In this edition of La Machine:

🧠 Agentic AI is now the big thing. But companies need help leveraging the potential. Last year, Anthropic released the Model Context Protocol to help them do that, but deploying MCP remains complex. Enter Paris-based Alpic. The company has raised $6M to create MCP infrastructure for a world where AI agents, not humans, navigate digital services. CEO and co-founder Pierre-Louis Theron explains the technology and the business strategy.

Chris O'Brien + Helen O'Reilly-Durand

Headlines

🗞️ Mistral, Mistral, Mistral. How else would the first La Machine of the rentrée start?

The French LLM hopeful continued to make news over the summer. Most notably, it briefly became the subject of rumors that the almighty Apple was attempting to acquire it. The Cupertino giant has badly fumbled its AI efforts, and the company's alleged focus on privacy would seem to sync well with Mistral's embrace of open source. The chatter caused excitement (yeah, big exit!) and anxiety (boo, sovereignty!) in the Hexagon. In the end, nothing went down.

Instead, Mistral appears to be on the cusp of closing a €2 billion round of funding that would value it at $14 billion, according to Bloomberg. That would be a staggering amount by European standards. Or, what rival Anthropic (which just raised $13 billion at a $183 billion valuation) would call: "pocket change."

The most striking element of the Mistral funding round is the report of ASML's €1.3 billion investment, which would make the Dutch semiconductor equipment giant Mistral's largest shareholder, according to Reuters. This partnership represents a fascinating convergence of Europe's tech champions: ASML, which holds a monopoly on the extreme ultraviolet lithography machines essential for manufacturing the world's most advanced chips, joining forces with France's AI standard-bearer.

The ASML investment is particularly surprising because it bridges two seemingly distant parts of the technology stack. ASML's $180 million EUV machines are the invisible workhorses that enable companies like TSMC and Intel to manufacture cutting-edge processors, while Mistral builds the AI models that increasingly power everything from chatbots to scientific research.

Does the synergy actually make strategic sense? ASML already uses AI to optimize its incredibly complex manufacturing equipment, and Mistral's data analytics capabilities could help the Dutch company enhance its tools and develop new products. More importantly, the partnership strengthens European technological sovereignty at a time when the continent seeks to reduce dependence on American and Chinese AI systems. | Reuters, Bloomberg, TechCrunch

🗞️ Speaking of Mistral is also co-developing infrastructure with Emirati firm G42, working with MBZUAI on foundational models, and releasing Saba, an open-source system trained on Arabic and Indian-origin languages. With the Gulf states eager to diversify into AI and Europe short of growth funding, the corridor between Paris and the region is gaining momentum, even as ethical questions loom over reliance on authoritarian regimes. | Sifted

🗞️...and...this week Mistral AI shook up the enterprise AI landscape by making premium features—like long-term memory and over 20 business app integrations—available for free on its Le Chat platform, directly challenging offerings from competitors like ChatGPT, Anthropic, and Microsoft’s Copilot, which keep these tools behind paywalls. | VentureBeat

🗞️ Hugging Face, the Franco-American open source AI scaleup, says it is “constantly hiring” as it continues its rapid global expansion. With over 200 employees worldwide and nearly $400m raised from backers including Sequoia, Google, Amazon and Nvidia, the company draws thousands of inbound applications but recruits heavily from its open source community, where up to 40% of hires originate. Talent acquisition lead Flavien Coronini stresses that educational pedigree matters less than proven impact through contributions, technical skills and independence. At Hugging Face’s lean, flat, remote-first organisation, newcomers are expected to thrive without bureaucracy, adapt to asynchronous collaboration, and “tell us where to go” rather than wait for directions. | Sifted

🗞️ Atlassian has acquired French startup Cycle, integrating its AI-powered customer feedback engine directly into Jira Product Discovery. Founded in 2019 out of Hexa (formerly eFounders) and backed by $6m in seed funding, Cycle became a go-to tool for companies like Brex, Qonto, and Alan by turning scattered customer input into structured insights. With the acquisition, Cycle’s technology and team will fold into Atlassian, while its standalone product is discontinued. The move strengthens Jira Product Discovery, already adopted by 20,000+ customers, by enabling product managers to prioritise features based on evidence — who raised an issue, why it matters, and its real-world impact. | Tech.eu, Maddyness

