In this edition:

🧠 Paris-based C4 Ventures launches its third €100M fund and adds deep tech investor Valère Rames, underscoring its conviction that Europe can build world-class AI, quantum, and robotics companies despite a tough VC climate.

🧠 French startup Juisci just raised €5.5M to help 200,000+ doctors cut through the flood of medical research. Its AI app turns dense PDF studies into bite-sized insights, saving hours each week and fighting disinformation. Science, served up like Spotify. Read it here.

Chris O'Brien + Helen O'Reilly-Durand

Headlines

🗞️ French AI powerhouse Mistral is setting its sights on Canada, with CEO Arthur Mensch announcing plans to hire AI scientists in Montreal and expand into sectors like finance, manufacturing, and logistics. Fresh off a US $2-billion raise that valued the Paris-based company at US$14 billion, Mistral is pitching itself as a sovereign alternative to U.S. giants, offering enterprises open-weight models they can run on their own infrastructure. Mensch, in town for Montreal’s All In AI conference, says the company is already landing European clients operating in Canada and hopes to make Montreal its North American hub. | The Globe & Mail

🗞️ Meta, Hugging Face & SNCF team up at Station F. Talk about an odd couple (or trio): Meta and Hugging Face are renewing their AI Startup Program at Station F, this time with SNCF Connect & Tech on board. The program will back five French open-source AI startups with mentoring, Hugging Face tools, and SNCF use cases — think eco-mobility, accessibility, or intermodal travel. Roxanne Varza calls it a “bridge between AI giants and entrepreneurs.” For Meta, it’s also a chance to cherry-pick the best French talent in open source AI before rivals like OpenAI or Google snap them up. | Maddyness, Inseadai50.com

🗞️ INSEAD has unveiled its first AI 50 list, an alumni-driven recognition of 50 leaders from its global community who are transforming AI across sectors like finance, healthcare, climate, and public services. This initiative spotlights innovators who turn AI research into real-world, scalable solutions—with a strong emphasis on responsibility and impact. | Morningstar

🗞️ France is stepping onto the global stage of digital commons by joining the Digital Public Goods Alliance (DPGA), a UN-backed initiative championing open-source solutions for a fairer digital future. Announced by the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs on September 23, 2025, the move strengthens France’s push for an open, democratic digital model while spotlighting homegrown projects like Open Terms Archive and Compar:IA. With this membership, France aims to fuel international cooperation, bridge the digital divide, and turn digital innovation into a driver of the Sustainable Development Goals. | French Foreign Ministry

🗞️ A new study by French and German researchers (Max Planck Institute for Human Development, University of Duisburg-Essen, Toulouse School of Economics) finds that people using AI at work or school are more likely to cheat, as delegating tasks to machines seems to weaken their moral brakes. The Max Planck Institute team reported that AI agents often comply with unethical instructions- far more readily than humans - and cited real-world cases such as ride-sharing apps manipulating surge pricing. The researchers warn that existing safeguards are largely ineffective, making AI a powerful enabler of dishonest behavior. | The Star

🗞️ Siemens & Altair join forces on industrial AI. Siemens has acquired simulation and AI specialist Altair, strengthening its software strategy. The combined portfolio makes them the #2 global player in simulation and expands Siemens’ AI capabilities via Altair’s RapidMiner platform. The deal also underscores Europe’s ambition to build sovereign, trusted industrial AI in line with the AI Act and data regulations. | ActuIA

🗞️ The freshly minted European Trustworthy AI Association (ETAIA) is on a mission to make industrial AI safe, reliable, and less of a black box. Born from the Confiance.ai program, it already counts Airbus, Safran, Naval Group & co. among its 30 members, plus friends in Canada and Japan. | ActuIA

🗞️ While political turbulence in the U.S. and talk of “European sovereignty” might make some founders think twice, not everyone is hesitating. The ink now dry on their fundraising agreements, both Gigi and Rippletide, a platform for deploying reliable enterprise chatbots, are packing their bags for America. Their reasons? Different, but equally bold. Rippletide CEO Patrick Joubert is aiming to take on the big corporate players, while Gigi founder Clara Gold is drawn to San Francisco itself. “People are crazy over there,” she laughs. “And I’m building something that rethinks social protocols. It makes you want to go where people are crazy.” If anywhere can fuel both ambition, it’s the Bay Area.| Maddyness, Sifted

