Edito

We're three-quarters of the way into 2025, and the funding news for France is, well, not great, but could be worse, but also sorta deceiving.

Through the first 9 months of 2025, French startups have raised $6.3 billion. That's compared to $7.9 billion for 2024. Which wouldn't seem terrible on the face of it except...

...about $2 billion of that haul is from the Monster Mistral AI. So, almost one out of three bucks.

Take that away and French startups would be headed for their third straight down year of fundraising. As it is, from a purely statistical point of view, they will likely eek out a slight increase for 2025. Hooray?

Fortunately, misery loves company. And the latest numbers from Pitchbook out today show that European venture capital fundraising more broadly ain't exactly setting the world on fire neither:

And what of our American cousins across the sea? On deal value, they seem to be kicking some serious cowboy butt over the rest of the world. Yee haw! Which is no doubt why everyone in Europe is tempted to grab their paddle and row as fast as can for those promised shores to join the wagon trains headed west to the promised lands of Silicon Valley.

But squint harder, my entrepreneurial greenhorns. For ye shall see that the number of deals has fallen into a giant sinkhole of despair over yonder.

Basically, unless your name rhymes with Bam Faltman, your chances of finding gold in them thar hills is pretty slim.

But hey, gotta follow your dreams, right?

Meanwhile, back to this week past week in funding news...

🔝 Biggest Round

• Vibe (€42M / $50M) – Series B adtech round, led by Hedosophia.
• Edflex (~€16.7M / $18M) – Series C in digital corporate learning.
• RDS (€14M) – Series A in medtech.

🌍 Sector Diversity

Adtech & Marketing

• Vibe (AI-powered connected TV adtech).

Corporate Learning / SaaS

• Edflex (AI-powered learning aggregation).

Medtech & Biopharma

• RDS (connected monitoring patch),
• Plasana Medical (cold plasma wound healing),
• SeaBeLife (regulated cell death inhibitors),
• MyFit Solutions (3D body scanning).

Deeptech / Hardware

• TiHive (terahertz inspection),
• iNGage (MEMS inertial sensors).

AI / Software Platforms

• Qovery (DevOps automation),
• Clarifeye (AI expert agents),
• Popsink (real-time data infra),
• MokN (cybersecurity deception),
• Metreecs (AI supply chain),
• Sonar Clarity / Avanoo (SaaS & Shadow IT management).

Fintech / Marketplaces

• DJUST (modular B2B commerce),
• Initiativ (carbon trading neo-exchange).

Climate & Energy / Deeptech

• UP&CHARGE (wireless EV charging),
• Synboli (AI-designed polymers),
• Kapsera (agri-biotech microencapsulation).

📍 Geographic Focus

• Predominantly France: Paris dominates (Vibe, Edflex, Qovery, DJUST, Clarifeye, Popsink, MokN, Avanoo, Initiativ, Plasana Medical, Kapsera).
• Regional hubs: Strasbourg (RDS), Grenoble (TiHive, iNGage), Lyon (MyFit Solutions), Bordeaux (Kapsera, Synboli).
• Cross-border presence:
  • Paris–San Francisco (Metreecs).
  • Paris–Milan (iNGage).

🔥🔥🔥🔥

📇 Company: Vibe
🔍 Description: French adtech platform enabling brands to easily launch, target, and optimize streaming TV ads, with AI-powered creative tools and partnerships with 500+ apps and channels (Disney+, Roku, Paramount+).
💻 Website: https://www.vibe.co/
📍 HQ City: Paris
🧗 Round: Series B
💰 Amount Raised: $50M (€42M)
🏦 Investors: Hedosophia (lead), Elaia, Singular, QuantumLight (Nikolay Storonsky, Revolut), Illusian (Supercell founder), other historical investors
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Franck Tetzlaff (ex-Doctolib, Frichti), Arthur Querou (ex-Appinest, MotionLead, Adikteev)
🗞️ News: Funding will fuel U.S. expansion, accelerate AI integration in ad creation and performance optimization, and scale revenues beyond $1B by 2028. Company expects >$100M revenue in 2025 and to be profitable by year-end. | EU-Startups, FrenchWeb, Maddyness, Sifted

