200 projects supported by Inria Startup Studio

We won’t overwhelm you with data; if you are interested in the details, you can download the pdf describibg seven years of data from Inria Startup Studio (ISS). With 219 projects and 360 people involved, this averages out to slightly fewer than two people per project. ISS pays the salaries of up to two people per project for one year—even before the startup is actually created. We select projects at a very early stage, which explains our 50% startup creation rate. Some first-time entrepreneurs are new to the startup world and may discover that it isn’t for them, or find that their initial vision clashes with market realities, leading them to abandon the project.

The entrepreneurs from Inria Startup Studio

We reproduce here the typology of the people selected by ISS, a typology which has scarcely changed since the beginning.

This typology illustrates some strong convictions:

• The people we selected are primarily young PhDs and postdocs. More than 120, half from Inria and half from other universities and research institutions. This is a significant proportion similar to that of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, with the founders of Google being the most famous example (*). Also ISS is truly an incubator serving French universities.
• They are less frequently permanent research staff, probably because it is difficult for them to dedicate themselves full-time to their projects, which is what ISS requires. There are certainly other ways to become entrepreneurs, and the subject is debated. But we firmly believe that permanent staff make excellent mentors for their doctoral students, who are the entrepreneurs of tomorrow.
• The people are not all researchers. There are also engineers, recent graduates, and, sometimes, non-academics who have developed expertise and projects throughout their professional careers. They bring an unexpected richness to the system, and it’s worth noting that the startup creation rate among this population reaches 60%.

But people are more than just numbers; they are faces and personalities. Entrepreneurship is about people, and our motto remains “the entrepreneur at the center.”

More than just an incubator: a program for discovering high-tech entrepreneurship

As we have previously stated, ISS selects projects at a very early stage. Proof of this lies in ISS’s success in the iPhD competition, which has been selecting around fifty young doctoral candidates annually at the national level since 2021. As the following figure illustrates, ISS leads all academic institutions with a total of 28 laureates. Like all ISS alumni, these young PhDs will spend a year exploring the world of high-tech entrepreneurship—the program is described in past articles on this blog. Another firm belief is that entrepreneurs are made, not born. As Silicon Valley investor Randy Komisar wrote, some people believe themselves to be entrepreneurs when, in reality, they are not; conversely, others discover they possess the necessary qualities without having previously realized it.

Many startups created

The final figure in this article shows the number of startups created annually since Inria’s inception. Figures can often be interpreted in various ways, so they should be viewed with caution. Since 2022, Inria has seen more startup creations than in any previous year, and 2026 could set a new record. However, an important caveat—mentioned earlier—is that the program is opened to external projects. Nevertheless, many founders would not have embarked on this journey without the opportunity to explore entrepreneurship under favorable conditions. It is then up to them to decide whether they wish to continue.

A not-so-minor caveat: fundraising has not yet met expectations—€30 million remains a modest figure, and one might hope for ten times that amount in the medium to long term. There has been no stock market listing yet, but there have been two acquisitions: Pulse Audition by Essilor and Qatent by Questel.

Artificial intelligence

ISS is not immune to the tsunami that is AI. More than 50% of the program’s projects have this new revolution at their technological core, and only a minority of the remaining ones do not utilize it. As with any tsunami, both the long-term impact and the duration remain uncertain.

Inria’s ambition was to support 100 projects a year. We are far from that! But we are proud of the 200 projects supported and of an alumni community that can share its experience and contribute to our future growth through word-of-mouth!

(*) Youth and innovation

The debate—Ancients versus Moderns—is as old as time. We won’t try to convince you if you aren’t already persuaded, but rather illustrate one reason why the French (and indeed European) ecosystem may lack its own “GAFAs”:

• while the average age of entrepreneurs is indeed 39, those who create extraordinary value are much younger—between 26 and 32—as noted in this blog post,
• you may not have access to *The Economist* article discussing the link between Europe’s lack of ambition and risk-taking on the one hand, and a misunderstanding of the difference between incremental innovation (driven by experience) and disruptive innovation (driven by creativity—and chance) on the other. Yet, this distinction seems less controversial in the realms of art or science,
• we’ll drive the point home by highlighting a brilliant essay by Paul Graham on the importance of working with friends on passion-driven projects while young. What is often misunderstood is that youth does not equate to inexperience—quite the opposite. We aren’t talking about managerial experience, which matters little in startups, but rather the absolute mastery of a subject honed over several years. This idea is further reinforced by a *New Yorker* article on the often-underestimated power of creativity with friends partnerships,
• finally, regarding Inria Startup Studio, the entrepreneurial program is open to individuals of all ages and a diverse range of scientific and technical backgrounds; notably, among the 68 startups created, those that have raised the most funding are led by young PhDs (NPCO, Skyld, Nijta)—as is the case with Pulse Audition, which was acquired by Essilor in early 2025.