So Pitchbook released more granular details on Q3 2025 funding for Europe and...

....what a difference one deal can make for the whole continent.

Overall, European startups raised €14.8B last quarter, compared to €13.4B in Q2 and €13.6B in Q3 2024. But strip away that €1.3B raised by Mistral AI last quarter, and things would have been roughly flat to down. Meanwhile, there were 1,598 funding rounds last quarter, down from 2,046 in Q2, and €2,291.

According to Pitchbook, YTD, even with Mistral, French startups have raised €5.3 billion in the first 9 months of this year against €8.3 billion for all of last year. But there have only been 651 funding rounds in 2025 compared to 1,212.

French VCs are also feeling the pinch. After bucking the downward trend post-pandemic, French VCs appear to be having a tougher time raising and closing funds over the past two years.

No doubt, the efforts to persuade LPs are not being helped by exit trends that appear to be headed in the wrong direction, according to Pitchbook.

On that fun note, let's look at the week in funding ending October 10...

🔝 Biggest Rounds

• Filigran — ~€53.94M
• Phagos — €25M
• Diffusely — €11M
• Keenest — €10M

🧭 Sectors

• Cybersecurity: Filigran (XTM / AI-native), Skyld AI (model protection).
• Biotech & Medtech: Phagos (phage therapy, vet), Yomi Pharma (oncology peptide), Biomunex (bispecifics; undisclosed), Beez Biotech (PMA device).
• AI / SaaS / Data: Diffusely (visual AI), RSight (agentic recruiting), Ewake (reliability agents), Diffly (win-loss intelligence), Jint (AI workplace on M365).
• Fin/Insur/Trade: Kenko (group health & life), REasy (African trade finance).
• Climate/Industrial & Mobility: Purenat (photocatalytic depollution textiles), Ficha (AI waste analytics), vebo° (e-bike conversion kit), Extensee (drone operator).
• Community capital: Keenest (impact investing club).

🌍 Geographic Focus

• France-led (Paris, Rennes, Lille, Bayonne, Limoges, Lyon).
• Cross-border angles: Paris–Bucharest (RSight), Paris–London (Claimy), Cameroon/France (REasy), Paris/Montréal (Jint), Paris/Cambridge, MA (Biomunex).

🔥🔥🔥🔥

📇 Company: Filigran
🔍 Description: French cybersecurity scale-up pioneering Extended Threat Management (XTM)—a unified, open-source, and AI-native suite helping organizations operationalize threat intelligence and transform cybersecurity operations. Its products (OpenCTI, OpenBAS, and upcoming OpenGRC) enable teams to detect, assess, and respond to threats faster using agentic AI and community-driven intelligence.
💻 Website: https://filigran.io
📍 HQ City: Paris
🧗 Round: Series C
💰 Amount Raised: $58M
🏦 Investors: Eurazeo, Insight Partners, Accel, Deutsche Telekom (T.Capital)
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Samuel Hassine (CEO, ex-ANSSI), Julien Simon (CTO)
🗞️ News: Funding will accelerate Filigran’s expansion in the U.S., DACH, Saudi Arabia, and Japan; scale its agentic AI platform XTM One and launch OpenGRC, a dynamic threat-informed cyber risk management tool.

Our 2024 profile on Filigran:

Filigran Raises $35M For AI-Powered Cyber Threat Intelligence

Just two years into its existence, French cybersecurity startup Filigran has completed a $35 million Series B funding round that it will use to accelerate the deployment of artificial intelligence across its products.

The French Tech JournalChris O’Brien

📇 Company: Phagos
🔍 Description: French biotech pioneering phage-based therapeutics as a natural, AI-enhanced alternative to antibiotics. Phagos develops bacteriophage drugs to combat bacterial infections in veterinary medicine and has obtained the first EU authorization to market personalized phage-based treatments. Its discovery platform combines advanced microbiology with artificial intelligence to identify, design, and optimize phages for therapeutic use.
💻 Website: https://www.phagos.com
📍 HQ City: Paris
🧗 Round: Series A
💰 Amount Raised: €25M
🏦 Investors: CapAgro, Hoxton Ventures, CapHorn, Demeter (co-leads); Acurio Ventures, Citizen Capital, Entrepreneur First, Founders Capital, Station F
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Alexandros Pantalis, Adèle James
🗞️ News: The funds will enable Phagos to deploy its veterinary phage treatments in the field, develop next-generation AI technology for phage discovery, and expand internationally. | AgFunderNews