📇 Company: Edflex
🔍 Description: SaaS platform for corporate digital training, aggregating and curating learning content from over 10,000 publishers across 300+ topics. Serves 300+ corporate clients and 1.5M users worldwide.
💻 Website: edflex.com
📍 HQ City: Paris
🧗 Round: Series C
💰 Amount Raised: $18M
🏦 Investors: Bpifrance (Digital Venture fund), Educapital, Ternel, Wille Finance
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Clément Meslin, Philippe Riveron, Raphaël Droissart, Rémi Lesaint
🗞️ News: Edflex will use the funding to strengthen its AI-powered smart learning content (conversational features, real-life simulations, personalization, automated skills assessment), expand internationally (new languages, local teams in Europe and North America, structured go-to-market partnerships), and pursue its ambition to become a global leader in corporate learning. | Edflex Blog

📇 Company: RDS
🔍 Description: French medtech company developing MultiSense®, a CE-marked, connected patch for continuous remote patient monitoring in hospitals and at home.
💻 Website: rdsdiag.com
📍 HQ City: Strasbourg, France
🧗 Round: Series A
💰 Amount Raised: €14 million ($16.6M)
🏦 Investors: SPI Fund (Bpifrance, lead), Critical Path Ventures, MACSF, Capital Grand Est, other historical investors
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Elie Lobel (CEO)
🗞️ News: The funds will accelerate industrialization and market launch of MultiSense® in Europe, with plans to expand in France, Germany, and across the EU. RDS will ramp up production in France, strengthen its salesforce, and launch complementary clinical trials to support reimbursement applications. The company also plans to begin FDA registration, targeting a US launch in 2028. Several hundred new jobs are expected to be created by 2035.

📇 Company: Qovery
🔍 Description: SaaS platform that automates DevOps, simplifying application deployment across all major cloud providers (AWS, GCP, Azure, Scaleway) while reducing complexity, costs, and reliance on DevOps talent.
💻 Website: https://www.qovery.com/
📍 HQ City: Paris
🧗 Round: Series A
💰 Amount Raised: $13M (€11M)
🏦 Investors: IRIS (lead), Speedinvest, Crane Venture Partners, Techstars, Irregular Expressions, business angels including Olivier Pomel & Alexis Le-Quoc (co-founders of Datadog), Sebastian Pahl (co-founder of Docker), Ott Kaukver (CTO of Checkout.com, ex-CTO Twilio)
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Romaric Philogène (CEO, co-founder).
🗞️ News: Qovery has grown 115% YoY with 100+ customers (incl. Alan, Didask, Talkspace, RxVantage). Half of its revenue already comes from the U.S. The funds will accelerate U.S. expansion, product innovation (including AI integration), and team growth. | EU-Startups, FrenchWeb, Journal du Net

📇 Company: TiHive
🔍 Description: Industrial deeptech company developing terahertz-on-silicon imaging and AI-powered inspection solutions for real-time, non-destructive quality and process control on production lines. Applications span hygiene, textiles, recycling, agriculture, and space.
💻 Website: tihive.com
📍 HQ City: Grenoble, France
🧗 Round: Series A
💰 Amount Raised: €8 million
🏦 Investors: Karista, Wind, EIC Fund
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Hani Sherry (CEO), Carlos Prada (CIO)
🗞️ News: TiHive will use the funds to accelerate commercialization of its patented terahertz-AI vision solutions, expand internationally (Europe, LATAM, Asia-Pacific), reinforce its footprint in hygiene, textiles, recycling, agriculture, and space industries, and advance R&D for next-gen terahertz chips with extended frequencies and AI features.

