In this edition:
🧠 As Europe debates how to handle the rise of artificial intelligence, France is flashing mixed signals. The government’s €200M “Osez l’IA” plan pushes adoption across the board, but regulators like the CNIL and Arcep are calling for tighter controls. Meanwhile, VCs and founders—including Partech and Pigment—want to pause the EU AI Act. With just 10% of French companies using AI today, the country is at a crossroads: accelerate, regulate...or stall?
Chris O'Brien + Helen O'Reilly-Durand
🤖 Building with AI in the EU?
Understand how the EU AI Act impacts your startup—and what to do about it.
📋 A clear, actionable checklist to help you prepare.
⚖️ Stay compliant while continuing to innovate fast.
Headlines
🗞️ OVHcloud reinvents itself: from data center king to AI challenger. In an exclusive 11-minute Maddyness interview, Octave Klaba reveals OVH’s next act: becoming Europe’s answer to U.S. and Chinese AI dominance. Having turned profitable in 2025 and refocused under new CEO Benjamin Revcolevschi, OVH is launching its own AI and quantum stack developed and hosted in Europe: from data platforms and model training to open-source LLMs, on top of its global 44-data-center infrastructure. With half its revenue already international and AI integrated into internal ops, OVH Cloud says it’s building a genuine ecosystem, not just infrastructure. | Maddyness
🗞️ French digital marketing firm Primelis has acquired Omny AI, a Paris-based startup renowned for its AI-driven sales optimization on platforms like Amazon and TikTok Shop. Founded in 2022, Omny AI has emerged as a key player in marketplace performance enhancement, leveraging artificial intelligence to automate and optimize sales processes. This acquisition aligns with Primelis' ambitious growth trajectory, aiming to triple its revenue to €100 million within the next three to four years. By integrating Omny AI's advanced technologies and expertise, Primelis seeks to expand its international footprint, particularly in the U.S. market, where Amazon accounts for half of online purchases. | Polesocietes
🗞️ Off-the-shelf, onto the battlefield? The French Defense Procurement Agency (DGA) is finally done ordering the mythical five-legged sheep. In a dramatic shift from its usual 80-page specs, the DGA issued a stripped-down tender with just 20 requirements — and awarded the contract to 🇫🇷 Harmattan AI, maker of a featherweight 1.8kg microdrone. With only half a day of testing per contender and a strict focus on speed, price, and readiness, Harmattan’s made-in-France drone (powered by Lynred infrared cams) will go from pitch to battlefield in under a year. 1,000 units will roll out by year-end, just in time for Orion 2026, France’s major joint-force military exercise. | Aerobuzz
🗞️ French telecom watchdog warns EU not to sleep on AI. While some in the tech world are urging Brussels to slow down on AI regulation, France’s telecom regulator Arcep is saying: step on the gas. In a pointed statement, President Laure de la Raudière warned that Europe risks repeating its cloud-era mistakes - letting U.S. giants dominate unchecked. The Arcep is calling for tighter oversight of generative AI, raising flags not just about market fairness, but also net neutrality. | Les Échos
🗞️ French dating app Happn has teamed up with Mistral AI to launch "Perfect Date," a feature designed to alleviate the stress of planning first dates. This AI-powered tool analyzes users' profiles, preferences, and locations to suggest up to five personalized venues—ranging from cozy cafés to cultural hotspots—tailored to shared interests and vibes. Recognizing that 22% of users find choosing a date spot the most stressful part of dating, Happn's CEO Karima Ben Abdelmalek emphasized that the AI serves as a supportive guide rather than a decision-maker, aiming to facilitate real-life connections without overshadowing human spontaneity. | Polesocietes
🗞️ The RAISE Summit, Paris’s flagship event for AI professionals, is this week (July 8–9) at the Carrousel du Louvre, and it’s scaling fast. With 250+ speakers and 6,000 attendees expected (triple last year’s crowd), the summit aims to spotlight France’s AI ecosystem on the global map. Sessions (all in English) will feature top founders, C-level execs, and investors discussing AI strategy, ethics, and scale-up journeys. | Maddyness
Other Headlines
🗞️ 7 cutting-edge reasons why Tadej Pogačar and the Tour de France peloton are faster than ever | The 2025 Tour de France is predicted to be the fastest Tour ever thanks to a technological revolution that shows no signs of slowing down. | Bike Radar
