Winner in the Alpes-Maritimes of the national competition “101 Women Entrepreneurs 2026”, Paula Martinet founded NEBAO. This platform powered by artificial intelligence aims to make public markets accessible to SMEs and micro-enterprises. Its goal is to give them the same tools as large groups by facilitating their access.
Paula Martinet, founder of the company NEBAO, became the winner in the Alpes-Maritimes of the national competition “101 Women Entrepreneurs 2026”. Based in Cannes, this lawyer by profession specializing in public contracts worked for nine years as a public consultant. Originally from Île-de-France, the idea for NEBAO was born when she was working as a buyer in Martinique in 2024.
Observing an imbalance in access to public markets
During her years of practice in the field of public markets (a paid contract between a service provider and a public entity to meet a need for work, supplies or services, Editor’s note), Paula Martinet encountered a reality on the ground. Small businesses cannot compete with large groups on these markets due to lack of human or financial resources.
The winner sums up the problem concretely: « SMEs and micro-enterprises (Small and Medium Enterprises and Micro-enterprises, Editor’s note) do not have the same tools as larger companies already developed to be able to respond to these markets ». NEBAO was therefore designed to enable them to find and properly respond to calls for tenders.
In France, the State and local authorities dedicate approximately 233 billion euros annually to public markets, according to the Economic Observatory of Public Procurement. This represents 8% of national GDP. Yet out of more than four million companies registered in France, only 10% win these contracts.
Faced with administrative paperwork, lack of time, and exorbitant costs of consulting firms, micro-enterprises and SMEs give up. It was therefore to end this imbalance of opportunities that Paula Martinet imagined NEBAO. Her ambition is clear: « to finally allow small companies to sit down and eat at the same table as large groups », she affirms.
This digital solution NEBAO was made possible thanks to the incubator Les Premières Sud. By joining the Go Première program, Paula Martinet was able to « consolidate her business plan by moving from idea to action ». This altruistic vision won over, on June 9, the gathering of bankers and partners at the Bastide Rouge, contributing significantly to the upcoming effectiveness of NEBAO.
Software at the service of SMEs and micro-enterprises
Paula Martinet thus designed a SaaS platform (editor’s note: Software as a Service) integrating an AI specially trained in public markets. The software studies the company’s profile, performs a specific search and calculates the success rate percentage for a call for tenders.
The tool then automatically summarizes the Company Consultation File (DCE). This allows you to write a technical report that meets the expectations and what the company can bring. If needed, a consultant can intervene to verify and correct this report.
« This process makes preparing an application four times faster and four times cheaper than standard consulting support. This can reduce writing [of the report] from three weeks to less than three days », the entrepreneur specifies.
NEBAO goes even further than the simple call for tenders to counter the dominant positions of large companies. In addition to offering a competitive mapping of companies that can respond to the market, the winner has designed an « business exchange ». This allows two SMEs or micro-enterprises with complementary skills to form a temporary business grouping.
In practice, they work as a team to meet the demand. Paula Martinet supports this solution as « one that allows a company to access the market and jointly submit applications for larger-scale markets. »
The company named NEBAO is not born from nowhere since the entrepreneur plans to integrate durably into the local, national and overseas economic fabric. « The name is derived from novelty (Ne), from building (build – B) and from the innovation that will bring to call for tenders (AO) », comparing her creation to the solidity of a baobab well rooted in the ground.
NEBAO will be officially created in October 2026 and the beta phase will begin in December 2026. The winner wishing to make access to public markets available to everyone, subscription plans will be offered to companies to access the services, with a 30% lifetime discount for those registered for the beta version.
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