Find Startups in Lyon

Lyon has established itself as France's second largest and most balanced startup ecosystem, combining exceptional industrial innovation heritage, biotech research leadership, and strategic location to build technology companies across diverse sectors with both French and international ambitions. The city has produced notable successes like Navya, Doctolib (with significant Lyon presence), and NKLS Technology, while demonstrating particular strength in healthtech, cleantech, smart city applications, and industrial technology. The funding landscape features prominent regional investors like Kreaxi and UI Investissement, complemented by specialized healthtech funds, corporate venture activity from major pharmaceutical and energy companies, and increasingly Paris-based and international funds establishing Lyon connections. What distinguishes Lyon is its exceptional industry-research collaboration particularly in healthcare and cleantech, strategic location facilitating market access across Europe, balanced talent pool combining technical, business, and design expertise, and substantial regional market providing early customer opportunities. The innovation community thrives through programs like BigBooster connecting Lyon startups to international markets, specialized initiatives including TUBÀ for urban innovation, and Lyon Biopôle for health technology. Distinct clusters have developed around Lyon Gerland for biotechnology and health sciences, Lyon Confluence for smart city and design innovation, and increasingly collaborative initiatives with nearby Saint-Etienne focusing on design and manufacturing technologies. Entrepreneurs benefit from the city's strong technical foundation and balanced approach to innovation, though they navigate strong competition for technical talent from established pharmaceutical and energy companies, sometimes conservative regional enterprise culture affecting B2B sales cycles, and occasional difficulty achieving international visibility despite the ecosystem's overall sophistication and scale as France's second largest innovation hub.

Lyon has established itself as France's second largest and most balanced startup ecosystem, combining exceptional industrial innovation heritage, biotech research leadership, and strategic location to build technology companies across diverse sectors with both French and international ambitions. The city has produced notable successes like Navya, Doctolib (with significant Lyon presence), and NKLS Technology, while demonstrating particular strength in healthtech, cleantech, smart city applications, and industrial technology. The funding landscape features prominent regional investors like Kreaxi and UI Investissement, complemented by specialized healthtech funds, corporate venture activity from major pharmaceutical and energy companies, and increasingly Paris-based and international funds establishing Lyon connections. What distinguishes Lyon is its exceptional industry-research collaboration particularly in healthcare and cleantech, strategic location facilitating market access across Europe, balanced talent pool combining technical, business, and design expertise, and substantial regional market providing early customer opportunities. The innovation community thrives through programs like BigBooster connecting Lyon startups to international markets, specialized initiatives including TUBÀ for urban innovation, and Lyon Biopôle for health technology. Distinct clusters have developed around Lyon Gerland for biotechnology and health sciences, Lyon Confluence for smart city and design innovation, and increasingly collaborative initiatives with nearby Saint-Etienne focusing on design and manufacturing technologies. Entrepreneurs benefit from the city's strong technical foundation and balanced approach to innovation, though they navigate strong competition for technical talent from established pharmaceutical and energy companies, sometimes conservative regional enterprise culture affecting B2B sales cycles, and occasional difficulty achieving international visibility despite the ecosystem's overall sophistication and scale as France's second largest innovation hub.