Terms & Conditions   

Female Founder Challenge 2025  

  

1. ORGANIZER AND OBJECT  

As part of its different actions to support women in tech, VivaTechnology is launching the seventh edition of the Female Founder Challenge.   

The final session of the Female Founder Challenge and the Awards ceremony will take place at the Viva Technology Paris event, which will be held from June 11 to June 14, 2025, physically in Paris, (the "Event"). Candidate applications will be reviewed and assessed by a panel of experts on the basis of qualitative criteria as set out in the present document.  

No registration fees are required to participate, nor are Candidates (as such term is defined hereafter) supposed to acquire or use any item whatsoever. However, the cost of the internet connection required to register for the Challenge remains the responsibility of the Candidates.  

MSL France, a joint-stock company with capital of 182,400 Euros, having its registered office at 30-34 rue du Chemin Vert, 75011 Paris, registered in Paris Trade and Companies Register with number 347 895 096 RCS Paris, acting as manager of the partnership formed between MSL France and Les Echos Solutions, a company having its registered office 10, boulevard de Grenelle 75015 PARIS registered in Paris Trade and companies Register with number 408 165 157, (hereinafter “Viva Technology”) organizes between 08/01/25 and 14/06/25 included a Challenge entitled “Female Founder Challenge” (hereinafter the “Challenge”).  

Participation in the Challenge implies the express and unreserved acceptance of these Challenge rules.  

  

1. PARTICIPANTS  

The Female Founder Challenge is open to all female founders, co-founders, CEOs or Co-CEOs of a startup in the Tech sector wishing to raise funds. This seventh edition of the Challenge also remains open to all candidates from previous editions, with the exception of the winner of the 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 Challenges.  

The candidate must be a natural person (and not a legal entity) over the age of 18 who has participated in the incorporation of and/or is the legal representative of the company.  

The application must be written in English. It does not require the candidate to provide proof of residence or nationality. The candidate startup does not need to be limited to a specific topic, industry or technological solution. Any female founder, regardless of her company or location, can participate in the Challenge as long as she provides all of the necessary information so that the jury may correctly evaluate the application (see selection criteria).  

By participating in the Challenge, the candidate will be expected to attend the Afterwork, the final session and the Awards ceremony (which will take place between June 11 and June 14 at VivaTech, Paris Expo Porte de Versailles, 1 Place de la Porte de Versailles, 75015 Paris, France) if she is selected amongst the 5 Finalists. If the candidate is unable to attend one of the meetings for unforeseen reasons or any other type of reason, she must inform VivaTech as soon as possible, and before May 11 at the very latest, the Candidate will then be disqualified from the Final and Awards ceremony and the next Candidate in the ranking will be selected for the Final.  

By registering and taking part in the Challenge, the candidate accepts the terms and conditions of its participation listed above and is agreeing to respect them. VivaTech reserves the right to declare incomplete, false, or non-compliant entries invalid.  

  

1. PARTICIPATION IN THE CHALLENGE  

The legal representative or the female candidate of the startup shall:  

• Connect to the challenge page between January 8, 2025 at 14:00 CET Paris and February 23, 2025 at 23:55 CET paris;  

• Register the Startup by following the instructions;  

• Download and fill in the required information;  

• Download any other relevant document to enhance the project.  

The key dates of the challenge:  

• April 7, 2025: Official Announcement of the Top 30  

• April 25, 2025: Official release of the 5 finalists   

• June 11-14, 2025: VivaTech Event (Final and Awards ceremony), Office Hours, Afterwork in a VivaTech Lounge  

5 selected startups will have to present their project in front of the jury members and the public present at a date to be confirmed between June 11 and June 14 to Viva Technology, Paris Expo Porte de Versailles, 75015 Paris during the final session. The exact day and time will be communicated later to the selected Startups.  

The pitch format details will be sent to the finalists later before the final session. The winner will be chosen by the jury after this ceremony and will receive her prize at the Awards Ceremony.  

  

1. DETERMINATION OF THE WINNERS  

  

4.1 Jury Members   

The jury will be composed of around 7 employees of the knowledge partners (Forvis Mazars and Iris), sponsors of the Award, VCs, Top entrepreneurs, and ecosystem key players (the “Jury”).   

  

4.2 Selection Process  

  

The Top 30 Selection :   

Once the Challenge is closed, the knowledge partner FORVIS MAZARS will be in charge of screening all the applications and select 100 best startups following the selection criteria below:  

• Founder expertise and experience  

• Innovation of the product / solution  

• Scaling Potential  

• Impact of the solution  

From that top 100, FORVIS MAZARS AND IRIS (the other knowledge partner), a venture capital and growth firm, will select a top 30 among the 100 best startups.  

