Headlines

🗞️ Paris-based Cathay Innovation has closed a €1 billion fund, its largest to date, aimed at investing in startups using AI to transform key industries like healthcare, finance, and consumer goods. The firm plans to back companies at Series A and B stages, with a global focus but strong European roots. Cathay’s thesis centers on “AI convergence,” the idea that multiple disruptive technologies will combine to accelerate industry-wide transformation. Notable LPs include BNP Paribas, Groupe SEB, and Valeo. | Sifted

🗞️ During President Macron’s state visit to Singapore, France and Singapore signed a bilateral agreement to deepen collaboration on defense and emerging technologies, including AI. The roadmap includes joint research, cybersecurity cooperation, and support for innovation in dual-use AI technologies. Macron highlighted the deal as a model for “trusted, values-based” partnerships in tech. This aligns with France’s broader strategy to strengthen its Indo-Pacific presence and digital sovereignty. | Euronews

🗞️ Capgemini, Mistral AI, and SAP have announced a strategic partnership to accelerate the deployment of generative AI in heavily regulated sectors like finance, healthcare, and public services. The collaboration combines Mistral’s open-weight LLMs with SAP’s enterprise data platforms and Capgemini’s implementation expertise. Their goal is to deliver secure, compliant AI solutions that meet EU standards for data privacy and transparency. Initial use cases include document processing, knowledge management, and virtual assistants. | ActuAI

🗞️ Hugging Face introduced two open-source humanoid robots—Le Robot and RoboCat—in partnership with a French robotics lab, aiming to make embodied AI research more accessible. Designed for affordability and modularity, the robots support real-time training of multimodal models in physical environments. Developers can integrate language, vision, and motor control systems directly with Hugging Face tools. This marks a significant step toward democratizing robotics experimentation in the French and global AI ecosystems. | TechCrunch

🗞️ Mistral AI released a new code embedding model that outperforms offerings from OpenAI and Cohere in real-world retrieval and search tasks, marking another leap in the company’s rapid innovation cycle. In addition, Mistral unveiled an API that enables developers to build multi-capability AI agents—capable of running Python code, generating images, and performing RAG (retrieval-augmented generation) tasks. The tools are optimized for integration into enterprise workflows and autonomous agent design. | VentureBeat

Other Headlines

Why French Open (not Wimbledon) is last major resisting AI | Switch between computers and humans leaves players including Aryna Sabalenka ‘really confused’ as Roland Garros tournament resists electronic line calling. | The Times

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

🧠 Figma's CPO On Navigating The GenAI Revolution: 'It's A Very Dynamic Landscape.'

When Yuhki Yamashita joined Figma six years ago, the collaborative design platform was already transforming how teams create digital products. But nothing could have prepared the Chief Product Officer for the whirlwind of change that generative AI would bring to his industry—and the radical rethinking it would demand of Figma's entire approach to product development.

"It's a very, very dynamic landscape right now," Yamashita told me during a recent interview in Paris, just weeks after Figma's Config 2025 conference where the company unveiled an ambitious product expansion.

Companies like Figma have built their reputations on methodical, strategic planning. But they now find themselves racing to adapt to AI capabilities that evolve by the month, not year.

For design professionals and the broader tech industry, Figma's evolution offers a crucial case study in how established platforms are wrestling with AI's disruptive potential. As teams increasingly question whether they need specialized design tools when AI can generate interfaces from simple prompts, Figma's response reveals both the opportunities and existential challenges facing software companies in the generative AI era.

"We've had to transform our culture into one where people are able to play with the latest things and not be too dogmatic about projects and roadmap," Yamashita explained. "They need to adapt to the capabilities that we're seeing out in the market."

AI Funding News

📇 Company: Ankar
🔍 Description: Helping IP and R&D teams streamline patent search, filing, analysis, and infringement detection across the entire IP lifecycle.
💻 Website: https://ankar.ai/
📍 HQ City: London
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: 3M pounds
🏦 Investors: Index Ventures, Olivier Pomel, Daphni, Julien Chaumond, Motier Ventures, Puzzle Ventures, Booom
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Wiem Gharbi, Tamar Gomez (French co-founders)
🗞️ News: Sifted, Tech.eu

📇 Company: Danim
🔍 Description: Digital agency using AI to provide communication solutions for real estate professionals.
💻 Website: https://www.danim.com/
📍 HQ City: Lyon
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €2m
🏦 Investors: Business Angels
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Danyl Hassim
🗞️ News: ImmoMatin

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

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

👋🏻 If you’re enjoying The French Tech Journal, support the project by forwarding it to friends and sharing it on your social networks. You can also comment on this post. And if you have ideas for stories, tips, or just want to harass us, shoot us an email: chris@frenchtechjournal.com / helen@frenchtechjournal.com 👋🏻‌