The Montpellier Métropole area, fertile ground for innovative companies! This has been demonstrated over the past 15 months by a series of fundraising announcements.
Starting with the global health sector:
Sensorion raised €51 million in February 2024 to continue its research programs on hearing loss in collaboration with the Pasteur Institute, followed by CILCare, another specialist in hearing loss treatments, raised €40 million in December.
For its part, MedinCell raised nearly €43 million to further develop its long-acting injectable treatments, notably for schizophrenia. MABQI has obtained €5 million in government funding as part of the “Innovations in Biotherapies and Bioproduction” call for projects under the France 2030 plan managed by Bpifrance. The objective is to accelerate the development of its MQI-201 antibody candidate for the treatment of prostate cancer.
Sim&Cure raised €3.1 million to boost its innovations in endovascular treatment, using digital twin and AI technologies, and to expand internationally.
Seeking to cure rheumatoid arthritis, Arthritis4Cure, another company in the highly dynamic MedVallée cluster, has raised €3 million to develop a new immunotherapy.
Located at the Ateliers Relais du Millénaire relay workshops, MB Therapeutics raised €2 million to fund the world’s first pharmaceutical facility dedicated to producing solutions compatible with 3D printing technology in pharmacies.
The clinical nutrition specialist La Picorée raised 460 K€ from Meliès Business Angels, Sofilaro, Capitole Angels, Investessor, and Impact Business Angels. La Picorée wants to help malnourished people rediscover the joy of eating.
INITS received €1 million in funding from the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER), marking an important milestone for its SMO project, seeking to establish innovative bioproduction capabilities in the Occitanie region and Montpellier Métropole area in particular.
Thanks to support from Bpifrance, AI-Stroke secured €1.5 million as part of the Deep Tech France 2030 Plan to accelerate the development of its pre-hospital stroke diagnosis solution. In addition, AI Stroke, which is ranked alongside Breedge and Opale in Challenges magazine’s list of the 100 startups to invest in, is working to reduce the impact of strokes through innovative solutions powered by artificial intelligence.
In the environmental and energy transition sectors:
Enerfip, a crowdfunding platform dedicated to renewable energy projects, raised nearly €160 million in 2024, exceeding the €142 million raised in 2023.
Apex Énergies secured €350 million to help speed up the energy transition. With over 300 sites connected in 2024, the company plans to build more than 1,100 solar power plants (rooftop, shade structures, ground-mounted) by the end of 2027.
After raising €50 million in late 2023, Montpellier-based renewable energy producer Elements announced in February that it had secured a new €4.8 million bond financing deal with investment company Smalt Capital to support its development.
Founded in 2023 in Montpellier by Léo Lemordant and Pierre Gentine, Celest Science raised €2 million in seed funding to continue developing its AI-based extreme climate risk prediction technology, accelerate its commercial development, and strengthen its partnerships.
Terratis raised €1.5 million to finance its innovation, the sterile insect technique, which aims to reduce the proliferation of tiger mosquitoes. PimpUp raised €1.7 million to support its expansion and continue to offer consumers an economical and sustainable alternative through the reuse of unsold items.
In the technology sector:
Wheere raised €11 million to develop its revolutionary indoor and outdoor geolocation solution, which is scalable and offers meter-level accuracy, with the goal of becoming a major player in the geolocation field.
This fundraising demonstrates the vitality of Montpellier's innovative ecosystem, which is also the result of the support provided by Montpellier Métropole, notably through Montpellier BIC, ranked among the world's top five public incubators (UBI Global 2019),, as well as through the various initiatives it has created for businesses, such as the Boost Invest MedVallée program, which aims to facilitate fundraising for startups in the global health sector.
Nine startups were selected to participate in the program in 2024. They were NBX Biosciences, Nervosave Therapeutics, Regenlife, Stentup, Greenphage, AI Stroke, E-Ethylène, Novagray, and Aporepair. In total, they are seeking to raise €30 million. Six startups joined them 2025: Neurinnov, Ciloa, Cyberna, Load Stations, and Reeflect.
Last but not least are innovative companies undergoing exponential growth. These include the startup Conecsio, which recently acquired Edop as well as Swile. La Licorne, founded in 2018 in Montpellier by Loïc Soubeyrand, passing the €200 million revenue mark in 2024 with EBITDA of €36 million, compared with -€23 million in 2023. 65% of this revenue comes from Swile's meal voucher offering, with the remainder coming from its employee benefits offering and business travel platform, launched following the acquisition of startup Okarito.
In the Montpellier Métropole are, talent is synonymous with these exemplary success stories!
