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While fundraising remains a challenge for many startups, AI continues to be a VC magnet for entrepreneurs in France, according to the latest Dealroom data:

That's why we created La Machine, a monthly newsletter focused on French AI news and information. We'd love to hear your feedback. Our goal is to provide advanced intelligence on the French AI ecosystem.

Please consider upgrading to a paid subscription to unlock all of the content and archives. We are also actively seeking sponsors for this monthly newsletter, so if you're interested drop us a note: chris@frenchtechjournal.com / helen@frenchtechjournal.com.

Chris O'Brien & Helen O'Reilly-Durand

The Headlines

🗞️ LightOn Files For IPO | The Paris-based GenAI company has been approved by financial regulators to list on the Euronext Growth stock exchange. The filing is small, with the company only planning to raise €10 million at a €50 million valuation. Still, it marks a symbolic recognition of the evolution of France's GenAI economy. | Sifted, LightOn

🗞️ Apple is preparing to extend the functionality of its AI system, Apple Intelligence, to the European Union as early as April 2025. The announcement marks a crucial milestone for European iPhone and iPad users, who will finally be able to take advantage of the brand's new AI capabilities. | The Verge

🗞️ French national research agency CNRS and L'Oréal signed a 5-year framework agreement to collaborate on research projects in three areas: aging and beauty, energy transition, and artificial intelligence. | CNRS

🗞️ The debate continues over whether Paris should keep its advanced AI surveillance system installed for the 2024 Olympics, which has shown effectiveness in detecting threats but raises privacy concerns. Civil liberties groups fear its permanence could pave the way for facial recognition technology, which remains controversial in France. Authorities are awaiting a detailed performance report before deciding by early 2025. | The Connexion

🗞️ Philippe Corrot, co-founder of Mirakl, believes France could become a global AI leader if the country leverages its robust digital economy and innovation ecosystem. Despite challenges like talent retention, he emphasizes France's potential due to significant investments and a thriving start-up scene.| La Tribune

🗞️ The French government plans to introduce AI-enabled speed cameras capable of detecting multiple driving offenses simultaneously, including seatbelt and phone use violations. These high-tech devices aim to improve road safety but raise concerns about personal privacy and overreliance on automated monitoring systems. | The Local

Other headlines:

🗞️ Electricity demand for artificial intelligence set to triple in Europe by 2030 | The Brussels Times

The Interviews

🗣️ Formality bets a GenAI-native business can beat established document management rivals

"We created the platform with AI at its core," said CEO and co-founder Eliott Reilhac. "This means that all the workflows, all the jobs to be done that we want to solve, and all the things that you can do in the platform are done with fewer clicks than platforms that were created before AI. They can add AI, but they add it as a feature. It's kind of like adding paint to the house...I believe there will be a before ChatGPT, and after ChatGPT."

🗣️ How PropTech Flaash is using AI to bootstrap its business

Flaash harnesses generative AI specifically for the real estate sector while also integrating it into every aspect of its operations — from business development to product creation and customer engagement. By effectively leveraging AI as a business opportunity and to improve operational efficiency, Flaash serves as an intriguing case study: as AI capabilities advance and drive business innovation, are we witnessing a fundamental shift in our approach to entrepreneurship itself?

Flaash CEO Jean Mulin explains how he and his co-founders are pioneering a new breed of fully AI-driven business that may soon become the norm.

🗣️ Filigran Raises $35M For AI-Powered Cyber Threat Intelligence

Just two years into its existence, French cybersecurity startup Filigran has completed a $35 million Series B funding round that it will use to accelerate the deployment of artificial intelligence across its products.

Products

☀️ Pollen Robotics unveiled Reachy 2, the new version of its humanoid robot with increased manipulation and control capabilities of its robot. Pollen continues to improve its data acquisition and training AI models to make them more user-friendly.

☀️ Hugging Face launched Gradio 5, an update to its open-source tool for creating machine learning applications, that makes AI development more effective for enterprises. (VentureBeat)

☀️ Lectra rolled out Valia Fashion, an AI-powered digital platform that streamlines apparel production, from order processing to fabric cutting. (Fibre2Fashion)

☀️ Custplace, a specialist in collecting and analyzing customer and employee reviews, launched Inbox AI, which centralizes all reviews about a brand and responds to them.

