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Chris O'Brien + Helen O'Reilly-Durand
Headlines
🗞️ Mistral AI's Alarm on Europe's Data Crunch: Mistral AI has warned that Europe is running low on data center space and training capacity, a bottleneck that could hobble its AI ambitions. As the continent juggles ambitions of digital sovereignty with green energy goals, this pinch highlights the urgent need for infrastructure investments. “We are reaching the capacity; we need to build data centers and ensure there is enough electricity for the scale of AI development today. There is a huge amount of work to be done,” Audrey Herblin-Stoop, Head of Public Affairs at Mistral AI said. | Euronews
🗞️ Europe’s Digital Colony Warning: A sobering warning echoes through Europe’s digital halls: without faster AI progress, the continent risks becoming a "digital colony" of the US and China. In a new report, France’s Parliamentary Office for Scientific and Technological Assessment (OPECST), an independent body within parliament, highlighted Europe's sluggishness in closing the innovation gap, urging policymakers to take bold, collaborative steps before it’s too late. "The challenge is one of digital sovereignty, to avoid becoming a mere digital colony," Corinne Narassiguin, a Senator from the Socialist Party said at a press conference. “The European Union is currently focusing on regulating AI, but this is still insufficient in the face of the size and progress of the American and Chinese powers. Digital sovereignty against the domination of the US calls for the development of powerful French and European players.” | Euronews
🗞️ Nick Clegg on EU's AI Snail Race: Meta's Nick Clegg has taken a swipe at EU regulators for their slow-paced approach to making AI accessible to Europeans. Likening their speed to that of a snail, he calls for a sense of urgency, lest Europe miss the AI train. "When it comes to making AI available to Europeans, EU regulators are still moving at a snail's pace," he said. | Le Monde
🗞️ VC Flame ON: French VC firm daphni has unveiled Flamel, its cutting-edge internal operating system designed to revolutionize venture capital. In a post on LinkedIn, Partner Paul Bazin explained that Flamel connects entrepreneurs with top contacts, delivers actionable market insights, and streamlines tasks like deal-flow prioritization, investment memos, and LP reporting using generative AI. The tool builds on eight years of innovation, integrating over 87 data sources to evaluate 85,000 companies and automate thousands of meetings. "Finally, from 2024 and beyond, we aim to leverage Generative AI to build the VC of the future, capitalizing on the data we've gathered and structured over the past eight years," Bazin wrote. | LinkedIn
🗞️ Flamanville Reactor Powers Up at Last: After years of delays and a staggering €13 billion investment, France’s most powerful nuclear reactor, Flamanville, is finally live. While not directly AI-related, the project exemplifies the intersection of high-tech engineering and energy resilience—critical as France explores AI-powered solutions for its energy future. | RFI
🗞️ Schools and AI Learning Apps Get Mixed Grades: AI learning apps are knocking on school doors, but not everyone’s convinced they should be let in. According to AFP: "France announced it would roll out an AI-powered homework app called MIA in secondary schools earlier this year, but quietly dropped the project as a political crisis rumbled on." Experts voice doubts about their educational value, even as schools embrace them for their convenience and novelty. Will they revolutionize classrooms, or is this just a high-tech distraction? The jury’s still out. | AFP
🗞️ Fraunhofer ISE & EDF's AI-Powered Heat Pump Controller: Two European powerhouses, Fraunhofer ISE and EDF, are teaming up to revolutionize climate-friendly heating. Their AI-based heat pump controller promises to optimize energy use while keeping homes cozy, all with the use of smart algorithms. | PV Magazine
Interviews
As we wind down the year, here are our top AI interviews for 2024:
🗣️ Resurrecting Qwant: New Owners Bet On GenAI To Provide Answers
Qwant CEO Olivier Abecassis: "We believed – and we still believe – that with GenAI some opportunities would appear if can find the right combination of technology and experience. [Now] we have a shareholder who is willing to fund that work."
🗣️ Teaching Physics to AI: How Aqemia Wants To Revolutionize Drug Discovery
Aqemia's Novel Approach to Drug Discovery Attracts €30M in New Funding
🗣️ Can Probabl.ai Catalyze Open-Source Innovation in Machine Learning?
CEO Yann Lechelle: "The future belongs to those who own not only their data, but their data science, their machine learning, and their AI."
