🧮 Data Point: SF $10B HQs
The latest a16z newsletter included a couple of interesting charts that offered a reminder of why the U.S. remains so attractive for founders.
Drawing on CB Insights data, the VC firm notes that almost "every private company with a valuation over ten billion dollars is based either in the United States or in China...There are more of them in the Bay Area than in China and Europe combined."
Ouch.
Not being able to resist twisting the knife just a bit, a16z also includes a chart using data from portfolio company Deel (French founder!) that looks at sick leave across different countries. On average, in the U.S., employees just take one or two days. But the VC firm dubs France the "king of sick leave" because "more than 20 percent of sick leaves in France take more than eleven days."
"It seems that French workers are in the habit of acquiring severe illnesses that prevent them from working for weeks at a time," a16z adds.
Ha ha. It's funny. Also, because, well, it's dumb. First, because this is based on companies on the Deel platform, not on the entire country. And second, the way sick leave is counted and categorized in the U.S. vs France is entirely different. But why let some messy statistical analysis get in the way of good LOL?
On the other hand, another a16z chart points out that "more than 40 percent of U.S. doctors are reporting burnout. The U.S. is the global leader in doctor burnout." Oh? "Why are American doctors so burnt out? Perhaps because of how bureaucratic American medicine is. A huge amount of doctors’ time is devoted to administrative paperwork that has very little to do with curing patients." Oh?
If only there were a better way. 🤔
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💸 Weekly Funding Recap: December 19
🏆 Key Highlights
Total Raised: €140.5M
Number of Companies: 13
🧬 Sector Diversity
- 💻 AI & Software: €104.6M
- ⚙️ Deeptech & Industrial Innovation: €28.0M
- 🧠 Medtech & Health Intelligence: €7.2M
📇 Company: SkillCorner
🔍 Description: Paris-based sports intelligence company providing AI-driven player and ball tracking and contextual performance data from broadcast video. SkillCorner pioneered single-camera automated tracking and serves teams, leagues, and federations across soccer, basketball, and American football, supporting scouting, recruitment, tactical analysis, and player development.
💻 Website: SkillCorner
📍 HQ City: Paris
🧗 Round: Growth investment
💰 Amount Raised: $60M
🏦 Investors: Silversmith Capital Partners (lead); existing shareholders include the NBA and Seventure Partners
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Hugo Bordigoni (CEO), Charles Montmaneix (Co-Founder & General Manager)
🗞️ News: SkillCorner raised $60M from Silversmith Capital Partners to accelerate product innovation, scale data engineering and product teams, and expand multi-sport operations—particularly in North America. The company covers 180+ competitions and serves more than 300 organizations globally, while continuing to operate independently from its Paris headquarters. | PR
📇 Company: NanoXplore
🔍 Description: French semiconductor scale-up specializing in FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) chips designed for extreme environments. NanoXplore supplies radiation-resistant electronic components used in European satellite programs (Galileo, Copernicus) and is now accelerating its push into the defense sector to reduce Europe’s dependence on U.S. and Taiwanese chips.
💻 Website: NanoXplore
📍 HQ City: Sèvres
🧗 Round: Growth
💰 Amount Raised: €20M
🏦 Investors: MBDA, Fonds Innovation Défense
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Edouard Lepape (CEO & Co-founder)
🗞️ News: NanoXplore raised €20M to accelerate its expansion into European defense electronics and scale production of sovereign FPGA chips. Already supplying components used in satellites and MBDA missiles, the company aims to replace at least 50% of U.S.-made components in Europe within 4–5 years. While chip design remains in France, NanoXplore plans to rely on advanced manufacturing at TSMC in Taiwan from 2028 to 2029, highlighting Europe’s structural gap in high-end semiconductor fabrication. | Maddyness, Nanoexplore
📇 Company: Ankar
🔍 Description: AI-powered platform designed to simplify and accelerate the patenting of innovations. Ankar provides a unified solution covering the full patent lifecycle—from idea validation to drafting and prior art analysis—helping companies protect and better monetize their intellectual property in the age of generative AI.
