Headlines

🗞️ At the 2025 Choose France Summit last week, head cheerleader President Emmanuel Macron hosted more than 200 international business leaders and announced €20 billion in new foreign investments. At the heart of this year’s announcements was artificial intelligence (AI), with €17 billion dedicated to bolstering AI capabilities and infrastructure as part of France’s ambition to become a global hub for AI innovation and data infrastructure.

Leading the charge was NVIDIA, which announced the creation of a major AI research and development campus in France with partners MGX, Bpifrance, and Mistral AI. Dubbed an “AI center of excellence,” the facility will focus on advanced computing and AI model development, significantly expanding NVIDIA’s European presence and strengthening collaboration with French academic and research institutions.

The Canadian investment fund Brookfield, in partnership with French data center company Data4, confirmed a €10 billion investment in a one-gigawatt data center campus in Cambrai, North France. This “AI campus” is poised to become one of Europe’s most powerful data centers, creating an estimated 4,000 direct and indirect jobs. Digital Realty, a U.S. data center giant, followed suit with a €2.3 billion investment to build two new facilities in Dugny (Seine-Saint-Denis) and Marseille. Together, these projects reinforce France’s strategic priority to accelerate the buildout of AI-ready digital infrastructure, particularly through fast-tracked site permitting and energy connections.

Cisco Systems announced a €100 million investment to establish a Global AI Center in Paris. This hub will focus on developing AI solutions for cybersecurity and networks, while also supporting local innovation through partnerships with French startups and universities. Kyndryl, the IBM spin-off focused on infrastructure and digital services, revealed a €100 million package for its AI, data, and cyber resilience center in Sophia Antipolis. The initiative aims to prepare France’s economic fabric for the next era of digital transformation and will involve hiring 300 specialists.

Macron also announced that the French government expanded its AI land bank from 35 to 50 pre-approved sites, with accelerated permitting and utility access. This “fast-lane” policy is designed to support the rapid deployment of AI data centers and infrastructure as France seeks to remain competitive in the global AI landscape.

🗞️ PhotoRoom, known for its slick background-removal tool, has just made its first-ever acquisition by scooping up Swedish competitor Swish. This strategic move bolsters PhotoRoom’s image editing tech and reinforces its ambition to dominate the global creative AI market. The deal also brings on board a top-notch team of engineers, especially experts in generative AI. With over 150 million downloads already under its belt, PhotoRoom is looking for ways to expand its utility to users. CEO Matthieu Rouif called it a “perfect match” to scale even faster. | Maddyness

🗞️ Qubit and Sorbonne dropped the “ChatGPT of molecular chemistry.” French deeptech startup Qubit Pharmaceuticals and Sorbonne Université just launched FeNNix-Bio1, an AI foundation model for molecular simulation that might, just might, change drug discovery forever. Trained on the world’s most accurate chemistry dataset (yes, really), FeNNix-Bio1 can simulate how molecules behave and interact, slashing lab time and costs. The model promises quantum-level precision without the quantum price tag, and could outmatch Google DeepMind’s AlphaFold in modeling dynamic protein interactions. Applications? Pharma, enzyme design, desalination tech, battery innovation… the list goes on. Qubit is now eyeing the holy grail: quantum AI. | Les Echos, Tech Eu

🗞️ On June 16–17, the Sorbonne will host PCAIDE 2025 - Paris’s most highbrow AI & ethics summit yet. Expect heavyweight names and heavyweight questions: Can blockchain fix democracy? Is AI ruining our vibe? The theme: “Threats to Political Systems & Emerging Fixes to Rebuild Trust.” On the main menu: AI-powered disinformation, foreign interference, social cohesion, and tech that (maybe) saves us. The speaker list reads like a Netflix docu-series waiting to happen: Eric Schmidt (ex-Google), Anne Neuberger (White House tech whisperer), OpenAI’s Joaquin Quiñonero Candela, EU AI policy boss Lucilla Sioli, Julia Angwin (NYT), Laura Manley (Harvard), and a host of other brainy folks from CNRS, CEA, and Stanford. More than a chinwag, PCAIDE aims to reboot trust in digital society — before it’s too late. Check it out:📍paris-conference.com

🗞️ Alexa, but make it ethical. Brest-based OSO-AI and healthcare giant VYV3 are teaming up to roll out an “augmented ear” across care homes — think AI-powered sound detection that spots falls, distress, or weird noises without cameras. It’s ambient intelligence with a heart (and serious signal processing). The wall-mounted system listens for over 150 sound types — from coughs to crashes — and instantly pings caregivers via tablet or phone. After tests in 500+ rooms, VYV3 is now scaling up. No surprise OSO-AI has scooped up awards and €14M in funding — with co-founder Claude Berrou (yep, the error-correcting code legend) on board, this tech is basically MIT-level eavesdropping… for good. |Actu AI

🗞️ From Abu Dhabi to Palaiseau, with LLMs. The Mohamed bin Zayed University of AI (MBZUAI) and École Polytechnique are doubling down on their collab — and it’s not just about student exchanges (though those are happening too). This upgraded partnership includes joint research on large language models, foundation models for reasoning, and AI applications in health, bio, and security. MBZUAI’s Paris lab — already behind Atlas-Chat, a Darija-speaking open-source chatbot — is part of the push. And with France building Europe’s biggest AI campus (with Emirati backing, no less), this alliance is less academic formality and more geopolitical AI power move. Future of AI? Très binational.| Actu AI

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

🧠 Didask Raises €10M to Reinvent Corporate Learning with AI and Cognitive Science

As global demand for workplace training soars, French edtech company Didask is doubling down on its mission to make corporate learning both highly efficient and scalable.

