A Strong Dynamic among Start-Ups in Eastern France in 2025

The French Tech Mission 2025 releases good results for Eastern France

The national overview published by the Mission French Tech shows that, in 2025, the French tech ecosystem includes about 18,000 active start-ups and around 450,000 direct jobs nationwide.
More specifically for the Grand Est region: the ecosystem counts 647 start-ups and 10,000 direct jobs, with employment growth of +6% in the first half of 2025 – the strongest among all French regions. From January to September 2025, the start-ups in Estern France could raise €78 million in funding !

This strong performance underlines the region’s vitality, especially in sectors such as deep-tech, greentech, health and industry. The presence of excellence centres such as ENACT (an AI cluster in Lorraine) and CESQ (one of France’s “Quantum Houses”, based in Strasbourg) reinforces the region’s positioning. It clearly shows how regions outside Île-de-France are increasingly playing a key role in the French Tech landscape.

A high-performance network of incubators in Grand Est – Quest for Change

The network “Quest for Change” (which spans the Grand Est) operates 6 incubators of excellence (including Innovact, Quai Alpha, Rimbaud’Tech, SEMIA, The Pool, and Quest for Health) across 6 territories in the region.

Quest For Change currently  accompanies more than 270 projects. These are supported by a team of 49 experts, across 5 territorial incubators and 3 thematic incubators.
In terms of domain specificity:

• Quest For Health :  In the health sector support 60+ start-ups in Eastern France in fields such as biotech, medtech and digital health innovation (e-health), improving patient care and medical research
• Quest for Industry: In the industry sector, around 100 industrial‐oriented projects are currently incubated in the regional network in fieds such as advanced manufacturing, industrial process optimization and smart materials and robotics
• Quest for Bioeconomy: In the bioeconomy sector,  “more than 30 projects” are currently in incubation, especially in fieds such as sustainable agriculture; biomass valorization and bio-based materials and energy.  

This implies that within the Grand Est region’s accelerators/incubators, key sectors are sharply represented and aligned with regional priorities (deep-tech, greentech, health, industry).
For a region outside the traditional hub of Paris, the Grand Est demonstrates how a strong regional strategy, backed by specialised incubators and targeted sectors, can drive innovation and employment alike.