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The highly esteemed city is full of tech businesses which are bursting at the seams with originality and innovation.
Paris is usually considered to be a city filled to the brim with romance, delicious baked goods and magnificent art, but did you know it is also a city full of amazing tech start-ups?
You heard correctly, the capital city of France has a vibrant start-up scene which features a plethora of companies being led by bright minds and talented, hands-on creators.
Although we cannot feature every start-up which graces this beautiful city, what we can do is offer you our five picks for Parisian start-ups that we think you should absolument give a look.
Aria
This fintech was founded in 2020 by CEO Clément Carrier and COO Vincent Folny. Aria has developed a payments solution which is embedded into B2B software used on a daily basis by SMEs, such as B2B marketplaces, procurement software and enterprise resource planning software. The company asserts that its “flexible payments infrastructure helps leading software platforms – and their users – move money globally”. In 2023, Aria closed a €15m Series A funding round led by 13books Capital, which also saw the participation of Adevinta Ventures, Ankaa Ventures, and Otium Capital as well as several angel investors. And just last month, the business announced its intention to expand into Europe.
Greenly
This aptly named start-up focuses on helping businesses manage their carbon footprint. Greenly was founded in 2019 by Alexis Normand (who is also its CEO), Matthieu Vegreville and Arnaud Delubac. The start-up has developed a suite of carbon management tools that are used by more than 2,000 clients, including BNP Paribas, AXA and L’Oréal. Last year, it raised $52m in Series B funding, which was led by Fidelity International Strategic Ventures. At the time, Greenly said that the funding would help to improve its Climate Suite, with features such as a life cycle assessment builder and cloud and sustainable procurement tool, in order to help businesses make informed decisions about their carbon footprint.
Maki/Maki People
Maki, also known as Maki People, was founded in 2021 by Maxime Legardez Coquin (who is also its CEO) alongside Paul-Louis Caylar and Benjamin Chino. Maki has developed AI-driven skills tests, data and analysis tools in the form of conversational AI agents that it claims are bias-free and will help recruiters assess candidates faster. Just this month, the start-up got off to a good start for 2025 when it raised €26m in funding to further its activities and aid in expansion. This funding round was led by Blossom Capital, with participation from DST Global and existing investors Picus Capital, GFC and Frst.
Mistral AI
A budding rival of OpenAI and Google, Mistral AI reportedly hit unicorn status after a €385m funding round in December, which was backed by Andreessen Horowitz, Nvidia and Salesforce. It was founded in 2023 by Arthur Mensch (who acts as its CEO), Guillaume Lample and Timothée Lacroix, who were former researchers at Google’s DeepMind and Meta. Mistral AI is focused on creating open-source large language models. The start-up claims that its moderation model is highly accurate but it also stressed that the model is a work in progress at present. Mistral AI notably gained momentum last year – in June, the start-up raised €600m in equity and debt financing at a valuation of €5.8bn, and in November, it launched a new API for content moderation.
Pasqal
Our final pick is Pasqal, a quantum computing start-up founded by a team consisting of Georges-Olivier Reymond (who is also its CEO), Christophe Jurczak, Dr Alain Aspect (who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2022), Dr Antoine Browaeys, and Dr Thierry Lahaye. Pasqal’s research is based on Aspect’s award-winning findings. In 2023, the company raised €100m in funding to build a 1,000-qubit quantum computer in the short term and fault-tolerant architectures in the long term. Last year, Pasqal, along with tech giant IBM, announced plans to expand their quantum-centric supercomputing collaboration.
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