In just some days, France will host the Synthetic Intelligence Motion Summit, with heads of state flocking to Paris to fulfill world tech leaders. They’ll probably announce some huge investments and diplomatic agreements targeted on security or the environmental influence of synthetic intelligence.
Forward of the summit, early-stage VC agency Galion.exe, development funding agency Revaia, and advisory agency Chausson Companions teamed as much as create the French AI Report, which seems to be on the present tendencies within the tech ecosystem.
Whereas all eyes are presently on the U.S. and China with OpenAI seeking to elevate tens of billions of {dollars} and DeepSeek capturing everybody’s consideration, there was a increase in AI startups in Europe, too. In 2024 alone, AI corporations represented round 20% of all VC funding within the area.
In complete, that represents round $8 billion in funding for AI startups in 2024. That metric is probably going to develop quickly, as AI startups are nonetheless comparatively younger. Seventy p.c of the capital raised by AI startups in 2024 was for a seed to Sequence B spherical.
European nations that have a tendency to draw VC funding basically have additionally change into the primary AI funding hubs, with the U.Okay. main the group, France and Germany following go well with, and the Nordics punching above its demographic weight. Right here’s the breakdown from 2020 to 2024:
Apparently, as AI corporations change into greater, they have a tendency to draw worldwide traders, with U.S. VC corporations accounting for round 50% of cash invested in AI corporations on the Sequence C spherical and later.
In France extra particularly, there are “more than 750 startups that have created 35,000 jobs and operate in all areas that are transforming today’s society,” Minister Delegate for synthetic intelligence and digital applied sciences Clara Chappaz stated at a press convention.
She additionally talked about that there are 2,000 scientists targeted on AI analysis and 600 doctorate college students engaged on synthetic intelligence. And you could have observed that there are fairly a couple of French engineers and researchers working for AI corporations within the U.S., too.
The crew behind the French AI Report seemed extra intently on the high 400 AI startups in France and tried to determine the rising stars. Whereas Mistral AI and Poolside are already some acquainted names for readers who’ve adopted the AI trade, the overwhelming majority of AI startups aren’t engaged on the following basis mannequin.
On the infrastructure entrance, some corporations are optimizing the info workflows and pipelines, akin to Linkup and Kestra, or enhancing inference efficiency, akin to ZML, or growing brokers that may sift by way of giant knowledge units and enhance productiveness. Mud is an efficient instance of that.
However the actuality is that almost all AI startups in France are specializing in purposes for particular verticals. Based mostly on this report, two essential areas for AI startups in France are well being and local weather.
Owkin and its spin-off biotech firm Bioptimus have been main the pack on the well being tech entrance, but it surely’s a surprisingly various group of corporations with three huge areas of curiosity: imaging instruments, drug discovery, and medical remedy enchancment.
Equally, whereas a big chunk of the AI trade is concentrated on productiveness positive factors for workplace employees, synthetic intelligence can also be actively getting used to construct the next-generation of local weather startups. Along with agritech, carbon and vitality administration — two subjects which might be associated — appear to be an enormous focus. There are additionally a handful of promising new supplies corporations which might be rising (Altrove, as an illustration).
All the businesses included within the checklist will be discovered right here. You’ll additionally discover loads of AI corporations engaged on one job perform — gross sales, buyer care, HR or authorized — and utilizing AI to simplify the commonest duties.
In fact, some corporations aren’t going to be there in 5 years. However a lot of them are presently rising at a speedy tempo. We’re nonetheless at the start of the AI revolution, and although it’s straightforward to consider the AI trade as a zero-sum sport with one nation or one firm “winning” over the others, it looks as if the AI increase is extra distributed than anticipated.
