70 French Climate Tech Startups To Know

After our deep dive into the Swiss climate tech scene, we decided to look across the border and jump into the Climate startups to know in l’hexagone.

The French climate tech scene has great representation in climate tracking, food and agriculture, energy, materials, and more - largely driven by strong technical universities and the active presence of Entrepreneur First.

If there’s someone you think we’ve missed, please add them to the list here.

Before jumping in… if you’re interested in French Climate Tech, you’ll want to join us at this years HackSummit in Lausanne, Switzerland for what will be the most fun Climate Tech event of the year.

With attendance from some of the top founders and VC’s active in global Climate Tech including Lower Carbon Capital, Neoplants, Planet A Ventures, Ecovative, Zero Carbon Capital, and many more.

Agriculture

• Lionel Mora of Neoplants - Creator of a bioengineered houseplant designed to purify the air in a bedroom, able to absorb up to 30 times more pollutants than a regular houseplant.

• Fabien Koutchekian & Dali Rashid of Genomines - Biologically engineering plants to renewably mine nickel.

• Christophe Downey of Horizom - Cultivating giant bamboo in France to sequester carbon and produce biomass for industrial use.

• Antoine Hubert of Ynsect - A robotic, AI-powered insect farm that produces powdered protein-based feed for animals and fish.

• Ruben Sabah of Hyperplan - Leveraging satellite and weather data technology to offer a SaaS solution to help companies manage the volatility of agricultural production.

• Hugo Asselin & Pascal Asselin of MORFO - Developer of a solution for large-scale ecological restoration of forest ecosystems.

• Aude Guo, Bastien Oggeri & Clément Ray of Innovafeed - Builder of the world’s largest insect protein production site.

• Michel Funfschilling of GAIAGO - Aiming to become the world leader in soil revitalisation.

Banking

• Maud Caillaux of Green-Got - Sustainable bank which ensures that its customers’ money doesn’t finance fossil fuels.

• Maeva Courtois & Julia Ménayas of Helios.do - A green alternative to the traditional banking model, with “more ethics and less CO2”, which invests in sustainability projects.

Chemicals

• Alexandra Carpentier & Michael Roes of TOOPI ORGANICS - recycling human urine into useful products for agriculture and industry.

• Ilan Palacci of Ever Dye - Developer of an innovative dyeing process and a low-heat, low-energy, bio-based pigment designed to depollute the textile industry.

• Jérémie Blache & Marie-Sarah Adenis of PILI - Developing sustainable dyes and pigments to reduce the environmental footprint of the colour industry.

Carbon Capture

• Sarah Lamaison of Dioxycle - Developer of electrolyser solutions that capture and convert carbon dioxide into useful chemical products.

• Axel Reinaud of NetZero - long-term carbon removal from the atmosphere, turning agricultural residues into biochar, a very stable form of carbon.

Carbon Credits

• Etienne Variot of Rize Ag - A carbon credit financing platform for French farmers.

• Goulnara Aguiar of ORMEX - A digital voluntary marketplace for agricultural carbon credits.

• Priscille Raynaud of Ecosystem Restoration Standard - A certification for nature-based restoration projects on the Voluntary Carbon Markets.

• Clément Georget, Ludovic Chatoux & Grégoire Guirauden of Riverse - Enabling manufacturing greentech companies in Europe to issue and sell carbon credits.

• Nicolas Ferriere of Carbonapp France - Certifying emissions reductions generated by local projects in several sectors.

• Flavian Ibled, Jean-Marc Levy & Thibaut Savoye of Carbone Farmers - Developer of a platform that enables stakeholders to valorise their contribution to supporting farmers’ transition to low carbon agriculture practices.

• Thaïs Drozdowski of Inuk - Providing a carbon offsetting solution through the financing of local renewable energy projects and blockchain technology.

Climate Finance

• Benjamin Tincq & Jonny Everett of Marble - A climate tech venture studio supporting deeptech startups that slash emissions, remove carbon, and cool the planet.

