LVMH Innovation Award, where its Head of Global Business, Megumi Kobayashi, received the Employee Experience, Diversity & Inclusion Award among 1,545 candidates from 89 countries.

Female Founder Challenge: Albane Dersy (H.19), co-founder and COO of Inbolt, won the Female Founder Challenge, which celebrates women leading startups and developing disruptive, society-shaping technologies. Leveraging her diverse background from HEC Paris and Polytechnique, Albane drives Inbolt’s innovation in industrial robotics with the GuideNOW system, which enhances robot intelligence using AI and 3D vision for real-time adaptive guidance.
 

Female Founder Challenfe at Vivatech 2024Deep Tech x HEC Paris: Business Schools are becoming strong contributors to Science  

 

Deep Tech x HEC Paris: Business Schools are becoming strong contributors to Science  

Science and business are becoming more and more intertwined. Over the years, HEC Paris, through its Deep Tech Center, hosted within the HEC Paris Innovation and Entrepreneurship Institute, has played a pivotal role in the Deep Tech ecosystem with two programs supporting PhD researchers and innovators from all over the world: Creative Destruction Lab - Paris and Challenge + (celebrating its 30th anniversary this year!).

Observatoire Deep Tech: University ranking [NEW IN 2024]

Powered by BPIFrance and operated by Dealroom, the ‘University Rankings’ ranks French schools based on Alumni founders of Deep Tech Startups’.

With 200+ Deep Tech startups founded by at least one HEC Alumni, representing €1-5B in cumulative investments and €10-20B of combined enterprise value, HEC Paris ranks number 4. Most importantly, HEC Paris stands as the #1 business school training founders of Deep Tech startups. 
 

Find out more about this University Rankings
 

BPI Deep Tech 50 [NEW IN 2024]

Initiated by BPIFrance once again, the Europe's Deep Tech Meetup event highlights the most promising Deep Tech startups by connecting them with renowned French and European investors. 50 Deep Tech startups were selected to participate in the event, among which 10 (representing 20% of the batch), are from HEC Paris ecosystem:

Sifted 50 France 2024 [NEW IN 2024]

Well-known in the startups ecosystem, Sifted is a leading media outlet for European tech news, which publishes rankings annually to highlight the most promising and rapidly expanding companies in various countries. Sifted 50 France 2024 is one of them and serves as another barometer for the French startup ecosystem. It ranks the 50 fastest-growing French startups based on their revenue growth over the past three years.

In 2024, the list included startups operating in fintech, insurtech, mobility tech, and ESG. Being featured in the Sifted 50 France list validates the startups’ growth trajectory and increases their visibility within the European tech community.

Among the 50 startups showcased in the listing, nine (representing 18% of the ranking) are part of the HEC Paris ecosystem: some were founded by at least one HEC Alumni while others participated in our flagship Incubateur HEC Paris program. Well done to these promising French startups: Dalma, Kinetix, Greenly, Aria, Beev, Seyna, Descartes Underwriting, Foodles, and La Fourche.

Local rankings are keeping pace

Spring 50: Paris-Saclay Territory’s brightest ideas

Each year, the Paris-Saclay ecosystem showcases 50 of its brightest ideas for tomorrow through the Paris-Saclay SPRING event. To be eligible, startups must be based in Paris-Saclay, and supported by local innovation hubs. They must be collaborating with actors from Paris-Saclay territory, involving student-entrepreneurs or PhD students from local institutions, and establishing their presence in the territory.

In 2024, 13 startups were founded by at least one member of the HEC Paris community (Alumni and participants of the Incubateur HEC Paris), representing 26% of the ranking. Two laureates are HEC Alumni and one of them emerged from our HEC Paris Startup Launchpad:

Rewake, founded by Alban Catoire, won the Spring50 Contest in the Cleantech category
LumiSync, founded by Alexis Jonville, won the Spring50 Contest in the Digital Technologies category

LumiSync, founded by Alexis Jonville, won the Spring50 Contest in the Digital Technologies category

 

Saclay 20: Young Entrepreneurs from the French Silicon Valley 

Every year, Start in Saclay releases ‘Saclay 20’ the annual ranking of the 20 most promising startups in Paris-Saclay, created by young entrepreneurs from the "French Silicon Valley". 
In 2024, among the 20 startups laureates, five were co-founded by HEC Paris students or participating in our Incubateur HEC Paris program: Rewake (GreenTech), Corma (Deep Tech), Neurobus (Deep Tech), Respark (GreenTech) and Apluss (EdTech).

Finally, zooming out a little bit, HEC Paris also made its stands in the 2024 PitchBook European University Ranking, in the Graduate category, reaching the number 5 position out of 50. This ranking is based on the total number of founders whose companies received a round of venture funding within the last ten years.

 

 


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