A few weeks ago, we published our yearly report on the state of the French FoodTech ecosystem (available here in English AND French). We do not only write this report because we are based in France but also because we feel that foreign players do not sufficiently consider the French AgriFoodTech ecosystem. Indeed, even if the share of non-French investors has increased, their involvement in the French ecosystem remains quite shallow, with most of them having European offices in London or Berlin but not in Paris. Similarly, while this is also changing quite slowly, French startups seem to have a harder time creating partnerships with international agrifood companies. This may even be extended in some instances to French companies preferring to scout for innovation beyond their home markets.
To go beyond the picture of the French FoodTech ecosystem given by investments, I am glad to share with you DigitalFoodLab’s France FoodTech 30, a mapping of the 30 most exciting French FoodTech startups to know.
First, how did we make the list for 2024?
Each year, we aim to make our process even more thorough and rigorous. First, from the pool of about 900+ active FoodTech startups in France, we select those that have raised significant funding (depending on their categories) over the past three years and rank them using the following questions:
- Trend: is the startup surfing on key trends identified by DigitalFoodLab?
- Funding or profitability: Is there enough money to go to the next level?
- Hype: Can it communicate its service or product well enough to attract interest?
- Exit potential: can it realistically become either a unicorn (become a leader and go through an IPO) or be acquired in less than five years (the most probable path for an agrifoodtech startup)
In a word, this is a combination of objective and subjective information to provide a snapshot of what is happening right now in France’s FoodTech and which are the best players.
What can we learn from the France FoodTech 30?
First, if we compare this mapping to the one we released two years ago (here), there is a very noticeable evolution. From one year to the next, the landscape has been pretty much the same, but now there is significant activity with multiple new “relevant” and cool startups being launched all over the agrifood value chain. However, there is a strong downside: many of the companies we removed have lost some of their relevance simply because they have failed or are slowly shutting down (such as Ynsect, Pyxo, Bolk or Jungle).
Second, we can observe a structural change in what’s making the French FoodTech ecosystem. It is much more B2C-focused than it was a couple of years ago, with notable food science (HappyVore, La Vie) and delivery (Le Fourgon, Bene Bono, La Fourche…) startups catering their products and services directly, and quite successfully, to consumers. That’s really new for French startups. Now, the next challenge for most of them will be to scale internationally, something that has not yet been successfully done by a French FoodTech player.
Finally, the ecosystem as a whole is still waiting for its “champion”, notably after the recent news on Ynsect. The number of success stories remains quite limited, and the absence of a “massive success”, even if some seem to be almost there, slows down the growth of investments and the creation of new exciting ventures.
