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- 🇫🇷 French Tech Updates — October 20, 2025. €197.66M in new funding for French companies.
🇫🇷 French Tech Updates — October 20, 2025. €197.66M in new funding for French companies.
What you need to know this week in France: 👩⚖️ new French digital minister, 🤖 Mistral expands into scientific research, 💶 15 French startups announced new funding.

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.
📝 Quiz: What % of startups generate $10M ARR or higher within their first 10 years?
(answer at the bottom of the newsletter)
A.) 49.4%
B.) 19.1%
C.) 8.4%
D.) 3.5%
What’s new this week in 🇫🇷
💼 Government turmoil extends to French tech: Anne Le Hénanff was appointed France's new Minister of AI and Digital—the country’s 3rd in a matter of weeks following the brief replacement of Clara Chappaz with Naïma Moutchou during PM Lecornu’s first government. Hénanff’s relevant experience up to this point has primarily focused on cybersecurity, digital transformation, and defense.
🤖 Mistral targets scientific research: Mistral has been on a serious hiring spree since their latest €1.7B fundraising. Amongst these openings are a series of roles that hint at the company’s newest interest: science. The newly-crowned French decacorn is currently hiring a team of experts to identify areas where AI can be applied to solve scientific research problems. To me, Mistral appears like a company in search of a direction. What started as an LLM play has branched into defense partnerships, compute as a service, and now scientific research. I suppose it’s all fine as long as it makes them happy.
🌍 Headlines from around the world
🦄 Finnish healthtech ŌURA became Europe’s newest decacorn after raising €900M at an €11B valuation (Bloomberg)
✈️ Odyssey Ventures emerges with $75M fund to bridge Europe-US startup valuation divide (Tech Funding News)
🇫🇷 French-founded, SF-based HR startup Deel raised $300M at $17.3B valuation (Unleash)
🙈 So…I guess ChatGPT is doing porn now (CNBC)
🔻 London Drops Out of Top 20 IPO Markets After Falling Behind Mexico (Bloomberg)
🤖 Meta plans to sell targeted ads based on data in your AI chats (TechCrunch)
🗞️ Thinking Machines (finally) announces its first product (Wired)
🏦 Mr. Beast is opening his own bank (Fast Company)
💶 Creator Fund closes €41M to invest in European PhD founders (Sifted)
🇮🇳 Google to spend $15 billion on AI data centre in biggest India investment (Reuters)
📉 ChatGPT’s mobile app is seeing slowing download growth and daily use (TechCrunch)
👀 Wikipedia says AI is causing a dangerous decline in human visitors (404 Media)
🚪 Apple loses another AI-focused executive to Meta (TechCrunch)
🚖 Waymo plans to launch a robotaxi service in London in 2026 (TechCrunch)
🤝 Goldman Sachs is acquiring Industry Ventures for up to $965M (Trading View)
New Funding 💶
14 companies announced €197.66M in new funding last week including €600K by Vaultys (🛡️ Cybersecurity), €700K by Komu (🛍️ ECommerce), and €760K by Cellura (🧫 Biotech)

OneTake AI | €1M | 🎥 Video Creation
Paris-based OneTake AI raised €1M to advance its conversational AI video editor, which allows users to edit videos by chatting or speaking to an AI agent. Aimed at entrepreneurs, coaches, and creators, OneTake simplifies professional video creation without needing editing skills. The funding will support product improvements, platform expansion, and the launch of their latest product: OneTake 7.
Astriis | €1.7M | ⚙️ Industrial Tech
The Grenoble-based predictive maintenance platform has raised €1.7 million to further development of vibration sensors to detect early mechanical issues in rotating machines. This tech helps prevent costly failures in hardware-dependent sectors like wind power, hydro, and heavy industry. The funds will support hiring, especially for the sales team.
BiznessMatch | €1.8M | 🤝 Networking
BiznessMatch raised €1.8 million to grow its AI-powered networking app and international club network. The platform helps business owners find partners or service providers based on needs and skills and claims to offer a faster, more targeted alternative to LinkedIn. The funding will boost AI development, translation tools, and expand physical networking clubs in Europe, North America, and Asia.
Allergen Alert | €3.6M | 🧪 Healthtech
Allergen Alert raised €3.6 million to bring to market a portable device that quickly detects food allergens and gluten. Born from the founder’s personal experience, the technology miniaturizes established player bioMérieux’s diagnostics to give individuals and professionals real-time allergen testing via a smartphone-connected tool.
