At this time of year, the French government and the government-backed initiative French Technology, collects applications, crunches figures and ranks the 120 best-performing startups in France right now, with a special category for the top 40. The result are two classifications which are based on objective criteria: Next40 and French Tech 120.
Before I tell you more about the criteria and what you get when you make these lists, here are this year's French Tech 120 and Next40:
Image credits: French TechCompared to last year's Next40, 29 of them were already part of the top category. It means that 11 new companies joined the group; some of them were already part of the French Tech 120 and outperformed the rest of the industry of start-ups, such as EcoVadis, NW Storm, Innovafeed, Pigment and Verkor.
Newcomers to Next40 are ClubFunding (a real estate investment platform), Electra y ZePlug (two EV charging starts), flying whale (aircraft manufacturer), SAFTIA (real estate market) and wifirst (a professional telecommunication company).
As for last year's Next40 startups, some of them became public companies: the French government only wants to include private companies in these rankings to give some visibility to companies that don't share their profits publicly. That is the reason why Deezer is no longer here this year and OVHcloud was delisted last year. Others dropped to the second category or dropped out of the ranking altogether. For example, Meero is nowhere to be found.
Next40's ranking is still primarily determined by how much VC money it has raised. If your company is a unicorn, which means if it has raised a funding round that led to a valuation of $1.000 billion or more, the startup automatically becomes a Next40 company. This is how 26 companies joined Next40. As for the rest of the group, they have raised a round of financing of 100 million euros or more between 2020 and 2022 (107 million dollars at today's exchange rates).
In the next category, French Tech 120, the government selected the 40 companies that have raised the largest rounds of funding. For this year, these startups have raised at least 40 million euros (43 million dollars).
Finally, for the last 40 new companies that have been selected, the government analyzed the income. These companies generated at least €10 million in annual turnover and have been growing at a rapid pace with at least 25% year-on-year revenue growth over the last three years.
And it's true that some of these startups are now generating some serious revenue. For example, Mirakl achieved $135 million in annual recurring revenue by 2022. The startup operates marketplaces for third-party products on popular e-commerce websites. The company processed $6 billion in gross merchandise volume last year. Digital Marketing Automation Service Sendinblue reached 100 million euros in annual recurring revenue (107 million dollars). Younited reported €190 million ($203 million) in revenue last year.
These French start-ups can contact La French Tech if they face a problem with public administrations. The French Tech can then make an introduction with a French Tech representative in one of the 60 different partner administrations. These representatives try help startups when obtaining visas for foreign employees, obtaining a certification or a patent, selling a product to a public administration, etc.
In total, the 120 companies of the French Tech 120 work with 47.800 employees. These startups generate 11.300 billion euros in revenue ($12.000 billion). In other words, most metrics move up and to the right, but some grow faster than others. For example, only 15 companies have at least one female co-founder or CEO. There is still a long way to go when it comes to female representation and diversity in the French tech ecosystem.