📇 Company: DJUST
🔍 Description: European SaaS leader in modular B2B commerce platforms, helping distributors, retailers, and manufacturers digitize manual processes, streamline procurement, and modernize the B2B customer journey with AI agents and integrated payments.
💻 Website: https://djust.io
📍 HQ City: Paris, France
🧗 Round: Series A Extension
💰 Amount Raised: €7M
🏦 Investors: New Enterprise Associates (NEA, lead), Elaia Partners (existing), Speedinvest (new)
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Arnaud Rihiant (ex-Mirakl founding member), Eric Gaudin
🗞️ News: This new funding follows DJUST’s €12M Series A in 2023 and will fuel R&D acceleration, the rollout of AI agents and DJUST Pay (a 100% B2B payment module), and European expansion into Spain, Italy, Germany, and the UK. The company already manages €1.5B in annual transactions for ~50 clients (including Eiffage and Franprix) and aims to double that to €3B by 2026. | Maddyness

📇 Company: iNGage
🔍 Description: Developer of next-generation high-performance MEMS inertial sensors that provide precise navigation and positioning in GPS-denied or degraded environments. Applications span autonomous vehicles, drones, robotics, and defense.
💻 Website: www.ingage-mems.com
📍 HQ City: Grenoble, France (with R&D office in Milan, Italy)
🧗 Round: Seed / First financing round
💰 Amount Raised: €6 million
🏦 Investors: Supernova Invest (lead), 360 Capital, BNP Paribas Développement, Crédit Agricole Alpes Développement, CEA Investissement
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Philippe Robert (CEO) and team from CEA-Leti & Politecnico di Milano research collaboration
🗞️ News: The funds will be used to finalize development and industrialize iNGage’s first range of multi-axis MEMS inertial sensors, strengthen the team, secure partnerships, and deliver first product samples to strategic customers. This will help position the company as a key enabler of precise navigation where GPS fails, targeting multi-billion-euro markets by 2030.

📇 Company: Clarifeye
🔍 Description: Paris-based platform that transforms expert knowledge into scalable AI agents by turning tacit expertise into operational intelligence. Clarifeye enables organizations to build GenAI agents that reason like their best human experts, addressing challenges in complex industries such as law, life sciences, and manufacturing.
💻 Website: https://www.clarifeye.ai/
📍 HQ City: Paris
🧗 Round: Pre-Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €4M
🏦 Investors: EQT Ventures (lead), Drysdale Ventures, Olivier Pomel (CEO & founder of Datadog), Jean-Luc Robert (ex-CEO Kyriba), Alexandre Berriche (Fleet), and other angel investors
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Mathieu Grisolia (CEO) and seasoned ex-Dataiku leaders & serial entrepreneurs
🗞️ News: Clarifeye plans to expand its platform, hire top talent, and accelerate its vision of building expert AI agents that capture and scale human expertise into collective intelligence.

📇 Company: Plasana Medical
🔍 Description: Medtech spin-off from École Polytechnique’s Plasma Physics Laboratory and CNRS, created by startup studio TechnoFounders. The company develops Plasana One®, a cold plasma medical device for chronic wound healing (diabetic foot ulcers, venous leg ulcers, pressure ulcers). Its proprietary multi-jet cold plasma technology accelerates healing by 30–50%, reduces infection risks, and is painless and suitable for home use.
💻 Website:
📍 HQ City: Paris, France
🧗 Round: Equity + non-dilutive funding
💰 Amount Raised: €4M in equity (plus grants and loans)
🏦 Investors: TF Participations funds (TechnoFounders), family offices, business angels
👨💼👩💼 Founders / Leadership: Co-founded via TechnoFounders; Yves Matton (CEO, appointed May 2025)
🗞️ News: Funding will support the ongoing PLASANA GENESIS clinical trial targeting CE marking by 2026, preparation for commercialization in Europe, and regulatory approval in the United States. | LinkedIn

