👋 Welcome to our weekly recap of the big news + funding in the French tech ecosystem this week.

In this week's French Tech Wire,

👀 Deep Dive: Altaroad was started seven years ago by Cécile Villette, Bérengère Lebental, and Rihab Jerbi to improve sustainability and the security of road infrastructures. The startup has developed its technology with research partners at the Polytechnique School, CNRS, and Gustave Eiffel University (ex-IFSTTAR). CEO Villette explains why climate resilience has become so urgent and how the company is using AI to expand its impact.

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Chris O'Brien + Helen O'Reilly-Durand

🚀 Tech Talk 🚀

After a hurricane of news out of the AI summit earlier this week, French tech news paused to catch its breath. Still, there were a handful of notable news items toward the end of this week.

🏦 Bpifrance reported its annual results on Thursday. As France's primary funder of innovation, the state bank lies at the heart of the nation's startup and VC ecosystems. Bpifrance injected €60 billion into the French economy across a wide range of financial programs – down from €63 billion in 2023. The bank turned a €896 million profit. More than €5 billion was allocated to over 5,500 companies, with €570 million specifically invested in innovative projects. Bpifrance invested €354 million in capital innovation, continuing to back high-growth startups and disruptive technologies. Those investments also include €3.1 billion deployed in the first half of 2024 for industrial reindustrialization.

The bank's direct investments in French startups totaled €572 million, marking a 15% decrease from the previous year, with 70% (€400 million) allocated to deeptech sectors. Bpifrance committed a record €1.7 billion to French VC funds, a 7.5% increase from 2023, supporting funds such as Alter Equity III, Lauxera Growth II, Sofinnova Capital XI, Axeleo Greentech Industry, and Sista Fund I.

Looking ahead, Bpifrance plans to accelerate investments in artificial intelligence, committing €10 billion over the next five years. However, with €2.5bn in cuts to the France 2030 plan it helps administer, officials project that innovation funding will decline in 2025. | Maddyness, Bpifrance

💼 Adding another dash of hope to startupland amid talks of bankruptcies and shutdowns, there are still plenty of scaleups that are scaling up. In 2024, top French startups experienced a significant surge in hiring, with Alan, a health insurance company, leading by adding 500 new employees, bringing its total workforce to 1,800. According to a report by Les Echos and Data Recrutement, Back Market, specializing in refurbished electronics, expanded its team by 400, reaching 1,500 employees. Doctolib, a medical appointment platform, grew by 350 employees, totaling 2,500. Qonto, a neobank for SMEs and freelancers, increased its staff by 300, achieving a headcount of 1,000. Additionally, Swile, known for its digital meal vouchers, hired 250 new employees, bringing its workforce to 1,000. These expansions reflect the dynamic growth and scaling ambitions within France's tech ecosystem. | Les Echos

👁️ ↘️ And yet, not everyone is out of the woods...Prophesee, which creates optical sensors, filed its annual report for 2023. (Yeah, these things trickle out slowly). The company had €6.2 million in revenue, up from €2.8 million in 2022. Alas, its losses rose to €16.2 million, up from €15.4 million. The year appeared to be decent overall, with a new Qualcomm partnership and the launch of a chip that targets the market for connected objects and virtual reality. At the end of 2023, Prophesee had 108 employees, compared to 91 the previous year. Alas, the company, which has raised more than €100 million, filed for bankruptcy protection late last year as it struggled to raise another round of funding. | Pappers

🤑 💳 Finally, financial heavyweights BNP Paribas and BPCE have finalized a strategic partnership to create Estreem, a new payment processing company. Estreem will handle all card payments for both banks across Europe, amounting to 17 billion transactions annually, which includes a 30% share of card payment volumes in France. The pair teamed up to address the rapid digitalization of payment systems, the rise of mobile payments, and the demand for instantaneous transactions. Of course, Estreem will face mucho competition from fintech startups and other incumbents that were earlier in the game. Keep hope alive. | Finyear, PR

Deep Dive:
How Altaroad is Driving Climate-Resilient Infrastructure

The construction industry isn’t exactly known for early digital adoption or environmental sensitivity. Yet, amid growing pressure for climate resilience and sustainability, it’s undergoing a major shift.

One of the players at the forefront of this transformation is Cécile Villette, CEO of Altaroad and General Secretary of Contech France, a construction innovation association. Vilette discussed how Altaroad is reshaping the future of infrastructure by leveraging AI, circular economy principles, and a bold vision for sustainable construction.

Villette said climate resilience in the construction sector is no longer just a buzzword - it’s a necessity: “Sustainable infrastructure means being compatible with climate change. It’s about ensuring you can still source the materials you need in a climate-challenged world."

💸 Top Funding Deals 💸

📇 Company: Germitec
🔍 Description: Leading provider of chemical-free and ultra-fast automated high-level disinfection solutions for reprocessing ultrasound probes.
💻 Website: http://germitec.com
📍 HQ City: Ivry-sur-Seine
🧗 Round: Series B
💰 Amount Raised: €29M
🏦 Investors: Turenne Capital; Eurazeo; Financière Arbevel; Kurma Partners
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Clément Deshays
🗞️ News: Maddyness, EU Startups

📇 Company: ScorePlay
🔍 Description: An AI-powered platform revolutionizing sports media management by automating the tagging, organization, and distribution of content for sports organizations.
💻 Website: https://www.scoreplay.io/
📍 HQ City: New York and Paris
🧗 Round: Series A
💰 Amount Raised: €12.5M
🏦 Investors: 20VC; Seven Seven Six; APEX Capital; BYL Ventures; Trybe Ventures; FIBA; LORi6 Ventures
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Victorien Tixier; Xavier Green
🗞️ News: EU Startups

📇 Company: Smile Wanted
🔍 Description: An adtech company that has developed a marketplace connecting content publishers with advertisers through an algorithm that filters and categorizes high-performing advertising spaces using cookieless criteria.
💻 Website: https://www.smilewanted.com/
📍 HQ City: Paris
🧗 Round: Series A
💰 Amount Raised: €10M
🏦 Investors: Elevation Capital Partners; Bpifrance
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Jérémy Abitan (CEO)
🗞️ News: Maddyness

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