📇 Company: Diffusely (ex-Meero)
🔍 Description: AI-powered SaaS platform enabling enterprises to generate and optimize large-scale visual content. Originally known as Meero, the company pivoted from a global photography marketplace to an AI software provider serving industries such as fashion and automotive with solutions like CarCutter and AutoRetouch.
💻 Website: https://www.diffusely.com/
📍 HQ City: Paris
🧗 Round: Growth round
💰 Amount Raised: €11M
🏦 Investors: Alven, Eurazeo, Prime Ventures, 50 Partners
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Guillaume Lestrade, Thomas Rebaud; current CEO Gaétan Rougevin-Baville
🗞️ News: Following its 2022 pivot from Meero to Diffusely, the company now reports €12M in ARR and 1,500 clients. This new round supports growth in its visual AI verticals and aims for profitability by 2026. | FrenchWeb

📇 Company: Keenest
🔍 Description: Paris-based climate-focused investment club enabling individuals to finance sustainable economy startups through participatory impact investing. Keenest introduces “climate dividends,” a unique mechanism paying returns based on CO₂ emissions avoided by funded projects.
💻 Website: https://keenest.com/
📍 HQ City: Paris
🧗 Round: Growth milestone (non-equity raise)
💰 Amount Raised: €10 million
🏦 Investors: 3,500+ individual members (community-based investment club)
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Jérémie Sicsic, Renan Labrunie
🗞️ News: Keenest doubled its fundraising in three months, reaching €10M seven months ahead of projections. The funds will support financing of 20 new impact startups and the rollout of a non-financial impact dashboard by end of 2025. Notable financed startups include Feedback, Sapiologie, Loewi, OpenClimat, Zilo Énergie, Kolverr, Arkeon Energy, Fenix Energy, Seaturns, Leviathan, Monomeris, and Veridian. | EU-Startups

📇 Company: Kenko
🔍 Description: Founded in 2022, Kenko is an insurtech and mission-driven company reinventing group health and life insurance for SMEs and mid-sized companies. Its personalized, transparent, and digital offering features a unique mutualization model that reallocates value toward concrete prevention, healthcare, and human support services.
💻 Website: https://kenko.fr
📍 HQ City: Paris, France
🧗 Round: Seed / Early Growth
💰 Amount Raised: €4 million
🏦 Investors: Pléiade Venture (lead), Bpifrance, CIC Innovation
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Arthur Maximin (CEO, Co-founder)
🗞️ News: The funds will be used to accelerate the rollout of Kenko’s health and life insurance offering, expand the Kenko Club, enhance its app, and launch a health expense advance card scheduled for January 2026. The company already supports over 300 SMEs and 25,000 beneficiaries and expects to grow by more than 100% in 2025.

📇 Company: RSight
🔍 Description: Startup developing an agentic AI recruitment platform that automates and enhances the hiring process by combining artificial intelligence with human intuition. RSight® sources, contacts, and qualifies candidates at scale—drawing from over 1 billion profiles and 3,500 job boards—to deliver pre-screened, GDPR- and EU AI Act-compliant candidates within 24 to 72 hours.
💻 Website: https://www.rsight.com/
📍 HQ City: Paris, France / Bucharest, Romania
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €2.65M
🏦 Investors: European business angels from Romania, France, Germany, Poland, Switzerland, and Italy
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Philippe Beucher (Founder & CEO) and a team of French and Romanian entrepreneurs
🗞️ News: The funding will fuel international expansion, strengthen RSight®’s AI-powered matching engine, and scale operations across key verticals, including tech, healthcare, finance, and manufacturing. The company aims to make recruitment faster, fairer, and fully compliant through responsible use of agentic AI.

📇 Company: Ewake
🔍 Description: Paris-based AI startup developing an “AI teammate” for software reliability—a suite of intelligent agents that monitor, investigate, and prevent production issues before they escalate. Unlike traditional observability tools that merely display telemetry data, Ewake’s agents interpret and correlate data in real time, helping engineers detect issues early, automate repetitive reliability tasks, and reduce downtime.
💻 Website: https://www.ewake.ai/
📍 HQ City: Paris
🧗 Round: Pre-Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €2M
🏦 Investors: Connect Ventures (lead), Notion Capital, 2100 Ventures, Insiders, 50 Partners, with angel participation from Amirhossein Malekzadeh
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Pooné Mokari (CEO) and Omid Gosha
🗞️ News: Emerging from stealth, Ewake will use the funds to expand its Paris-based team and grow its intelligent agent platform, aiming to redefine software reliability for global engineering teams. The company maintains 50-50 gender parity and a diverse, international founding team, positioning itself as a next-generation competitor to Resolve.ai and Phoebe.ai. | TechFundingNews

