👋 Inside this week's edition:
👀 As ChangeNOW closes its 9th edition in Paris, ChangeNOW CEO Santiago Lefebvre explains why the real momentum lies beyond the noise. The conference drew 40,000 people, including 1,400 investors, this week. Despite a tougher climate narrative, Lefebvre sees no slowdown on the ground.
👀 Impact France and Les Echos unveiled their latest ranking of 120 high-growth French startups tackling society’s biggest challenges. The cohort has raised €7.4B, with over half operating globally and more than a third already profitable. Explore the full list in our interactive table.
Chris O'Brien + Helen O'Reilly-Durand
Paris Blockchain Week 2026 marks a clear shift toward an institutional-first approach. Taking place on April 15–16 in Paris, the event focuses on how digital assets are being integrated into regulated financial systems, with discussions centered on adoption, market structure, custody, compliance, and financial infrastructure.
Hosted at the Carrousel du Louvre, with an invitation-only gathering at the Château de Versailles, Paris Blockchain Week convenes senior decision-makers from finance, regulation, and market infrastructure, positioning digital assets within existing financial systems rather than alongside them.
Confirmed participants and partners include S&P Global, Fidelity Investments, Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, Invesco, the European Commission, Circle, Ripple, Cardano, and Bybit, reflecting the growing institutional involvement in digital assets across Europe and beyond.
Learn more about the agenda and participation opportunities at Paris Blockchain Week 2026. And use this code to get a 15% discount: FTJ-PBW15.
Tech Talk
🚧🏃 ManoMano’s founders are stepping back from day-to-day ops, handing the keys to an industrial outsider, a sign the DIY unicorn needs some… repairs of its own. After the Covid sugar rush, growth has slowed, layoffs have hit, valuation has slipped, and the company has quietly exited France’s startup VIP lists. Now it’s pivoting hard to B2B and AI-powered tooling, betting its data mojo can revive momentum. The real question: is this a fresh coat of paint, or a full structural overhaul? | Madddyness
🤝🤗 If you didn't partner with Station F this week, you might have been the only one. The X-Man's House O'Startups paired up with Sanofi to cook up the next generation of AI-driven drugs, while Databricks moves in to make sure everyone’s building on its data stack. On one side, startups get hands-on access to real pharma problems (and actual datasets). On the other side, they’re handed the tools to turn all that into “enterprise-grade AI.” It’s part research lab, part cloud land grab, with everyone racing to own the future of health + AI. So, yeah, AI, yaka yaka, yaka...
🤖👩⚕️ France just gave its first real nod to reimbursing a digital therapy and, of course, it involves a talking robot. Ludocare’s “Joe,” designed to help kids stick to their asthma treatment, finally convinced health authorities after an initial rejection and the submission of better data. The pitch is fewer severe attacks, more compliance, and a slightly gamified inhaler routine. | Maddyness
'We Didn’t Argue—We Showed Up': ChangeNOW CEO Santiago Lefebvre Pushes Forward Despite Global Climate Fight Backlash
ChangeNOW, the annual Paris-based gathering of international investors, entrepreneurs, policymakers, and corporations focused on accelerating solutions for the planet, has just wrapped its 9th edition
As it closed on Wednesday after three days of conversations, deals, and encounters, I caught up with founder and CEO Santiago Lefebvre to reflect on this year’s edition.
Against a backdrop of geopolitical tensions and shifting priorities, the tone wasn’t one of optimism for its own sake, but of continuity and resilience. While the broader narrative may be evolving, the core ecosystem of changemakers is still moving, and the work hasn’t stopped.
For Lefebvre, that is the real signal that lies loud and clear, beneath the noise.
Impact 40/120 2026: The 120 French Startups Building the Future of Climate, Health, and Inclusive Growth
Impact France unveiled its 3rd annual Impact 40/120 index this week, a ranking of the 120 French startups most likely to become the next generation of "impact unicorns."
The organization, which brings together business leaders committed to building a sustainable economy, published the index this year in partnership with Les Echos. The two-tiered list mirrors the government's Next 40/120 initiatives, which identify the most promising startups across sectors.
According to the organizers, the laureates in the latest batch have collectively raised €7.4 billion since inception, up 17.5% from the 2024 cohort. More than half (53%) now operate internationally.
A full 51% have at least one woman on the founding team. And 36% are already profitable, a figure the sponsors hope will quietly demolish the old cliché that purpose-driven companies can't make money.