🗣️ C.Lab: How Cathay Innovation Wants to Bridge the AI Gap Between Europe and Silicon Valley
The Paris-based VC fund wants to be a guide for corporates and startups to plug into the global AI hub.
🗣️ How Iktos Wants To Revolutionize Drug Discovery With AI And Robotics
CEO Yann Gaston-Mathé believes his company represents "the way drug discovery will look like in the years to come."
🗣️ La Machine Special Edition: LightOn IPO Tear Down
Hyped as Europe's first GenAI public listing, the company is more Seed-stage startup than juggernaut. After starting as a hardware research project, the company pivoted to a SaaS platform. The journey has been financed by public subsidies, tax credits, debt, and equity from Huawei.
🗣️ How Actionable Uses AI To Predict Customer Satisfaction
The startup is using AI to reveal greater insights about what makes customers happy. A €2M Pre-Seed round will give the company a boost toward developing its first commercial version.
🗣️ Faster, Cheaper, Better: Shreds.AI And The New GenAI Coding Economics
In the race to unlock value from GenAI, CEO Soufiane Amar says the platform has the potential to revolutionize the costs and speed of writing code.
🗣️ Gojob: It's Not Easy Going GenAI
The temp recruiting platform spent €40m over 15 months to develop its Gojob Aglaé virtual assistant. CEO Pascal Lorne said the unexpected development pain has paid off with massive productivity gains.
AI Funding News
📇 Company: BforeAI
🔍 Description: Provides AI-predicted malicious domain lists, before they become active.
💻 Website: http://bfore.ai
📍 HQ City: Lunel
🧗 Round: Series B
💰 Amount Raised: €9.09M
🏦 Investors: Titanium Ventures; SYN Ventures
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Sebastian Cesario; Luigi Lenguito
📇 Company: Comand AI
🔍 Description: Empowering defense forces with AI-powered decision-making and operating capabilities.
💻 Website: https://comand.ai/
📍 HQ City: Paris
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €8.50M
🏦 Investors: Eurazeo; Frst Capital; Expeditions Fund
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Loïc Mougeolle
🗞️ News: https://www.frenchweb.fr/comand-ai-leve-85-millions-deuros-pour-mettre-lia-au-service-du-commandement-de-la-defense-europeenne/450331
📇 Company: RMAN Sync
🔍 Description: Software for optimizing logistics chains using deep learning.
💻 Website: https://www.rman-sync.com/
📍 HQ City: Bretteville-sur-Odon Normandy
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €2.3M (including €1.1M non-dilutive)
🏦 Investors: CEN Capital; Normandie Participations
📇 Company: Little John
🔍 Description: AI-powered solution serving insurance brokers.
💻 Website: https://www.little-john.io/
📍 HQ City: Paris
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €1.1M
🏦 Investors: Febe Ventures; Vessoa Private Equity; Leocare; Business Angels
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Olivier Legrand, Grégoire Rastoul, Pierre Sigwalt, Renaud de Pressigny
🗞️ News: https://www.eu-startups.com/2024/12/paris-based-little-john-raises-e1-1-million-to-develop-the-insurtech-with-ai/
Events
📆 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Action Summit | February 10-11, 2025 | Heads of State and Government, leaders of international organizations, CEOs of small and large companies, representatives of academia, non-governmental organizations, artists, and members of civil society will gather in Paris to discuss the critical policy issues surrounding AI. | Information
📆 France Digitale's AI Day 2025 | February 11, 2025 | Paris will be the AI capital of the world (at least for a week) during the AI Action Summit. With our AI Day — the official business side event of the Summit — seize this moment to meet and learn about the best in AI innovation made in Europe. | Information
📆 World AI Cannes Festival | February 13 -15, 2025 | For 3 days, the prestigious Palais des Festival of Cannes will become the world capital of AI, where decision-makers and AI innovators meet, where the most promising innovations and technologies get into the spotlight, where those who are currently building the world’s most game-changing AI strategies and use-cases will be on stages. | Registration
📆 RAISE Summit 2025 | July 8-9, 2025 | RAISE Summit is the premier event for professionals seeking to disrupt, build, and connect in the AI landscape. This summit is the ultimate destination to validate AI strategies through real-world use cases, define a winning AI playbook, and find the right partners to deliver cutting-edge solutions. | Register
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