🗞️ Air France-KLM to increase intelligence of bots that have saved 200,000 hours | Airline group will now use agentic AI technology to make existing bots ‘more intelligent.' | ComputerWeekly
🗞️ France’s first pharmacy to use artificial intelligence is in Nice | The Pharmacie de la Madeleine in Nice is becoming a testbed for innovation, equipping its dispensing staff with AI-enhanced intelligent headsets. | Monaco Tribune
🗞️ Inside Anthropic and French AI firm Dust’s new plan to save you time at work | US artificial intelligence (AI) company Anthropic, maker of the Claude large language model (LLM), is partnering with the Paris-based AI agent builder Dust as part of its scaled-up investment in Europe. | EuroNews
ICYMI
🗞️ VSORA: The French AI Chipmaker Taking on NVIDIA with High-Performance, Cost-Efficient AI Hardware | Backed by €40 million in funding, CEO Khaled Maalej believes the company is set to disrupt the AI hardware market with its Jotunn8 chip, leveraging a fabless model and advanced chiplet architecture to slash the cost of deploying large language models and generative AI at scale. | The French Tech Journal
🗞️ Figma's CPO On Navigating The GenAI Revolution: 'It's A Very Dynamic Landscape.' | Chief Product Officer Yuhki Yamashita discusses how the design company abandoned its traditional planning process to build AI-powered products as it adapts to the rapid evolution of GenAI capabilities. | The French Tech Journal
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🧠 French AI Paradox: Speed Up or Slow Down?
France finds itself at a strange intersection of the global AI arms race accelerates where the traffic lights are flashing green, orange, and red all at once.
On one hand, the government wants to hit the gas. On the other hand, regulators are slamming the brakes. And somewhere in the middle, a growing number of VCs and founders are asking Brussels to stall the European AI Act, the first measures of which came into effect just before France’s AI Act in February.
Even the French public seems confused.
An IPSOS survey published in January found that 73% of French citizens fear AI’s impact on society. That's the highest level of concern in a global panel of 11 countries. And while 48% of salaried workers worry AI will replace their job (BVA, 2024), only 10% of French companies used AI at all in 2024 – a mere 4 point increase over 2023, according to the latest data from INSEE, the nation's statistics agency.
That’s well behind neighbors in Northern Europe, where adoption sits between 20–28%, and lower than the EU average of 13%.
So, what’s really going on? Is France racing toward an AI-powered future or hesitating at the crossroads?
AI Funding News
📇 Company: Genesis AI
🔍 Description: Builds foundation models optimized for robotics and real-world agents, enabling robots to understand and interact with the physical world using multimodal AI.
💻 Website: N/A
📍 HQ City: Paris & Palo Alto
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: $105M
🏦 Investors: Eclipse Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Nat Friedman, Daniel Gross, Xavier Niel, Eric Schmidt, Balaji Srinivasan, Elad Gil, Conviction, and more
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Shariq Rizvi (ex-Twitter), Marco De Martin (ex-DeepMind), Emil Wallner (ex-Google Brain)
🗞️ News: Sifted, TechCrunch, Maddyness
📇 Company: Bonx
🔍 Description: Next-generation ERP designed to drive the growth of industrial SMBs
💻 Website: bonx.tech
📍 HQ City: Toulouse
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €7.82M
🏦 Investors: Kima Ventures, Purple, Dynamo VC, OSS Ventures, 9900 Capital
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Charles-Henry Rouaud, Rémi Bèges, Alexandre Barroux
🗞️ News: EU Startups
📇 Company: Kerys Software
🔍 Description: Software editor providing secure virtualization tools to mutualize hardware
💻 Website: kerys.software
📍 HQ City: Paris
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €6.2M
🏦 Investors: Kima Ventures, Seedcamp, Daphni, Nicolas Steegmann, Amirhossein Malekzadeh, Sebastien Pahl, Backtrace Capital
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Bastien Domergue, Thomas Girard
🗞️ News: Beamstart
📇 Company: Massive Dynamic
🔍 Description: AI-powered SaaS suite designed to automate digital marketing operations across SEO, Google Ads, and Meta platforms
💻 Website: https://massivedynamic.ai
📍 HQ City: Paris
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €3M
🏦 Investors: Founders Future, Motier Ventures, business angels
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Zakaria Ghandi, Mehdi Bouchenak
🗞️ News: EU Startups
📇 Company: RainPath
🔍 Description: Revolutionizing human tissue analysis through AI, no chemical staining, faster, clearer, more reliable.
