Terms & Conditions

 Next Startupper Award

VivaTech 2026

Organiser and Purpose

This Award is organized by Viva Technology as part of its various student support initiatives. The purpose of this Award is to promote entrepreneurship among students by allowing them to test and boost their project by connecting with professionals and practicing the pitch contest exercise.

MSL France, a société par actions simplifiée with share capital of €182,400, having its registered office at 30–34 rue du Chemin Vert, 75011 Paris, registered with the Paris Trade and Companies Register under number 347 895 096 R.C.S. Paris, acting in its capacity as manager of the partnership formed between MSL France and Les Echos Solutions, a company with its registered office at 10, boulevard de Grenelle, 75015 Paris, registered with the Paris Trade and Companies Register under number 408 165 157, (hereinafter “Viva Technology”) is organizing, between 01/12/26 and 03/08/25, an Award entitled “Next Startupper Award” (hereinafter the “Award”).

These rules (hereinafter the “Rules”) are intended to define the conditions and rules governing participation in the Award.

Participation in the Award implies full and unconditional acceptance of the Rules. If you disagree with the terms of the Rules, you should not register for or participate in the Award.

Eligibility and Entry Conditions

The Award is open exclusively to students, enrolled in a higher education institution and able to provide proof thereof with a valid student card / certificate of enrollment (hereinafter the “Candidate”). Only one entry to the Award per Candidate will be accepted.

The application must be written in English, and there is no requirement regarding the Candidate’s country of residence or nationality. The Candidate must have an innovative entrepreneurial project with a technological orientation and a positive impact on society, i.e., taking into account social and/or environmental criteria (hereinafter the “Project”). One Project corresponds to one Candidate; multiple Candidates may not apply with the same Project.

Any student entrepreneur may participate in the Award provided they supply all information necessary for the jury to properly assess the application (see selection criteria) and provided they founded their startup less than three (3) years ago. Candidates who do not wish to provide the personal data marked as mandatory, necessary for the management of the Award, will not be able to participate.

To participate in the Award, the Candidate must:

• Create an account on the Agorize platform hosting the Award
• Accept Agorize’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy
• Register for the Award
• Accept these Rules. Registration for and participation in the Award is entirely free of charge and with no obligation to purchase. However, the cost of the internet connection required for registration for the Award, as well as the equipment required to connect, remain the responsibility of Candidates.

Registration and Participation in the Award

The Candidate must:

• Log in to the Agorize platform between January 12, 2026 at 9:30 a.m. CET and March 9, 2026 at 11:55 p.m. CET
• Register their Project by following the instructions
• Upload and complete the required information
• Upload a Project presentation deck in the required format
• Upload any other relevant document that may enhance the Project, in formats accepted by the platform

Key dates:

• January 12, 2026 at 9:30 a.m. CET: Applications open
• March 9, 2026 at 11:55 p.m. CET: Applications close
• April 3, 2026: Official announcement of the 6 finalists
• June 17, 2026: Finalists’ pitch session on the Pitch Studio stage

To participate in the Award, a complete registration must have been submitted on the Agorize platform before March 9, 2026 at 11:55 p.m. CET.

Candidates who fail to provide full contact details and identity or who provide inaccurate or false information will be disqualified. The information provided by the Candidate as part of their registration for the Award is their responsibility, and any error, anomaly, inconsistency—whether intentional or not—regarding the information communicated by the Candidate may result in disqualification.

Viva Technology reserves the right to carry out any checks necessary regarding Candidates’ identity, postal and/or email address, and student status.

Deletion of a Candidate’s user account on the Agorize platform will be considered as withdrawal from participation in the Award. In such a case, the Candidate, even if able to prove that they were not responsible for the deletion, may not be reinstated in the Award, nor may they obtain any compensation from Viva Technology.

Conduct of the Award

Award Stages. The Award consists of several selection phases:

• Selection stage: from March 9 to March 27, 2026

At the end of this stage, 6 projects will be selected. Viva Technology reserves the right to reduce the number of selected projects if it considers that the applications do not meet the prerequisite criteria.

• Second stage – the Final: The final ceremony will take place during the Viva Technology Paris event, to be held from June 17 to 20, 2026 physically in Paris (the “Event”).

The 6 finalists will be invited to pitch their Project before the members of the jury, composed of tech-sector stakeholders, and before the audience present on June 17, 2026 at Viva Technology, Paris Expo Porte de Versailles, 75015 Paris. The exact time will be communicated later to the selected finalists.

