Welcome to French Tech Updates! Your weekly source of startup, VC, and tech news and insights. I’m James, a startup-obsessed American living in Paris.

Creating the next Xerox PARC 💡

Where do great innovations come from?

I spent a good part of my free time last week listening to Acquired’s new 4-hour-long episode on Microsoft. While the podcast mostly explores the early origins of the tech behemoth (which continues to hold the title of most valuable company by market cap at $3.035 trillion as of today) it also offers some answers to this question.

Central to the history of Microsoft is the legendary Xerox PARC, a hotbed of innovation credited with creating technologies like the graphical user interface, overlapping windows, and ethernet. For more on Xerox PARC’s legendary history, The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) published a wonderful feature on the impact of Xerox PARC back in 1985—which is still an impressive read today.

The steam of inventions developed by Xerox PARC’s teams of engineers and researchers enabled the success not only of Microsoft but also of Apple and countless other tech giants. Hubs like Xerox PARC, which bring together brilliant minds to the boundaries of what’s possible, have the power to speed up the pace of human progress.

As France invests millions to developping new AI hubs and unleashing new centers of innovation we are likely witnessing the creation of a new Xerox PARC. Or even multiple PARCs across the country. These are exciting shifts that can position France to take a leading role in the largest tech trend of the century.

As these changes unfold, it would be wise for those involved to also keep in mind the second part of the Xerox PARC story.

Xerox stock currently trades with a market cap of $1.75 billion—less than 0.07% of the valuation of Microsoft or Apple. The hotbed of innovation became a cautionary tale for failing to capture the value they unlocked with their inventions. I’m not saying the pursuit of money should be the sole aim of research, but the presence of money is a necessary condition for that research to continue. As France accelerates its pace of AI research, it will be important for entrepreneurs to continue turning that research into valuable products to keep the wheels of innovation turning.

And with that, let’s jump into this week’s update!

What’s new this week in 🇫🇷

• 🤝 New old news, French startup Datakalab acquired by Apple: The acquisition closed in December but went unreported until last week. The 8-year-old startup specializes in data compression and image analysis to enhance embedded computer vision.

• 💸 Goldman Sachs senior banker moves to Paris: the firm has attributed the move to increased deal-making on the continent vs. post-Brexit fallout.

• 🇫🇷 Macron warns “there is a risk our Europe could die”: In a 2-hour long speech, the French President advocated for a stronger, more economically productive, and more independent Europe.

New Funding 💶

8 companies raised €76.8m in the last week

Events This Month 🗓

• May 21: Women in Tech Paris - OutGeekWomen

• May 22-25: Vivatech 2024

• May 23: La French Tech Europe Gathering

• May 31: Paris Entrepreneurial Network

Interesting Jobs 👩‍💻

This is a new section where I’m sharing jobs opened in the last 7 days from promising French startups and scaleups. Should I keep sharing these? Let me know what you think by replying to this email.

👩‍💼 Founders Associate @ Corma

👩‍💼 Founders Associate @ Greenly

🎨 Lead, Product Design/UX @ Greenly

🤝 Business Development Manager @ OMNI

🧑‍💻 Senior Fullstack Engineer @ PayFit

🧑‍💻 Engineering Manager @ sunday

What Else I’m Reading 📚

• A few lessons on showing up (More to That)

• An Unconventional Look At The Future Of Fintech (Team8 VC)

• Non-dilutive funding options in Europe (Speedinvest)

• Steve Eisman on the Three Big Macro Stories of Our Time (Odd Lots) – TL;DR AI Infrastructure, Traditional Infrastructure, and Crypto (which Steve doesn’t believe in)

• OpenAI Training Bot Crawls 'World's Lamest Content Farm' 3 Million Times in One Day (404 Media)

• XO Capital field notes (Andrew Pierno)*

*A quick note about this one. XO Capital has been running a micro-acquisition strategy since 2020. After wrapping up fund I with 10 acquisitions Andrew is reflecting on what to do with fund II. In this post he identifies a market gap for what he calls “tiny venture.” Essentially, backing companies that may never become unicorns in the very early stages of their development. Now, I’m not sure if the strategy he’s considering will work, but I’ve been thinking about this post a lot lately.