Entrepreneurship
At Mines Paris – PSL, entrepreneurship encompasses a wide variety of paths, ranging from founding startups to intrapreneurship and the development of impact projects.
Driven by a strong entrepreneurial culture, the School supports its students, researchers, faculty members, and alumni in developing innovative initiatives, from deep-tech startups to the creation of new business activities within organizations. Education, research, support, and commercialization all work together to foster solutions that address major economic, industrial, environmental, and societal challenges.
8th
Entrepreneurship Award for Pigment and Kleep, organized by the Mines Paris Foundation
Entrepreneurship Education
Mines Paris – PSL fosters an understanding of and provides training in entrepreneurship throughout the academic program. Students gradually develop their ability to turn an idea into an innovative project that addresses scientific, economic, and industrial challenges.
Innovation and Entrepreneurship Track
The Innovation and Entrepreneurship track prepares third-year engineering students to launch business ventures based on innovation.
It provides them with the knowledge, methods, and tools needed to launch new projects, start a business, or develop innovative initiatives within organizations of all sizes.
Based on experimentation and learning by doing, it enables students to develop a concrete entrepreneurial project and to work alongside entrepreneurs, experts, and investors.
EDI Specialized Master’s Program – Entrepreneurship, Deep Tech & Innovation
Since 2018, the Specialized Master’s in Entrepreneurship, Deep Tech & Innovation at Mines Paris – PSL, led by the IHEIE, has been training entrepreneurs capable of bringing to market and developing innovations stemming from scientific research.
The program brings together a diverse group of professionals—Ph.D. holders, engineers, business professionals, and financial experts—and creates a collaborative learning environment at the intersection of research and entrepreneurship. Students work closely with Mines Paris – PSL laboratories and explore disruptive technologies still in the early stages of development.
This immersion is accompanied by individualized support that helps transform these scientific opportunities into projects for commercialization and business creation. The pedagogy is based on action, experimentation, and direct interaction with the deep tech ecosystem.
The program thus helps foster the emergence of well-structured entrepreneurial projects and serves as a fertile ground for the creation of future spin-offs originating from the School.
Startups Launched Through the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Track
This selection showcases entrepreneurial projects initiated by Mines Paris – PSL students through the Innovation and Entrepreneurship track. It highlights the diversity of these companies’ backgrounds, sectors, and stages of development—ranging from startups launched while students were still in school to companies that have become internationally recognized players.
Kleep
Théophile Bousquet (P18) and Federico Fortis (P18) founded their startup, Kleep, while they were still third-year students at Mines Paris – PSL as part of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship track.
Kleep is an AI solution that allows users to quickly and accurately determine their size, thereby reducing some of the waste associated with returns from online clothing shoppers. They were winners of the Émergence award at the 2023 Mines Paris TRANSVALOR Entrepreneurship Prize.
Verkor
Verkor was founded in 2020 by six founders, including Philippe Chain (P87).
Its goal: to design and manufacture batteries for electric cars in Europe using lithium-ion technology that can be recycled. The Dunkirk plant will begin producing battery cells in 2025. The company’s founders estimate that the business, which currently employs 350 people, is expected to create 1,200 direct jobs and an additional 3,000 indirect jobs within the Verkor ecosystem in Isère and the Dunkirk region.
Cartage
Cartage was founded by Raphaël Toledano (P18) and Oscar Bourgeois (P18) during their junior year in the Innovation and Entrepreneurship track.
The startup was launched in 2023, allowing users to borrow an insured car from a neighbor or friend. To use the service, users sign up on the website, provide personal information, and enter the license plate number of the car in question. After paying €5 per day and undergoing a verification process by the website, users can borrow a car while remaining insured.
Exotec
Exotec, co-founded in 2015 by Renaud Heitz (P03), ranks among the world leaders in logistics robotics.
The company manufactures and distributes more than 5,000 Skypods worldwide. This autonomous mobile robot is equipped with wheels and operates in three dimensions, climbing up to 12 m along rack rails. With a team of 600 employees, Exotec integrates software, conveyors, and machinery—in addition to its robots—to offer its customers complete robotic warehouses.
Fairmat
Fairmat, founded and led by Ben Saada (P07), is a company that recycles and reuses carbon-fiber composite materials (sourced from airplane wings or wind turbine blades) that are currently incinerated or sent to landfills.
