EcoVadis, the global standard for resilient, sustainable supply chains, once again confirms its position among the most performing French tech companies by joining the French Tech Next40/120 Class of 2026 for the fourth consecutive year.
Launched in 2019, the French Tech Next40/120 identifies and supports the most successful French scale-ups each year in their scaling and international development. This seventh cohort marks a turning point in the program’s history: technological excellence and contribution to major economic and societal challenges are now two fully-fledged pillars, alongside financial performance.
Among the 120 laureates, the Next40 brings together the forty French companies that best embody this ambition, including EcoVadis, recognized as one of the champions that raise France’s profile internationally and directly address daily environmental challenges.
“Being alongside the flagships of French Tech for the fourth consecutive year is a source of pride that strengthens our ambition. Our mission is clear: to make sustainable intelligence the standard for every business decision. With the support of our ecosystem, we continue to prove that economic performance and societal impact are not only compatible, they are inseparable.” — Pierre-François Thaler, Co-founder and Co-CEO of EcoVadis.
EcoVadis Growth
Founded in Paris in 2007 by Frédéric Trinel and Pierre-François Thaler, EcoVadis joined French Tech in 2020 and became the 27th French unicorn in 2022 following a new record fundraising of $500 million. The company currently has nearly 2,000 employees across fifteen offices worldwide. More than 175,000 companies have been evaluated by EcoVadis since its creation; in 2025, over $2.5 trillion in procurement spent were influenced by EcoVadis analyses.
For more than 10 years, EcoVadis has integrated decision intelligence and natural language processing (NLP) technologies to support the work of its experts (nearly 500 analysts worldwide), strengthen data traceability, and increase its scalability. By leveraging Microsoft’s Azure AI technologies, EcoVadis has developed a multilingual AI assistant for its customers. The tool summarizes supplier evaluations, generates risk analyses, suggests targeted recommendations, and instantly answers the most complex questions.
EcoVadis also supports companies in their decarbonization efforts by encouraging transparency (55,838 companies in the EcoVadis network declare at least one greenhouse gas emissions indicator) and working to strengthen the reliability of Scope 3 data through the deployment of its Carbon Data Network – which includes its product carbon footprint calculator (PCF) – and facilitates data exchange through integrations with a growing network of partners (Sweep, Normative, Watershed, Workiva).
The Worker Voice solution to assess working conditions within supply chains – added to EcoVadis solutions following the acquisition of Ulula – now has 251,613 active users.
By 2030, EcoVadis has formalized three ambitions: to advance sustainable purchasing practices by reaching 300,000 evaluated companies; to accelerate Scope 3 decarbonization via 100,000 companies declaring primary GHG emissions indicators; and to improve working conditions and human rights through direct engagement with 3 million workers.
Key figures to remember for the French Tech Next40/120 Class of 2026:
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€11.3 billion in revenue in 2025
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31% average growth over 1 year (excluding DeepTech companies)
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45% of companies are profitable (excluding DeepTech companies)
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46,000 direct jobs generated in France and globally, including 33,500 in France only
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97% of companies are present internationally
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27% of DeepTech companies in the French Tech 120 and 38% of DeepTech companies in the French Tech Next40
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33 industrial sites in France for 21% of industrial companies
Objective Selection Criteria
To apply, companies must have their head office in France, be less than 20 years old, meet independence criteria, and not be listed on the stock exchange. They must demonstrate their innovative character: having filed patents, having benefited from innovation aid, or declaring Research/Innovation Tax Credits. They must justify positive equity and be up-to-date with their social and fiscal obligations. Finally, they must commit to the ecological transition by providing a carbon assessment, and to gender parity by communicating their professional equality index.
For the first time, a selection committee was convened to identify the 40 companies among the 120 selected whose trajectory combines economic performance, technological excellence, and concrete contribution to the major challenges of our time.