Selection criteria. Applications will be judged according to the selection criteria set out below. The Award does not depend in any way, even partially, on chance or luck and therefore cannot be considered or likened to a lottery.

Notification to Participants. When the 6 finalists are selected, the Candidate will be informed by email, phone, or any other means, at Viva Technology’s sole discretion, of the selection results. Viva Technology will be free to change the dates on which the results are communicated if the number of projects to be reviewed makes such a change necessary. The new dates will then be communicated to Candidates. The ranking decided by the jury will be announced on the day of the Final and will designate the Grand Winner.

Selection Stage

As part of this selection stage, taking place from March 9 to March 27, 2026, 6 Projects will be selected by Viva Technology according to the following criteria:

• Innovation of the solution
• Maturity of the product or service
• Scalability of the solution
• CSR impact

Candidates of the 6 selected Projects will take part in the Final to be held on June 17, 2026 at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles.

Final Ceremony

Candidates selected to participate in the Final will be contacted directly by Viva Technology. In the absence of confirmation of participation by June 24 from the Candidate when contacted by Viva Technology (email and/or phone), Viva Technology reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to disqualify the Candidate concerned and to select the next Candidate in the ranking to participate in the Final. Such disqualification shall not give rise to any compensation from Viva Technology.

This final phase will take the form of an official ceremony to be held during the Viva Technology Event, as mentioned above. The 6 finalist Candidates must pitch their Project before the jury, composed of tech experts.

The pitch, in English, will last 3 minutes and will be followed by 4 minutes of questions and answers by the jury members. No support materials will be accepted (slides, presentations, etc.).

Details of the pitch format will be sent to finalists prior to the ceremony.

The Jury will determine the Grand Winner according to the following objective criteria:

• Innovation of the project
• Maturity of the project
• Scalability of the project
• CSR impact of the project

The winning Project will be announced the day after the pitch session, during the final ceremony.

By participating in the Award, the Candidate must ensure they are present at the pitch session on June 17 and at the award ceremony on June 12, 2026. If the Candidate cannot attend these appointments for unforeseen or any other reasons, they must inform VivaTech as soon as possible, and no later than May 12, 2026; they will then be disqualified from the Final and the next Candidate in the ranking will be selected for the Final.

Prizes

The “Prizes” are the rewards awarded to the winners of each stage as defined below:

The 6 finalists:

• Speaker Passes (VIP Pass, 4-day access to the event and to the Viva Lounge) and Startup Passes (Pass with 4-day access to the event) for team members (up to 4 passes)
• Visibility at the Viva Technology event
• Networking with jury members in the Viva Lounge

The Grand Winner:

• A €5,000 check
• 1 Startup Corner at VivaTech 2027 (Value €3,500)

Not included and remaining at each Candidate’s expense:

• Personal expenses of the Candidate and their team
• Transport and accommodation for the Candidate and their team, notably to attend the finalists’ ceremony
• Insurance
• More generally, any expenses incurred by the Candidate related to participation in the Award

The Prizes will be presented to the Grand Winner at the end of the Award and after VivaTech.

The presence of finalist Candidates is mandatory at the prize-giving ceremony. In case of absence, a finalist Candidate may not claim their prize. Furthermore, Viva Technology reserves the right to replace prizes with items of similar characteristics and of equal or higher value if circumstances require, without giving rise to any right to compensation.

Intellectual Property

7.1 Viva Technology Intellectual Property

These Rules do not grant the Candidate any ownership rights over corporate names, logos, designs, trademarks, advertising materials, or any other intellectual property rights owned by Viva Technology.

The Candidate acknowledges that they are prohibited, in all countries and unless previously agreed in writing by Viva Technology, from using for any reason whatsoever (including as a commercial reference or for their own advertising) the intellectual property rights of Viva Technology, notably its corporate name, trademarks, logos, designs, visual codes, and advertising materials. Any use may only be made in the manner and form expressly accepted in advance in writing by Viva Technology and must in no event be disparaging.

7.2 Intellectual Property in the Candidate’s Content

The Candidate remains the owner of the intellectual property rights attached to their Project, notably the pitch deck, the Project presentation video, or any other element communicated by the Candidate as part of their participation in the Award (hereinafter the “Content”).

The Candidate authorizes Viva Technology to use their Content from the date of registration for the Award and for a period of one (1) year from the end of the Event. This right of use includes the right to reproduce, to have reproduced, to represent or to have represented said Content on all communication media, notably printed media, as well as via all means of communication (video, audio, digital, etc.), in order to select finalists and ensure the media coverage of the Award and/or the Event worldwide.