This recycling process emits less CO2 and greenhouse gases than the production of new materials. The company has opened the Fairfactory in Bouguenais, near Nantes, where its approximately 100 robotic arms recycle 3,500 metric tons of materials per year. It is expected to employ 400 people within a few years.
Pigment
Co-founded by Éléonore Crespo (P10), a student in the Innovation and Entrepreneurship track, and Romain Niccoli (P97), Pigment is a financial planning platform that supports companies in their decision-making.
She is the first female CEO of a French startup to be included in the index of the 40 top-performing companies in French Tech. Pigment enables companies to create budgets, forecasts, and agile plans to manage and ensure the sustainability of their operations.
Start-ups Founded by School Alumni
Mines Paris – PSL alumni pursue a variety of entrepreneurial paths, both in France and abroad. Their start-ups reflect the diversity of the innovation sectors they are involved in and the alumni’s ability to create and grow high-impact companies.
SmartBack
- Ariane Valare (P17), co-founder
SmartBack is a French startup that offers a reverse logistics solution enabling e-commerce businesses to repurpose their returned products by giving them a second life locally through resale, donation, or recycling.
Ecotable
- Camille Delamar (P08), co-founder
Ecotable is a social and solidarity economy enterprise that supports the food service industry in its ecological transition by offering impact measurement tools, training, a certification program, and solutions to promote sustainable practices.
Big Blue
- Matthias Griffe (P14) and William Meunier (P14), co-founders
Bigblue is an e-commerce logistics platform that helps brands manage their operations—from warehousing to order fulfillment and returns management—to optimize performance and the customer experience.
Le Donjon
- Eloi de Cossé Brissac (P19), co-founder
Le Donjon (SPES SALUTIS) is an immersive escape room brand located in Paris, offering scripted and interactive experiences set in historical and fictional worlds, combining puzzles, staging, and teamwork.
DNA Script
- Xavier Godron (P11) et Sylvain Gariel (P07), co-fondateurs
DNA Script is a biotechnology company that develops DNA synthesis technologies enabling the production of genetic sequences on demand directly in the laboratory, using an innovative enzymatic approach.
Zenpark
- Thibaut Charry (P11), Guillaume Wrobel (X10), co-founders
Zenpark is a French mobility company that offers a shared parking solution allowing users to reserve and optimize the use of private parking spaces via a digital platform and a mobile app.
Yespark
- Thibaut Charry (P11), Guillaume Wrobel (X10), co-founders
Yespark is a mobility company that offers a digital platform for renting and reserving parking spaces, providing easy access to private parking lots for flexible periods ranging from a few hours to several months.
Cuure
- Jules Marcilhacy (P09), co-founder
Cuure is a French health and wellness company that develops personalized dietary supplements, formulated based on scientific data and individualized recommendations, to sustainably improve the results and effectiveness of nutritional intake.
Criteo
- Franck le Ouay (P97), co-founder
Criteo is a French advertising technology company specializing in media commerce, which uses purchase data and artificial intelligence algorithms to enable brands and retailers to run personalized and measurable advertising campaigns at scale across the web.
Lifen
- Franck le Ouay (P97), co-founder
Lifen is a French digital health company developing a medical coordination platform designed to streamline the exchange of health data between healthcare facilities, professionals, and patients, with the goal of improving the patient care journey and facilitating clinical research through data analytics and the interoperability of information systems.
OuiHelp
- Victor Sebag (P08), co-founder
OuiHelp is a French personal services company specializing in home care for people with reduced independence, enabling them to remain in their own homes under good conditions through personalized support.
FieldBox
- Aymeric Préveral-Etcheverry (P09), co-founder and CEO, Antoine Trihoreau (P00), co-founder and Executive Chairman
Fieldbox is a technology and consulting firm specializing in AI applied to industrial operations, which designs and deploys data and artificial intelligence solutions to improve the efficiency, safety, and performance of large-scale industrial processes.
SpaceFill
- Quentin Drillon (P17), co-founder
Spacefill is a SaaS platform that enables companies to centralize, manage, and automate their outsourced logistics by connecting their warehouses, carriers, and information systems in real time.
JeudiMerci
- Léonie de Verdelhan (P12), co-founder
JeudiMerci is a gifting and relationship marketing platform that enables companies to create and automate personalized rewards and loyalty campaigns, combining digital tools, a gift catalog, and shipping logistics.
