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.

What. A. Week.

Is this newsletter focused on French tech companies and VCs?

🕶️ For sure.

Regardless, do we need to talk about what happened at Davos?

🕶️ For sure.

The last few days brought a remarkably tense conference which essentially eulogized the current former global order and called for permanent changes to how Europe conducts international relations, mutual defense, and global business.

I could talk at length about how badly the US has fumbled here, but I think that’s already clear to most of us.

What’s less clear, and just as interesting, is what comes next.

Now we’ve got Charles de Gaulle being called “the most vindicated man in history” on X for his famous rebukes of the United States in favor of sovereign French defense and economic options post-WW II. And, of course, this 😎.

France has an opportunity to capitalize on this momentum, and some of this week’s featured stories show the framework for what that could look like.

It’s all well and good to in-house data storage, energy production, and defense solutions. But, despite big ambitions, Europe remains a fragmented market. Focusing too deeply on only the French market will set a ceiling on future market caps for French companies.

What I believe will be key is striking the balance between sovereignty and scale. A more sovereign world may be more secure, but that usually comes at the expense of being more efficient.

What’s new this week in 🇫🇷

🇪🇺 EU Inc. is moving ahead

A world which European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen described last week as “more fractured and more fractious than ever” may soon become a little more united. Amidst a tense week at Davos, Von der Leyen confirmed that the European Union is moving forward with EU Inc: the plan to create a unified company structure and regulatory environment across the EU.

EU Inc has gathered momentum since over 20,000 members of the startup community signed a petition advocating for the 28th regime last summer. While details of the official proposal remain vague, Von der Leyen did call out fully online company registration within 48 hours and a consistent capital regime to encourage investment.

🍇 Bordeaux is building a €3 billion AI campus focused on digital sovereignty

In a city better known for rows of grapes than for racks of servers, Bordeaux is embarking on a €3 billion bet to reshape its technological future. The BXIA project plans to transform a former exhibition center parking lot into a sovereign AI hub where French companies can store data and train artificial intelligence systems on European soil. With 150 people already working behind the scenes for 18 months, the first building is expected to open in 2028.

The project's champions frame BXIA as a necessary defense against digital dependence, citing the current reality that 92% of European data sits on American servers. Whether Bordeaux can truly establish new standards for data sovereignty, or simply add another ambitious tech campus to Europe's landscape, remains to be seen when the metropolitan council votes on proposal this week.

Meanwhile in Paris, Station F, the original French tech campus, entered into a bit of a spat Paris mayoral candidate Emmauel Grégoire, who recently proposed the creation of a “second Station F” at Porte de la Chapelle which would be focused on AI startups.

🤝 France’s ABTasty is merging with India’s Wingify in PE-backed deal

The deal, led by Everstone Capital—a private equity fund headquartered in Singapore with $3.2 billion AUM—will create a new combined entity serving over 4,000 customers globally. Over its last 16 years of operations ABTasty raised ≈$65 million from investors including Partech, XAnge, Crédit Mutuel, and Omnes Capital in support of their A/B testing platform for optimizing digital experiences.

Although detail regarding the acquisition price were not announced, the combined group’s disclosed $100 million annual revenue run rate and previous disclosures from Wingify indicate ABTasty was likely operating with a ≈€50 million run rate in 2025. At current exit multiples, the acquisition price paid for ABTasty likely fell between €200 to €250 million.

✂️ Capgemini to cut 2,400 jobs in France

The IT consulting giant headquartered in Paris announced plans to reduce its workforce by 6%, eliminating 2,400 positions in response to weak demand in core sectors—especially in the automotive market.

Rather than mass layoffs, Capgemini is pursuing a program of voluntary departures where affected employees can choose undergo retraining for “future-oriented” positions or accept a “collectively negotiated departure” offer. While less abrupt than a reduction in force, employees at Capgemini are still concerned about being forced out through challenging work conditions, mandatory travel to assignments outside of their home cities, and internal pressure.

🪙 Ledger eyes a $4 billion IPO

French crypto security champion Ledger could make its Wall Street debut as early as this year with a listing that would value the company north of $4 billion—a sharp step up from its $1.5 billion Series C valuation in 2023. Bankers are already building market interest for a listing in NYC which would be a rare move for a French tech unicorn, last seen during Criteo’s public debut over a decade ago.

