La French Tech mission has announced the 120 French startups it considers the most promising. They will benefit from streamlined services to help them scale up.
The third class of the Next40/French Tech 120 program has been unveiled this morning, designating the startups that the French government believes have all the ingredients to be successful international scaleups.
The program was launched 3 years ago to provide special assistance to select companies, from navigating bureaucracy to international promotion and hiring.
Speaking at a press conference, Digital Minister Cedric O said that the top 40 companies on the list (which form the Next40) raised more than €49.6 million each in 2021, compared to €22 million in 2020. The new entrants on this list are:
360 Learning
Aledia
Alma
Ankorstore
Descartes Underwriting
DNA Script
I@D Infinity
Lifen
Loft Orbital Tech
Lumapps
Lydia
Swile
Spendesk
Sorare
The criteria for the list include the amount of money raised and revenue growth.
Here is a reply of the press conference and a Q&A with journalists:
Founders and economists clashed at FDday’s grand finale as Gabriel Zucman defended his global wealth tax blueprint against Philippe Aghion’s warnings about stifling innovation and forcing AI champions abroad, igniting one of the event’s most heated debates yet.
The State of the French Tech Ecosystem 2024 report from Alexandre Dewez of 20VC finds an ecosystem that appears stable on the surface but is undergoing some important transformations underneath.
Europe is doomed. Or booming. Or both. Atomico and Pitchbook reports offer different outlooks in the latest data nerd fight. Meanwhile, French VCs head to the West Coast. Drone startup Rift wants to be Europe's eyes in the sky. Yann LeCun updates his Facebook status.
Rift raised €4.6M for its on-demand aerial surveillance network of autonomous long-endurance drones that provide governments and operators instant, low-cost “intelligence as a service” as Europe seeks faster, safer ways to monitor and protect critical territory.
Two reports, two moods: Atomico sees sunshine and a trillion-euro tech titan on the horizon. PitchBook forecasts storm clouds and a stress ball. European tech in 2025 is a sloppy mess with big dreams and a terrible hangover, but a can-do attitude if it can just stop tripping over itself.
The Franco-German digital summit delivers a sovereignty-themed AI rom-com. Voice AI surges as GetVocal lands $26M for human-agentic voice agents. Volta raises €11M to drag B2B into the digital era.