2026 french cybersecurity startup radar
Published June 19, 2026
- Cybersecurity
With 234 startups and 43 scale-ups, the French ecosystem shows strong creation momentum despite scaling challenges.
The French cybersecurity innovation ecosystem continues to expand in an increasingly dense market.
For the 8th consecutive year, Wavestone, in partnership with Bpifrance, is pleased to publish its French Cybersecurity Innovation Radar. The full results of the study were unveiled on June 19 at the VivaTech event. The study was conducted between June 1, 2025 and May 31, 2026.
Key takeaways from the radar
A fast-growing innovation ecosystem, with time-to-market accelerated by artificial intelligence.
- 234 startups, including 105 new entries in the radar, compared with 180 and 44 new entries in 2025
- 43 cybersecurity scale-ups in France, slightly down (-3) from 2025
€304M raised, a figure close to 2025 (€289M) but spread across a larger number of companies (36 funding rounds vs. 19 last year).
A consolidation trend taking shape, with 8 new startup acquisitions (vs. 8 in 2024/25) carried out by French players.
The AI wave continues to gain traction across the market: 70% of startups have integrated it into their offerings (+17%), whether at a surface or deeper level. 22 startups stand out, offering innovative solutions to secure business use cases and AI models (vs. 15 in 2024/25).
Companies offering deep tech solutions are particularly standing out in the market, fueling their growth.
The faster time-to-market for new products is making an already competitive ecosystem even more crowded
Benefiting from the rise of AI-driven vibe coding, alongside its already diverse innovation ecosystem (incubation and support programs), France is generating a record number of startups, with 105 new additions to our radar.
With a slight increase in the number of innovative solutions: 49% of companies offer new security solutions or secure new use cases (48% in 2025). Among new entrants, however, there is a greater appetite for risk, with a higher share of innovative solutions (+4%). The center of gravity for cyber innovation remains in the Île-de-France region, where most new startups are based, but Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Hauts-de-France, and Brittany are three highly dynamic hubs, and the decentralization of the ecosystem is continuing.
61% of companies export their solutions outside France (unchanged from last year). This figure reaches 95% when looking only at scale-ups. Exports beyond Europe are also slightly increasing: +4% in the Americas and +3% in APAC.
The ability to demonstrate credibility and robustness in an increasingly demanding cybersecurity ecosystem is a third pillar that should not be overlooked in growth strategies: 67% of scale-ups (+18% in one year) hold at least one cybersecurity certification (ISO 27001, SOC 2 Type 1 and 2, CPSN, France Cybersecurity, etc.), compared to 14% of startups. An intellectual property strategy is also a key credibility factor: 31 startups have filed at least one patent, including 8 new entrants, along with 9 scale-ups.
Startups and scale-ups still represent close to 6,000 jobs, with scale-ups driving employment growth. Startups, however, remain more cautious in their hiring, with job numbers similar to the 2024/2025 period. This trend is reflected in consistently small team sizes (52% have fewer than 5 employees, up from 32% in 2024/25, and only 3% exceed 20 employees, down from 7% in 2024/25 and 14% in 2023/24).
€304M raised, maintaining strong momentum despite a period of uncertainty
We observe that overall funding levels are holding steady, with €304 million raised between June 2025 and May 2026 (+€15M vs. 2024/2025). This momentum is driven by a similar number of large funding rounds as last year, with a particularly strong top three (€50M, €49M, and €42M), alongside a sharp increase in smaller tickets (27 this year vs. 9 in 2024/2025).
However, the market remains unfavorable for concentrating significant funding on a single startup, with no company raising more than €100M since Ledger in 2023.
Some specialized investors are taking a long-term approach, with a clear cybersecurity investment strategy. France is strengthening its position in large funding rounds (>€25M), reflecting the ecosystem’s growing maturity. At the same time, several European-sourced investments highlight ambitions for sovereignty at the continental level, alongside national sovereignty goals.
In contrast, consolidation continues to gain traction, favoring acquisitions over direct investments: 9 acquisitions were recorded this year (vs. 8 in 2024/2025), including one scale-up, with 8 carried out by French groups.
AI security is gaining momentum, with growing integration across security products
After a successful shift toward AI adoption, French startups and scale-ups continue to accelerate their progress.
Compared to 15 in 2025 and 11 in 2024.