📇 Company: Purenat
🔍 Description: Deeptech industrielle spécialisée dans la dépollution de l’air intérieur et des rejets atmosphériques grâce à un textile biomimétique photocatalytique breveté, capable de filtrer et détruire les polluants organiques. La startup vise à industrialiser et standardiser sa solution à grande échelle pour les environnements industriels.
💻 Website: www.pure-nat.com
📍 HQ City: Bayonne
🧗 Round: Equity round (industrial scale-up phase)
💰 Amount Raised: €2M (bringing total funding to €4.9M since 2021)
🏦 Investors: Industrya (John Cockerill Group), Newfund (NAEH2 / NAEH Innopy), Pyrénées Gascogne Développement (Crédit Agricole), WinEquity, Adour Business Angels, Arts et Métiers Business Angels, Synergence, Skalepark
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Natacha Kinadjian Caplat, Manon Vaillant
🗞️ News: The funds will accelerate Purenat’s industrialization, enabling the transition from prototype to large-scale production, with standardization validated by clients such as Clauger and Big Dutchmann. The startup, part of Techfounders in Munich, aims to become a European industrial scale-up and expand partnerships across the continent.

📇 Company: Diffly
🔍 Description: Paris-based SaaS startup transforming Win-Loss Analysis into a competitive advantage for B2B companies. Diffly provides actionable insights that help sales and product teams understand why they win or lose deals, driving data-informed strategy and performance improvement. Already trusted by major players such as Adobe, Contentsquare, and Crown Bioscience.
💻 Website: https://www.diffly.io/
📍 HQ City: Paris
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €1.7M
🏦 Investors: Better Angle, 360 Capital, Bpifrance, and others
👨💼👩💼 Founders: David Guillermain, Julien Cohen-Roussey
🗞️ News: Funding will accelerate commercial growth, enhance the platform’s intelligence layer, and consolidate Diffly’s position as Europe’s category leader in Win-Loss Analysis. | LinkedIn

📇 Company: Claimy
🔍 Description: French startup using AI to recover missing music royalties by reconciling fragmented metadata and identifying altered audio versions across hundreds of databases, labels, and platforms. Claimy’s technology detects remixes, covers, and AI-generated tracks to restore lost revenue to creators and rightsholders, addressing the estimated €15B in annual unclaimed royalties.
💻 Website: https://www.claimy.co/
📍 HQ City: Paris & London
🧗 Round: Pre-Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €1.5M
🏦 Investors: Jean-Baptiste Hironde (MWM), Julien Codorniou (ex-Facebook), Flavien Kulawik, Ludwig Sels, Bpifrance, Centre National de la Musique
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Pierre-Alban Mulliez, Gustave Larrouturou, Guillaume de Lavenère
🗞️ News: Funding will accelerate product development in partnership with Télécom Paris’ Listen Lab, expand Claimy’s AI-based detection of transformed and AI-generated music, and scale its B2B royalty-tracking platform for labels and publishers.

📇 Company: Jint (formerly Mozzaik365)
🔍 Description: Jint, previously known as Mozzaik365, is a Microsoft 365-based Digital Workplace platform enhancing employee experience through AI-augmented intranets. The company’s suite of products simplifies communication, boosts engagement, and enables organizations to build intelligent, connected workplaces.
💻 Website: https://www.jint.ai
📍 HQ City: Paris, France — new office in Montréal, Canada
🧗 Round: Growth / Expansion
💰 Amount Raised: €1.5 million (bringing total funding to €5 million)
🏦 Investors: Includes Christophe Karvelis-Senn (CAPZA, joining the board)
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Florian Bouron, Antoine Chancel
🗞️ News: The rebranding to Jint marks the company’s international expansion and launch of a clearer, AI-driven product suite. Its solutions are now available on Orange and Capgemini’s Cloud Bleu sovereign cloud platform, reinforcing its commitment to security, compliance, and intelligent employee experiences.

