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Chris O'Brien + Helen O'Reilly-Durand

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Headlines

🗞️ Cerebras Systems announced the deployment of its wafer-scale AI accelerator chips in six new cloud data centers, including a key facility in France, aimed at delivering ultrafast AI inference. This expansion strengthens France’s AI infrastructure and benefits key French AI players like Mistral AI, which leverages Cerebras technology for its chatbot Le Chat. The facility in France is part of Cerebras’ broader European footprint, complementing its presence in Montreal and strategic partnerships with G42.

🗞️ 🤗 In addition, Cerebras has partnered with the French-founded Hugging Face to integrate its high-speed AI inference directly into the Hugging Face Hub, providing developers with seamless access to its accelerated AI models. Hugging Face has become a pivotal player in the open-source AI ecosystem. With this partnership, developers can now easily deploy open-source models with Cerebras' industry-leading inference speeds, making AI research and application development more efficient. | SiliconAngle

🗞️ Stanislas Niox-Chateau, CEO & Cofounder at France's Doctolib, issued a call to action for European AI talent to remain in Europe rather than working for non-European companies. He lamented that Europe is losing valuable AI and engineering professionals daily. His pitch to those with wanderlust: Professionals don't need to leave Europe for career growth or impact. Not surprisingly, he cited AI and Health as a key area ripe for transformation. As such, Doctolib is expanding its AI and clinical vision for 2025 and beyond. "Europe has everything it takes to be at the forefront of the AI revolution," he wrote, "but we need our people!" | LinkedIn

🗞️ Wandercraft, a French startup pioneering AI-powered exoskeletons, received the Innovative AI Startup Award at South by Southwest for its work in restoring mobility for people with walking impairments. The recognition follows a historic moment at the Paris 2024 Olympics when paraplegic athlete Kevin Piette carried the Olympic flame using Wandercraft's technology. The company continues to gain momentum with support from Frenchfounders and Bpifrance as it advances its mission to transform mobility solutions. | LinkedIn

🗞️ Mistral AI has introduced Mistral OCR, a cutting-edge Optical Character Recognition API designed to enhance document understanding. This tool accurately interprets various document elements—including text, images, tables, and mathematical equations—from inputs like images and PDFs, making it particularly effective when integrated with Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) systems handling complex, multimodal documents. Mistral OCR supports multiple languages and scripts, offers rapid processing speeds, and is available through Mistral's developer platform, la Plateforme. Additionally, it has been set as the default model for document understanding for users of Le Chat. | Mistral AI

⚖️ French publishers and authors have filed a lawsuit against Meta, alleging unauthorized use of their copyrighted works to train its AI systems. The National Publishing Union (SNE), the National Union of Authors and Composers (SNAC), and the Society of Men of Letters (SGDL) claim that Meta has engaged in "monumental looting" by using protected content without permission. This legal action, filed in a Paris court, is the first of its kind in France but aligns with similar lawsuits in the United States against tech companies over AI training practices. | Reuters

📈 E-commerce SaaS provider Mirakl reported a 15% increase in annual recurring revenue (ARR) in 2024, reaching $177 million. The company's flagship product, Mirakl Platform, achieved profitability throughout the year. To further accelerate growth, Mirakl plans to double its investments in artificial intelligence (AI) in 2025, matching the combined AI expenditure of the previous three years. This strategic focus aims to enhance services like Mirakl Ads and Mirakl Connect, positioning the company to surpass $200 million in ARR by the end of 2025. | Les Echos, Maddyness

Other headlines

🗞️ Station F: flying the flag for France tech and AI development | Of the Paris-based incubator’s 40 best-performing start-ups, 34 have artificial intelligence at the core of their business | Financial Times

🗞️ See our story from November on Station F + AI startups, with the complete list of those 34 companies. | The French Tech Journal

🗞️ How French startup Mistral is using design to shake up AI | Created by Sylvain Boyer, the designer behind the Paris Olympics identity, the branding for Mistral is deliberately warm and retro, to set it apart from the current AI competition. | Creative Review

ICYMI

🗞️ Europe Needs AI Infrastructure. Cleyrop Wants To Build It | Can Europe power its digital future without relying on non-European cloud providers? And if so, what kind of AI infrastructure does Europe need? These are the challenges that Arnaud Muller, co-founder of Cleyrop, has dedicated himself to solving. His company provides European public and private organizations with sovereign, AI-ready data storage and management solutions. | The French Tech Journal

🗞️ Growl's AI Boxing Bag Delivers A Knockout Fitness Experience | A pair of French entrepreneurs in Texas have launched Growl, a connected fitness startup that reimagines the traditional boxing bag as an AI-powered, interactive home coach. As the company moves towards commercialization, CEO and co-founder Léo Desrumaux explains the vision. | The French Tech Journal

🗞️ Digital Diplomats: AI is Making Silicon Valley Startups Leaner and Meaner. Can French Founders Keep Up? | U.S. Startups are reaching $100M ARR with less than 50 employees. French startups risk being squeezed if they don’t adapt. | The French Tech Journal

🗣️ Spore.Bio's AI Slices Bacteria Testing From Days to Minutes

In a world where consumer product safety is increasingly critical, a French DeepTech startup is transforming how manufacturers detect potentially dangerous bacterial contamination. Spore.Bio has developed an AI-powered technology that can identify bacteria in minutes rather than days, potentially saving companies millions in recall costs while protecting public health.

Founded in 2023 and headquartered in Paris, Spore.Bio has rapidly emerged as a pioneer in microbiology testing, securing an impressive $31.3 million in funding in just over a year. Its revolutionary approach combines advanced photonics, machine learning, and spectroscopy to provide on-site testing capabilities for food, pharmaceutical, and cosmetic manufacturers.