☀️ Deezer signed the AI Training Statement and is rolling out tools to detect AI-generated content, including “deep fake” voices.

☀️ Paytweak.ai launched its online fraud service which uses AI to conduct proactive behavioral analysis for payment service providers and e-merchants.

☀️ Proptech startup unveiled SIANA, a mobile and web application for real estate advisors that automates their work using artificial intelligence.

☀️ Flexilivre introduced Magic Album, a generative artificial intelligence dedicated to the creation of photo albums.

☀️ Welcome to the Jungle introduced AI into its job-hunting services to let candidates automate the completion of their profile.

☀️ Georges launched its virtual assistant that is capable of generating a business plan in just 5 minutes.

Government + Policy

👉 The French government is considering extraordinary measures to bail out Atos, one of the nation's largest tech firms that is attempting to restructure as it struggles with debt. Last week, the National Assembly considered legislation that would nationalize the company. Meanwhile, the government also injected capital into one of its subsidiaries. Atos manages some of the nation's supercomputers – which play a strategic role in advanced AI and quantum computing programs – and secures communications for the French military. | Reuters

👉 Marie-Anne Barbat-Layani, chair of France's financial regulatory agency Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), cited AI as one of the agency's biggest opportunities and challenges during a speech last month. The AMF has deployed AI in its market supervision work and is developing other internal uses. At the same time, she stressed the need for greater vigilance and transparency as AI becomes more widely deployed in financial products and services. "The obligation to act in the best interests of clients must therefore remain central and be integrated into the AI systems used by financial market participants," she said. "Financial institutions and fintechs must put in place appropriate measures to monitor the use of AI." | Transcript

Research

🧠 Enabling AI to detect the truth despite conflicting sources | Sébastien Konieczny, CNRS director of research at the Centre de recherche en Informatique de Lens (CRIL - CNRS/Université d'Artois) | Read

🧠 AI for diagnosing neurological disorders | This study aimed to evaluate the accuracy and responsiveness of a fully automatic artificial intelligence (AI) – based segmentation pipeline to assess disease progression in patients suffering from Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 1A (CMT1A), a type of inherited neurological disorder that affects the peripheral nerves. | Researchers at La Timone University Hospital, Marseille | Journal of Neurology

🧠 Enhancing wine authentication with AI | For the wine industry, ensuring quality and authenticity hinges on the precise determination of wine origin. In our study, we developed a fast semi-quantitative method to analyze 41 chemical elements in wine, employing inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). This methodology characterizes what we term the mineral wine profile (MWP). Our study demonstrates that statistical analyses and artificial intelligence (AI) could be a tool for accurately deciphering origin information within the MWP, provided sufficient mineral elements are measured and a comprehensive database of wine samples is employed to establish effective learning. | Cohort of French researchers | Oeno One

🧠 Ethics of Artificial Intelligence in Education, a managerial perspective | This ongoing research aims to examine how values are integrated into Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems in education (AIED). Recent research highlights the ethical issues associated with AIED. Whereas the studies are based on the opinion of experts, including researchers, we adopt the prospects for managers. We refer to the Value Sensitive Design (VSD) approach to answer the following question: “How are the values integrated into the AIED systems from the point of view of managers?" We want to do case studies with seven French educational platforms. A data collection has already been carried out, we plan to continue with a second phase focusing on the study of the case of platforms. The preliminary results highlight the French landscape of the AIED systems and the predominance of researchers as responsible platform managers in education. | Univ. Grenoble Alpes

🧠 Entrepreneurial firm creation and economic uncertainty: an explainable artificial intelligence approach. | Ballouk, H., Nammouri, H., Ben Jabeur, S., & Khalfaoui, R. (2024). Venture Capital, 1–18. | Through this paper, we examined the relationship between macroeconomic factors and new entrepreneurial firms in France during the 2000–2020 period; this relationship included several uncertainties and shocks. To this aim, we applied various advanced machine learning (ML) techniques, including the eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) algorithm, Light Gradient-Boosting Machine (LightGBM) algorithm, Neural Network (NN), Random Forest (RF), and Linear Regression (LR). | Article