ICYMI

🗞️ VSORA: The French AI Chipmaker Taking on NVIDIA with High-Performance, Cost-Efficient AI Hardware | Backed by €40 million in funding, CEO Khaled Maalej believes the company is set to disrupt the AI hardware market with its Jotunn8 chip, leveraging a fabless model and advanced chiplet architecture to slash the cost of deploying large language models and generative AI at scale. | The French Tech Journal

🗞️ Figma's CPO On Navigating The GenAI Revolution: 'It's A Very Dynamic Landscape.' | Chief Product Officer Yuhki Yamashita discusses how the design company abandoned its traditional planning process to build AI-powered products as it adapts to the rapid evolution of GenAI capabilities. | The French Tech Journal

🧠 C4 Ventures Bets €100M on Europe’s AI Future: New Fund and Partner to Challenge Silicon Valley & China

As artificial intelligence reshapes the global technology landscape, the debate over hype versus bubble valuations has reached a fevered pitch.

European venture capital firm C4 Ventures is taking a longer view, doubling down on its conviction that something more profound is happening and that the continent can produce world-class AI and deep tech companies.

The Paris-based firm announced the launch of its third fund with a €100 million target, while simultaneously expanding its partnership team with the addition of Valère Rames, a seasoned deep tech investor.

The moves signal C4 Ventures' ambitious bet on Europe's ability to compete with Silicon Valley and China in the next wave of technological innovation, even as the firm navigates a challenging fundraising environment and questions about Europe's competitive position in AI.

"This is a defining moment," said Pascal Cagni, Founder & CEO of C4 Ventures. "I wasn't here when [Alessandro] Volta, born in Como [Italy], invented [electric batteries], right? But I'm here when the OpenAI guys crystallized 20 years of the digital world through AI. In another 20 years, my grandkids will say that you had the time of the combustion engines, and you had the time of electricity, and you had the time of the internet. And then there is a fourth wave, which is AI. That's our conviction."

🧠 How Juisci Is Using AI to Save Doctors 8 Hours a Week and Fight Medical Misinformation

When the Covid pandemic first hit, while holed up in his New York apartment, cardiologist Dr. David Luu found himself desperately trying to keep up with the torrent of new scientific studies about the virus. Each day brought dozens of fresh papers on PubMed, many running to 15 dense pages. Luu began summarizing and posting them on Twitter, crowdsourcing insights from colleagues around the world.

That experience became the seed of Juisci, a Paris-based startup that today helps over 200,000 healthcare professionals in 60 countries get straight to the core of the latest medical research. Juisci recently announced a €5.5 million round led by Ring Capital with Athens-based Big Pi Ventures and Bpifrance to strengthen its R&D and push into the U.S. market.

AI Funding News

📇 Company: Juisci
🔍 Description: Paris-based HealthTech startup transforming how healthcare professionals access scientific knowledge through an AI-powered, mobile-first SaaS platform that delivers digestible summaries, recommendations, and multimedia formats.
💻 Website: www.juisci.com
📍 HQ City: Paris, France
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €5.5M
🏦 Investors: Big Pi Ventures (lead), Ring Capital, Bpifrance, strategic business angels
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Robin Roumengas (CEO), Dr. David Luu (Co-founder)
🗞️ News: The funds will be used to boost R&D, expand the team, and accelerate international expansion with a strong focus on the U.S. market. Juisci already serves 200,000+ users in 60 countries, including major pharma, MedTech, and healthcare organizations. Juisci will use the capital to strengthen its proprietary AI, grow its global presence, and scale its platform as a trusted knowledge ally for healthcare professionals, enabling them to save time, combat misinformation, and advance medical progress. | The French Tech Journal

📇 Company: Vocca
🔍 Description: Startup developing an AI-powered receptionist specialized for healthcare. Vocca automates phone call handling, appointment scheduling, reminders, and patient interactions for clinics and medical centers.
💻 Website: vocca.ai
📍 HQ City: Paris, France
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €4.7M
🏦 Investors: Speedinvest, firstminute capital, Nina Ventures, FJ Labs, and the founders of Alan, Deel, Jellysmack, and Datadog
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Eliott Hoffenberg, Hugo Danet
🗞️ News: This funding will support the industrial and clinical scaling of Vocca’s AI receptionist solution for healthcare. Vocca plans to expand its product’s deployment in medical centers, strengthen regulatory and clinical validation, and scale operations to meet the growing demand for patient-interaction automation in the health sector. | L'Usine Digitale

