In recent years, the emergence of 29 French unicorns in the fintech, big data and blockchain sectors - unlisted start-ups valued at over a billion dollars - has been facilitated by strong political will, reflected in substantial investment in technological and scientific innovation.
Today, the proliferation of ecological and social crises and the growing commitments made by France to respond to them, particularly at European level (European Green Deal, CSRD, sustainable development objectives), mean that we need to focus these same efforts on the emergence of transition champions. Indeed, overcoming these challenges presupposes the large-scale development of new, unprecedented, disruptive solutions in response to major ecological and social issues.
Some of these solutions for the future will need to be massive and widespread if they are to bring about the changeover needed to transform the way we produce and consume. In this way, they will be able to respond with the right force and timing to the main sustainable development objectives set by France and Europe.
Whereas the CAC40 and French Tech Next 40 indexes focus on the success of French companies based solely on their economic success and financial value, the winners of the IMPACT40 index will be selected primarily on criteria of social and ecological impact.
The new #IMPACT40/120 index will value the 40 impact companies with the greatest potential to become impact unicorns, and the 120 companies to follow closely and support in their acceleration.
The selected companies will be :
Based on these criteria, a jury made up of experts from the Impact Lab coalition (makesense, Pulse, INCO, La Ruche and Corporate for Change) and the co-authors of the mapping of impact startups (Mouvement Impact France, Bpifrance le Hub, France Digitale) will select the 120 impact nuggets.
Following this, an exceptional jury made up of company directors, financial experts, startup ecosystem and impact experts will select the Impact 40 grand prize winners.
The winners will be announced on March 26, 2024 at ChangeNOW at 6:30pm! The event will be broadcast live on our social networks and in particular on our LinkedIn account 👉
Being an IMPACT40/120 winner means being able to benefit from :
An impact unicorn is an impact company less than 10 years old that generates more than €50 million in avoided costs for society per year.
The calculation of avoided costs concerns the savings made by the community directly linked to the company's activity.
For example, in the case of Simplon, a company whose aim is to make digital technology a lever for inclusion in the workforce, the calculation of savings for the State refers to the sum of social benefits (RSA, back-to-work allowance, support by the public employment service) avoided for each beneficiary supported by Simplon. Simplon thus saves 17.4 million euros a year.
Discover the future impact unicorns at the launch of theIMPACT40/120 index on Tuesday March 26 at 6:30pm at ChangeNOWand broadcast live.
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.