New French AI Company Radar: April 2025
Exclusively for Paid Subscribers: The latest filings for new AI-related companies in France, plus AI startups selected for incubators and accelerators.
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.
Website
France
🤖 La Machine #31: France's AI David VSORA VS Chip Goliath NVIDIA 🤖
Dailymotion buys Mojo, a French AI-powered video creation app. Greenbids joins Perion Network for sustainable advertising. AI tracks surge on Deezer, while Atos unveils a €500M AI plan. Jean Zay supercomputer gets a power boost, and Le Monde partners with Perplexity AI.
🇫🇷 French Tech Wire: Dero’s Mission to Transform France’s Circular Economy
Devialet faces severe financial losses, while Alice & Bob plans a $50M quantum lab. Younited acquires eco-friendly neobank Helios, and BlaBlaCar expands into train ticket sales.
Secondhand Shopping Made Easy: Dero’s Mission to Transform France’s Circular Economy
Dero is reshaping secondhand shopping in France by aggregating 65+ trusted marketplaces into one interface. With 150,000 users and a new mobile app, Dero wants to make buying used simple, secure, better for your wallet -- and the planet.
🤖 La Machine #30: Is France Losing Its AI Funding Mojo? 🤖
Also: Meet Gigi, an AI matchmaker that scrapes your digital footprint to recommend connections for business, networking, and dating -- whether you asked it to or not. The Black Mirror-esque platform, already backed by Sequoia, OpenAI, and Monashees.
🇫🇷 French Tech Wire: OpenAI Makes French Connection With Fidji Simo
The native of Sète has risen from this seaside fishing town to become one of the top players at tech's most influential company. As CEO of applications, she also now stands as one of the most prominent Frenchies in tech.
How Reelevant’s Real-Time Personalization Redefines Martech with €6M Series A Led by Seventure Partners
Reelevant wants to revolutionize how brands engage customers by delivering hyper-personalized content at the perfect moment, adapting dynamically to user behavior.
🤖 La Machine #29: The France AI Radar 🤖
Also: With a fresh €36.36 million late-stage funding round and a bold new AI chip ready for market, VSORA is emerging as a flagship of Europe’s deep tech ecosystem, poised to challenge industry giants in performance and efficiency.
🇫🇷 French Tech Wire: Swile + Doctolib Pull Back The Financial Curtain
Poppins fresh €5m round to treat Dyslexia with a musical video game; Bpifrance CEO refuses to bend the regulatory knee.
Turning Therapy Into Play: Neurotech Poppins Combines Music And Data For Dyslexia Treatment
The startup has just raised €5 million to scale its science-backed app helping children with dyslexia through music and gaming. Already used by 4,000+ families in France, the startup has set its sights on the U.S. to bring accessible, playful therapy to more kids.
🤖 La Machine #28: Alan Goes All-In On AI 🤖
Six months after announcing a Series F funding round of €173 million at a €4 billion valuation, the French insurtech is accelerating its embrace of AI to transform its operations and products.
🇫🇷 French Tech Wire: Defense Tech Answers A Call To Arms
This special edition takes a Deep Dive into France's Defense Tech sector, a small but emerging market that is gaining attention and momentum as a wary country -- and continent -- adjusts to a new global reality where traditional alliances may be splintering. Will French startups rally to the cause?
How France And Europe Are Mobilizing Defense Tech Startups
With geopolitical tensions rising and sovereignty now a buzzword, Defense Tech is breaking taboos in France. With war at Europe’s door, investment is soaring and mindsets are shifting. Speed is everything. But the question now is: can Europe move fast enough to secure its future ?
🔬Laser-Focused: mirSense Secures €7M For Industrial Safety And Defense Sovereignty
mirSense wants to redefine safety and defense with its quantum cascade laser tech. From blinding missiles with powerMir to sniffing out toxic gases with uniMir and mirChip, the dual-application startup believes it can change the game in defense and industrial monitoring.
Spotlight Interview: ChangeNOW CEO Santiago Lefebvre Wants You To Believe Again
ChangeNOW 2025, the "world expo of solutions for the planet," is in full swing this week. Ahead of the Paris opening, I spoke with Lefebvre about how a bold idea born at COP21 became a global gathering, and why, in a divided world, hope and action still matter.
🤖 La Machine #27: Hugging Face Embraces Pollen Robotics 🤖
Also inside: How Delos is building an AI operating system for business; France can haz all your scientists.