VivaTech 2022: the most innovative tech startups

From June 15 to 18, the 2022 edition of the annual gathering for entrepreneurs and innovation, VivaTech, was held. The event took place in Paris, at the Palais des Expositions Porte de Versailles, where the players moving the economy and society forward came together.

The largest hub of the European technology innovation community put societal and contemporary issues like sustainable development and the green transition on the agenda this year.

Meetings, masterclasses, talks, and organized encounters made it possible to create synergies and to promote new technologies in service of growth.

VivaTech notably brought together the players of the ' Green tech' movement, a coalition of industrial players, startups, investors, large groups, academics, researchers, and public bodies promoting the power of digital in service of growth and the environmental challenges of our time.

Who took part in this VivaTech edition?

Among the more than 1,800 startups that came to the event, 45% were international companies. More than 700 investment funds also gathered at the trade show.

In total, close to 100 competitions and challenges were organized as part of VivaTech, with the goal of building connections between startups and large groups.

In the latest edition of the Next Unicorn Awards, for example, it was the French startup Luko that won the "scale-up grand prize." Luko is a fully digital insurance company, seen as the most promising in Europe.

To mark his commitment, and the particular spotlight that was put on French startups and scale-ups, President Emmanuel Macron appeared in person and announced France's mobilization to develop a larger number of unicorns, with the goal of reaching 100 French unicorns by 2030.

The stakes of inclusion

This year's VivaTech edition put the inclusive aspect of the initiatives presented in the spotlight: a real introduction to gender issues within the tech sector.

The #WoGiTech (Women and Girls in Tech) movement, for example, promotes the place of women in tech — women who, from a young age, still struggle to commit to careers and technology roles. This hashtag, leading social media and the conversation around the event, was the visible sign of a strong commitment to advancing women in digital, as the finalists of VivaTech's Female Challenge were able to attest.

Young women were also invited to engage with the stakes of digital power and entrepreneurship through the Girls Hackademy initiative, which featured guided tours and educational activities aimed at young women interested in this field and seeking motivation and inspiration.

VivaTech: a response to the challenges of climate change

During the event, the Green 20 initiative pitted against each other the projects that echo the challenges of the green transition. The tech sector has a major societal impact. The response to environmental preservation and European consumer practices has to be brought at the scale of the development of the tech sector itself.

In the words of Christian Poyau, co-president of the Technological Mutations commission of the Medef: "VivaTech is a major European event in these fields. That's why it remains important to highlight the large groups in the area. But also the startups, SMEs, and mid-cap companies when they accelerate on the green transition."

The question of how very energy-intensive the digital sector is sits at the center: how do we find viable solutions for the responsible energy consumption expected by the environmental targets set at the European level?

A platform for geopolitical engagement

The question of Ukraine's participation and engagement in the 2022 edition of VivaTech played a central role. This country, in the midst of a major conflict, struggles to integrate into European innovation. That's why many talents and initiatives were highlighted and bore witness to its resilience and its expertise in the field.

14 startups attended the event under a pavilion specially created for the country at war, organized by the UNIT.City incubator and the Ukrainian Startup Fund.

Diana Sidko, the head of the booth dedicated to Ukraine, explained that initiatives from the country "can offer interesting partnerships for French and European companies" (Source: AFP). Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky also appeared as a hologram at several trade shows, including VivaTech 2022, while Russia did not take part.

Green, but also the metaverse…

Among the most discussed topics at this international gathering, the use of the metaverse — a fully digital interface for avatar interactions — was a central subject. The virtualization of physical elements in the metaverse opens up many possibilities for interaction: buying and selling digital goods and services, etc. Several hundred billion dollars have been invested in the metaverse.

For VivaTech 2022, Mark Zuckerberg's group, Meta, offered a special experience to event participants: the exploration of a virtual workspace, Horizon Workrooms. An example of how the world of work can be reshaped by innovation and technology, since you can collaborate interactively… remotely, and online.

The Shappers Studio startups were also there

In this context of synergies between tech companies and large groups, Bluecoders marked its presence among the Shappers startup studio companies, alongside Bluecoders Academy and Marvin Recruiter. The group's mobilization spoke to its commitment on the ground in tech recruiting.

The stakes of digital transformation are significant, especially in the face of the changes in the world of work. With the ambition of training companies in tech culture, Bluecoders Academy trains people on the deconstruction of myths around tech and on impostor syndrome in the field. It has a crucial role to play in the context of VivaTech, to share up-to-date information and report on the most important stakes of the European technology scene.

The presence of Bluecoders at the trade show was especially important for tracking the changes and the new challenges of the tech sector. The support across all stages of recruiting offered by the company has to be aligned with the sensibilities and changes experienced by tech profiles. The exchanges that took place at VivaTech allowed Bluecoders to better grasp the stakes of the sector for the recruiters of tomorrow.

Marvin Recruiter was also at the Shappers startup studio booth, presenting its innovative recruiting tool. The challenges of sourcing and headhunting are at the heart of the current concerns of tech companies. Turning to AI and digital to automate companies' approaches to the talent present on the job market appears as a central solution to the challenges encountered in this area.