🇫🇷 French Tech Wire: French Startups Face Funding Famine
French startup funding is down sharply down YoY. But Omnes and Otium are making bigger VC bets. Ÿnsect scrambles to survive.
Helen O'Reilly-Durand
Franco-British Communications expert who has worked extensively with founders and investors. She previously advised startups at a prominent European VC and SMEs at France’s Economy Ministry.
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France And Europe Caught In H1 2025 Global VC Slump
French startups raised $3.5 billion in the first six months. That's on par with the last six months of 2024. But it's down sharply from $4.4 billion raised in the first half of 2024.
🤖 La Machine #36: Tilt Energy + Altertable Target Smarter Grids And Data Stacks With AI 🤖
Altertable emerges from stealth to build an AI-native data stack; Tilt Energy wants to use AI to bring 'flexibility' to the grid. Plus, Genesis Robotics raises $85M, Asterion backs deeptech AI, H Company COO exits, France targets AI in justice and music, and Google eyes a French data hub.
🇫🇷 French Tech Wire: Scaling, SaaS, and Spurs
Director Julie Huguet lays out La French Tech mission's mission in a VivaTech video interview, Skeepers bets on pragmatic SaaS growth with U.S. PE backing, Zama hits unicorn status with encrypted computing, Ledger partners with the Spurs, and new moves in HR tech, semiconductors, and search.
Skeepers: Building a European SaaS Powerhouse with American Capital
As many SaaS startups tighten their belts, Skeepers is a case study in how Private Equity can drive cross-border consolidation and pragmatic growth. Its bet on Europe’s slower adoption of user-generated content tools may not yet be proven, but it’s a strategy worth watching.
🤖 La Machine #35: Autonomous AI Agents And The Nuclear Future 🤖
Europe bets €70B on tech sovereignty, France’s cloud and AI firms gear up for scale, and autonomous agents take center stage at VivaTech. Meanwhile, nuclear energy makes an AI-powered comeback, ChatGPT flunks the Bac (again), and regulators race to protect kids from rogue AI bots.
🇫🇷 French Tech Wire: VivaTech 2025 Bows Before Our New Robotic Overlords
Union activism hits startups, Nabla and Descartes raise big rounds, agri-robotics stumbles, and Nantes bets on healthtech. Plus: VivaTech 2025 brings humanoid robots to life, raising bold questions about AI, work, and the future.
🇫🇷 VivaTech 2025: AI, Robots, and Quantum Dreams Run Wild In Paris
From NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang’s grand AI vision to Mistral AI’s sovereign playbook, and robots roaming the halls, this year’s edition spotlighted France’s global tech ambitions in several next-generation technologies. This Special Edition will dig into the big AI news.
🤖 La Machine #34: H Company's Autonomous Agent Assault Begins 🤖
Mistral AI targets $1B to scale globally and launches Mistral Code, Hugging Face debuts efficient robotics model SmolVLA, Kyutai unveils voice AI Unmute, H Company rolls out cost-cutting agents, and Aive raises €12M for enterprise AI video.
🇫🇷 French Tech Wire: France Joins Space Com Race
Constellation Technologies wants to compete with Starlink. Aldebaran’s robots bid adieu. Pasqal’s takes a quantum acquisition leap, French regulators take on porn, hate, and #Skinnytok. Plus: The 2025 French Tech Next40/120 unveils its new digital favorites.
🤖 La Machine #33: How GenAI Made Figma Dump Its Roadmap 🤖
Cathay Innovation launches a €1B AI fund; Macron inks a France–Singapore AI pact; Capgemini, Mistral & SAP join forces on GenAI for regulated sectors; Hugging Face unveils humanoid robots; and Mistral rolls out powerful new tools for code and agents.
🇫🇷 French Tech Wire: Fast Fashion Fight Fizzles
E-commerce bill gets watered down, Brussels rolls out startup reforms, Alan shakes up public health coverage, crypto kidnappings surge, OVNI raises €60M for weird startups, layoffs hit OpenClassrooms, and Bpifrance celebrates 10 years of big bets.
Fast Fashion: Is France’s New E-Commerce Law Ineffective?
As France prepares for a Senate vote on June 10, concerns mount over a weakened “fast fashion” bill. Once hailed as a bold step toward sustainable textiles, recent amendments risk undermining its impact and allowing ultra-fast fashion giants to continue unchecked.
🤖 La Machine #32: Can AI Make Corporate Training Not Suck? 🤖
Didask thinks so. Plus: France bags €17B in new foreign AI investments led by NVIDIA, Cisco, and Brookfield. PhotoRoom makes its first acquisition, Qubit & Sorbonne unveil a game-changing chemistry AI, and new funding floods into startups, including Veesion and Didask.
Didask Raises €10M to Reinvent Corporate Learning with AI and Cognitive Science
Didask just raised €10M to revamp the world of corporate training and make e-learning actually work. With AI that thinks like a teacher (not a robot) and lessons that stick, the French startup is out to prove that real learning beats pretty slides every time.
🇫🇷 French Tech Wire: Will Diamond Dreams Power The Future?
DiamFab bets big on diamond semiconductors to power EVs and clean energy, Paris overtakes London as Europe’s top startup hub, 300 orgs push for digital sovereignty, Maya Noël honored for tech advocacy, and Veesion leads funding with a €38M AI theft detection raise.