🧠 Global Inequalities in the Production of Artificial Intelligence: A Four-Country Study on Data Work | Antonio A. Casilli, Paola Tubaro, Maxime Cornet, Clément Le Ludec, Juana Torres-Cierpe, et al. | Labor plays a major, albeit largely unrecognized role in the development of artificial intelligence. Machine learning algorithms are predicated on data-intensive processes that rely on humans to execute repetitive and difficult-to-automate, but no less essential, tasks such as labeling images, sorting items in lists, recording voice samples, and transcribing audio files. Online platforms and networks of subcontractors recruit data workers to execute such tasks in the shadow of AI
production, often in lower-income countries with long-standing traditions of informality and less-regulated labor markets. This study unveils the resulting complexities by comparing the working conditions and the profiles of data workers in Venezuela, Brazil, Madagascar, and as an example of a richer country, France. | Article

401P Evaluation of HER2 scoring in breast carcinoma-stained whole slide images Pathology | Institut d'Histo-Pathologie, France2CEO, DiaDeep | Accurate HER2 status assessment is crucial in clinical decision-making. Moreover, scores 1+ and 2+ not amplified have been shown to benefit from treatment with the new HER2-based antibody-drug conjugates. In this context, we developed an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm for automatic, precise and replicable quantification of HER2 protein overexpression, assisting pathologists in HER2 scoring. | Article

Deals

🛒 Sagard NewGen of Paris has acquired a majority stake in Paris-based FuturMaster, a SaaS provider specializing in Supply Chain Planning and Revenue Growth Management, with Cathay Capital and the management team retaining minority stakes. FuturMaster’s Bloom platform uses advanced technologies like AI and digital twin modeling to help companies optimize production, distribution, and supply planning. The acquisition aims to leverage FuturMaster’s solutions to improve performance and resilience for enterprises in a volatile market. (PR)

🛒 French drone company Delair acquired Grenoble-based SQUADRONE SYSTEM, a developer of the swarm and anti-drone technology, to expand its presence in both the defense and civil markets. The acquisition enhances Delair’s technological capabilities, particularly in swarm UAVs and industrial inspection drones, while leveraging SQUADRONE's established production and partnerships with major defense firms. By establishing a foothold in Grenoble, a technological hub, Delair aims to strengthen its position in the competitive global robotics and drone industry. | Dronelife

Foundings

🚀 Nephosis: Data science, machine learning, artificial intelligence (AI), generative AI, data engineering, cloud management, DevOps, and data analysis, including design, development, management, automation, and data pipeline infrastructure and pipelines. Advice, audit, and training in these areas. Founded on September 10, 2024, by Craven Diot, a data and AI engineer at Milvue, a medical AI imaging platform for radiologists.

🚀 Asic Systems: The Company's corporate purpose in France and abroad is the "design, development, and production of prototypes and small series of electronic equipment, electronic materials, mechatronics equipment, and harnesses; Application software design; Consulting and Project Management in Electronic Architecture, Mechatronics, Embedded Systems, Internet of Things (IOT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Virtual Reality (VR)." The company was founded by Julien Gonzalo, on October 2, 2024.

🚀 Pharmaquiz: AI dedicated to health, nutrition, and well-being. Founded on May 14, 2024 by Noura Marashi at Université Paris Cité. The company's app answers questions about health, diet, and physical and mental well-being. Pharmaquiz is based on Marashi's research. In addition to developing the app, she created the YouTube Pharmaquiz channel and produced various books, articles, training, and conferences.

AI Funding News

For the week of October 28 - November 1

📇 Company: Filigran
🔍 Description: Provides cyber threat intelligence, knowledge subsystems, and crisis response solutions worldwide
💻 Website: Filigran
📍 HQ City: Asnières-sur-Seine
🧗 Round: SERIES B
💰 Amount raised: €31.82 million
🏦 Investors: Accel, Insight Partners, Moonfire Ventures
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Julien Richard, Samuel Hassine
🗞️ News: https://frenchtechjournal.com/filigran-raises-35m-for-ai-powered-cyber-threat-intelligence/