🗞️ Last month, a media storm erupted when AI luminary Luc Julia – dubbed the “Pope of AI” – was publicly called out in a viral video for overstating his role in Siri’s creation and making dubious technical claims, such as ChatGPT having a 36% error rate and using “1,200 billion data points,” comments later challenged for muddling data with parameters and leaning on outdated sources. In response, Julia mounted a spirited defense, clarifying that he wasn’t Siri’s founder but rather the “grandfather” of the idea thanks to his early work on “The Assistant,” and attributing much of the criticism to media sensationalism and a lack of fact-checking. The dust-up has sparked a broader debate over how AI expertise is framed in the public sphere, and just how precise we demand our tech figures to be when speaking about groundbreaking systems. | Maddyness

🗞️ France has inaugurated Asgard, a new classified supercomputer dedicated to military AI, installed at Mont Valérien by HPE Cray and Orange and powered by over 1,000 next-gen Nvidia GPUs. Defense minister Sébastien Lecornu hailed the system as a leap in the country’s AI strategy, citing lessons from Ukraine where AI plays a central role in drones and combat robotics. Delivered “on time” despite global chip shortages, Asgard is set to become fully operational in November, supporting projects ranging from intelligence analysis to submarine sound detection and the development of France’s first robotic combat unit, Pendragon. The choice of HPE and Orange over Atos’s Eviden sparked debate on sovereignty, but Paris insists the investment is vital to ensure Europe’s defense edge in the AI era. | Le Monde Informatique

🗞️ Despite growing capabilities and soaring valuations, AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Le Chat are increasingly struggling to separate fact from fiction. A recent NewsGuard study shows that the ten largest AI tools repeated false or misleading information in 35% of current events cases in August 2025, nearly double last year’s 18%. ChatGPT alone repeated errors 40% of the time, highlighting that, despite media partnerships and promises of improvement, misinformation remains rampant among major generative AI platforms. |Les Echos, Euronews

🗞️ A new OpinionWay study for Cegid suggests French employees are more cautious about AI than their German, Spanish, and Portuguese peers, with only 44% expressing curiosity versus over 50% elsewhere. One-third of French respondents reported negative feelings toward AI, with half fearing job obsolescence, a higher rate than in neighboring countries. At La Ref25 in Paris, Cegid CEO Bruno Vaffier framed this not as fear but as legitimate “prudence” around data security, environmental impact, and employment, while SMCP COO Marie-Caroline Bénézet stressed that adopting AI “takes time” to prepare quality data, relevant use cases, and user training. Executives also predicted attitudes will shift with the rise of AI “agents” that move beyond document drafting to core operational tasks. For now, French caution reflects a demand for meaningful, well-integrated applications of the technology. | Le Monde Informatique

ICYMI

🗞️ Cathay Innovation's $1B Bet On Rewiring Venture Capital For The AI Age | Denis Barrier, Co-Founder of Cathay Innovation, explains how the new fund challenges Silicon Valley's model by focusing on collaboration that connects AI startups directly with corporate giants to transform industries rather than disrupt them in an era where 'everybody has to play.' | The French Tech Journal

🗞️ Photonic Chip Startup Arago Wants to Cut AI's Massive Energy Appetite by 90% | A year-old French company claims its light-powered processors could slash data center power consumption while keeping warehouse robots running all day instead of just one hour. | The French Tech Journal

🗞️ Hugging Face’s $299 Reachy Mini Signals A New Era In Personal Robotics | The AI powerhouse wants to bring robotics to the masses with its modular, open-source, and AI-integrated approach. By democratizing robotics, the company aims to spark a new wave of accessible hardware innovation. | The French Tech Journal

🧠 How Alpic Is Building Model Context Protocol (MCP) Infrastructure For A New Agentic Internet

When Pierre-Louis Theron describes the opportunity in front of his new company, Alpic, he offers a statement with some lofty aspirations.

