While the startup financing market is going through a lasting slowdown, some companies are choosing to explore other forms of entrepreneurial support, more operational, more territorial and less dependent on the classic logic of venture capital. This is the case of the Manutan group, which has just opened the call for applications for the sixth edition of its “Moov’with Manutan” program, developed with the Moovjee association.
The initiative targets impactful B2B startups less than five years old. But behind the relatively classic format of a support program lies a more unique approach to innovation. Here, there is neither a question of building a corporate fund, nor of seeking systematic strategic participations. On the contrary, the Group claims a logic of “long-term” support, centered on mentoring, operational connections and access to the Group’s internal expertise.
The positioning contrasts with some of the dominant narratives of the startup ecosystem in recent years. Within the group Manutan, the selection is not based primarily on the promise of hypergrowth or on belonging to the most media-intensive sectors of the moment. The main criterion remains B2B, followed by the environmental or societal impact, then by the capacity of the project to demonstrate a credible trajectory.
This orientation is directly reflected in the profiles of the companies supported. Previous promotions have seen the emergence of startups working on the reuse of advertising waste, reusable packaging, air purification by microalgae, nomadic energy systems, or even textile materials from mussel byssus.
This latest startup, Bysco, has become almost emblematic of the program. Its founder, engineer, skipper and entrepreneur, develops textile solutions from filaments produced naturally by mussels in order to improve the thermal and acoustic insulation of buildings. An innovation that is difficult to fit into the usual categories of “tech startup”, but which illustrates precisely what the Manutan group is looking for: projects anchored in real industrial uses and in issues of sovereignty or resilience.
Because it’s probably one of the most interesting subtexts of the program. Behind the environmental impact, another notion gradually appears: that of economic sovereignty. Several supported projects aim to reduce industrial dependencies, relocate certain value chains or develop alternatives to imported or high-carbon materials. A reading that particularly resonates in a European context marked by energy tensions, the challenges of reindustrialization and the growing fragility of certain supply chains.
Each selected startup benefits from two internal sponsors and direct access to the Group’s business experts. Legal, marketing, supply chain, sales, HR: the employees involved provide practical support to entrepreneurs for twelve months. A relationship that works in both directions and produces a form of virtuous reciprocity. By confronting the Manutan group’s teams with the particularly rapid execution rates of startups, the program also acts as an internal cultural accelerator. A dynamic widely appreciated by the group’s executives, who do not hesitate to get involved fully to support the entrepreneurs they monitor, tells us Xavier Laurent in charge of the program.
This approach probably explains why the Manutan group is refusing for the moment to transform the program into a classic investment vehicle, even if the group does not occasionally exclude commercial collaborations or equity investments, but these remain secondary. The dominant logic remains that of operational support.
This choice comes in a particularly tense context for French and European startups. For almost two years, fundraising has focused more on a small number of companies, particularly in artificial intelligence, while many B2B or industrial projects have struggled to access financing. Several players in the ecosystem are now warning of the growing difficulties encountered by startups in the seed phase or scaling up.
In this context, programs capable of providing networking, commercial opportunities, business expertise or operational credibility regain strategic importance. Relational capital once again becomes a central asset.
💡 The call for applications for the sixth edition of “Moov’with Manutan” is open until June 30, 2026 at 12 p.m. The ten selected startups will be announced during the summer, before to appear before a jury at the start of the school year for the start of the program for the winning start-ups scheduled for October.
Beyond the four startups selected each year, the program draws another vision of innovation: less spectacular, less financialized, but closer to industrial realities, uses and concrete transformations of companies.