📇 Company: Sairen
🔍 Description: SaaS B2B company specializing in automating incoming and outgoing telephone calls for SMEs and midcaps through artificial intelligence.
💻 Website: www.sairen.io
📍 HQ City: Paris
💰 Amount raised: €1M
🏦 Investors: Business Angels, Bpifrance

Announcements

📢 AWS's GenAI Loft Tour | An immersion in generative AI from October 8 to November 25 at Station F hosted by the cloud computing giant. AWS is setting up its GenAI Loft at Station F. For nearly two months, the campus will host a vast program of workshops, expert demonstrations, coaching sessions, and networking for French startups, developers, and tech decision-makers | Register

Events

📆 AI + Music: What if it increased our creativity? | November 5 | The EuropIA Institute invites artists, lovers, and curious about artificial intelligence to explore the fascinating world of AI-enhanced music at a free conference in Nice. | Register

📆 ai-PULSE | November 7 | Sponsored by Scaleway at Station F | Join leaders and engineers for a one-day technical conference dedicated to AI breakthroughs, research & demonstrations | Registration

📆 Salesforce's Agentforce World Tour | November 7 | Explore how humans and AI agents together increase the productivity of your teams and offer exceptional customer experiences. | Sign up

📆 The economic impact of Artificial Intelligence | November 12 | Philippe Aghion, Professor at the Collège de France | Register

📆 Huawei Connect Paris | November 14-15 | The theme of this year’s event is “Amplify Digital and Green Transformation.” Artificial intelligence is advancing fast, enabling new means of production, greater efficiency, and better quality of life. At the same time, digital and green transformation remains a core European strategy. Together, we will work with customers and partners using innovative Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and AI to amplify that transformation, share new digital breakthroughs and create greater value. | Register

📆 Artificial intelligence on trial | November 15 | A court will meet to deliberate, presided over by Jean-Michel Hayat, former President of the Court of Appeal of Paris. It will be composed of two magistrates, Gwenaelle Ledoigt and Nicolas Gaudemet, a prosecutor, and a defense lawyer, as well as renowned witnesses and a jury of professionals. | L’Institut EuropIA

📆 TechBio France 2024 | November 20 | Join TechBio France 2024 to shape the future of France's TechBio ecosystem, fostering innovation and collaboration in biotech and technology. The conference includes several sessions on AI + Biotech. | Tickets

📆 DATA + AI World Tour Paris by Databricks | November 20 | During this major data intelligence event, you will have the opportunity to discover the latest advances in GenAI, machine learning, analytics, and data governance. | Register

📆 Generative AI for Health | November 21 | Hosted by Artefact at Station F | Tickets

📆 AWS GenAI Day France | November 25 | A free event that brings together the French GenAI community to connect, collaborate, and be at the forefront of the latest innovations around generative AI. The event is aimed at technology specialists from all sectors and skill levels who want to discover how generative AI can help them innovate quickly and deliver flexible and reliable solutions at scale. During the afternoon, AWS will offer you thematic tracks (Business/Industries, Technology, Startups) as well as a closing cocktail. Throughout the day, you will be able to discover AWS demos, innovative GenAI startup stands, "Ask an Expert" sessions, and partner stands. The event will be broadcast online for remote participants. | Information

📆 International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Soft Computing | November 25 | The International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Soft Computing aims to bring together leading academic scientists, researchers, and research scholars to exchange and share their experiences and research results about all aspects of Development in Science and Technology. | Tickets

📆 Data Centre World Paris | November 27 & 28 | The event brings together a community of data center professionals, including decision-makers, technical experts, and innovative solution providers. | Register

📆 Big Data & AI World | November 27 & 28 | Register

📆 SOPHI.A Summit | November 27 to 29, 2024 | At the heart of the European cradle of innovation, SOPHI.A Antipolis, international experts and leading companies will bring their thoughts and research on AI-related themes such as health, images, ethics, management, and GenAI. | Information

📆 GenAI Days Paris édition #2 | November 28 | A conference focusing on feedback on the applications of Generative AI. | Tickets

📆 apidays Paris 2024 | December 3 to 5 | Apidays Paris 2024 is also home of our other sister conferences GENERATIONAI focusing on AI-related topics and GREENIO, addressing IT sustainability. | Tickets

📆 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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