The Paris-based startup has just closed a €10 million Series A funding round, led by Atlantic Vantage Point (AVP) and Citizen Capital, with backing from MAIF Impact, JuneX, and longtime investor Takara Capital.

Mentioning the raise in a LinkedIn post this week, Didask CEO and co-founder Son Ly, modestly stated, “A fundraising round is never an end in itself, it’s just a way to move forward in our mission that involves making it for everyone to learn effectively and to continue developing their skills throughout their working life.” 

Several e-learning platforms have made headlines over the past few years. With this in mind, we decided to catch up with Son Ly and find out why he thinks Didask’s model is different.

AI Funding News

📇 Company: Veesion
🔍 Description: Detects all thefts automatically in real-time using AI-powered video analysis.
💻 Website: https://veesion.io
📍 HQ City: Paris, France
🧗 Round: Series B
💰 Amount Raised: €38 million
🏦 Investors: White Star Capital, Bpifrance, Odyssée Venture, Red River West, Founders Future, Verve Ventures
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Thibault David, Damien Menigaux, Benoit Koenig
🗞️ News: The funding will support Veesion's international expansion and further product development. | EU Startups

📇 Company: SeqOne
🔍 Description: Improving patient outcomes by making improved genomic analysis accessible to all through AI.
💻 Website: https://seqone.com/
📍 HQ City: Montpellier
🧗 Round: Series A
💰 Amount Raised: €20M
🏦 Investors: Supernova Invest, Mérieux Equity Partners, Elaia, Omnes
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Martin Dubuc, Nicholas Philip
🗞️ News: Maddyness

📇 Company: Didask
🔍 Description: Platform that allows users to create digital learning modules focused on transmitting essential knowledge.
💻 Website: https://www.didask.com
📍 HQ City: Bagnolet
🧗 Round: Late VC
💰 Amount Raised: €10 million
🏦 Investors: Atlantic Vantage Point, Takara Capital, Citizen Capital, MAIF Impact
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Arnaud Riegert, Son Ly, Philip Moore
🗞️ News: The company will expand its educational content offering and grow its customer base across the education sector. | The French Tech Journal

📇 Company: Tilt Energy
🔍 Description: Developing an artificial intelligence software layer that can better distribute the use of electricity.
💻 Website: https://www.tilt-energy.com/
📍 HQ City: Saint-Ouen-sur-Seine
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €5m
🏦 Investors: Daphni, Founders Future, Ventech
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Romain Serres
🗞️ News: Maddyness

📇 Company: TamTam
🔍 Description: AI-powered sales intelligence platform enhancing strategic selling with precise research mapping and ROI-driven insights.
💻 Website: http://tamtam.ai/
📍 HQ City: Paris
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €3 million
🏦 Investors: Varsity, Kima Ventures, Business Angels
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Edouard Epaud, François Misslin
🗞️ News: Maddyness

📇 Company: Noota
🔍 Description: AI-powered meeting assistant for note-taking, transcription, and decision tracking.
💻 Website: http://noota.io
📍 HQ City: Paris
🧗 Round: Early VC
💰 Amount Raised: €3 million
🏦 Investors: Bpifrance, Blast Club, Sharpstone Capital
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Alexandre Duffaut, Darius Al Naddaf
🗞️ News: The new funding will be used to accelerate product development and expand market reach in Europe. | FrenchWeb

📇 Company: Feedgy
🔍 Description: Optimizes photovoltaic plant performance through energy analytics and AI-based tools.
💻 Website: https://www.feedgy.solar
📍 HQ City: Paris, France
🧗 Round: Late VC
💰 Amount Raised: €1.5 million
🏦 Investors: Santander Alternative Investments
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Harold Darras
🗞️ News: The funding will be used to enhance Feedgy’s AI engine and expand its customer base across Europe. | MSN (Spanish)

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

The Government has launched a call for “Digital transition of culture and the appropriation of artificial intelligence” projects. | As part of the France 2030 initiative, the goal is to support the digital transformation of the cultural and creative industries. This initiative aims to help cultural actors adopt AI while ensuring ethical use and copyright protection. The program encourages collaboration between cultural organizations and tech companies to develop innovative solutions, from data-sharing tools to secure content management. It seeks to enhance the competitiveness of French creative industries and promote a responsible, Europe-focused AI 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 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

📆 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐬 𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐀𝐈 𝐃𝐞𝐦𝐨 𝐍𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 | June 12 | 🚨 Want to 𝐥𝐚𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐡 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐀𝐈 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭 in front of Europe's sharpest AI minds? 🧠 150 AI founders, CTOs, AI engineers, researchers & VCs. 🚀 On 𝐉𝐮𝐧𝐞 𝟏𝟐, we're turning the lights on at Doctolib’s HQ in Paris, and the brightest GenAI builders will take the stage. | Request to join

📆 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 YOUR HACK| July 4-9 | This is your chance to push boundaries, solve real-world challenges, and create impact at the official hackathon of the RAISE Summit 2025 at one of Paris's most iconic venues: Le Carrousel du Louvre. | Sign Up

📆 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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