📇 Company: Rippletide
🔍 Description: Startup building an AI “Reasoning Database” to eliminate hallucinations in enterprise AI agents, enabling explainable, reliable autonomous agents for workflows.
💻 Website: rippletide.com
📍 HQ City: Paris + San Francisco
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €4M
🏦 Investors: OneRagtime, business angels
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Patrick Joubert (CEO), Yann Bilien (Chief Scientist)
🗞️ News: Rippletide has launched in the U.S. and is positioning its hypergraph-based architecture to prevent AI hallucinations in agent workflows. The company aims to push its enterprise-grade AI agents into production use, scale globally (especially in the U.S.), and deliver reliable, explainable AI behavior in mission-critical workflows. | Les Echos, Maddyness

📇 Company: Igonogo
🔍 Description: Grenoble-based deeptech startup specializing in fine-grained emotion measurement using neuroscience and AI-powered algorithms. Its technology enables real-time emotional analysis for applications in marketing, market research, and beyond.
💻 Website: Not provided
📍 HQ City: Grenoble, France
🧗 Round: Series A
💰 Amount Raised: €4M
🏦 Investors: French family offices (undisclosed names)
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Candice François, Florian Loeser
🗞️ News: The funding will allow Igonogo to accelerate its growth from startup to scale-up, expand internationally, and strengthen its R&D efforts in predictive neuroscience and AI. Supported by Grenoble’s strong innovation ecosystem (CEA, Leti, Grenoble INP, STMicroelectronics, Soitec), the company is positioning itself as a key player in emotional AI for MarTech. Igonogo will expand its commercial presence in Europe and globally, recruit new R&D talent, enhance its emotion-analysis algorithms, and scale its product for wider adoption in the marketing and research industries.

📇 Company: Kikleo
🔍 Description: French foodtech startup using AI and data analysis to measure and reduce food waste in restaurants. Its patented camera-based solution tracks production waste in kitchens and leftovers on plates, providing actionable insights to improve sustainability and cut costs.
💻 Website: www.kikleo.com
📍 HQ City: Paris, France
🧗 Round: Seed / Early stage
💰 Amount Raised: €3.5M
🏦 Investors: Newfund (lead), Bpifrance, historical shareholders; supported by Avelana
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Martin d’Agay (CEO), Vincent Garcia (COO), joined by Jean Dussaix in 2023
🗞️ News: Kikleo already works with 250+ restaurants (schools, healthcare, companies, etc.) and has analyzed over 5 million meals, achieving up to 65% waste reduction and €50,000 in annual savings per site. The new funding validates the scalability of its model and supports international growth. The capital will accelerate Kikleo’s deployment in France, expand into Europe and the U.S., enhance its AI-powered platform (impact dashboards, integrations), and strengthen technical and operational teams.

📇 Company: Chat3D
🔍 Description: Lyon-based deeptech startup developing generative AI technology that instantly transforms photos, sketches, or text into ready-to-use 3D models for gaming, animation, VR, industrial applications, and 3D printing. The solution is available as a web app, an enterprise API, and bespoke services for large clients.
💻 Website: https://chat3d.ai/
📍 HQ City: Lyon, France
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €3M
🏦 Investors: Mesh Ventures, Campus Fund, Innov’Alpes, Bpifrance, and business angels
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Félix Balmonet (CEO), Glenn Avezoux (CTO)
🗞️ News: Already adopted by video game studios, industrial firms, and independent creators, Chat3D is preparing to launch a consumer-facing version with free and premium features. The startup, labeled DeepTech by Bpifrance and partnered with Nvidia, aims to make 3D creation accessible to all. The new capital will help Chat3D grow its team, accelerate product launches, expand internationally (North America and Asia), and reinforce its R&D on ethical, sovereign AI models trained with controlled datasets.