We reserve the right to include a new partner in addition to IRIS at any moment during the Top 30 selection process. This partner will also have the status of knowledge partner.  

 

The 5 Finalists Selection:  

Once the 30 startups are selected, the jury will be in charge of selecting the 5 finalists.  

The selection criteria will be the same as the Top 30 selection criteria, with a higher level of expectation.   

 

The Winner Selection:  

The 5 finalists will be invited to pitch their startup in front of the Jury and the public during the Finale session at Viva Technology. The exact time and date will be communicated later to the finalists.   

The Jury will be in charge of nominating the winning startup based on selection criteria set out above.   

The winner will then be invited to pitch during the Award ceremony, with the winners of all the other VivaTech Awards. The winning startup will be announced during this Award ceremony at Viva Technology.  

 The exact date and time of the Award Ceremony will be communicated later.  

  

1. PRIZES  

The Top 30 Female Founders:  

• One 4-days pass to attend the 2025 edition of Viva Technology (pass with a basic value of 300 euros)  

 

The 5 finalists  

• Pitch your solution in front of a jury of top decision makers and investors  

• One-to-one meetings booked with VCs during Office Hours  

• Visibility on the digital platform of VivaTech 2025  

• Two 4-days passes to attend the 2025 edition of VivaTech (pass with a basic value of 300 euros)  

 

The Grand Prize Winner  

• Pitch your solution during the grand Award ceremony on VivaTech main stage  

• Fundraising coaching by IRIS (from pitch deck revamp to intros to VCs)    

• High visibility on VivaTech (an article on VivaTech website, visibility on the Female Founder Challenge webpage, on social media and within some newsletters dedicated to startups)  

• A private meeting with the jury  

• A Startup Corner at the 2026 edition of VivaTech (booth with a basic value of 3.500 euros). Find more information on https://vivatechnology.com/startups-at-vivatech  

• A 3-month business development mentoring program with Forvis Mazars XFactory  

 

Are not included:  

• Personal expenses of the startup team  

• Transportation and accommodation of the startup team  

• Insurance  

• And more generally, any service, expenses and costs not specifically described above.  

The Prizes will be awarded to the Winner at the end of the Challenge, during VivaTech 2025, between June 11 and June 14.  

The presence of the winning founder of the startup is obligatory when the prize is delivered. In case of absence of the winner for said prize, the candidate  immediately after in the ranking will be declared a winner and the candidate absent will be disqualified from the Challenge.  

Viva Technology reserves the right to replace the prizes with prizes of close features and equivalent or higher value if circumstances so require.  

  

1. RESPONSIBILITY OF VIVA TECHNOLOGY  

Viva Technology cannot be held responsible for a problem of communication, network connection, computers or faulty connection. Viva Technology cannot be held responsible for the malfunction of the site for a given browser.  

Viva Technology is not responsible for any malfunction of the platform Agorize or any late, lost, damaged, misdirected, incomplete, illegible, undeliverable, or destroyed applications due to system errors, failed, incomplete or garbled computer or other telecommunication transmission malfunctions, hardware or software failures of any kind, lost or unavailable network connections or technical malfunction(s), which may limit a Candidate's ability to participate.  

In no event will Viva Technology be held responsible for a loss of data or a deterioration of this data. Viva Technology cannot be held responsible if the data relating to the registration of a Candidate did not reach it for any reason or it could be illegible or impossible to process (for example, if the Candidate has computer hardware or an inadequate software environment for registration or an Internet connection problem).  

Viva Technology shall not be held responsible if, for any reason (including computer fraud, virus, fire, flood, strike, force majeure, pandemic such as COVID-19 or any other reason) this challenge has to be shortened, modified, postponed or cancelled. In fact, Viva Technology reserves the right to shorten, modify or cancel this challenge if the circumstances so require, without repair of any damage to the Candidates nor reimburse any expense incurred by them. Any amendment to these rules may be the subject of information to the Candidates.  

Any false statement or data automatically results in the disqualification of the startup. The proven fraud or attempted cheating of a Candidate may be sanctioned by Viva Technology without notice.   

  

1. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY  

Candidates participating in the Challenge allow Viva Technology to:  

Use the logo, brand and other distinctive features of their startup for the duration of the Event (ie Viva technology) and for any promotional campaign organized by Viva Technology (before the Event) and for three (3) years from the end of the Event. In particular, they allow Viva Technology to reproduce and represent the logo, brand and other distinctive features of their project on all supports, whatever the media (notably print, internet, audio-visual), used to promote the Event and/or the FFC.   

