The challenges of decarbonization and restoring competitiveness in Europe are prioritized in the Draghi report. It is now clear that these two issues go hand in hand. More and more solutions supporting the transition, notably innovative ones, contribute to strengthening the competitiveness of companies. And this effect is even confirmed at the macroeconomic level. Recently, a representative of Ademe reminded us that although some commitments constitute costs at the microeconomic level, at the macroeconomic level the ecological transition does not reduce growth and may even strengthen it. This observation therefore contributes to reinforcing the ecosystem of eco-businesses and notably stimulates entrepreneurship, which remains very dynamic despite an uncertain economic and political context.
The strong momentum of creation and development of young companies, particularly innovative ones, is clearly illustrated at the Pollutec trade show. The 2025 edition already officially features the participation of 130 startups, but the number of young companies and innovative SMEs actually present is much higher (notably thanks to collective booths). Pollutec thus reflects the reality of the positive entrepreneurial trend in greentech in France but also in Europe. Behind this illustration, there are figures confirming that despite a rather complex economic and political climate, the eco-business sector shows strong resilience, notably driven by innovation and new projects. Last spring, Bpifrance published the results of its greentech startups observatory (2024 data), listing 2900 companies, an increase compared to 2023. Another sign of this enthusiasm is that 51% of the greentech startups are among the winners of FrenchTech 2030, a program aimed at supporting emerging players addressing major societal challenges. And one could equally cite the massive share of environmentally oriented entrepreneurial projects in most major national and regional competitions (starting with public competitions i-Lab, i-PhD, and even Pepite programs), often far beyond the purely “greentech” categories. The trend is similar at the European level, as illustrated in particular by the EIC Accelerator program. In the latest 2024 cohort (unveiled spring 2025), 40% of selected projects have a direct (mostly) or indirect environmental impact, and the first 2025 cohort is even more striking. Fifty-five percent of the winners present solutions with environmental impact and mobilize 84% of the allocated funding.
On the financing side in France, the structure of fundraising operations also illustrates the emergence of many projects. Among 150 fundraising operations recorded by France Invest in 2024, 129 were first rounds or innovation capital. “This is a sign that projects are still launching. And the structural trend remains the same in the first half of 2025,” specified Simon Ponroy, director of economic and statistical studies at France Invest during the recent Ecotech Finances day organized by Pexe – the French eco-businesses association. Regarding amounts raised in fundraisings, greentech resilience is also notable. Last year, despite a significant drop in total amounts raised compared to 2023 and 2022 (€2.4 billion raised – equivalent to the 2021 level), startups in ecological and energy transition held up well compared to other sectors. The year 2025 promises at least to be a stabilization period, thus resilient in a rather gloomy economic context. Better still, after seeing amounts mobilized per round decrease over two semesters in 2024, the fundraising level is recovering with a stable number of operations, suggesting a more positive 2025. According to early estimates, the first two quarters have already raised nearly €900 million in the cleantech sector. At its scale, the Pexe Ecotech Finances day dedicated to fundraising, which attracted around 80 startups and SMEs (and some growing mid-sized companies), confirms this trend with an average amount sought per startup of €7.7 million (excluding companies seeking more than €50 million), well above previous years.
Another reassuring sign is that greentech entrepreneurship continues to cover a wide range of themes. If we look at fundraising, renewable energy startups are the first supported, followed by those in mobility, hydrogen, and energy efficiency, but all other fields are represented (sustainable chemistry, eco-materials, waste treatment and recovery, air, agroecology, water, etc.). The top four remain the same for the first half of 2025, showing that somewhat contrary to frequently heard comments, hydrogen holds its place. Five rather early-stage projects (first round or seed) have already raised funds in 2025, proof of continuity in the emergence of new solutions, even in a downstream market that slowed down a bit in 2024.
The deeptech nature of a significant number of young innovative companies is also worth noting. The Bpifrance Greentech observatory published last spring notes that 20% of these startups are deeptech, thus providing breakthrough solutions. Another observatory, the deeptech one (all economic sectors), confirms that the movement continues. According to available data, it is estimated that about sixty new breakthrough startups in ecological and energy transition were created in 2024 and about fifteen were already founded in the first quarter of 2025 (latest update available), thus perfectly on track with the previous year.
Finally, to have a broader view of this entrepreneurship, it is interesting to follow its activity, notably once the startup starts generating revenue. This is what Banque de France does in its annual report on the state of startups in France, deliberately targeting a well-defined perimeter of startups with growth potential thanks to innovation and generating at least €750k in turnover or having raised €3 million. It is learned that revenues generated by “environment and energy” startups take the lion’s share, with cumulative turnover of just over €3 billion, just behind Software & Data startups (some of which also serve the ecological transition, as widely seen developing in the market). The only nuance is that this turnover stagnated almost in 2024, while many other sectors saw their turnover grow. But if we include data from the mobility sector (almost €2 billion, growing by 12.7%), startups in ecological and energy transition are clearly the leading entrepreneurship sector, with a satisfying financial autonomy ratio (equity/total assets) for these young companies already at commercial stage. Moreover, awareness of the economic interest of environmental investments (competitiveness, sovereignty, sustainability of activities, etc.) is a deep movement experts consider durable, thus consolidating these young companies over time despite the global economic context. One can also rely on the latest data on industrial startup factory creations (first sites or demonstrators), which were generally on a strong rebound in the first quarter of 2025, with 10 out of 16 projects having an environmental impact. Overall since November 2022, the “Première usine” program has supported no less than 55 Greentech factory projects. All these arguments probably contribute to explaining the optimistic nature of this sector noted in spring by the annual Pexe observatory survey (with a particularly high score of 4.5/5). Better still, these are fields that are hiring (+7% staff for Environment/Energy category and almost +16% for mobility in the BdF survey), a trend confirmed by the Pexe survey.
Thus, to date, the growth pace of environmental entrepreneurship remains broadly sustained. Creativity is here, promising new leaps in competitiveness of eco-technologies, and the ecosystem supporting the emergence and maturation of these projects is also solid (maturation, incubation, acceleration), involving economic players of all kinds, public and private. Better still, financial support experts believe there is no strong constraint on access to financing for this “ecological” entrepreneurship. However, in an uncertain economic and political context, stronger demands are to be expected. Some support experts, for example, strongly encourage project leaders to focus primarily on consolidating their innovations, their intellectual property, business models, but also on seeking market interest validations (including revenue seeding) before looking for funds. The Pexe eco-business observatory thus highlights that before financing, business support is sought by young companies in ecotech sectors (70% of them versus 52% seeking financing). According to a recent Ademe official on this subject, the real challenge seems to be to “think big,” to scale up projects and seek mass effects with sustainable and profitable projects. This challenge and ambition require that entrepreneurial initiative leaders continue to gain visibility with decision makers, a goal Pollutec aims to contribute to with a systemic vision on the entire ecological and energy transition value chain.