As CEO Pascal Gauthier put it, “the money is in New York” when it comes to crypto. So is the friendlier political climate compared to Europe. If successful, Ledger would be join other large crypto players like Circle, BitGo, and Gemini that have recently chosen the US over Europe. This type of flight to the US is exactly what French and German governments recently discussed reversing, aided by EU Inc.

Beyond the IPO plans, Ledger is also repositioning itself to be less of a “wallet” provider and more of a guardian of digital identity. This move to provide the infrastructure for crypto and the wider digital world could be a story that Wall Street is very willing to buy.

🙋‍♂️ Quiz: How many French companies reached valuations of $1 billion or higher in 2025?

(answer at the bottom of the newsletter)

• A.) 1

• B.) 2

• C.) 3

• D.) 5

🌍 Headlines from around the world

🔚 One of the first alternative app stores in the EU is shutting down (TechCrunch)

💰 Amazon CEO Jassy says Trump’s tariffs have started to ‘creep’ into prices (CNBC)

✂️ DeepMind and Anthropic CEOs: AI is already coming for junior roles at our companies (Business Insider)

⚡️ Energy costs will decide which countries win the AI race, Microsoft’s Nadella says (CNBC)

💵 Netflix intensifies bid for Warner Bros making its $72 billion offer all cash (AP)

🤖 X open sourced its algorithm (TechCrunch)

🪦 Palantir CEO says AI ‘will destroy’ humanities jobs (yahoo!)

📈 OpenAI revenue crossed $20 billion in 2025 (Reuters)

🙅‍♂️ Portugal orders Polymarket blocked after election bets surge before results announced (The Block)

💀 Meta has shutdown its metaverse workspace—so much for the Meta rebrand (The Verge)

📍 Apple is developing a wearable AI pin, maybe this one will actually gain traction (The Information)

New Funding 💶

12 companies announced €236.8M in new funding last week including Kervalion | €567K | 🏥 HealthTech and Obside | €500K | 💹 Fintech

Upcoming Events 🗓

From visibility to credibility: building a lasting reputation in AI – January 27

Hexa CTO Voices x Alpic : Construire la première plateforme cloud MCP-native – January 27

Dust Engineering Night #11 Bio Edition – January 28

🆕 Le Playbook d'une Scale-Up : Monter une App de 0 à 3M€ d'ARR en 6 mois à 5 – January 28

🆕 AI Tech & Startup Night, Paris – February 4

Ray Meetup at Criteo Paris: Building Scalable AI & Data Platforms – February 5

AI Film Hackathon – February 7

🆕 Neurons and Peppers #3 AI Research Meetup – February 12

🆕 Paris Hardware Meetup | The New Defense Stack – February 17

Maddy Invest Awards – February 19

Interesting Jobs 👩‍💻

• 📣 Enterprise Marketing Director @ Ledger

• 👩‍💻 Group Product Manager @ Naboo

• 📊 Finance Analyst @ Nabla

• 🔐 Lead Security Engineer @ Nabla

• 🖌️ Senior Product Designer @ Tomorro

• ♟️ Business Strategy Manager @ Electra

• 👩‍💻 Staff Product Manager @ Photoroom

• 💳 Senior Product Manager @ Finary

• 💲 Group Product Manager @ Spendesk

• 📈 Founding Sales & GTM @ Spore.Bio

• 🫶 Head of Customer Success EMEA @ Pigment

• 🚀 Director of Strategic Initiatives EMEA @ Loft Orbital

• 🧑‍💻 Senior Product Owner @ Filigran

• 🎓 Corporate Development Intern @ Qonto

What Else I’m Reading 📚

Energy costs will decide which countries win the AI race, Microsoft’s Nadella says (CNBC)

2025: Hegemonic Suicide and Other Innovations (Seva Gunitsky)

Newsletter Recommendations 🫶

Quiz Answer: B.) 2

13-year old CRM Brevo achieved unicorn status in December last year with a €500M round that was essentially an exit to private equity. 5-year old crypto security startup Zama surpassed the $1 billion valuation mark in June, 2025 during their Series B fundraise.