HEC Paris stands strong in the 2025 French Tech Next40/120 Ranking
HEC Paris continues to solidify its position as a leading institution for nurturing entrepreneurial champions, as evidenced by our strong presence in the 2025 French Tech Next40/120 ranking. This year's promotion underscores HEC Paris’ consistent representation in the most strategic segment of the French Tech ecosystem, reflecting the capacity of the startups from our ecosystem to build scalable and structured businesses with significant growth potential.
A Significant Footprint in 2025
This year, 25 startups founded or co-founded by HEC alumni are featured in the French Tech Next40/120 promotion.
Congratulations to the eight startups featured in the Next40, representing a significant 20% of the entire Next40 ranking: Agryco, Descartes Underwriting, Doctolib, Mirakl, Pennylane, Qonto, Worldia, and Zeplug. This marks a stable presence compared to previous years, with 6 HEC alumni in 2024 and 10 in 2023.
Among them, four are renowned unicorns: Doctolib, Mirakl, Pennylane and Qonto.
Kudos to the 17 startups featured in the FT120, accounting for 21% of the ranking: Alma (Challenge+ participant), Foodles, Greenly, La Fourche, Le Collectionist, Libon, Madbox, Moon Surgical, Medadom (Incubateur HEC Paris participant), Ornikar, Seyna, Swap Food, which welcome five new comers, making up approximately 30% of the new entrants: Pixmania, Resilience, Veesion, Shippeo and Papernest.
“You could say it’s a reward. But for us, it’s above all proof that committed tech can grow without betraying its values.”
Alexis Normand (H.06), CEO & co-founder at Greenly
These companies collectively represent an estimated €23 billion in market capitalization, according to Dealroom, which testifies of the robust economic models and strategic growth plans cultivated by HEC Paris entrepreneurs.
Beyond financial metrics, the human impact is equally compelling. The 25 HEC startups alone account for 11,681 direct jobs created, both in France and internationally. This figure constitutes 27% of the total 42,000 direct jobs created by the entire 2025 Next40/120 cohort, showcasing HEC Paris' substantial contribution to highly skilled employment and the broader economy.
HEC Paris' sectoral signature in the French Tech Next40/120
HEC Paris startups exhibit a distinctive sectoral signature within the Next40/FT120, with a strong affinity for mature economic models.
In the highly competitive Next40 segment, HEC Paris founders and participants are demonstrating their capability to establish themselves in key sectors like FinTech (Qonto, Pennylane, and Descartes), FoodTech (Agryco), TravelTech (Worldia), Energy (Zeplug), Health (Doctolib), and Marketing (Mirakl). This orientation reflects a distinctive positioning of HEC Paris entrepreneurs, often favoring hybrid B2B/B2C models, and betting on operational maturity, execution speed, and market alignment.
Looking at the broader French Tech 120 ranking, startups from our ecosystem demonstrate a strong ability to address concrete needs and transform well-identified usages, anchoring themselves in a highly “market-driven” logic. Examples such as Foodles (corporate catering), Ornikar (driving education), and Medadom (healthcare) illustrate how these entrepreneurs have successfully digitized existing services with scalable, user-centric models.
Other companies are also emerging with advanced technological capabilities, such as Moon Surgical, Descartes, and Veesion. The latter applies AI to detect suspicious gestures in retail and has become a global leader in its field.
Finally, HEC Paris entrepreneurs also demonstrate a capability to differentiate themselves in niche, high-value-added segments like Gaming (Madbox), Travel (Worldia, Le Collectionist), and Marketing (Mirakl, Papernest), further illustrating their market and user-oriented approach.
HEC Paris ecosystem: The starting point to entrepreneurial success
HEC Paris consistently ranks as the number one business school for producing startups featured in the French Tech Next40/120. In the 2025 ranking, HEC Paris boasts 31 alumni founders across its 25 companies.
Our business school's powerful ecosystem is a key enabler of this success. It provides access to an 80,000-strong international HEC Alumni network, numerous successful entrepreneurs, empowering professors, and over 1,000 experts and mentors through the HEC Paris Innovation & Entrepreneurship Institute, who support every stage of the entrepreneurial journey.
Partnerships with world-class academic institutions and corporations, such as the Creative Destruction Lab - Paris for DeepTech and collaborations in BeautyTech with L’Oréal Beauty Tech Atelier, in AI with Meta AI Startup Program, and in Energy with TotalEnergies On. Medadom, for instance, is a notable success story that participated in the Incubateur HEC Paris program.
HEC Paris remains dedicated to supporting responsible entrepreneurs who can “make it happen, and make it big”, aligning with our commitment to a more inclusive, prosperous, and sustainable world.
Download the French Tech N40/120 press kit (in French) for more insights.