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👋 Welcome to our weekly recap of the big news + funding in the French tech ecosystem this week. In this week's French Tech Wire:
👀 Sector Deep Dive: 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?
👀 Deep Dive: mirSense wants to redefine safety and defence 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. CEO and co-founder Mathieu Carras explains the tech and vision.
☀️ Spotlight Interview: ChangeNOW 2025, the "world expo of solutions for the planet," is in full swing this week. Ahead of the Paris opening, I spoke with ChangeNOW CEO Santiago Lefebvre about how a bold idea born at COP21 became a global gathering, and why, in a divided world, hope and action still matter.
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Chris O'Brien + Helen O'Reilly-Durand
🚀 Tech Talk 🚀
⚖️🔨 Oussama Ammar, co-founder of The Family, was ordered by a UK court to pay €7.5 million (£6.5 million) for fraud and breaching his fiduciary duties to the organization. The ruling follows allegations from his former partners, Alice Zagury and Nicolas Colin acting on behalf of The Family and shareholders, that Ammar embezzled around €4.5 million meant for investments in US tech companies like SpaceX and Airbnb, instead using the money for personal projects, including acquiring a luxury estate in Normandy. In 2023, a Cayman Islands court had already ruled against Ammar in a similar case, ordering him to repay over €7 million to The Family.
In both rulings, the courts delivered default judgments as Ammar failed to defend himself. Ammar still contests the decisions, arguing they were obtained without proper adversarial proceedings. He has claimed throughout that The Family had blurry boundaries between personal and professional funds, which justified the transactions in question.
Still, The Family must still go through a French legal process (exequatur) to be enforced here and attempt to recover any assets. Despite these legal setbacks, Ammar, who has remained active on social media where he has unveiled several new intiatiatves, said he now plans to launch a new startup accelerator called The Labyrinth and continue his work in the tech ecosystem. | Sifted, Maddyness
🐛 In April, insect farming startup Ÿnsect was on the verge of shutting down and being liquidated when it secured a €10 million investment from existing investors, including Bpifrance, to gain some breathing room. The public investment bank already held a 13.62% stake in Ÿnsect as of late 2023. At the same time, Ÿnsect announced it had received interest in partially acquiring its Dole site in the Jura region. According to Les Echos, the offer came from Antoine Hubert, Ÿnsect’s former CEO, who founded a new company in 2024 called Keprea. Hubert presented his plan to Ÿnsect employees but declined to comment further due to ongoing legal proceedings in the commercial court. | Les Echos
📱📹 France’s Commission on the Psychological Effects of Video Apps has launched a large-scale public consultation, open until May 31, 2025, to assess TikTok's impact, particularly on young users. The initiative invites teens and their parents to anonymously respond to a brief online questionnaire about their usage habits, emotional responses, and exposure to disturbing content on the platform. With TikTok boasting 22.7 million users in France, the commission aims to gather millions of responses to inform recommendations on regulating the app, including potential age restrictions. Lawmakers see this consultation as both a diagnostic tool and a way to reconnect Parliament with public concerns over youth mental health. | Le Figaro
🛡️😶 🪪 France is enforcing a new law mandating strict age verification on adult websites to prevent minors from accessing pornographic content. Initially applied to French and non-EU sites like OnlyFans, the requirement will extend to EU-based platforms such as Pornhub, YouPorn, and XVideos starting June 7, 2025. The French regulator Arcom is authorized to block sites that fail to comply, with potential enforcement actions, including site blocks, anticipated this summer. Adult content providers have expressed concerns over the technical feasibility and privacy implications of implementing these age checks. Nevertheless, the French government remains resolute in its commitment to safeguarding minors online. | Politico, Yahoo
How France And Europe Are Mobilizing Defense Tech Startups
“We are living in the most momentous and dangerous of times,” EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen warned last month, as she unveiled the EU’s €800 billion ReArm Europe Plan. “The real question is whether Europe is prepared to act as decisively as the situation dictates — and whether Europe is ready and able to act with the speed and ambition that is needed.”
