France: Impact startups punch above their weight for funding in November

Startup funding is still a nervous topic in France. The immediate post-Covid period saw a lot of activity and enthusiasm, but recent global challenges like the war in Ukraine, as well as the faltering of several big startups on their way to profit, have seen a lot of investors take a step back. In recent months we’ve seen an increase in funding again and many commentators are looking to call the end of the ‘funding crisis.’

Drop from recent months

The November funding roundup, from French business mainstay Le Journal du Net, shows a bit of a drop from recent months but still solid investment, with around €750m in funding doled out last month. Big Data and Fintech led the winners table last month, but a closer look at the numbers shows impact-focused startups slightly over-represented when it comes to funding. Of the 71 startups featured, a quarter were impact or adjacent companies, but their funding accounted for just under 31% of total funding.

Up top are the photovoltaic manufacturer ZE Energy, the airline carbon footprint tracking company OpenAirlines and plant resilience biotech Elicit Plant. These three between them account for €144m of the €231 raised in French impact in November.

A number of promising impact startups

Following these, and all with double-digit millions of euros raised, are animal protein-based Lactips, lab-grown leather producer Faircraft, energy efficiency analytics company Metron and IADYS, a company focussed on robotics for water depollution.

Beyond these are a number of promising and varied impact startups. These include several devoted to solar energy innovation, projects to reduce food waste and improve greenhouse efficiency as well as a couple of sustainability analytics companies.

Solar on the rise

The presence of several solar energy startups here is of particular note in light of a new report from consultancy PwC showing that climate tech companies are still struggling to find funding several years after a funding peak. The US is still going reasonably strong thanks to the incentives created by President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, but here in Europe firms are struggling. Nonetheless, investors are clearly still out there, if a little more judicious with their wallets.

And of course it’s worth noting that one of the newest startups on November’s list is biodiversity analytics company Darwin – who we here at Impact Loop profiled just a few days ago.