Theron believes that Model Context Protocol (MCP), introduced less than a year ago by Anthropic, represents the missing link in AI adoption. Instead of AI models clumsily scraping web pages or fumbling through APIs, MCP allows autonomous AI agents to interact directly with software and services through a structured interface.

“I really see it as like the early days of the internet,” he said. “Almost every single company in the world will build an MCP server. MCP is the way of communicating between these clients facing the user and the back end, the same way HTTP was interfacing with your browser.”

Just as websites became essential in the 1990s, he believes MCP servers will soon be universal. That conviction landed Alpic a $6 million pre-seed round led by Partech, with participation from K5 Global, Irregular Expression, Yellow, Drysdale, Kima Ventures, and Galion.exe, along with prominent founders from companies like Mistral, Datadog, and Dataiku.

Alpic represents a bet on a fundamental shift in how we'll use the internet. Instead of humans clicking through websites, AI agents will directly access services to book flights, update CRM records, or manage expenses on our behalf. MCP is poised to be the operating system for AI agents to make that happen. Alpic wants to deliver the infrastructure that enables companies to leverage MCP.

The stakes are high. If he's right, companies that fail to build these agent interfaces risk being left out of an increasingly AI-mediated internet.

"I believe that in the next 12 months, or the next two years, almost every single company in the world will build an MCP server," Theron said.

AI Funding News

📇 Company: Zefir
🔍 Description: French proptech startup reinventing property sales by enabling collective transactions among local agents, offering faster sales at better prices while preparing to launch "ZIA," an AI-powered virtual real estate agent.
💻 Website: https://www.zefir.fr
📍 HQ City: Paris, France
🧗 Round: Equity round
💰 Amount Raised: €15M
🏦 Investors: FinTech Collective (lead), Sequoia Capital, Zigg Capital, Heartcore Capital
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Rémy Fabre (Co-founder & CEO)
🗞️ News: The funding will support Zefir’s expansion into 15 more cities, the launch of its AI real estate agent ZIA, and doubling of its team while maintaining operational profitability on each transaction. | Maddyness

📇 Company: ArcaScience
🔍 Description: Double AI tool leveraging massive biomedical data, enriching it, and associating it with a simple querying and in-depth targeting & extraction tool
💻 Website: arcascience.ai
📍 HQ City: Paris
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €6.00M
🏦 Investors: Bpifrance, Pleiade Venture, Plug and Play, Akka Technologies, The Moon Venture
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Romain Clement, Jean-François Arbona
🗞️ News: ArcaScience will use the capital to expand its AI-powered benefit-risk evaluation platform into the U.S. and U.K., while also launching its first patient-facing solution, initially focused on pediatric brain cancer and dermatological conditions, and hiring a Chief Medical Officer to drive clinical impact. | SiliconAngle

📇 Company: Alpic
🔍 Description: All-in-one MCP hosting platform for AI agents
💻 Website: alpic.ai
📍 HQ City: Paris
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €5.45M
🏦 Investors: Kima Ventures, Partech, Irregular Expressions, K5 Global, Yellow, Galion.exe, Drysdale Ventures
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Charles Sonigo, Erica Beavers, Nikolay Rodionov, Frédéric Barthelet
🗞️ News: Alpic intends to build the first MCP‑native cloud platform, empowering AI agents to seamlessly act on behalf of users—whether it’s booking travel, paying bills, automating enterprise workflows, or managing SaaS tools—by providing the infrastructure to deploy, manage, and scale these AI systems efficiently. | Alpic

📇 Company: Byome Labs
🔍 Description: A deep-tech startup developing Byome Derma, the world’s first instant, point-of-sale skin microbiome test. It delivers personalized skincare recommendations within minutes via dermatologist-trained AI using antigenic strips—no devices, no pain, and at a low cost. Integration is designed for retail environments in a white-label format, aiming to bring evidence-based customization to skincare.
💻 Website: byomelabs.com
📍 HQ City: Chartres
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €3.6 million
🏦 Investors: Remora Biotech, Paris Business Angels, Angels Santé
👨💼👩💼 Founders: David Suissa
🗞️ News: The €3.6M will be used to industrialize production of the Byome Derma kits, with a target to begin industrial-scale manufacturing by the end of 2025 and expand internationally to Europe, the U.S., and Asia starting in 2026. Byome Labs also plans to strengthen its R&D team and open new positions beginning next year (2026). | Personal Care Magazine