📇 Company: REasy
🔍 Description: REasy is a Cameroonian trade finance platform that simplifies cross-border commerce for African SMEs by combining payments, logistics, and compliance in a single app. The company enables importers to pay international suppliers seamlessly through integrated mobile money, banking, and global payment systems, while providing end-to-end support for customs and freight forwarding.
💻 Website: https://www.reasy.fr/
📍 HQ City: Douala, Cameroon/Paris, France
🧗 Round: Pre-Seed
💰 Amount Raised: $1.8 million
🏦 Investors: Ingressive Capital, Launch Africa, 54 Collective, Digital Africa, Christophe Chausson (Chausson Partners), Mathias Léopoldie (Julaya), and Joël Nana Kontchou (Cameroon Network Angels)
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Brice Mba (Co-CEO), Mathieu Wing (Co-CEO), Richard Kue, and Stéphane Meng
🗞️ News: The funding will accelerate REasy’s West African expansion, strengthen its tech and trade infrastructure, and secure new regulatory licenses. The startup recently achieved a major milestone by collaborating with the Bank of Central African States (BEAC) to enable multi-currency cross-border payments for SMEs without traditional banks. Already serving thousands of importers on the China–Cameroon corridor, REasy has reduced settlement times from weeks to minutes and aims to reach one million African businesses by 2030.

📇 Company: Skyld AI
🔍 Description: Skyld AI is a French deeptech cybersecurity startup securing AI models against theft, reverse engineering, and malicious manipulation. Its technology acts as an “anti-theft system” for AI — protecting generative and embedded models (LLMs, vision, etc.) in sensitive sectors such as defense, healthcare, automotive, and Industry 4.0. A spin-off from Inria, Skyld has been accelerated by UC Berkeley SkyDeck and is based at Station F in Paris.
💻 Website: https://www.skyld.io/
📍 HQ City: Rennes, France — also present at Station F, Paris
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €1.5 million
🏦 Investors: Auriga Cyber Ventures (lead), BNP Paribas Développement, Bloomhaus Ventures AG, Sodero, and several business angels
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Marie Paindavoine, PhD (Founder & CEO) — cryptography expert, winner of CEFCYS “Woman in Cybersecurity” 2024, and listed among Le Point’s 100 Innovators of 2025
🗞️ News: The funding will accelerate the commercial rollout of Skyld’s AI security technology in France and Europe, strengthen R&D for industrial use cases, and grow the team. Skyld’s solution is already deployed in sensitive environments and is becoming a key enabler of “trustworthy AI.” The company aims to lead the fast-growing global AI security and governance market, projected to reach $7.4B by 2030.

📇 Company: Yomi Pharma
🔍 Description: Yomi Pharma is a French biotech company developing YomiPep, an innovative therapeutic peptide designed to combat resistant forms of EGFR-mutated lung cancer. The company focuses on addressing unmet needs in oncology through next-generation peptide-based treatments targeting drug-resistant tumors.
💻 Website: https://www.linkedin.com/company/yomi-pharma/
📍 HQ City: Limoges, France
🧗 Round: Crowdfunding / Seed Extension
💰 Amount Raised: €1.18 million (via Capital Cell, from 320 investors)
🏦 Investors: 320 individual investors via Capital Cell; supported by Paris Saclay Cancer Cluster (PSCC), Neighborhood by VCLS, French Tech Limousin, ALLIS-NA, and Région Nouvelle-Aquitaine
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Sébastien Arico, Camille Granet
🗞️ News: The round significantly exceeded initial fundraising goals and will finance the acceleration of YomiPep’s preclinical development. Yomi Pharma aims to translate this momentum into scientific and medical breakthroughs against treatment-resistant lung cancer. | LinkedIn

📇 Company: Extensee
🔍 Description: Extensee is a French drone operator specializing in aerial, maritime, and underwater missions for civil, industrial, and government clients. Founded in late 2023, the company aims to become “the airline of drones” by industrializing a certified operator model independent of manufacturers. Its “Drone as a Service” (DaaS) approach provides turnkey mission solutions — combining drones, sensors, and data processing — under aviation-grade safety and compliance standards.
💻 Website: https://extensee.com/
📍 HQ City: Lille, France
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €1 million+
🏦 Investors: Finorpa Gestion (via Finorpa SCR), IRD Invest (via Nord Création), AMC Aviation
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Jean-Baptiste Olry, Kevin Cheronet, Éric Le Moulec, and co-founders from civil and military aviation backgrounds
🗞️ News: The funding will support Extensee’s Light UAS Operator Certificate (LUC) certification, expansion of operational capacity (including pilot training and maintenance), and international growth. The company is already collaborating with Airbus (SurveyCopter, Airbus Helicopters) and has been selected for projects with the European Defence Agency and France’s DMAé. This milestone also aligns with the Hauts-de-France regional initiative to build a sovereign drone industry ecosystem.

