Orange accelerates growth and market access for French start-ups and scale-ups to support innovation and digital sovereignty

• At VivaTech, Orange unveils tangible results from its commitment to the French start-up and scale-up ecosystem
• The Group rolls out three strategic levers to help young companies scale up: direct procurement, commercial distribution and solution integration

National technology champions are key drivers of competitiveness, innovation and digital sovereignty. Orange is addressing the structural barriers often faced by these start-ups by providing industrial solutions that combat lengthy contracting processes, limited access to large corporate customers, a lack of commercial references and the complexity of scaling up.

CEO Christel Heydemann's sponsorship of the French Tech 2030 program last October signified a key milestone in this momentum. The ambition was clear: to combine the operational excellence and strength of a major international group with the agility, simplicity and efficiency expected by entrepreneurs.

A three-part strategy to support scale-up

To meet the ecosystem's needs in a targeted way, Orange has structured its action plan around three growth drivers:

• Buy: Orange is stepping up its direct procurement policy with French start-ups. The objective is to identify, qualify and deploy, at pace, innovations that meet the Group's business, technology and operational needs.
• Distribute: Drawing on its commercial strengths, close ties with the economic fabric and unique territorial footprint, Orange is opening doors for start-ups to both public- and private-sector markets.
• Integrate: Orange is accelerating the inclusion of French technology solutions in its B2B service catalog, making it easier for enterprise customers to adopt and deploy these solutions at scale.

Orange's initiative is already translating into operational synergies and concrete commercial successes initiated over the past eight months with a variety of growth journeys of our partners:

• Anozr Way: Excellence in cybersecurity and data protection
• Circular Place: Circular economy
• H Company: Agentic AI models
• Kerys: Process optimisation and digital transformation

Orange Ventures strengthens its investments in technologies serving digital trust

Orange Ventures, the venture capital fund of the Orange Group, is expanding its investment thesis in line with the strategic plan Trust the future to support the development of Orange's trust services in both consumer and enterprise markets. Orange Ventures aims to accelerate its investments in artificial intelligence, trusted cloud solutions, cybersecurity, health, and defense.

With Orange Ventures and this new initiative, the Group reaffirms its position as a leading trusted partner of the Mission French Tech, supporting French start-ups in moving from innovation to commercial deployment at both the French and European levels.

Christel Heydemann, Chief Executive Officer of Orange, said: “France must see the emergence of start-ups capable of reaching industrial scale, sustaining their solutions and rapidly winning their markets. Orange is fully embracing its role as a catalyst in this dynamic. In close cooperation with the French Tech Mission, we are making concrete industrial levers available to the ecosystem — our purchasing volume, our commercial strength and our integration expertise — to accelerate the expansion of trusted French solutions.”

Julie Huguet, Director of the French Tech Mission, added: “Our strategic priority is to support the growth trajectory of French start-ups. To achieve this, access to customers, trusted relays and smoother sales cycles are essential. The partnership with Orange shows that by mobilising the ecosystem as a whole, we can generate tangible commercial opportunities for our scale-ups and help bring out the future European technology leaders.”