💻 Website: Ankar
📍 HQ City: London, United Kingdom
🧗 Round: Series A
💰 Amount Raised: $20M (on top of $4M previously raised)
🏦 Investors: Atomico (lead), Index Ventures, Norrsken, Daphni
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Wiem Gharbi, Tamar Gomez (French co-founders)
🗞️ News: Founded by two former Palantir executives, Ankar raised a $20M Series A to scale its AI-driven patent management platform. Used by Fortune 500 companies such as L’Oréal and law firm Vorys, the solution analyzes over 150 million patent filings and 250 million scientific publications to help companies identify, shape, and protect patentable innovations. The funding will be used to double the team from 20 employees and accelerate international expansion, particularly in the U.S., with the ambition of becoming the core software infrastructure for global innovation in the AI era. | Maddyness, FrenchWeb
📇 Company: Club Employés
🔍 Description: French HR Tech scale-up providing a dematerialized employee benefits platform for SMEs and their CSEs. Club Employés combines a SaaS tool to manage social benefits with a large marketplace of discounted offers, aiming to improve employees’ purchasing power while simplifying operations for elected staff.
💻 Website: Club Employés
📍 HQ City: Lyon
🧗 Round: Growth
💰 Amount Raised: €15M
🏦 Investors: Verto (lead); historical investors include Angelor (diluted) and business angels
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Romain Rostagnat (CEO), Pierre-Thomas Lebatteux
🗞️ News: Founded in 2016 and now profitable, Club Employés raised €15M from Verto to accelerate product development and international expansion. The company serves more than 10,000 clients and 1.6 million users, operates 16 offices across France, and has recently opened in the UK, with Belgium and Italy next. Employing 350 people today, it plans to grow to 500 within 12–18 months and expand into new offerings such as meal vouchers, positioning itself as a key challenger to Swile and Edenred in the employee benefits market. | Les Echos, Maddyness
📇 Company: Arcads.ai
🔍 Description: French AI startup offering an automated video marketing platform using AI actors to industrialize short-form content production for social media. The platform enables rapid generation and localization of UGC-style videos, product demos, unboxings, and fashion try-ons in more than 35 languages, designed for high-volume, performance-driven marketing teams.
💻 Website: Arcads.ai
📍 HQ City: Paris (planned expansion to San Francisco)
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €14M
🏦 Investors: Eurazeo (lead), Alpha Intelligence Capital, Sequoia Scout Program, international investors
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Dylan Fournier, Romain Torres
🗞️ News: Arcads.ai raised €14M in its first institutional round to accelerate the industrialization of AI-generated video marketing. Founded in 2024, the company reports more than 6,000 customers, over 100,000 videos produced per month, and a user base primarily located in the United States. The funding will support product development and international expansion, with a planned presence in San Francisco to better serve the U.S. market, where digital video advertising spend continues to scale rapidly. | FrenchWeb
📇 Company: Helios
🔍 Description: Layer 1 blockchain designed specifically for multi-chain ETFs and automated on-chain portfolio strategies. Helios provides native infrastructure for cross-chain execution, automated allocation and rebalancing, and institution-grade financial products operating fully on-chain.
💻 Website: Helios
📍 HQ City: Paris
🧗 Round: Strategic Token Investment
💰 Amount Raised: €12.9 (committed investment)
🏦 Investors: Bolts Capital
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Jeremy Guyet
🗞️ News: Helios announced a $15M committed investment from Bolts Capital, structured as phased token purchases aligned with its upcoming Token Generation Event and ecosystem growth. The investment aims to support liquidity at launch, developer incentives, and cross-chain operations as Helios prepares for its TGE, early exchange listings, and a mainnet rollout planned for 2026. | LinkedIn
📇 Company: Lucis
🔍 Description: French preventive healthcare startup offering AI-supported health check-ups conducted in certified laboratories and interpreted by a medical team. Lucis provides individuals with a structured, preventive view of their health based on more than 180 biomarkers, delivering actionable insights across nutrition, physical activity, sleep, recovery, and mental health without replacing physicians or providing medical diagnoses.
