Who are the GreenTech startups founders in France?
Are GreenTech company founders just like other startup founders? It is a question we have been asking ourselves for a long time. From an investor’s perspective, we certainly had our own views on the subject but what was missing was a clear outline. It is the reason why we decided to carry out this study: we needed a common framework.
Since the beginning of 2023, we have been listing all French GreenTech startups which have announced funding rounds ranging from pre-seed to Series A. All that was left was to let the figures do the talking.
And what do they say to us? The results are more nuanced than initially expected. When compared to their counterparts in the world of “classic” startups, GreenTech founders are more likely to have studied engineering (64%); PhD students are also over-represented (10%).
One small surprise: it turns out that GreenTech is hardly any more gender-balanced than the tech industry as a whole, with just under a quarter (24%) of founders being women.
Here are the study’s main findings:
- 22% of startups boast mixed teams, with at least one female founder (compared to 48% in our portfolio).
- 64% of teams include at least one person with a master's degree in engineering or scientific research (compared to 51% in our portfolio).
- Air Liquide is the largest supplier of founders, accounting for 11 profiles over our study’s timeframe, followed by EY and McKinsey (10).
- BPI France is the most active investor in terms of number of deals (11) and amount invested, followed by Asterion Ventures (8 deals and 14M invested) over said timeframe.
A few words on the study methodology :
Inspired by studies on the profiles of unicorn founders and those who have successfully raised a Series A in France, we examined the backgrounds and trajectories of the 426 co-founders of 202 French GreenTech startups who raised a pre-seed, seed or Series A round between January 1, 2023 and March 31, 2024.
Please note: we only studied startups that raised funds within this period. Unlike the Impact France Index 40/120 or the BPI's annual study dedicated to GreenTech, our sample is more limited (it consists of the “Impact at Scale” companies that Asterion aims to support).
When selecting companies, we used the BPI definition: a Greentech is a company offering an innovative solution (a product, service or process) that improves the environmental impact of businesses or end consumers, by making a significant contribution to at least one objective in the European taxonomy: climate change mitigation, adaptation to climate change, sustainable use and protection of aquatic and marine resources, transition to a circular economy, pollution prevention and reduction, protection and restoration of biodiversity and ecosystems.
To select our sample, we relied on the Avolta and CTVC newsletters, which list almost all funding rounds, as well as LinkedIn (and our own network when necessary) to gain an understanding of the founders' educational and professional backgrounds leading up to the creation of their startup.
This survey is the first of its kind, which we hope to carry out on an annual basis, with a more in-depth analysis of specific trajectories in the future.
Visit the Echos article by Camille Wong and the full study via this link.