There are two big questions everyone is asking at the moment. One is global, and the other is mainly in France.

So we'll start with the global one: Is there an AI bubble? After careful research at FDday, my decades of journalistic skills led me to a conclusive answer. Yes, Virginia, there is an AI Bubble. Here is proof.

Meanwhile, Helen moderated a panel on "Building Champions the European Way," which offered a lively reminder that Europe’s startup story is still very much being written.

Curt Gunsenheimer, of Iris, was refreshingly optimistic about the long-awaited arrival of more growth funding in Europe, provided we pair it with specialist expertise to actually help companies scale. Laurence Verite, of Sage, nudged SMEs to get off the sidelines and start adopting more tech. Sylvie Nhansana, of HealthHero, made the case that founders can’t just build companies, they need to shape their sectors, too.

And then came Yann Mayer with the elephant in the room: Europe isn’t the U.S., and pretending otherwise won’t get us very far.

Yes, 450 million citizens look great on a slide deck, but when they’re split across 27 tax systems, dozens of languages, and wildly different business cultures, scale is trickier than it sounds. His fix is to push harder on regulatory harmonization at home, rather than defaulting to the “go to the U.S. first” playbook.

The collective takeaway: Europe doesn’t need to mimic Silicon Valley, but it does need sharper tools, more capital, and a braver push on policy if we want our champions to stay European.

Chris

Inside this week's edition:

👀 The OTHER QUESTION: Founders and economists clashed at FDday’s grand finale as Gabriel Zucman defended his global wealth tax blueprint against Philippe Aghion’s warnings about stifling innovation and forcing AI champions abroad, igniting one of the event’s most heated debates yet. Go 15 rounds here.

Chris O'Brien + Helen O'Reilly-Durand

Tech Talk

🐛😓 Innovafeed, the French insect-protein pioneer, has had a whirlwind few months. The startup posted €5M in 2024 revenue (+66%), with €4M from exports, mainly salmon feed in Norway, but still recorded hefty losses of €35.6M, a reminder of the capital-intensive nature of industrial biotech. Production at its Nesle plant has tripled to 500 tons of larvae per week, slashing per-ton costs by half thanks to scale effects, even as its Decatur, Illinois pilot site has been temporarily paused amid shifting U.S. subsidies and political priorities.

Despite sector headwinds — including the recent collapses of rivals Ynsect and Agronutris — Innovafeed just inked a major deal with Ecuador’s Biomar to feed shrimp with its insect protein, with European distribution via Auchan slated for 2026. CEO Clément Ray admits the industry faces a credibility challenge with investors and talent, but insists the model will deliver profitability in time. To keep scaling, Innovafeed plans a new fundraising round in 2025, though in a far tighter agrifoodtech market where VC funding has plunged 65% since 2022. | Les Echos

⛴️🫧 SeaBubbles, the French startup aiming to revolutionize maritime mobility with its electric and hydrogen “flying boats,” has entered court-ordered receivership. Founded in 2015 by former skipper Alain Thébault, the company had recently homologated its second-generation hydrofoil capable of carrying eight passengers and successfully operated a pilot line on Lake Annecy, transporting nearly 2,000 passengers in summer 2023. Despite these milestones and the sale of its first unit to a Swiss operator, SeaBubbles now faces an urgent need for fresh capital to scale up production amid intensifying competition from players like Sweden’s Candela. Management calls the restructuring a “strategic choice” to preserve technology and prepare a new growth phase — but with rival shipbuilders raising millions and ports racing to electrify, the pressure is on for investors to bet on SeaBubbles’ vision of decarbonized water transport. | La Tribune

🏪📱🪛 Back Market is stepping out of the digital world and into brick-and-mortar retail. The French refurbished electronics unicorn will open its first U.S. store in New York in the coming weeks and plans 500 physical points of sale across France by year’s end. At the same time, it’s rolling out a repair service — open to all, even non-customers — covering phones, tablets, consoles, and more, with unlimited subscriptions on the way. The company wants to capture offline shoppers as part of its goal of surpassing €3 billion in business volume by 2025. | Maddyness, La Tribune

💥🤑 Blast, the investment club founded by Anthony Bourbon and Samuel Guez, is opening the doors to Y Combinator’s coveted deal flow. Its 10,000 members can now back startups coming out of the famed Silicon Valley accelerator — the birthplace of Airbnb, Stripe, and Coinbase. Early bets have already poured millions into fintechs Approval and QFEX, legaltech Blueshoe, and hardware startups Almond and Habit. Blast plans to double its pace of investment by 2026, aiming to support 100 YC startups annually with tens of millions of euros. | Journal du Net, Maddyness

⚖️🛍️ Doctrine, the French legaltech known as the “Google of law,” has acquired its biggest domestic rival, Predictice, in a big consolidation move. The deal is reportedly worth around €20 million and brings Predictice’s team under Doctrine’s roof, creating a 230-person powerhouse serving 25,000 clients across France, Italy, Germany, and Luxembourg. This marks Doctrine’s fourth acquisition since 2023, part of an aggressive expansion strategy fueled by Summit Partners. With the rivalry now buried, Doctrine is positioning itself as Europe’s leading AI-driven legal information platform amid a rapidly consolidating market. | Maddyness

