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Headlines

🗞️ AI startup H has acquired Mithril Security, a Paris-based open-source AI tools developer, according to Sifted. Mithril was co-founded in 2022 by Raphaël Millet, Daniel Huynh, and Mehdi Bessaa. H wants to bolster its efforts in building autonomous AI agents. Mithril had recently shifted its focus to LaVague, a framework for developing web agents capable of automating web tasks through natural language. Following the acquisition, H Company intensified its work on web automation and released a generalist agent, Runner H, with another product, Tester H, now in private beta. Despite stiff competition from major players like OpenAI and Google, H is reportedly testing an upgraded version of Runner H that scores 91% on the WebVoyager benchmark. | Sifted

🗞️ At Maddyness' M/KIA 2025 conference last week, Clara Chappaz, Minister for AI and Digital Affairs, said the French government and startups must move in lockstep to close the gap with global AI superpowers: “You can absolutely count on me, and I’m counting on you.” Chappaz emphasized the need for an AI that is ambitious and responsible, that people want to adopt because it helps them. Regulation, she added, must not strangle innovation but empower it, she said. Anne Bouverot, Special Envoy on AI for the French President and organizer of the recent Paris AI summit, called for a full mobilization across industry, academia, and government to ensure Europe’s AI future reflects its values—democracy, transparency, and sustainability.

🗞️ France has launched a new initiative to replace its CAESAR artillery system with an AI-powered alternative, aiming to stay ahead in increasingly drone-centric warfare. The envisioned system will emphasize advanced automation, artificial intelligence for targeting and decision-making, and robotic integration to improve speed and accuracy on the battlefield. This AI-driven artillery marks a strategic pivot from traditional systems, addressing concerns that even the upgraded CAESAR Mk2 lacks the capabilities needed for future conflicts. The effort is separate from the delayed Franco-German CIFS project, signaling France’s intent to independently accelerate AI integration in its defense technologies. | Defense News

Other headlines:

🗞️ Meet Jean-Zay, the supercomputer powering France’s AI ambitions | France ranks fifth globally in terms of its number of supercomputers – high-performance machines that can make millions, even billions, of calculations per second, and which are key to developing artificial intelligence. One of its most powerful, Jean-Zay, is dedicated to academic research. | RFI

🗞️ Curated by AI: now even the art has to impress the machines | Artificial intelligence continues to make inroads into our daily lives, be it on a personal or professional level. And now, AI is also making its way into cultural venues. For the first time, the Chateau de Montsoreau-Museum of Contemporary Art has entrusted the curatorship of an entire exhibition to an AI – an original initiative that's not entirely unprecedented. For its new exhibition, the museum in France's Loire Valley has opted for an unusual curator: ChatGPT. | The Star

ICYMI

🗞️ Alan Goes All-In on AI | Six months after announcing a Series F funding round of €173 million at a €4 billion valuation, the French insurtech is accelerating its embrace of AI to transform its operations and products. | The French Tech Journal

🗞️ How Delos Is Building an AI Operating System for Business | CEO Pierre de la Grand'rive: "Our ambition is to offer generative AI that is truly useful to employees." | The French Tech Journal

🗞️ FlexAI: Pioneering Universal AI Compute Infrastructure | Modern AI workloads were being forced to run on computing architectures designed decades ago. FlexAI wants to create a faster, more flexible system that enables rapid scaling. | The French Tech Journal

🗞️ Descartes Underwriting: Doubling Down On Climate Risk As Insurance Industry Retreats | Chief Science Officer Kévin Dedieu: "AI represents between 2-5% of our tech investments. Next year, we’re increasing that by 10%, with more resources dedicated to AI and using it for our core models. The cost of AI is relatively low, but its impact is huge.” | 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

AI Funding News

📇 Company: VSORA
🔍 Description: IP provider for chipmakers designing next-generation AI, signal processing, ADAS, and 5G communication systems.
💻 Website: http://www.vsora.com
📍 HQ City: Vélizy-Villacoublay
🧗 Round: Late VC
💰 Amount Raised: €36.36 million
🏦 Investors: Omnes Capital, Otium Capital, Adelie Capital, EIC Fund
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Pierre Emmanuel Bernard, Trung Dung Nguyen, Khaled Maalej, Julien Schmitt
🗞️ News: Maddyness

📇 Company: Reelevant
🔍 Description: Email intelligence platform analyzing recipient behavior and context to optimize real-time personalization and engagement.
💻 Website: https://reelevant.com
📍 HQ City: Paris
🧗 Round: Series A
💰 Amount Raised: €6 million
🏦 Investors: Seventure Partners, GO Capital, Nathalie Balla
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Vincent Martinet, Anaïs Demaison, Rémy Roches
🗞️ News: FrenchWeb, Maddyness

Announcements

SISTA AI | A program dedicated to accelerating the creation and growth of startups founded by women in AI. Women founders in tech are one of the key drivers of innovation, growth, and employment across Europe. | Deadline: June 17 | Apply

Emerging AI: Pitch competition France Regionals | Join HubSpot for Startups, our ecosystem guests, and VCs in this exciting global competition dedicated to discovering new AI startups. We hope to find and support the next great innovation in AI and offer a global platform to the best founders of France. The founder/winner of France will have the opportunity to present at our world final in June and win a cash prize of $6000, as well as $100,000 in free software. | Deadline: May 22 | Apply

Google Startup Perks program | We're excited to launch our new Startup Perks program, offering exclusive benefits and discounts from 20+ leading AI and tech companies within the Google Cloud ecosystem. | More information

Events

☀️ Sponsors' events ☀️

📆 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 World Through AI | April 11 - September 25 | The exhibition The World Through AI presents a selection of works created between 2016 and today, many of them previously unseen, which raise the question of how we experience the world “according to AI” or “through the prism of AI”. Specially designed for the Jeu de Paume, the exhibition reflects the fundamental distinction between “analytical AI” (which includes computer vision and facial recognition systems) and “generative AI”. Time capsules, designed as cabinets of curiosities, link the present to the past, placing current transformations in a historical perspective. | Information

📆 Llamapreneurs AI Builders and Creators Paris Networking Meetup | May 6 |Join us for THE AI startup and solopreneur monthly networking event in Paris. Paris is the best AI ecosystem outside of Silicon Valley and it's good to be back home for this edition of Llamapreneurs AI Networking. If you have an AI startup, you're an AI-powered solopreneur or creator, or just interested in generative and agentic AI, let's meet! This is an informal drinks and networking. No content, just good people and a good beer. | 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

📆 Revolution Summit 2025 | May 13 | In the era of the fourth anthropological and industrial revolution driven by the cloud, data, and AI, our ambition is to develop systemic thinking to address the economic, academic, and technological challenges of tomorrow. | 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

📆 {Tech: Paris} AI Hackathon #1 | May 24 | Join us for the first-ever {Tech: Europe} AI Hackathon in Paris — a full weekend dedicated to pushing the boundaries of what's possible with artificial intelligence. Whether you're a seasoned builder or just getting started, this is your chance to connect, create, and compete alongside Europe's top talent. | 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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