💻 Website: https://www.rainpath.ai/
📍 HQ City: Paris
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €2.5m (including €0.1m debt)
🏦 Investors: Teampact Ventures, Épopée Gestion, The Quest, Advans Lab, Sharpstone, Business Angels
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Mel Landelle
🗞️ News: LinkedIn
📇 Company: Webyn
🔍 Description: SaaS platform that automates user experience optimization with AI. Its no-code technology analyzes user behavior, generates real-time UX improvements, and boosts website performance.
💻 Website: webyn.ai
📍 HQ City: Paris
🧗 Round: Pre-Series A
💰 Amount Raised: €2.7M
🏦 Investors: Tomcat Venture, Sharpstone Capital, Sphere Ventures
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Vincent Oliveira, Alexandre Farhat
🗞️ News: LinkedIn
📇 Company: E-Sensia
🔍 Description: Real medical data-driven company, powered by AI, providing voice-based automated assistance services to healthcare businesses.
💻 Website: https://e-sensia.com/
📍 HQ City: Paris
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €1.5m
🏦 Investors: Business Angels (Sylvain Gariel, Jean-Baptiste Kempf, Jeremy Blackwell)
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Jean-Baptiste PERNEY, Cédric THOMA
🗞️ News: LinkedIn
📇 Company: Diago
🔍 Description: Intelligent voice assistant for automotive distribution professionals
💻 Website: https://www.diago.ai
📍 HQ City: Paris
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €1M
🏦 Investors: Groupement des Concessionnaires Automobiles Peugeot (GCAP)
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Guillaume Couzy, Pierre de Boisred
🗞️ News: Auto Infos
🗣️ Announcements 🗣️
🗣️ Coral Protocol Announces World’s Largest AI Hackathon at RAISE Summit in Paris | Coral Protocol has announced the world’s largest AI hackathon for artificial intelligence developers with $150,000 in prizes. Culminating at RAISE Summit in Paris on July 8-9, “Raise Your Hack” will unite solo devs and teams creating innovative solutions that leverage AI. | Details
🗣️ Google Startup Perks program | We're excited to launch our new Startup Perks program, offering exclusive benefits and discounts from 20+ leading AI and tech companies within the Google Cloud ecosystem. | More information
🗣️ The Government has launched a call for “Digital transition of culture and the appropriation of artificial intelligence” projects. | As part of the France 2030 initiative, the goal is to support the digital transformation of the cultural and creative industries. This initiative aims to help cultural actors adopt AI while ensuring ethical use and copyright protection. The program encourages collaboration between cultural organizations and tech companies to develop innovative solutions, from data-sharing tools to secure content management. It seeks to enhance the competitiveness of French creative industries and promote a responsible, Europe-focused AI ecosystem. | More information
Events
📆 YC x PARIS | July 7 | Y Combinator is coming to Paris this summer! Ahead of the RAISE Summit, you’ll hear stories and practical advice from founders and YC partners. | Apply to join
📆 Llamapreneurs | July 8 | The global community of AI Entrepreneurs. AI-first founders, startups, indie hackers, and solopreneurs. Find your tribe. 🦙🤖 | Register
📆 Building & Exploring - AI Breakfast with Yellow and Headline | July 9 | Operators & Friends, Yellow and Headline are hosting a breakfast with builders & founders working on the next-generation of AI companies 🌅 | Join the waitlist
📆 Paris Open Source Soirée: Where Code Meets Vision | July 9 | Join us for an unforgettable evening celebrating Open Source. We’re bringing together a curated group of the most influential voices in the space for an invite-only gathering to close the Open Source track of the RAISE Summit, co-hosted by >commit, Hugging Face, The Linux Foundation, and SambaNova. | Request to join
📆 RAISE Summit 2025 | July 8-9, 2025 | RAISE Summit is the premier event for professionals seeking to disrupt, build, and connect in the AI landscape. This summit is the ultimate destination to validate AI strategies through real-world use cases, define a winning AI playbook, and find the right partners to deliver cutting-edge solutions. | Register
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