🎵🧑‍🎤 Groover, the French platform helping indie artists gain visibility, has acquired UK-based fan engagement startup Temple for an undisclosed sum. Temple’s tools let musicians create Instagram-friendly minisites to share music, sell merch, promote gigs, and even message fans directly — giving artists valuable data like phone numbers and emails for targeted campaigns. The acquisition, Groover’s second after Soonvibes in 2021, plugs Temple’s solution directly into a platform already used by 650,000 artists and 3,000 music curators worldwide. With ambitions to hit €10M in revenue and profitability within 18 months, Groover is betting this move will deepen artist-fan connections in an era of rising competition — including AI-generated acts. | Les Echos

Wealth Tax Smackdown: Zucman vs. Aghion Sparks Fireworks at FDday

September in Paris means two things: la rentrée and FDday, the French Tech ecosystem’s own back-to-school bash.

Once again under improbable blue skies, the Musée des Arts Forains filled up with founders, investors, operators, and policy wonks, a buzzing crowd swapping stories of entrepreneurial success and strife with “great-to-see-you-again” hugs all around.

The mood for the most part was warm, inclusive, and upbeat. Which is more than can be said for France’s actual political scene, where shouting matches are the daily special. This year, FDday closed with a full-blown showdown over the “taxe Zucman.”

This shouting match featured a touch more intellectual glamour because it featured the man himself. Yes, that Zucman.

💸 Top Funding Deals 💸

📇 Company: GenoMines
🔍 Description: Enhances plants’ natural biology to renewably mine nickel
💻 Website: genomines.com
📍 HQ City: Paris
🧗 Round: Series A
💰 Amount Raised: US$45 million
🏦 Investors: Engine Ventures, Forbion BioEconomy (co-leads), DeepTech & Climate Fonds, Wind, Hyundai Motor Company, Teampact Ventures, Prospect Innovation, Raise Phiture, AlphaTech Investment Group; also Lowercarbon Capital, Entrepreneurs First, Elemental Impact, Salida B.V.
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Fabien Koutchekian, Dali Rashid
🗞️ News: The funding will be used to scale up field trials, establish offtake agreements with automakers (e.g. Hyundai, Jaguar Land Rover) and battery manufacturers, and further validate the company’s phytoextraction process using genetically enhanced hyperaccumulator plants. Their vision is to create a new, lower-environmental-impact way to supply nickel, with cost competitiveness: their process claims up to ~40% below the median cost in traditional mining. |AgFunderNews, Sifted

📇 Company: La Fourche
🔍 Description: Online organic supermarket offering discounted prices via annual membership, aiming to democratize access to sustainable and affordable bio products.
💻 Website: lafourche.fr
📍 HQ City: Paris, France
🧗 Round: Growth (post-Series B)
💰 Amount Raised: €31.5M
🏦 Investors: Bpifrance (Large Venture), Astanor, existing investors
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Lucas Lefebvre, Mathieu Lebrun, Nathan Labat
🗞️ News: La Fourche plans to use the €31.5M funding to accelerate its path to profitability by strengthening logistics, optimizing operations, and expanding its range of organic and sustainable products. The company also intends to invest in technological improvements to enhance customer experience and support its growth ambitions while keeping prices accessible. | Maddyness

📇 Company: Finary
🔍 Description: Fintech offering a real-time, consolidated view of personal wealth across bank accounts, investments, loans, and alternative assets, with AI-powered tools to optimize portfolio management.
💻 Website: finary.com
📍 HQ City: Paris
🧗 Round: Series B
💰 Amount Raised: €25M
🏦 Investors: PayPal Ventures, LocalGlobe, Shapers, Hedosophia, Speedinvest, Y Combinator
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Mounir Laggoune, Julien Blancher
🗞️ News: Les Echos

📇 Company: Vizzia
🔍 Description: The first anti-wild deposits detector in France (detecting illegal waste dumps via AI, camera systems etc.)
💻 Website: vizzia.com
📍 HQ City: Paris
🧗 Round: Early VC
💰 Amount Raised: €16 million
🏦 Investors: SISTAFUND, Made for All, plus business angels
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Katrin Dimitrova, Alexandre Leboucher
🗞️ News: Vizzia will use the €16M to strengthen its commercial presence across France and prepare for expansion into Germany, the UK, Spain, and Italy. The company also plans to invest in maintaining its technological lead while keeping a “low-tech” approach that ensures compliance with European regulations and sovereignty over infrastructure. In the longer term, Vizzia aims to develop software enabling inter-municipal cooperation to tackle incivilities and petty crime. | Maddyness

📇 Company: Defacto
🔍 Description: API-first B2B lending/credit infrastructure for SMEs
💻 Website: getdefacto.com
📍 HQ City: Paris
🧗 Round: Series A
💰 Amount Raised: 16M in the main Series A round in 2022.
🏦 Investors: Citi, Northzone, Global Founders Capital, Headline, La Maison Partners, Blast Club
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Jordane Giuly; Morgan O’Hana; Marc-Henri Gires
🗞️ News: The funds are to increase Defacto’s lending capacity (i.e. how much credit it can extend) by about €400 million. They also plan to expand geographically into several European markets: Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, and Spain. Additionally, there’s been work to scale its securitization fund (raising & structuring assets) to enable more financing capacity (e.g. a €300M securitization, etc.). | FrenchWeb

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