• Arthur Auboeuf of Time for the Planet - Raising money to “detect and deploy 100 global innovations against greenhouse gases”.

• Anaïs Bach of hummingbirds - Developing and financing carbon projects across the world, focusing mainly on tropical forests, agroforestry, wetlands, peatlands and coastal ecosystems.

• Thomas Rabant of ReGeneration - Investing in farmers undertaking regenerative agriculture practices.

• Guillaume Leti & Ramzi Laieb of Carbonable - Providing the “smartest and easiest” way to invest in carbon removal projects.

Climate Strategy / Reporting

• Vincent Bryant of Deepki - An “ESG index” that leverages data intelligence to implement the right ESG strategies for the real estate sector.

• Edouard Audi of apiday - Creator of an AI-powered tool to help investors get on top of ESG reporting.

• Géraldine Fournier of Bilan Carbone® - Consulting on climate strategy for startups and SMEs.

• Jean-Marc Jancovici of Carbone 4 - A consulting firm supporting businesses with decarbonisation and adaptation to climate change.

• Antoine Poincare of AXA Climate - Creator of the Climate School Business Unit at AXA Climate, helping companies upskill their staff on the sustainable transition.

• Alexis Normand of Greenly - Tracking CO2 emissions and rewarding sustainable spending by connecting to consumer bank accounts.

Climate Tracking / Mitigation - Consumer

• Anas Mbasso of Moovance - A mobile app designed to encourage consumers and businesses to measure and reduce their carbon impact.

Climate Tracking / Mitigation - Industry

• Rachel Delacour of Sweep - A B2B software platform that helps large companies to understand, manage and reduce their carbon footprint.

• Patrick Asdaghi of Carbon Maps - A science-based, data-driven software-as-a-service climate management platform for the food industry.

• Romain Fau of Kanop - Digitising and automating MRV to accurately measure carbon sequestration.

• Vassily Carantino of CarbonFarm - Using satellite data to cut emissions from rice-growing.

• Tanguy Touffut of Descartes Underwriting - insurtech company that specializes in climate risk modeling and data-driven risk transfer.

• Tanguy Robert of Sami - An all-in-one climate platform enabling companies to measure and reduce their carbon emissions.

• Martin Daniel of Carbonfact - Undertaking fast, scalable life-cycle assessments to help fashion brands lower their carbon emissions.

• Rodolphe Deniau, Thomas Guyot & Patrick Nollet of Traace - A software solution that allows companies to measure and manage their carbon footprint.

• Christine Heckmann of Verdikt - Creator of a platform which assesses, optimises and pilots the sustainable performance of businesses’ digital assets.

• Charlotte Degot of CO2 AI - Sustainability-as-a-service software for corporate carbon measurement.

• Simon Létourneau of Carbo - A SaaS software platform to help businesses monitor and reduce their environmental footprint.

• Laurent Barbezieux of Aktio - Offers a data collection service to help businesses reduce their carbon impact.

• Pierre Garreau of Searoutes - A solutions provider for logistics companies to get accurate CO2 visibility.

Cooling

• Stéphane Lips of Caeli Energie - Providing highly efficient, low carbon air conditioning systems.

Construction

• Charles Neuville & Mathieu Neuville of MATERRUP - Manufacturer of low-carbon clay cement.

Energy Production

• Francesco A. Volpe of Renaissance Fusion - Building stellarators for fusion energy - the most efficient, steady, and stable fusion reactors on earth.

• Erwan Pannier of Spark Cleantech - Pioneering hydrogen production via methane plasmolysis.

• Nicolas Heuzé of Sweetch Energy - Tapping into the power of osmotic energy using its INOD® technology to produce clean electricity from salt water.

• Guénaël Prince of Waga Energy - Recovering methane emitted by the breakdown of organic matter contained in waste and supplies it directly to the gas grid.

• Jules Hammond of BeFC Bioenzymatic Fuel Cells - Creator of paper biofuel cells that use enzymes to convert sugars and oxygen into electricity.