Reproduce and represent their image and other elements of their person (name, voice) and/or words recorded on one or more photographs and/or multimedia or video storage media, within the framework of Viva Technology and intended to be used for, during the Event and after in order to present and promote the Event and/or the Female Founder Challenge. This authorization entitles Viva Technology to apply such additions, deletions, modifications or dubbing to the original recording of images and/or words as Viva Technology deems useful, provided that they are in keeping with the spirit of the camerawork, and,  

Use the above mentioned image or abovementioned audio-video recordings, on a non- exclusive basis, in whole or in part, on any present or future storage media (paper, graphic, video, photographic, digital, electronic, etc.) for purposes of promoting Viva Technology and/or the FFC particularly for publication via any mode of transmission whatsoever in the press or audiovisual media (all channels combined, including terrestrial, satellite, cable, etc.), on television, in press kits, in publishing, in educational or commercial documents (catalogues, brochures, posters, point-of-sale advertising) disseminated at the initiative of Viva Technology, on the Internet and particularly on the websites published by Viva Technology, on Viva Technology social networks and/or on ECHOS SOLUTIONS and PUBLICIS GROUP social networks and on any interactive websites particularly in trade fairs, conferences and exhibitions.  

  

1. PERSONAL DATA COLLECTION 

 

8.1 Principle  

Participation in the challenge requires the submission of personal data relating, in particular, to the identity of the Candidates (including names, mailing and correspondence addresses, phone numbers, photos, CVs, etc.). Personal data will be processed in compliance with the French Act on Data Protection n°78-12, as modified by the General Data Protection Regulation of the European Commission (GDPR) of 27 April 2016.  

The Candidate retains the right, at all times:  

• to object to the collection of personal data in that case will not be able to participate in the Challenge;  

• to access, review or rectify any personal data collected in connection with the Challenge by accessing its personal space on www.agorize.com ;  

• to receive her personal data in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and have the right to transmit those data to another controller, and   

• to delete any personal data collected in connection with the Challenge These rights may be asserted free of charge on simple request to startups@vivatechnology.com  

Unless marked as optional, if the Candidate disagrees to provide or asks for the deletion of the personal data, this may result in the non-registration at the Challenge.  

Data relating to Candidates will be deleted by Viva Technology three years after the 2025 Event.  

If the Candidate doesn’t object, her personal data will be communicated to Forvis Mazars for potential inclusion in its incubation program.   

Data relating to unsuccessful Candidates will be deleted two years after the 2025 Event. Data relating to the Selected Candidates will be retained for the whole duration of the business relationship between the Sponsor and the Candidate.  

  

8.2 Purpose and recipients  

The collection and processing of such personal data will be transferred to our knowledge partners Forvis Mazars and IRIS and used for the purposes of the Selection and the Challenge including:  

• to verify that the Candidate eligible to be selected to participate in the Challenge she applied for and complies with the Challenge Rules; and  

• to communicate with the Candidate for the purpose of his/her participation in the Challenge; and  

• to select the Top30;   

• to be eligible to start a incubation program with our knowledge partner  

• getting anonymised data for a study  

The recipients of the data are specifically designated employees of MSL France, Agorize  being a subcontractor of MSL France for the purpose of the collection of such data in the context of the Selection.  

Their personal data will also be transferred to the Jury members in order to select the 5 finalists and the winner.   

  

1. APPLICABLES LAWS, SETTLEMENT OF DISPUTES AND ILLEGALITY 

 

9.1 Governing law  

These Challenge rules shall be governed and interpreted in accordance with French law.  

 

9.2 Settlement of disputes  

In the Event of a dispute arising out of or in connection with these User Rules (a "Dispute"), the parties shall first seek amicable settlement of that Dispute. Either party may commence amicable settlement by sending to the other party a written request , setting forth the subject of the Dispute and the relief requested (the "Notice").  

If the Dispute has not been amicably settled within 60 days following the date of the Notice or within such other period as the parties may agree in writing, either party may initiate proceedings before the French courts which shall have exclusive jurisdiction to hear the Dispute.  

Any Notice or correspondence in relation to a Dispute should be addressed to: startups@vivatechnology.com.  

 

9.3 Contact details  

Any correspondence with Agorize with respect to the functioning of the platform and data collection should be addressed to startups@vivatechnology.com.