With growing focus on emerging topics. These include AI agent security, which aims to govern behaviors, control access, limit autonomous drift, and secure interactions with systems. At the same time, managing Shadow AI is becoming a key challenge, to detect and control ungoverned use of AI tools within organizations. These players also cover critical capabilities such as securing models and training processes, protecting environments and data (anonymization, encryption), and detecting malicious uses (deepfakes, etc.). Although not included in the Radar, Mistral also stands out in this cyber ecosystem with its Devstral2 tool focused on source code security.
vs. 53% in 2025
To automate, accelerate, and enhance cyber use cases (threat detection and analysis, automated data classification, anti-fraud, etc.). At the same time, this integration is also market-driven, as AI capabilities have become essential components of product roadmaps to remain visible and credible. Notably, agentic AI is gaining traction, with around thirty companies specifying the use of AI agents in their products.
However, all stakeholders are questioning the risks and opportunities associated with AI. Based on discussions with numerous organizations, whether they use AI or not, and whether they secure its use or not, AI clearly stands out as a major accelerator. On one hand, it enables faster and more sophisticated attacks. On the other, it improves productivity and detection, strengthening defensive capabilities. For now, the AI-driven arms race is still perceived as favoring attackers.
AI is already reshaping the entire cybersecurity value chain, accelerating detection, response, and remediation capabilities. Upstream, many players now offer AI-driven penetration testing or third-party risk management. During attacks, some companies are leveraging AI to significantly enhance SOC capabilities. Downstream, AI also improves resilience, helping organizations strengthen their security posture over the long term.
Deep tech solutions now span several key areas that significantly enhance the protection of information systems. Four major directions stand out:
- Data encryption continues to underpin a dynamic ecosystem, enabling new secure cloud use cases and advanced fraud detection capabilities, as the transition to post-quantum encryption becomes a major strategic challenge.
- Application security is strengthening, with protection mechanisms increasingly embedded directly into code and at the core of DevSecOps pipelines.
- Secure virtualization relies on hypervisors designed to strictly isolate critical environments, reducing risks of compromise and attack propagation.
- IAM solutions are evolving toward increasingly granular access controls, now incorporating the management of AI agents to better secure identities and usage across more complex and diverse environments.
This 8th edition of the Cyber Startup Radar highlights a sharp acceleration across the ecosystem nationwide, with more than double the number of new startups created in just one year. This momentum is largely driven by the rise of artificial intelligence, both in its applications and in securing its lifecycle. Continuing collective efforts to support this strategic ecosystem remains essential. The growth of deep tech and the presence of specialized investors are further strengthening this momentum and paving the way for the emergence of future European leaders.
Artificial intelligence is now acting as a powerful accelerator for the French cybersecurity ecosystem. This momentum is driving the emergence of many new players. But in an increasingly competitive market, future leaders will be those who can combine speed of execution, top-tier teams, and deep technological differentiation.
Adaptation is required to ensure growth
The cybersecurity ecosystem continues to grow but must adapt its momentum to new market dynamics. The keys to accelerating growth lie at multiple levels and across different stakeholders:
Leverage AI capabilities while continuing to invest in deep tech innovation and delivering unique value to stand out.
Focus investments on highly innovative, differentiated products to avoid the risk of being overtaken by new AI-driven models.
Combine platformization efforts with the right innovations to maintain a degree of digital independence.
French Cybersecurity Startups Radar 2026 (FR only)
pdf · 6319KO
Download the RadarMethodology and selection criteria for startups and scale-ups
Startups and scale-ups must be headquartered in France, with security product sales accounting for at least 50% of their revenue.
Startups must be less than 7 years old and have fewer than 35 employees.
Scale-ups must meet one of the following financial criteria:
- Either have raised at least €10M in a single funding round over the past three years
- Or generate at least €2.5M in revenue with an average annual growth rate above 25% over the last three fiscal years, for each year
This financial requirement must be combined with a total workforce of fewer than 250 employees. If the company is linked to another entity (with more than 25% ownership), the consolidated headcount includes its own workforce plus:
- If ownership is between 25% and 50%, a proportional share of the parent company’s workforce
- If ownership exceeds 50%, the full workforce of the parent company
All figures are as of May 28, 2026.
This study is also based on qualitative interviews conducted with a majority (60%) of the organizations featured in the radar, as well as with players from the innovation ecosystem.