📇 Company: VitaDX
🔍 Description: Specializes in AI applied to healthcare, focusing on bladder cancer diagnostics
💻 Website: vitadx.com
📍 HQ City: Rennes
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €1.50M
🏦 Investors: Go Capital, Odyssée Venture
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Allan Rodriguez
🗞️ News: VitaDX will use the funds to accelerate the commercial roll‑out of its AI‑powered VisioCyt® Bladder diagnostic solution in France—now that it has secured reimbursement—and to initiate its expansion into the U.S. market. The company is also undergoing a leadership transition, with Fabrice Beauchêne appointed as CEO to spearhead this growth phase, while co‑founder Allan Rodriguez transitions to become Chairman. | Fusacq

📇 Company: Rewayz
🔍 Description: Develops and deploys AI solutions to support managers
💻 Website: rewayz.com
📍 HQ City: Lille
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €1.30M
🏦 Investors: Thierry Mulliez, Jean-Michel Aulas, Damien Deleplanque (historic supporter)
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Claire Godelle, Kamal Ait Ichou, Yassin Korchi
🗞️ News: Rewayz will accelerate both the development and deployment of its AI‑powered “coach in the pocket” solution for managers by expanding its technical and sales capabilities to meet growing demand. Additionally, the startup is preparing to scale internationally—targeting two to three new countries by the end of 2026—with an eye toward achieving profitability by summer 2026 | Fusacq

📇 Company: MagicPost
🔍 Description: AI assistant supporting content creation on LinkedIn
💻 Website: magicpost.in
📍 HQ City: Paris
🧗 Round: Early VC
💰 Amount Raised: €0.26M (€260,000 in equity with nearly €430,000 in non-dilutive funding
🏦 Investors: Bpifrance grants and bank loan
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Naïlé Titah, Florence Vallet
🗞️ News: MagicPost will leverage the €260 000 in equity and ~€430 000 in non‑dilutive funds (including Bpifrance grants and a Banque Populaire loan) to accelerate its product development, expand its commercial team targeting agencies and enterprises, and ramp up its marketing efforts with influencer, SEO, and content strategies to fuel its international expansion. The startup aims to scale to approximately 20 employees over the next three years, push U.S. market penetration towards 60 % of its client base by 2027, and drive its growth trajectory toward becoming the global reference in AI-powered LinkedIn content creation. | Bourse Direct

📇 Company: Stockline
🔍 Description: AI-powered alternative data platform for investment insights
💻 Website: stockline.ai
📍 HQ City: Paris
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €0.11M
🏦 Investors: Y Combinator
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Mariem Ould Ismail, Moncef Djafri
🗞️ News: Joined the latest Y Combinator batch.

📇 Company: Addvocate.ai
🔍 Description: Platform empowers teams to prepare effectively, execute smarter, and continuously improve by leveraging AI-driven recommendations, performance metrics, and tailored strategies.
💻 Website: addvocate.ai
📍 HQ City: Paris
🧗 Round: Early VC
💰 Amount Raised: Undisclosed
🏦 Investors: 216 Capital
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Achref T., Sofyan Chekir
🗞️ News: Addvocate AI will accelerate innovation by enhancing its “Sales Performance OS”—an AI-native digital copilot that aggregates data and delivers behavioral nudges and actionable insights to boost sales productivity before, during, and after client meetings. It will also pursue international expansion from its dual hub in France and Tunisia, aiming to address pipeline stagnation affecting 35–50% of sales opportunities worldwide. | Wamda

👋🏻 If you’re enjoying The French Tech Journal, support the project by forwarding it to friends and sharing it on your social networks. You can also comment on this post. And if you have ideas for stories, tips, or just want to harass us, shoot us an email: chris@frenchtechjournal.com / helen@frenchtechjournal.com 👋🏻‌