Lovebox
- Jean Gregoire (P08), founder
Lovebox is a French company that develops a connected message box that allows users to remotely send sweet messages, photos, and drawings via an app, with the goal of strengthening bonds between loved ones through a more emotional and interactive communication experience.
AdoreMe
- Morgan Hermand (P02), founder
Adore Me is a New York-based lingerie and intimate apparel brand offering collections of underwear, nightwear, and swimwear through an online retail model that emphasizes customization and size inclusivity.
Nest
- Khadidiatou Nakoulima (P06), founder
NEST (Nest For All) is a network of medical clinics in Senegal dedicated to women’s and children’s health, offering community-based support and integrated maternal and child health care.
Briq
- Thibault Lemonnier (P16), co-founder
Briq is a Qualiopi-certified training organization specializing in careers related to the energy transition, offering certification and vocational training programs to develop skills in energy-efficient renovation, building audits, and building performance.
Entalpic
- Mathieu Galtier (P04), co-founder
Entalpic is a deep tech company that develops artificial intelligence solutions to accelerate the discovery of new materials and catalysts in order to make industrial processes more sustainable.
Spin-offs from the School’s Research Centers
The research centers at Mines Paris – PSL are the source of innovative companies that have emerged directly from scientific and technological research. This selection of spin-offs illustrates the School’s ability to transform research into concrete solutions, in close collaboration with the laboratories and researchers who developed them.
Centre de Mise en Forme des Matériaux (CEMEF)
SoftPath
SoftPath is a deep-tech spin-off developing a new generation of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation software capable of significantly accelerating calculations while reducing energy consumption and maintaining a high level of accuracy.
Centre Automatique et Systèmes (CAS)
Alice & Bob
Alice & Bob is a French quantum computing company specializing in the development of fault-tolerant quantum computers based on an architecture known as “cat qubits,” which aims to reduce computational errors.
Invisensing
Invisensing is a deep tech company that develops fiber-optic-based detection and monitoring solutions for industrial infrastructure monitoring.
Centre de Robotique (CAOR)
Embodme
Embodme is a deep tech company that develops sensing and interaction technologies (3D touch and contactless interfaces) to create intuitive control experiences for digital surfaces and interactive systems.
UVR
United Visual Researchers (UVR) is a French deep tech company that develops simulation and physical rendering software used to create realistic digital prototypes for industry, with the aim of optimizing design and reducing the need for physical testing.
Centre de Gestion Scientifique (CGS)
Stim
STIM is a French company specializing in video surveillance solutions that develops integrated systems combining video recorders, surveillance software, and related services for image processing and analysis in professional environments.
Centre Efficacité Énergétique des Systèmes (CES)
SUBLIME Energie
Sublime Énergie is a deep-tech company and mission-driven enterprise that develops biogas liquefaction technology to produce low-carbon renewable fuels and gases locally for transportation and industry.
EneVille
EneVille is a deep tech company developing a data and artificial intelligence platform that models buildings and assesses their energy performance to accelerate the decarbonization of the building stock.
Exergetica
Exergetica is a deep-tech company spun off from Mines Paris – PSL that develops solutions for modeling and optimizing energy systems to improve their efficiency and reduce their environmental impact.
STEM
STEM is a deep-tech company spun off from Mines Paris – PSL that develops industrial solutions based on water-vapor-permeable membranes, enabling, in particular, highly energy-efficient dehumidification and effluent treatment.
Centre de Géosciences (GEOSCIENCES)
Arxitek
Arxitek is a deep-tech company spun off from the Center for Geosciences at Mines Paris – PSL that develops solutions for analyzing and modeling subsurface environments to optimize the exploration and management of geological resources.
Centre Procédés, Énergies renouvelables, Systèmes énergétiques (PERSEE)
Plenesys
Plenesys is a French deep-tech company that develops cutting-edge plasma technologies for the production of clean hydrogen and the decarbonization of industrial processes.
Centre de Recherche Informatique (CRI)
RegMind
RegMind is a legaltech company spun off from the Mines Paris – PSL Computer Science Research Center, specializing in regulatory monitoring and standards analysis for the banking, finance, and insurance sectors
Centre Énergie, Environnement, Procédés (CEEP)
Kocliko
Kocliko is a deep tech company spun out of Mines Paris – PSL that develops digital solutions for energy management in multi-unit buildings, combining thermal modeling and artificial intelligence to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions.