• Antoine Guyot of Jimmy - Designs and operates atomic thermal generators to massively decarbonize industry.

Energy Optimisation

• Antoine Rostand of Kayrros - Using data and machine learning to monitor and measure energy, natural resources and industrial activity worldwide.

• Édouard Ibled of Carbonloop - Offering on-site production of renewable gas and hydrogen to accelerate the local decarbonisation of industry.

• Manuel Letort of Fridaa Green - Supporting consumers in researching, financing and renovating homes so that they conform to green energy standards.

• Pierre Tremolieres of Accenta.ai - Develops smart solutions maximizing the energy efficiency and decarbonization of buildings.

Food Production

• Martin Habfast of Umiami - Creating plant-based whole-cuts that look, taste, and sizzle like animal-based meat.

• Nathalie Rolland of Nutropy - Inspired by traditional French cheesemaking methods to create animal-free gourmet cheese via precision fermentation.

• Nicolas Morin-Forest of GOURMEY - Developing cultivated meats, including foie gras, and on a mission to build Europe’s biggest cultivated meat hub.

• Alexandre Reeber of Core Biogenesis - Building a plant-based bioproduction facility, plus a technology platform that can express recombinant proteins from the seeds of a Camelina sativa oilseed plant.

• Stéphane Mac Millan at Bon Vivant - Developing animal-free dairy milk using precision fermentation.

• Etienne Duthoit at Vital Meat - France’s first cultivated meat startup.

• Frédéric Pâques & Romain Chayot at Standing Ovation - Developing animal-free casein via precision fermentation.

• Nicolas Schweitzer & Vincent Poulichet of La Vie™ - Creating delicious plant-based meat alternatives thanks to its patented fat recipe.

Infrastructure

• Jerome Di Giovanni of Green Praxis - Delivering nature-based vegetation management solutions for infrastructure operators with large land footprints.

Materials

• Benoit Illy of Fairbrics - Developing a synthetic polyester fibre from CO2 captured from industrial sources, with the aim of creating carbon-negative PET.

• Gillian Gover of PDA Ecolab - Using bio-based materials to improve the performance of composites while reducing the CO2 impact across a range of verticals including sports and leisure, automotive, aerospace, and renewable energy.

• Haïkel Balti of Faircraft - Developing a sustainable, lab-grown alternative to animal leather.

• Ben Saada of FAIRMAT - Creating a sustainable future for carbon fiber composite by transforming production scrap and EOL waste into a new recycled material.

• Benjamin Blum-Boukobza of BLOOM - Making chic and ethical vegan shoes from biobased and recycled materials.

Recycling

• Marjorie Darcet & Olivier Large of Lixo - Developer of software solutions that improve the performance of recycling companies, from waste collection to sorting and recycling.

• Reynold Simonnet of Dipli - Creator of France’s first digital and fully integrated supply chain dedicated to second-hand electronics.

Transport

• Aurélien de Meaux of Electra - platform that provides Charging stations Ultra fast for electric vehicles.

• François Oudot of Bump - Managing the deployment and operation of electric vehicle charging stations to help commercial fleets transition to green energy.

• Inès Multrier & Alfred Richard of Nelson - Data-driven software that enables companies to plan, deploy and operate a successful electrification strategy for their car fleet.

• Nicolas Duvaut of K-Ryole - Creator of the first smart, self-propelled electric bike trailer that can carry up to 250kg behind any bike.

Water

• Sébastien Demech of Telaqua - Using data and IoT to optimise water consumption within agriculture.

If you’re building or investing in Climate Tech, come join us and 800+ others this May 11-12th in Lausanne, Switzerland for a global gathering of climate tech investors and entrepreneurs.

You can reserve an Investor Pass or a Startup Booth today and use code FRENCHTECH for a discount on your ticket.

Disclaimer: The author and the authors company, HackCapital, may hold direct investment positions in some of the startups mentioned above.