📇 Company: Gigi
🔍 Description: AI-powered professional social networking app aiming to be “LinkedIn 2.0,” leveraging AI to analyze users’ connections, calendars, and online presence to surface relevant, high-value introductions and foster meaningful professional relationships.
💻 Website: https://gigi.co/
📍 HQ City: Originally Paris, relocating to San Francisco, USA
🧗 Round: Seed extension
💰 Amount Raised: $3M (extension to $5M seed round in 2023)
🏦 Investors: Khosla Ventures (latest); previous backers include Sequoia Capital, OpenAI, DST Global, Monashees
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Clara Gold (Founder & CEO)
🗞️ News: The extension provides 18 months of runway as Gigi doubles down on the U.S. market, hires an engineering team in San Francisco, and continues developing its AI-driven networking platform. The fresh capital will support Gigi’s U.S. relocation, product iteration, and team expansion to scale its professional networking platform to rival established players like LinkedIn. | Sifted, Sifted

📇 Company: 2501.ai
🔍 Description: French startup developing autonomous AI agents for IT/Cloud infrastructure maintenance, enabling automated detection, diagnosis, remediation of incidents, compliance checks, and security updates. Its sovereign, modular, and secure platform reduces MTTR, lowers operating costs, and increases system availability.
💻 Website: https://www.2501.ai/
📍 HQ City: Paris, France
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €2M
🏦 Investors: Galion.exe, KFund, KIMA Ventures, Bpifrance, business angels from Meta and IBM
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Alexandre Pereira, Alex Zhuk
🗞️ News: With this funding, 2501.ai will accelerate recruitment in AI applied to observability, remediation, and real-time event management, while launching commercial operations across Spain, the UK, and Germany. The company positions itself as a sovereign European alternative in IT/Cloud automation for critical infrastructures.

📇 Company: All In Box
🔍 Description: French startup specializing in AI-powered automated marketing solutions for physical retailers, shopping centers, tourist sites, and leisure venues. Its intelligent assistant helps businesses improve customer communication, visibility, and profitability.
💻 Website: www.allinbox.com
📍 HQ City: Grand Est, France
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €1M+
🏦 Investors: Yeast (lead), Alsace Business Angels (ABA), Groupe ILP
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Vincent Arnould, Stéphane Wagner
🗞️ News: The funding will support All In Box’s expansion across France and Europe, strengthening its presence in shopping centers, tourist sites, and independent retail. The company will invest in branding, recruitment (aiming for 40 hires in the coming years), and market positioning as the go-to AI marketing assistant for physical commerce. | Yeast PR

🗣️ Announcements 🗣️

🗣️ Orange has launched its 2025 Agentic AI Challenge to identify startups developing innovative autonomous AI solutions in fields such as customer service, cybersecurity, smart industry, and financial services. Selected startups will test their products at scale with Orange, receive mentorship from Orange Fab, gain visibility through global tech events, and connect with strategic partners like NVIDIA and key investors. | Apply to the Agentic AI Challenge

🗣️ NeoStartups & Growth Startups | The Paris Chamber of Commerce (CCI Paris) has opened applications for two complementary startup support programs starting October 17, 2025. NeoStartups helps early-stage founders build solid foundations with expert workshops and coaching, while Growth Startups targets companies with initial traction, offering a year-long program to scale sales, expand into new markets, prepare for fundraising, and access CCI Paris’s powerful business network. | Apply to NeoStartups | Apply to Growth Startups

Events

📆 BIG DATA & AI PARIS 2025 | October 1-2 | Europe's most comprehensive AI and Big Data exhibition with +220 exhibitors, including major technology groups, AI & data pure players, specialized consultants, professional training players, and innovative startups. | Buy Tickets

📆 The European AI Championship 2025 - Launch party | November 5 |What is the European AI Championship? ​Coming soon: 15 of Europe’s top AI engineers will battle live on stage, building real-world solutions using AI tools. They will represent their country to win, and you'll be able to watch and cheer for them with 1500 fellow engineers and AI-curious minds. Experience a championship where code meets competition, and AI hype meets AI application, wrapped in a unique, entertaining show. Think Eurovision, but for AI builders! | Buy tickets

📆 Data & AI Leaders Summit | November 5-6 | Paris becomes the nerve centre of data and responsible artificial intelligence. Access a program rooted in business reality: case studies, AI audits, governance, industrialisation, and sustainability. France's AI ecosystem is dynamic but under pressure: talent shortages, projects stuck at the POC stage, regulatory uncertainties (AI Act), and poor-quality data. Data & AI Leaders Summit Paris helps you move forward with technical content, immediately applicable and designed for the field. | Register

📆 dotAI | November 6 | We’re putting the spotlight on the best engineers in fabulous stages, so that their work is beautifully wrapped, their ideas travel better, and so that future leading engineers can aspire for that recognition. | Register

📆 ai-Pulse | December 4 | Hosted by Scaleway at Station F. Join leaders and engineers for a one-day technical conference dedicated to AI breakthroughs, research, and product demonstrations.| Register

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