💸 Top Funding Deals 💸
📇 Company: Standing Ovation
🏷️ Sectors: FoodTech, ClimateTech, BioTech
🔍 Description: Standing Ovation is a French foodtech startup producing animal-free dairy proteins using precision fermentation. Its core innovation enables the production of casein—the key protein in milk—without livestock, allowing manufacturers to recreate dairy products such as cheese, yogurt, and cream with identical functional properties while significantly reducing environmental impact. The company operates a B2B model, supplying food, nutrition, and future health/cosmetics players with sustainable protein ingredients.
💻 Website: Standing Ovation
📍 HQ City: Paris
🧗 Round: Series B
💰 Amount Raised: €25 million
🏦 Investors: Danone Ventures, Crédit Mutuel, Angelor, Bel Group, Bpifrance, Astanor, Seventure Partners, Good Startup, Big Idea Ventures
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Romain Chayot, Yvan Chardonnens
🗞️ News: Standing Ovation raised €3oM in a Series B round, including €25 million in equity, to scale the industrial production and commercialization of its precision-fermented casein. The startup has secured U.S. “Self-GRAS” regulatory approval, enabling partners to begin integrating its protein into food products, with commercial launches expected in 2026. Positioned ahead of many peers in the fermentation space, the company is entering the commercialization phase while preparing for regulatory approval in Europe. With applications spanning food, animal nutrition, cosmetics, and health, Standing Ovation targets a global protein market exceeding €600B by 2035 and aims to reach cost parity with traditional dairy proteins by 2030 through scale. | Les Echos, Maddyness, EU Startups
📇 Company: Generare
🏷️ Sectors: BioTech, AI & Machine Learning, DeepTech
🔍 Description: Generare is a French biotech startup leveraging AI and microbial genomics to discover new bioactive molecules for pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, and cosmetics. Its platform combines machine learning with cloning and sequencing technologies to explore previously untapped microbial diversity, generating novel molecular data that can unlock new therapeutic pathways and targets. The company operates upstream in the drug discovery value chain, supplying both data and physical molecules to industry players.
💻 Website: Generare
📍 HQ City: Paris
🧗 Round: Series A
💰 Amount Raised: €15M
🏦 Investors: Alven, daphni, Galion.exe, Teampact Ventures, Vives Partners
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Guillaume Vandenesch
🗞️ News: Generare raised €20M in a Series A round co-led by Alven and daphni to scale its AI-powered molecular discovery platform. Founded in 2023 and incubated at Hôpital Cochin, the startup has already identified over 200 novel small molecules by analyzing microbial genomes through cloning and sequencing technologies. Positioned as a data-generation layer for drug discovery, Generare aims to expand its proprietary molecular database to 2,000 molecules by 2027 and over 10,000 long term. The funding will support R&D, team expansion, and international growth, particularly in the U.S., as the company targets pharma, agrochemical, and cosmetics markets. | Les Echos, EU Startups
📇 Company: SCorp-io
🏷️ Sectors: ClimateTech, PropTech, AI & Machine Learning, SaaS & Enterprise
🔍 Description: SCorp-io is a French startup developing an intelligent building management system (BMS/GTB) for mid-sized tertiary buildings. Its solution combines plug-and-play hardware with AI-driven software to connect, model, and optimize existing building equipment. Through features such as digital twin creation, remote control, and automated energy optimization, the platform enables rapid deployment and delivers significant energy savings without requiring substantial infrastructure investment.
💻 Website: SCorp-io
📍 HQ City: Paris
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €5M
🏦 Investors: Île-de-France Décarbonation Fund
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Jean-Romain Bardet, Cédric Godefroy, Bastien Robinot
🗞️ News: SCorp-io raised €5M to accelerate the deployment of its AI-powered building management solution targeting mid-sized commercial buildings—an under-equipped segment facing increasing regulatory and cost pressures. Founded in 2021, the company enables 20–40% energy savings with a reported six-month ROI by leveraging plug-and-play hardware, digital twin technology, and automated optimization. Already deployed across 250+ sites and serving 52 clients, SCorp-io has helped reduce energy consumption by 440 GWh and avoid 6,200 tonnes of CO₂ in 2025. The funding will support product development, team expansion, and commercial scaling as demand for decarbonization solutions intensifies. | FrenchWeb
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