AI Funding News

📇 Company: DashBook
🔍 Description: SaaS and AI tools help you publish your work and reach your readers in just a few clicks.
💻 Website: https://www.dashbook.fr/
📍 HQ City: Paris
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €3M
🏦 Investors: Bpifrance; Seventure Partners
👨💼👩💼 Founders: David Botvinik

📇 Company: DrugOptimal
🔍 Description: AI to automate drug incompatibility detection
💻 Website: https://www.drugoptimal.com/
📍 HQ City: Meylan
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €2.9M (including €1.6m debt)
🏦 Investors: Business Angels, Bpifrance
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Lugan Flacher, Matthieu GASC
🗞️ News: Les Echos

📇 Company: MSInsight
🔍 Description: Empowers the fight against cancer by revealing actionable information from the genome.
💻 Website: https://www.msinsight.tech
📍 HQ City: Paris
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €1.6M
🏦 Investors: Bpifrance; Capital Cell; PSBA by Finance & Technologie; Yes Securities; Calyseed
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Arnaud Cutivet
🗞️ News: EU Startups

Events

☀️ Sponsors' events ☀️

📆 Techinnov | March 27 | The 19th edition of Techinnov is back. Led by the CCI Essonne and the CCI Paris Ile-de-France, and under the high patronage of the President of the Republic, Techinnov is in line with the “France 2030” plan. Objective: to generate meetings between startups and clients to promote the financing of innovation. | Register

📆 Viva Technology | June 11 - 14 | VivaTech is Europe's biggest startup and tech event. The ninth edition is taking place in Paris, at the Expo Porte de Versailles venue. VivaTech contributes to the acceleration of innovation by connecting startups, technology leaders, large companies, and investors addressing the world's greatest challenges. | Buy Tickets

The calendar:

📆 The French State of AI | March 19 | We are excited to invite you to a special event celebrating the launch of The French AI Report 2024, the most comprehensive mapping of the French AI ecosystem to date. Over the past months, we have identified more than 400 startups across five key sectors and interviewed leading AI experts in France to provide a detailed analysis of the challenges, trends, and investment landscape shaping the industry. The full report, published in early February, is available at thefrenchreport.ai. | Register

📆 Paris AI Society 🍻 Afterwork | March 26 | Join us for an evening of networking and enriching conversations. Whether you’re a tech lover, a startup enthusiast, or simply curious about the future of AI, you’ll find plenty of inspiration and like-minded individuals to connect with. Share experiences, discuss groundbreaking ideas, and maybe even spark collaborations that could lead to the next big thing in tech! | Register

📆 Café du Numérique | April 4 | Discover how AI can revolutionize your business and boost your competitiveness. Connect directly with innovation experts. Get inspired by the success stories of companies pioneering the use of AI. | Registration

📆 AgentX | April 7 | AgentX is pioneering the first fully agent summit, designed to showcase the transformative power of AI and Decentralization. Co-created by two of the leading events in their domains, Paris Blockchain Week and RAISE, this revolutionary event will bring together the brightest minds, cutting-edge projects, and global visionaries to tackle the most pressing moments of the ongoing AI revolution: Agents and Decentralization. | Tickets

📆 AWS Summit Paris | April 9 |AWS Summit Paris 2025 is a free one-day event focused on generative AI, data, security, sustainability, and more. Customize your experience with a keynote featuring leading speakers, over 150 interactive sessions and workshops, one-on-one consultations with our experts, an exhibition area showcasing the latest cloud innovations, as well as numerous networking and training opportunities. | Register

📆 Data & AI Summit | April 10 | The Data & AI Summit 2025 will bring together IT decision-makers and AI experts to explore the opportunities and challenges associated with data and artificial intelligence. This event will highlight the impact of generative AI on business models, as well as best practices for maximizing the value of data within modern organizations. | Register

📆 MKIA 25 | April 29 | The Maddy Keynote, organized by Maddyness, announces its special edition: the MKIA, the event that transforms the broad guidelines on AI into concrete initiatives for the economic leaders of tomorrow. Far from abstract tech-symbol discourse, MKIA deciphers AI in a concrete and educational way through round tables, keynotes, case studies, and a zone for startups. It enables all actors – start-ups, corporations, investors, and institutions – to take ownership of the challenges, opportunities, and challenges of its adoption. | Register

📆 GOSIM AI Paris 2025 | May 6-7 | The Global Open-Source Innovation Meetup will spotlight the latest advancements in 6 Conference Tracks: AI Model, AI Infra, AI Apps, Embodied AI, AI for Science, and Global Open-Source AI Collaboration, driving significant progress in global open-source AI collaboration. A highlight of the event is the introduction of GOSIM AI Spotlight, a global initiative to select 10 outstanding open-source AI projects for showcase and technical exchange, further accelerating AI innovation. | Registration

📆 Google Cloud Summit France 2025 | May 22 | Join the annual Google Cloud event to discover the latest technological innovations in generative AI, security, application development, collaboration, and more. | Register

📆 The Paris AI Conference 2025 | June 16 | The Paris AI Conference 2025 gathers 250 of France's AI Experts, Founders, Investors, and Enthusiasts, for an evening of content and networking. This event is hosted by Startup Network Europe. | Register

📆 Stripe Tour Paris | June 17 | Join us for Stripe Tour, our global roadshow that brings together business leaders in major cities to discuss the most important trends in payments and financial technology. | Register

📆 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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