Carb0n | €5M | 🌱 Climate
Carb0n raised €5 million from Batipart Europe to expand its platform helping commercial real estate owners monitor, manage, and reduce the carbon footprint of their buildings. Their tools support compliance with energy regulations and improve asset value through energy efficiency and solar installations.
Isentroniq | €7.5M | ⚛️ Quantum Computing
Paris-based Isentroniq raised €7.5 million to solve a major hardware bottleneck in scaling quantum computers. Their low-heat, space-saving wiring tech could allow machines to grow from hundreds to millions of qubits, cutting costs and enabling industrial-scale quantum computing.
Cartan Trade | €9M | 💼 Insurtech
Paris-based Cartan Trade raised €9 million to scale its trade credit insurance platform and expand across Europe. The platform helps companies protect themselves from unpaid invoices, offering digital insurance backed by major insurers like Scor and Intact. The funding also follows a change in ownership as Cartan enters a new growth phase.
EVerZom | €10M | 🧬 Biotech
Strasbourg-based EVerZom raised €10 million to launch clinical trials for its first exosome-based drug, EVerGel, targeting painful fistulas in Crohn’s disease. Exosomes are tiny particles that help cells communicate and could offer a new way to treat inflammation and regenerate tissue. The funds will also help EVerZom expand its exosome platform to other diseases and scale up manufacturing.
probabl. | €13M | 🤖 AI
Paris-based probabl. raised €13 million in a seed round to grow scikit-learn, the popular open-source machine learning library it now operates. Originally developed at French research institute Inria, scikit-learn powers AI at Spotify, Booking.com, and JP Morgan. Probabl is building commercial tools on top of it, like Skore—its enterprise support platform,while keeping the library free and open-source. Investors include Serena, Capital Fund Management, and Mozilla Ventures.
Step Pharma | €38M | 🧬 Biotech
Saint-Genis-Pouilly–based Step Pharma completed a €38 million Series C round to advance dencatistat, its lead cancer drug. The treatment blocks CTPS1, an enzyme cancer cells rely on to grow, while leaving healthy cells unharmed. The new funding, led by V-Bio Ventures with Bpifrance and others, will fund ongoing clinical trials for blood cancers, solid tumors, and a rare blood disorder called essential thrombocythaemia.
Adcytherix | €105M | 🧬 Biotech
Marseille-based biotech Adcytherix raised €105 million in a massive Series A round to develop a new generation of cancer drugs called antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs). These treatments work by attaching a cancer-killing compound to an antibody that seeks out tumor cells, delivering the drug directly where it’s needed while sparing healthy tissue. The company’s lead drug, ADCX‑020, is being prepared for clinical trials to treat cancers that no longer respond to current therapies. The funding, led by Bpifrance with several major European and U.S. investors, will also support research into new types of ADCs that use novel payloads to overcome drug resistance.
Upcoming Events 🗓
The Future of AI, Manufacturing, and Aerospace – October 23
Hexa 0pen house @La Cristallerie – October 24
BioBuilders' Drink by Singular – October 27
Bio Breakfast @ BioWeek Paris – October 29
CTO Voices x Pivot : réinventer la tech dans un secteur trop lent – October 29
Microbiology 2.0 – October 30
AI x Oncology & Gene Editing – October 30
Together AI Workshop: Upgrading and Customising Open Models – October 30
The European AI Championship 2025 Launch Party – November 5
Paris Meetup | fal x Hugging Face x BFL – November 13
Interesting Jobs 👩💻
What Else I’m Reading 📚
How Lemlist founder Guillaume Moubeche would start over from scratch (LinkedIn)
Western executives who visit China are coming back terrified (The Telegraph)
YouTube Just Ate TV. It’s Only Getting Started (Hollywood Reporter)
TechpressoWhy you’ll like it: Daily updates on the latest tech and AI news in an easy-to-read format. Stay in the know while finishing your morning coffee. | A Smart Bear: LongformWhy you’ll like it: Practical insights from building two unicorn companies, covering product, growth, prioritization, and much more. |
Quiz Answer: C.) 8.4%
Interestingly, nearly 50% of startups reach $1M ARR within 10 years of monitizing. That’s not bad for a bootstrapped business or SME, but only 1/50 reach $25M ARR or higher—another indicator of why the VC-funded route isn’t the best fit for all types of startups.


