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  • 🇫🇷 French Tech Updates — February 12, 2024. €92.2M in new funding for French companies.

🇫🇷 French Tech Updates — February 12, 2024. €92.2M in new funding for French companies.

What you need to know this week in France: the first unicorn of 2024 🦄, new venture funds 💶, and job cuts at Société Générale ✂️.

Author

James Saulsky
February 12, 2024

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.

France mints its first unicorn of 2024 with Pennylane 🦄

France has a new unicorn this week, the first of the new year, following accounting startup Pennylane closing €40M in new investment at a €1B valuation.

Elsewhere in the ecosystem, French startups have their eyes on going global, with 5 of 9 startups that raised funding this week planning international expansions in Europe, The United States, Asia, and South America. This is a trend I’m both incredibly excited by and curious to learn more about. Expect more writing on French companies going global soon. If you have experience or thoughts in this area, please send me an email and let’s chat.

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

What’s new this week in 🇫🇷

Startup To Watch – Hyperline đź‘€

In the dance of B2B subscriptions, where pricing and innovation often tango at a slow pace, one young French company has emerged as a nimble partner. Hyperline, launched in 2022 and fueled by €4M from Index, Cocoa VC, and Kima Ventures, is a no-code subscription billing platform on the frontlines of the sector.

As of 2020, a staggering 95% of B2B companies offered one or more subscriptions. The relentless transition to subscription pricing models has created a massive volume of SaaS contracts, billing, and renewals to be managed. Hyperline's value lies in its commitment to solving the perennial challenges of subscription management. Easy setup and the ability for customers to quickly test and iterate ensures that pricing and product features evolve simultaneously, offering users a unique blend of flexibility and agility.

Hyperline’s core-product

In a market with well-established competitors, Hyperline distinguishes itself through speed and focus. Boasting a 10-minute setup compared to the up to 10-day onboarding processes of competitors like Paddle and ChargeBee, Hyperline shines thanks to their concentration on providing faster integration, better support, and a better product experience.

But that’s just the start of the story. As the AI wave continues to sweep around the world, the transition to usage-based pricing, which many AI products rely on, has become a critical need. Here, Hyperline also stands out with usage-based billing solutions already powering AI businesses like Gladia, an audio transcription startup backed by Sequoia.

The company is still young enough that they hand-wrote holiday cards to their customers in December, so I like to think by reading this that you’re early to discover this promising company.

Hyperline is well-positioned to provide superior usage-based and SaaS billing support to its customers, making it a startup to watch in 2024.

New Funding đź’¶

9 companies raised €92.2M in the last week

Balio | Unknown | InsurTech

Allianz has invested an unknown amount into Balio, a contract management startup for households created by Allianz France employees and incubated in Allianz Lab’s startup incubator. According to Balio, their 18,000 users save an average of 30% on energy, insurance, mobile, and internet contracts.

Corma | €600K | Software Management

Corma, a software management platform founded in 2023, raised their first round of financing with €600K coming from Plug and Play, Campus Fund, and several angel investors. Corma enables its users to manage access for employee onboarding and offboarding and track spending on software from a centralized tool.

Hymag’In | €2.2M | DeepTech

The Grenoble-based deep-tech startup raised €2.2M from angel investors, regional and state funds, and the Ministry of the Armed Forces to continue their work producing ferrites—magnetic materials used in electronic systems.

Guided Energy | €4.8M | Electric Vehicles

Guided Energy secured a new investment of €4.8M with participation from Sequoia Capital and Dynamo Ventures to continue developing their software tool to assist electric vehicle fleet operators. Their platform aggregates data from EVs and charging points to provide real-time insights on when and where vehicles should be charged. Guided Energy aims to address the fragmented EV ecosystem and generate potential cost savings of up to $10,000 per EV by optimizing charging strategies.

Naboo | €7.5M | B2B

Corporate offsite booking company Naboo has raised €7.5 million in funding from investors like ISAI, Kima Ventures, and CapHorn. Since launching in 2022, Naboo has added 2500 locations and 500 partners to their platform and has been used by teams at Google, Payfit, Ikea, and Chanel. They plan to use the funds to enhance the all-in-one platform for offsite bookings, integrating artificial intelligence and expanding across Europe.

Édifice | €10M | EdTech

Édifice, formerly Open Digital Education, has raised €10 million in a financing round with investors Generis Capital, Bpifrance, and Impact Partners. Édifice’s customers currently include 16,000 primary schools, 3,300 middle and high schools, and over 11 million users, including 4 million students. The funding aims to support growth and international expansion in Latin America and Europe.

Jow | €12.1M | Grocery Delivery

Grocery shopping and delivery app Jow extended their Series A with €12.1M in additional funding from Northzone and Eurazeo, bringing their total raised to €30.6M, and announced new partnerships with Deliveroo and Carrefour. Jow’s app tailors menus for users based on preferences, aiming to improve the grocery shopping experience. With around six million users, Jow plans to use the new funds to strengthen its presence in the United States.

Pixee Medical | €15M | MedTech

Pixee Medical, an orthopedic surgery augmented reality navigation startup (say that 5 times fast), secured €14 million in funding led by Relyens Innovation Santé, UI Investissement, Innovacom, Angelor, and Bpifrance. The new capital will be used to continue Pixee Medical’s US expansion, introduce new augmented reality platforms, establish a Singapore office, and expand hiring.

Pennylane | €40M | FinTech

Accounting fintech Pennylane has raised €40M at a €1B valuation, roughly doubling the value of the company since the last priced funding in May, 2023. The Series C round was led by Sequoia and DST Global. With 135,000 customers 40X growth in the last 2 years, Pennylane plans to use the new funds to expand beyond France and achieve profitability within 12-18 months.

Events This Month đź—“

What Else I’m Reading 📚