Impact Lab Accélération: a year of scale and impact for Impact 40/120

On October 17, 2024, the IMPACT 40/120 prizewinners reached a key milestone in their journey, joining the 3rd promotion of Impact Lab Acceleration. For five months, these impact structures benefited from tailor-made support to take up a major challenge: to become the impact unicorns of tomorrow.

Impact 40/120: innovation for the common good

Whereas the French Tech unicorns are primarily looking to grow and maximize their financial value, the impact unicorns have a dual objective: rapid, sustainable growth, while generating a positive impact.

Each year, the Impact 40/120 index, supported by Mouvement Impact France, identifies 40 future impact unicorns and 120 emerging structures to be closely monitored. The aim is clear: to give these players visibility, support them as they scale up, and equip them with the tools to accelerate their societal and environmental impact.

 One objective: to organize the scaling-up of impact pioneers

This year, 18 founders from the index have expressed their desire to take part in the Accelerate program, to meet their peers and be supported as closely as possible in their development challenges by the Impact Lab coalition. 

With sales of 9.8 million euros by 2023, 70 employees and an average of 8.9 million euros raised, the impact companies we support have already reached a significant level of maturity. To support them as they enter a new stage of scale, Mouvement Impact France, in collaboration with La Ruche, has designed and run a program combining the expertise of impact pioneers and the start-up ecosystem. Over a period of five months, the founders of the 18 structures took part in five one-day workshops on priority themes for scaling up. 

• Connecting and helping each other: strengthening links between peers.
• Organizational well-being and mental health: caring for leaders and their teams.
• Financial health and profitability: guaranteeing sustainable growth.
• Internationalization and marketing: conquering new markets.
• Measuring and communicating impact: making the invisible visible.

Concrete results and lasting impact

Prisca, General Manager of La Cloche, an Impact40/120 2024 winning structure, sums up the program's impact on their development:

"These five days have been welcome enriching and inspiring interludes! It's always useful and necessary to take a step back and catch your breath by zooming out, taking inspiration from other people's stories (...). The diversity of the winners and speakers was a real plus, as were the different topics we tackled."

And the figures speak for themselves: 70% of participants consider the program to have been instrumental in helping them achieve their annual objectives, and they recommend it to their peers at 8.8/10.

A renewed ambition for 2025

On the strength of this feedback and the success of the program, the Mouvement Impact France is preparing to ramp up the IMPACT40/120 index in 2025. The objective is clear: to reveal the impact unicorns and continue to make positive impact the new standard for start-ups. An adventure to follow closely!