📇 Company: UP&CHARGE
🔍 Description: French startup developing wireless inductive charging technology for electric vehicles, enabling drivers to recharge simply by parking. Its system offers faster charging than wired solutions, reduced energy loss, and lower installation costs, all made with 100% French manufacturing.
💻 Website: upandcharge.com
📍 HQ City: Île-de-France, France
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €3.5M (including €3M via Tudigo crowdfunding)
🏦 Investors: Tudigo campaign participants, private investors
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Marin Champenois (CEO)
🗞️ News: Funding will accelerate the industrialization and large-scale deployment of UP&CHARGE’s wireless charging solution across public and private parking lots. The company is preparing pre-sales, with over 20 clients already engaged, covering fleets ranging from 100 to 70,000 vehicles. | Blog Post

📇 Company: Synboli
🔍 Description: Deeptech materials startup combining AI and synthetic chemistry to design and produce novel polymers. Its proprietary photo-activation technology enables the synthesis of vinyl polymers, while its AI platform designs new polymer structures and predicts their properties.
💻 Website: synboli.com
📍 HQ City: Camblanes-et-Meynac, France
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €3.5m
🏦 Investors: Bordeaux Technowest, Wind Capital
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Mathieu Pucheault
🗞️ News: The funding will help Synboli accelerate the development of its AI-driven polymer design platform, speed up time-to-market for new materials, and expand its range of high-performance, custom-engineered polymers. | Les Echos

📇 Company: Popsink
🔍 Description: Developer of real-time data infrastructure using Change Data Capture (CDC) technology to continuously capture changes from legacy systems (ERP, CRM, Oracle/IBM mainframes) and replicate them to modern platforms like Snowflake, Databricks, and Iceberg. Popsink enables enterprises to build reliable foundations for AI and analytics without heavy migrations.
💻 Website: https://www.popsink.com
📍 HQ City: Paris
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €3M
🏦 Investors: IRIS (lead), XAnge, Seedcamp, Irregular Expressions, and several business angels
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Benjamin Djidi (ex-Sixt, Amazon – Alexa, data & analytics), Alexandre Colella (ex-Primaa, Gérerseul.com, Quable, deeptech startups)
🗞️ News: Popsink will use the funds to double its team, accelerate product development, and expand across Europe and North America, addressing the growing demand for real-time data access to power AI and modern analytics. | Blog Post, FrenchWeb

📇 Company: MokN
🔍 Description: Paris-based cybersecurity startup developing deception-based identity protection technology that traps attackers using stolen credentials through decoy portals. Already securing over 500,000 users and €1M ARR within a year.
💻 Website: https://www.mokn.io/
📍 HQ City: Paris
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €2.6 million
🏦 Investors: Moonfire (lead), OVNI Capital, Kima Ventures, business angels
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Gautier Bugeon (Co-founder & CEO)
🗞️ News: The funding will accelerate MokN’s U.S. commercial rollout and support team expansion in France across product, sales, and marketing. The company plans to relocate part of its leadership team to the U.S. to seize a first-mover advantage in deception-based credential protection. | EU Startups, FrenchWeb

📇 Company: Metreecs
🔍 Description: Franco-American startup using AI to transform supply chains through demand forecasting and digital twins, helping retailers reduce overstocks, shortages, and waste.
💻 Website: https://www.metreecs.com/
📍 HQ City: Paris & San Francisco
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: $2.7M
🏦 Investors: Monte Carlo Capital, Founders Future, Kima Ventures, Bpifrance, Y Combinator
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Thibaut Pellegrin (CEO), Martin Dimitrov (COO), Elie Dufeu (CTO)
🗞️ News: The funding will accelerate R&D to enrich its AI-driven logistics platform and support international expansion, with new offices planned in Italy and the US.

📇 Company: SeaBeLife
🔍 Description: Biotechnology company developing innovative small molecules that block two regulated cell death pathways (necroptosis and ferroptosis) to treat severe, rare, and chronic diseases with no current therapeutic alternatives. Lead programs target dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and severe acute hepatitis.
💻 Website: www.seabelife.com
📍 HQ City: Roscoff, France
🧗 Round: Pre-Series A
💰 Amount Raised: €2M ($2.25M)
🏦 Investors: iXLife (lead), Breizh Angels, WeLikeStartup, Angels Santé, Business Angels des Grandes Écoles, INEXT, Femmes Business Angels
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Morgane Rousselot, PhD (CEO & co-founder); based on research of Stéphane Bach, PhD; Marie-Thérèse Dimanche-Boitrel; and Claire Delehouzé, PhD (Scientific Director & Partner)
🗞️ News: Funding will support clinical trial preparation for dry AMD and severe acute hepatitis drug candidates. First clinical trial expected in 2026. Femmes Business Angels’ Marie-Pierre Sbardella joins the Strategic Committee. SeaBeLife has raised €9M to date, with support from Bpifrance, SATT Ouest Valorisation, Biotech Santé Bretagne, and Région Bretagne. | EU-Startups