Liability

Viva Technology cannot be held liable for any communication, network connection, IT or connection failure. Viva Technology is not responsible for any malfunction of the Agorize platform, nor for any delay, loss, or damage to an Award entry, nor for any entry that is misdirected, incomplete, illegible, undeliverable, or destroyed due to system errors, faulty, incomplete computer equipment, or other telecommunications transmission malfunctions, or hardware or software failures of any kind, lost or unavailable network connections, or technical malfunction(s).

Under no circumstances shall Viva Technology be held liable for any loss or corruption of data. Viva Technology shall not be held liable if the Candidate’s registration data does not reach it, regardless of the reason.

Viva Technology shall not be held liable if, for any reason beyond its control (notably computer fraud, virus, fire, flood, strike, force majeure, pandemic such as COVID-19, or any other reason) this Award must be shortened, modified, postponed, or canceled. Viva Technology reserves the right to shorten, modify, or cancel this Award if circumstances so require, without compensation for any prejudice to Candidates and without reimbursement of expenses incurred by them. Any modification to these Rules will be communicated to Candidates in advance in writing at least 15 days before its application. Candidates who do not accept the modified Rules must withdraw their application from the Award. Any continuation of an application shall be deemed acceptance of the new Rules by the Candidate.

Any false statement or data automatically results in the Candidate’s disqualification. Proven fraud or attempted cheating by a Candidate may be sanctioned by Viva Technology without prior notice.

Image Rights

The Candidate is informed and accepts that their image may be captured in photographs and/or films that Viva Technology will produce during the prize-giving ceremony. The Candidate grants Viva Technology a free authorization to reproduce and represent their image on all printed, video, audio, or digital media in connection with the dissemination by Viva Technology of any photo, podcast, or film of a documentary or promotional nature relating to the Award or the Event for any current or future edition. Such dissemination is authorized for all media worldwide for a period of three (3) years.

Personal Data Collection

9.1 Principle

Participation in the Award requires the communication of personal data relating in particular to Candidates’ identity (notably names, postal and correspondence addresses, phone numbers, photos, CVs, and all information marked as mandatory in the application form). Personal data will be processed in accordance with French data protection law No. 78-12, as amended.

The Candidate retains the right, at any time, to:

• Object to the collection of personal data
• Access, consult, or rectify the personal data collected in connection with the Award by accessing their personal space on www.agorize.com
• Delete any personal data collected in connection with the Award by sending a request to startups@vivatechnology.com

Unless otherwise specified, if the Candidate refuses to provide or requests the deletion of personal data, this may result in their application to the Award being canceled.

Data relating to Candidates who are not selected will be deleted two years after the 2024 Event. Data relating to Selected Candidates will be retained for three (3) years from the date of registration for the Award between Viva Technology and the Candidate.

9.2 Purpose and Recipients

Candidates’ personal data is processed by Viva Technology and the jury members to:

• Verify that the Application is eligible for the Award for which the Candidate has applied and complies with the Award Rules; and
• Communicate with the Candidate as part of their participation in the Award
• Select the Projects
• Award the prizes

Candidates are informed that their data is communicated to Agorize, a processor of Viva Technology, for the purposes of collecting this data as part of the Award.

For more information regarding their rights and Viva Technology’s personal data protection policy, Candidates may visit https://vivatechnology.com/data-privacy.

Governing Law and Dispute Resolution

The Award Rules are governed by French law.

In the event of a dispute, the Candidate must first contact the organizer by email at startups@vivatechnology.com or by post at the following address: Viva Technology – 30–34 rue du Chemin Vert – 75011 Paris, FRANCE.

If the complaint to the organizer is unsuccessful or if no response is received within two months, the Candidate may submit the dispute relating to the Award to a mediator who will, in complete independence and impartiality, bring the parties together with a view to reaching an amicable solution.

To submit a mediation request, the Candidate has the right to use free of charge the mediation service offered by the SOCIETE MEDIATION PROFESSIONNELLE. This mediation service can be contacted electronically at https://www.mediateur-consommation-smp.fr/ or by post at Médiation Service – 24, rue Albert de Mun – 33000 Bordeaux.

The parties remain free to accept or refuse recourse to mediation, and, in the event of mediation, to accept or refuse the solution proposed by the mediator.

Failing an amicable agreement, any dispute or difficulty arising from the interpretation or performance of these Rules shall be submitted to the competent courts of Paris.

Contact Details

All correspondence with Agorize regarding the operation of the platform and data collection must be sent directly via the messaging system in your application space.