The plan is to catalyze a surge in defense investments across EU member states. The message is clear: in an era marked by persistent instability - from Russia’s ongoing aggression in Ukraine to shifting U.S. security commitments and escalating cyber threats - defense is no longer optional.
For Europe, and France in particular, the challenge isn’t whether to invest in sovereign innovation, but whether they can do it swiftly enough.
🔬Laser-Focused: mirSense Secures €7M For Industrial Safety And Defense Sovereignty
In a world increasingly reliant on sensor-driven technologies, French defense tech startup mirSense is positioning itself as a global leader with a €7M Series A funding round, led by Safran Corporate Ventures and joined by Supernova Invest, Polytechnique Ventures, and Crédit Agricole Alpes Développement (C2AD).
This marks a pivotal moment for the company, which specializes in quantum cascade laser (QCL) technology and miniature gas sensors with applications spanning defense, industrial safety, and environmental monitoring.
Founded in 2015 by former Thales researchers Mathieu Carras and Mickael Brun, mirSense has developed a unique approach to infrared sensors that allows for cost-effective, high-precision detection in a wide range of applications. From missile decoy defense systems to detecting toxic gases in industrial settings, mirSense’s sensors are poised to change the way both military and civilian sectors operate.
Spotlight Interview: ChangeNOW CEO Santiago Lefebvre Wants You To Believe Again
As thousands of changemakers gather in Paris for the 2025 edition of ChangeNOW, Santiago Lefebvre stands at the helm of what has become the world’s largest impact summit. But rewind a few years, and this all looked very different.
“I had no experience in events. None. We bootstrapped everything,” Santiago tells me, sitting just a few floors above the buzzing Grand Palais, where this year’s event has kicked off with a record-breaking 40,000 participants.
The idea first sparked in 2015, during the landmark COP21 climate summit in Paris. “The targets were inspiring,” he says. “But I kept wondering—where are the tech entrepreneurs? Where are the people building solutions on the ground?”
At the time, Santiago had just wrapped up his first venture in the digital space. “I saw all these early impact communities—Techfugees, civic tech, green projects—but there wasn’t a place where they were all brought together. Impact, as an ecosystem, didn’t exist yet," he said.
So he imagined something different: “I looked at what France had built with La French Tech. I thought—what if we could do that for impact? Like CES, but with solutions for the planet.”
💸 Top Funding Deals 💸
📇 Company: Didomi
🔍 Description: Best platform for managing data privacy compliance.
💻 Website: http://didomi.io
📍 HQ City: Paris, France
🧗 Round: Growth Equity VC – used to acquire server-side tagging platform Addingwell
💰 Amount Raised: €72 million
🏦 Investors: Marlin Equity Partners
👨👩💼 Founders: Romain Gauthier, Raphaël Boukris, Jawad Stouli
🗞️ News: Maddyness, PR
📇 Company: Auum
🔍 Description: Developer of an eco-friendly glass-cleaning machine designed to eliminate single-use cups in workplaces.
💻 Website: https://www.auum.com
📍 HQ City: Paris, France
🧗 Round: Series B
💰 Amount Raised: €15 million
🏦 Investors: Starquest, Founders Future, Groupe SEB, Blast Club, Swen Capital Partners
👨👩💼 Founders: Clément Houllier, Maxime Prieto, Mathieu Bourhis, Thomas Munoz
🗞️ News: Maddyness, Les Echos
📇 Company: Poppins
🔍 Description: Interactive program supporting children’s cognitive development through music.
💻 Website: https://www.poppins.io/
📍 HQ City: Paris, France
🧗 Round: Early VC
💰 Amount Raised: €5 million
🏦 Investors: Bpifrance, Eurazeo, Verve Ventures, BNP Paribas Développement, Kurma Partners
👨👩💼 Founders: François Vonthron, Antoine Yuen
🗞️ News: TFN
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