Startups
Cindy Zackney
The Innovation of the Year celebrates the boldest and most visionary startups exhibiting at VivaTech 2025. Open to all exhibiting startups, the award honors those pushing boundaries and redefining industries. Startups were scored on Innovation & Creativity, Market Disruption, and Scalability. From hundreds of applicants, 30 made the short list.
The top five will pitch live at VivaTech on June 11, and the winner will be revealed at the VivaTech Global Awards Ceremony on June 12. The prize? A pitch slot at the ceremony, a free Startup Corner at VivaTech 2026, and a coveted spot in the TechCrunch Startup Battlefield 200. This award recognizes not just great ideas, but also the teams turning bold visions into game-changing realities.
This year’s applicants blew us away. From turning glasses into self-driving guide dogs, to building photonic chips that could redefine computing, to converting mining waste into carbon sinks — this short list is full of breakthrough thinking with real-world stakes. We saw microrobot swarms for space exploration, AI that reads your mind to control devices, and bioelectronic implants fighting brain cancer.
These startups are pushing science, design, and engineering to new heights, especially in areas like sustainability, human-machine interfaces, advanced diagnostics, and accessible healthcare. What stood out most was the boldness. These teams aren’t just solving problems — they’re building the future from the ground up. Choosing five finalists — let alone one winner — will be incredibly tough. Every startup in this top 30 has already earned serious bragging rights.
Here are the VivaTech 2025Innovation of the Year top 30 startups, as chosen by VivaTech in partnership with TechCrunch:
- Chipiron: France, health
- Virtuosis AI: Switzerland, information technologies
- Enerdrape SA: Switzerland, energy
- snap DISCOVERY: Germany, deep tech, BCI
- NunoX Technologies: Taiwan, software development/cloud services
- Phigi: France, industry
- Noxon: Germany, health
- .lumen: Romania, mobility/transportation
- HUA TEC International: Taiwan, health
- Video Analytics for Safety: Singapore, information technologies
- Geolinks Services: France, energy
- Moonlite Labs: Canada, media/entertainment/culture
- Stellaria: France, energy
- Mendo: France, software development/cloud services
- NeuralTeks: France, health
- Vita325: Ukraine, health
- Blue Skies Minerals GmbH: Canada, industry
- Anivance AI: Taiwan, health
- La Touche Musicale: France, media/entertainment/culture
- InSimili: Italy, health
- Nellow: France, information technologies
- Oncoelectronics: France, health
- Zeeh Africa: Nigeria, banking/finance/insurance/legal
- LumiSync: France, telecom/connectivity
- Onkos Molecular Diagnostics: Spain, health
- Wisp Solutions: France, mobility/transportation
- Werover: United Kingdom, energy
- BeyondMath: United Kingdom, information technologies
- Kumulus: France, industry
- FireTracking: New Caledonia, software development/cloud services
If you’re planning to be in Paris June 11-14, make sure toreserve your VivaTech passtoday!
Topics
Startups
Cindy Zackney
Brand Studio Sr. Project Manager
June 5, 2025
Berkeley, California
Think you know AI? Prove it. With the countdown to TC Sessions: AI underway, it’s your chance to flex your AI knowledge—and score 2 tickets for the price of 1. Answer a few quick AI trivia questions to start your challenge. Special trivia deal ends June 4.
Most Popular
Meta plans to automate many of its product risk assessments
- Anthony Ha
Week in Review: Perplexity Labs wants to do your work
- Karyne Levy
Space Forge raises $30M Series A to make chip materials in space
- Anna Heim
Day 3 of the TechCrunch Sessions: AI Trivia Countdown — Your next shot at winning big
- TechCrunch Events
Google quietly released an app that lets you download and run AI models locally
- Kyle Wiggers
A guide to using Edits, Meta’s new CapCut rival for short-form video editing
- Aisha Malik
Serious About AI? The conversations that count start in 5 days at TechCrunch Sessions: AI
- TechCrunch Events