📇 Company: MyFit Solutions
🔍 Description: Lyon-based startup specializing in 3D body scanning technology via smartphone, combining computer vision and AI for applications in healthcare (orthopedics) and retail personalization.
💻 Website: https://myfit-solutions.com/
📍 HQ City: Lyon
🧗 Round: Seed / Early stage
💰 Amount Raised: €2 million
🏦 Investors: Acer Finance, Provence Angels, Key Ventures, Bpifrance
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Founded in 2018 (names not disclosed in sources)
🗞️ News: Funding will accelerate the commercial rollout of its 3D scanning solution, enhance R&D to improve precision and robustness, and scale deployments across medical and retail markets. | Le Progres

📇 Company: Kapsera
🔍 Description: Bordeaux-based agri-biotech startup developing sustainable microencapsulation technology to improve efficiency and sustainability in agriculture and agri-food sectors.
💻 Website: https://www.kapsera.com/
📍 HQ City: Bordeaux
🧗 Round: Series A (extended)
💰 Amount Raised: €5 million (including €860K from latest closing)
🏦 Investors: Seventure Partners, Banque des Territoires, The Yield Lab, Demeter
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Jean-Baptiste Maille, Corinne Gendrot
🗞️ News: The new funding will accelerate industrialization of Kapsera’s microencapsulation technology, support large-scale market deployment, and strengthen its positive impact on agriculture and agri-food industries. | Le Journal des Enterprises

📇 Company: Sonar Clarity (rebranded as Avanoo)
🔍 Description: SaaS Management platform helping enterprises regain control over their software and AI ecosystem. It automatically detects all applications (including Shadow IT & Shadow AI), measures usage, identifies unused licenses, optimizes costs, and highlights security risks. It also supports compliance with DORA, NIS2, AI Act, and GDPR.
💻 Website: avanoo.com
📍 HQ City: France
🧗 Round: Seed (first fundraising)
💰 Amount Raised: €1m
🏦 Investors: Auriga Cyber Ventures
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Tanguy Duthion (CEO), Etienne Elouvrier
🗞️ News: The funding will support Avanoo’s new growth strategy in France and internationally. The company will strengthen its R&D, expand its sales operations, recruit partners, and onboard new experts to improve service quality. This milestone also marks its rebrand from Sonar Clarity to Avanoo, reflecting its ambition to become a leading SaaS and Shadow IT management solution. | PR

📇 Company: Initiativ
🔍 Description: French fintech building the first “neo-exchange” for industrials, a digital marketplace to trade carbon allowances (EU ETS quotas) with transparent pricing, direct access, and simplified transactions.
💻 Website: https://takeinitiativ.com/
📍 HQ City: Paris, France
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €650,000
🏦 Investors: Holmarcom (Morocco), U-Investors, Frenchfounders business angels, and private investors from banking, trading, and climate sectors.
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Isaure Courcenet (CEO), Nicolas Negrilic (COO), Nicolas Bigotte (CCO)
🗞️ News: Initiativ will use the funding to launch its digital carbon trading platform, enabling industrials to directly buy and sell carbon allowances with transparent prices and reduced intermediation costs. The company aims to democratize access to the EU-ETS market, prepare for CBAM-driven international demand, and position itself as a sovereign alternative to incumbent carbon exchanges. Initiativ is also competing in the Startup World Cup 2025 in San Francisco and has been accelerated by the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) and ZEBOX.