France likes to think of itself as a startup nation. And in many ways, over the past decade, it has become just that.
The country has built one of Europe's most vibrant innovation ecosystems, producing heavyweights like Mistral AI in artificial intelligence, Pigment in finance, and Exotec in industrial robotics. The talent is here. The ideas are here. The ambition is here.
What's missing? Big customers.
That's the blunt takeaway from a flurry of reports and events that landed in early February 2026, all circling the same uncomfortable truth: French and European startups are struggling to sell to large corporations and government agencies, the very institutions that should be their most natural buyers. And without those contracts, even the most brilliant startups risk remaining forever small, forever fragile, or worse, packing their bags for the United States.
The numbers tell a stark story.
According to the 2025 Observatory of Relations Between Startups and Major Accounts, published on February 5 by France's Mediator of Enterprises Pierre Pelouzet and presented to Anne Le Hénanff, the Minister for AI and Digital, the 39 largest French corporations devoted on average just 1.99% of their purchasing budgets to startups in 2024, up from 1.92% in 2023.
Even for the 5 largest corporates that work most aggressively with startups, the figure only reaches 4.78%. Some of the most engaged groups spend upward of €200 million a year on startup solutions, but others scrape by at a mere €2 million. The gap between leaders and laggards is enormous, and it reveals just how much untapped potential sits on the table, according to the report.
On the public purchasing side, there has been more progress.
Government procurement from startups jumped 33.4% in 2023, crossing €2.3 billion. This was spurred partly by the push around the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Still, that represents just a meager 1.43% of total purchases, up from 1% the previous year.
