© La French Tech
It becomes a real ritual. Since 2019, French Tech has set up two flagship indices to distinguish the most promising startups: the Next40 and the FT120. Once chosen, these companies benefit from privileged support to support them in their development and help them create new jobs.
Two major developments
From the start, the methods of selection of these two indices have been criticized by many players in French Tech. Finally, their requests were heard and the Minister Delegate in charge of the Digital Transition, Jean-Noël Barrot, agreed to review these criteria from the 2024 class.
Concretely, the valorization of startups will not be no longer as essential as in the past and turnover will be more strongly taken into account. “It was necessary to rebalance the data leading to admission. There is a greater need to generate turnover than before and we must take into account the fluctuation of valuations according to economic cycles”, he explains to the < em>Echoes. As for unicorns (companies valued at more than one billion euros), they will no longer be automatically added to these two promotions.
Jean-Noël Barrot also wants to ask startups to provide a professional equality index. This involves establishing the gender pay gap and the distribution of promotions. So many criteria which were not taken into account during previous selections.
The minister thus hopes to respond to the numerous criticisms which surrounded previous promotions. As the economic daily recently recalled, these indices had a little too much tendency to take into account the fundraising carried out by these companies without taking into account their concrete economic results.
Retaining anonymity, a director of startup explained to theEchoes last February: “I don’t understand why there are places exclusively reserved for companies that have raised a certain amount. Especially since their income does not necessarily follow. This tends to create a fed-up of many entrepreneurs who have raised less or not at all but who have a better turnover”.
Finally , some observers pointed out the fact that winning companies in 2023 have made layoffs, due to their economic difficulties. Which tends to be messy for an index created with the aim of encouraging recruitment.
What to remember:
- The selection methods for the Next40 and the FT120 are changing for the 2024 class
- Turnover will be taken into greater account
- Criteria such as gender equality at work are also integrated
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