- French Tech Côte d’Azur confirms its strategic role within the national Scale Up Excellence scheme. Of the more than 60 companies selected for the 2025 cohort, 8 come from the Côte d’Azur, demonstrating the strength of the local ecosystem in terms of innovation and growth.
- Among these 8 winners, 6 are based in the metropolitan area. This concentration illustrates the growing role of Nice Côte d’Azur in the emergence of French scale-ups and its reinforced attractiveness to innovative companies with strong development potential.
- Furthermore, Legapass (Nice) and Akidaia (Nice) achieved a notable performance by joining the program for the second consecutive year.
On the eve of Viva Technology 2025, French Tech Côte d’Azur officially unveiled the 8 local startups selected to join the 2025 cohort of the national Scale Up Excellence program.
This scheme, led by nine French Tech Capitals, supports French scale-ups in their hypergrowth trajectory, offering strategic guidance, greater visibility, and unique development opportunities.
A structuring and selective national program
Scale Up Excellence aims to support French hypergrowth companies across the country, drawing on the ecosystems of the French Tech Capitals.
In 2024, 48 companies were selected nationwide, including 10 from the Côte d’Azur, already strongly represented.
In 2025, the program has gained further momentum with more than 60 winners at the national level, including 8 new companies from the Côte d’Azur, reflecting both continuity and renewal of the region’s entrepreneurial pool.
It should be noted that, among these 8 Riviera winners in 2025, 6 are based in Nice Côte d’Azur, confirming the particular dynamism of the territory within the regional ecosystem.
The 2025 Côte d’Azur winners
- Active Asset Allocation (Nice Côte d’Azur) — AI-based asset management solutions
- Akidaia (Nice Côte d’Azur) — secured offline access solutions
- DataGreen (Nice Côte d’Azur) — ecological micro data centers valorizing waste heat and reducing energy consumption
- Legapass (Nice Côte d’Azur) — secure protection and transmission of digital assets
- Earthwake Entreprise (Nice Côte d’Azur) — conversion of plastic waste into energy
- KYF PRODUCTION — document management and digitization
- Himydata — data orchestration and integration
- Mentor Marketing (Nice Côte d’Azur) — marketing automation solutions
Among them, Legapass and Akidaia achieved a remarkable feat by being selected again after already joining the 2024 cohort, confirming their particularly dynamic trajectory.
Reminder of the 2024 Côte d’Azur winners
In the 2024 cohort, French Tech Côte d’Azur saw 10 of its companies join the program:
- Akidaia (Nice)
- Instant System
- Inalve (Nice)
- Legapass (Nice)
- Mycophyto
- Matawan (Cagnes-sur-Mer)
- Native Spaces (Nice)
- Rayn
- Videtics
- Wever (Nice)
This sectoral diversity (mobility, biotechnology, AI, space management, security, etc.) illustrates the ability of the Côte d’Azur ecosystem to foster the growth of high-potential companies in varied and complementary fields.
Tailored, top-level support
The Scale Up Excellence program offers winners:
- masterclasses with leaders from FT120/Next40, true references of French hypergrowth,
- strategic meetings with public and private decision-makers,
- communication and media support, essential to building national and international visibility.
The goal is to enable these companies to accelerate their internal structuring, open new markets, and secure long-term growth trajectories.
The Côte d’Azur as a national hypergrowth hub
Since 2024, French Tech Côte d’Azur has seen 16 distinct companies benefit from the support provided by Scale Up Excellence. This dynamic confirms the maturity of the local ecosystem and its capacity to generate innovative companies in strategic sectors such as artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, green tech, biotech, and data.
French Tech Côte d’Azur was present at the official launch of the 2025 cohort in Paris, represented in particular by its co-president Betty Seroussi.
Source: French Tech Côte d’Azur Linkedin
Startups Nice Côte d’Azur France
- Blue Innovation Challenge: supporting innovation in the blue economy sector
- Étienne Boulay: a Quebec entrepreneur committed to the economic development of Nice Côte d’Azur
- Japan Entry Acceleration Program: a launchpad towards the Japanese market for innovative health startups
- Firecell: Ultra-precise industrial 5G geolocation for Airbus
- Legal Design Agency chooses Nice Côte d’Azur
- The Nice-based biotech Roca Therapeutics reaches a new milestone in its development
- The South Region and HEC launch the ESS Sud Accelerator
- Cosma raises €2.5 million to map the seafloor on a large scale
- Scale Up Excellence 2025: 8 Côte d’Azur winners join the national acceleration program
- Team Nice Côte d’Azur at Viva Technology 2025: at the heart of technological transitions and international attractiveness
- Business Landing Nice Côte d’Azur: Support for business set up in France
- The Nice-based biotech company Roca Therapeutics receives financial support from Europe and the SUD region for its medical research in eye health