📇 Company: Ficha
🔍 Description: Ficha develops an AI-powered waste analysis solution using computer vision to detect sorting errors and assess waste quality. By equipping garbage trucks and sorting centers with embedded cameras, the startup helps municipalities identify problem areas and launch targeted awareness campaigns, reducing environmental and economic inefficiencies.
💻 Website: https://ficha.fr/en/
📍 HQ City: Lyon, France
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €2 million (approx. half in non-dilutive funding)
🏦 Investors: Climate Leaders Fast Track (lead), Neo Founders, Rhône Dauphiné Développement
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Hubert Ménard (Co-founder)
🗞️ News: The funding will support Ficha’s expansion with public-sector clients such as the cities of Annecy, Lyon, and Rouen. The company has surpassed €1M in annual recurring revenue and is part of a growing wave of AI-driven waste management startups tackling recycling inefficiencies through practical, field-deployable computer vision systems. | Les Echos

📇 Company: vebo°
🔍 Description: vebo° designs and manufactures a fully removable, eco-designed, and highly repairable electric motor kit that converts any standard bicycle into an e-bike in just one second. Made in France and labeled under the #France2030 initiative, vebo° promotes sustainable mobility by making active transportation accessible and affordable for all.
💻 Website: https://www.vebo.eco
📍 HQ City: Lille, France / Nantes, France (Hauts-de-France & Pays de la Loire)
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €600,000
🏦 Investors: Marco & Co, ABAB – Atlantique Business Angels Booster, Pays de la Loire Participations
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Grégory Delemazure, Vincent Habart, Hicham Lahmamsi, Rémi Vives
🗞️ News: The funds will accelerate industrial production, team expansion, and the development of vebo°’s reseller and distributor network. Supported by ethical and regional partners, including La Nef, CIC Nord Ouest, Crédit Agricole Atlantique Vendée, and Bpifrance, vebo° aims to strengthen its position in the growing reconditioned bike and e-conversion market (+9% growth), empowering everyday mobility while minimizing environmental impact.

📇 Company: Beez Biotech
🔍 Description: Beez Biotech is a Rennes-based medtech startup developing Eva, a biomimetic sperm selection device designed to improve the success rates of assisted reproductive technologies (ART/IVF). The disposable medical device enables more precise and non-invasive selection of high-quality sperm cells, aiming to double the success rate of fertility treatments in Europe by 2030.
💻 Website: https://beezbiotech.com/
📍 HQ City: Rennes, France
🧗 Round: Pre-Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €340,000
🏦 Investors: Business Angels including Frédéric Massie, Nelly Lerestif, Philippe Angeli, and Arnaud Maury
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Shiva K. Shukla (Founder & CEO)
🗞️ News: The funding was completed through a BSAAIR structure and will accelerate team expansion, regulatory progress, and product development toward market entry in France and Europe by late 2026 or early 2027. Supported by Le Village by CA Ille-et-Vilaine, Beez Biotech’s goal is to revolutionize fertility care and significantly improve assisted reproduction outcomes across Europe.

📇 Company: Biomunex Pharmaceuticals
🔍 Description: Paris- and Cambridge-based biopharmaceutical company pioneering a new generation of bi- and multi-specific antibodies for cancer immunotherapy. Its proprietary BiXAb® “Plug-and-Play” platform enables the rapid development of bispecific antibodies with strong druglike properties. Biomunex is the first to develop MAIT-engagers—bispecific antibodies designed to identify, mobilize, and activate MAIT cells, a subpopulation of T cells capable of killing cancer cells.
💻 Website: https://www.biomunex.com
📍 HQ City: Paris, France / Cambridge, MA, USA
🧗 Round: Equity financing (undisclosed round)
💰 Amount Raised: Undisclosed
🏦 Investors: New shareholders, including private investors, family offices, and Eurobail, investing alongside existing shareholders and management
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Dr. Pierre-Emmanuel Gerard (Founding President & CEO); Dr. Simon Plyte (CSO)
🗞️ News: The funding follows a December 2024 licensing deal with Ipsen (valued up to $610M) for the development of BMX-502, a MAIT-engager bispecific antibody with potential across several cancers. The new capital will support Biomunex’s growth, team expansion, and the advancement of its MAIT-engager portfolio—a potentially breakthrough approach in oncology. | First World Pharma