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.

The best defense is a good offense defense tech pipeline 🪖

Last week’s featured article on Dark, a French orbital defense startup, began by citing the shockingly low allocations of VC capital going towards European defense companies.

With this week’s news, the French ecosystem appears determined to reverse this narrative with €18 million invested across two defense deals.

The one thing I’m certain of is that the world is becoming a more uncertain place. With the US pulling back from its leadership role and regional threats knocking at the threshold Europe can either pull together or pull apart. In this low-trust environment, the best outcome for Europe would be a move towards greater cohesion across the block—and increased support for sovereign defense options is a logical starting point for that cooperation.

Two deals does not make a trend, but it’s a step in the right direction. Let’s see what happens next.

With that, let’s jump into this week’s update!

📝 Quiz: Which European countries spend the most on R&D in 2023?

(answer at the bottom of the newsletter)

• A.) 🇩🇪 Germany, 🇫🇷 France, 🇮🇹 Italy

• B.) 🇨🇭Switzerland, 🇫🇷 France, 🇳🇱 Netherlands

• C.) 🇫🇷 France, 🇩🇪 Germany, 🇸🇪 Sweden

• D.) 🇧🇪 Belgium, 🇸🇪 Sweden, 🇦🇹 Austria

What’s new this week in 🇫🇷

Wow, last week was a busy one. Here’s what went down…

• 🤖 Data centers, AI, and defense are highlights at the 8th annual Choose France summit: Macron announced a record €20 billion in new foreign investments, including multibillion-euro commitments to data centers, AI infrastructure, and defense innovation with global companies like Prologis, Brookfield, and Digital Realty leading the charge.

• 🛬 Revolut is establishing its Western European HQ in France: with more than 5 million customers (≈9% of Revolut’s total users), France is already the fintech’s fastest growing market in the EU. Alongside the new HQ, Revolut also announced their intention to invest €1 billion into France and apply for a French banking license, setting them apart from the myriad other fintechs operating as payment institutions without banking licenses.

• 👥 France Digitale kicks off board elections: The influential tech lobby started the next round of leadership renewal with elections starting May 14 and voting beginning today.

• 🧪 Alice & Bob is building a new lab in Paris: The quantum computing startup intends to create the $50 million lab using capital from their recent €103M Series B fundraising. Théau Peronnin, CEO of Alice & Bob, intends for the the 4,000 m² facility to “serve as a cornerstone of French quantum infrastructure.”

• 📈 Atos unveils €100M AI startup fund: The struggling IT giant is making a bold AI pivot and launching a fund to back early-stage startups as part of new CEO Philippe Salle’s comeback strategy.

• 🕵️‍♂️ Another week, another attempted crypto kidnapping: An attempted kidnapping in Paris targeted relatives Paymium Pierre Noizat—marking the third such incident targeting crypto startup leaders in recent months and sparking calls for stronger protection.

• 🚄 BlaBlaCar now selling train tickets: France’s carpooling giant is branching out into rail travel and going head-to-head with SNCF Connect and Trainline. The unicorn now has train tickets available across 350 stations in France.

• 🤝 Younited acquires Helios: Four months after its IPO, French consumer credit specialist Younited has acquired Helios—a neobank focused on financing ecological transition projects.

🌍 Headlines from around the world

• 🥷 Hackers bribed Coinbase support employees to steal customer data (TechCrunch)

•  🧑‍💻 ChatGPT is introducing its own AI coding agent called Codex (OpenAI)

• 🧬 World’s first personalized CRISPR therapy given to baby with genetic disease (Nature)

• 🇲🇨 OpenAI is developing a data center in Abu Dhabi larger in size than Monaco (TechCrunch)

• 🔜 Meta is pushing back the release of its behemoth AI model (Reuters)

• 🤑 Cybersecurity firm Proofpoint buys German competitor Hornetsecurity for over $1 billion (CNBC)

• 🩻 The world’s first “AI doctor clinic” opens in Saudi Arabia (Bloomberg)

• 👶 Wave Ventures, Europe’s largest Gen Z VC, triples fund to €7M (TFN)

• 🤝 Salesforce acquires 1-year-old UK AI startup Convergence (PYMNTS)

New Funding 💶

7 companies raised €69.1 million in the last week

Upcoming Events 🗓

• The Challenges of Water in the 21st Century – May 20

• French/acc #6 – May 20

• Climate Coffee in Paris – May 22

• Pathways to Funding for B2B SaaS Founders – May 22

• Framer Meetup Paris – May 22

• La French Stack, Legacy Code – May 23

• {Tech: Paris} AI Hackathon – May 24

• Paris Women & Climate Afterwork - May 26

• Afterwork French Tech x CESI – May 28

• AI for Good: From Creation to Exit ft. Buster.ai founder Julien Mardas – June 3

• IoT Innovation Day – June 4

• From Title to Token: Reshaping Financial Markets – June 5

• Road to the US: Lessons From Repeat Founders – June 10

• VivaTech – June 11-14

• Startup World Cup Paris – June 12

• The Paris AI Conference 2025 – June 16

• French Tech Connect 2025 – July 3

Interesting Jobs 👩‍💻

• 🧑‍💼 Customer Strategist Manager @ Spendesk

• 📊 Head of Strategic Planning @ Electra

• ✍️ Content Marketing Manager @ Swan

• 🤝 Director of Partnerships EMEA @ LumApps

• 🤑 Product Marketing Manager @ Agicap

• 🗂️ Program Manager @ ManoMano

• 🎓 Marketing Intern @ Pigment

• 🌍 Director of Global Communications @ Back Market

• 🏭 Industrial Product Manager @ Fairmat

• 🤖 Head of Machine Learning @ Photoroom

What Else I’m Reading 📚

• Could AI Become Conscious? (Built In)

• Is France losing its AI funding mojo? (French Tech Journal)

Podcast Recommendation 🫶

Venture Lab (With Luis) 🔬

Why you’ll like it: In a world where capital has become a commodity, the question emerges: How can investors provide value beyond funding and help founders build exceptional businesses?

The Venture Lab podcast explores this challenge through conversations with the most disruptive minds in entrepreneurship, venture capital, and media, capturing the fundamental shift occurring in today’s venture landscape. Click below to check out a recent episode with Seedcamp founder and prolific investor Saul Klein.

Quiz Answer: A.) 🇩🇪 Germany, 🇫🇷 France, 🇮🇹 Italy

Measured in raw numbers, Germany far out-paced the rest of Europe with $140 billion in R&D spend (3.10% of GDP) followed by France with $67 billion (2.20% of GDP), and Italy rounded out the top three with $32 billion in spending (1.40% of GDP).

By % of GDP, Belgium (3.40%), Sweden (3.40%), and Austria (3.20%) led the rankings, but with much lower total spend amounts ranging from $16 - $22 billion.