💻 Website: Lucis
📍 HQ City: Paris
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €7.2M ($8.5M)
🏦 Investors: General Catalyst (lead), Y Combinator, Kima Ventures, Motier Ventures, Circle.Co, North South Ventures, plus business angels
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Maxime Berthelot (CEO), Baptiste Debever, Max Gueroi
🗞️ News: Lucis closed a €7.2M Seed round to accelerate its European expansion, scale its preventive health platform, and grow its network of partner laboratories and physicians. Founded in 2025 and backed by̦ by Y Combinator, the startup has already conducted more than 500,000 clinical tests across France, the UK, Ireland, and Portugal. Lucis operates on a subscription model and positions itself as a preventive and educational health platform, combining AI-driven analysis with human medical validation to help users understand health trajectories before symptoms appear. | EU-Startups, Maddyness
📇 Company: Agreenculture
🔍 Description: French AgTech startup specializing in autonomous and safety-certified farming machinery. Agreenculture provides OEMs with a plug-and-play autonomy kit enabling tractors and agricultural machines to operate without local supervision, improving productivity, precision, and sustainability in farming operations.
💻 Website: Agreenculture
📍 HQ City: Toulouse
🧗 Round: Series A
💰 Amount Raised: €6M
🏦 Investors: Supernova Invest, Future Food Fund, Unilis (Unigrains Group); plus credit facility from Crédit Agricole Toulouse 31
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Christophe Aubé (CEO), Clément Baron (CTO), Emmanuel Goua de Baix
🗞️ News: Agreenculture raised €6M to enhance, standardise, and industrialise its AGC Autonomy Kit, accelerating commercial deployment with agricultural machinery manufacturers. Founded in 2016, the company positions itself as the first technology supplier offering a safe and certifiable autonomy solution compliant with European regulations. Its technology is already integrated with leading OEMs such as Kubota, Kuhn, and Pellenc, and supports more sustainable farming by reducing soil compaction, fuel use, and improving precision in fertiliser and pesticide application. | EU-Startups
📇 Company: Edailabs
🔍 Description: French AI edtech startup developing Emma, an English-learning application focused on oral fluency rather than written exercises. The app uses a 3D AI avatar as a personal tutor, offering personalized conversation scenarios, real-time feedback on pronunciation and grammar, and motivation through daily engagement features.
💻 Website: Edailabs
📍 HQ City: Paris
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €5M
🏦 Investors: Educapital, Breega, Yellow Ventures, Seedcamp, DMG Ventures
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Étienne Genvrin (CEO)
🗞️ News: Edailabs raised €5M to accelerate the development of Emma, its AI-powered English tutor emphasizing spoken language skills. Launched in January, the app already claims 500,000 users. Built on an OpenAI model and enhanced through proprietary prompt engineering inspired by the founder’s language-learning methodology, Emma positions itself against Duolingo and Babbel by prioritizing oral fluency via a 3D avatar available 24/7. The company plans to expand beyond English, with Spanish currently in development. | Les Echos
📇 Company: Miura Simulation
🔍 Description: French deeptech startup providing a data-centric platform that unifies fragmented simulation and engineering workflows. Through its Miura Nexus platform, the company helps industrial players in aerospace, energy, and automotive centralize simulation data, ensure traceability, and deploy AI to accelerate design cycles.
💻 Website: Miura Simulation
📍 HQ City: Nantes
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €2M
🏦 Investors: Atlantique Business Angels Booster, Pays de la Loire Participations, Centrale Innovation, Arts et Métiers Business Angels, Aerospace Angels; with banking support from Bpifrance, Crédit Agricole, Caisse d’Épargne, Crédit Mutuel
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Jose Aguado, Domenico Borzacchiello, Jordi Gómez
🗞️ News: Founded in 2020, Miura Simulation raised €2M to expand operations and accelerate development of Miura Nexus, its data-centric platform designed to replace siloed and locked simulation ecosystems. The company targets industrial sectors such as aerospace, energy, and automotive, enabling AI-driven simulation and faster engineering design cycles. | Finsmes
📇 Company: Ublo
🔍 Description: French proptech startup building a modern, cloud-based ERP platform for social and public housing providers. Ublo helps organisations digitise and automate rental management workflows—reducing administrative burden and improving transparency so teams can focus on residents.
💻 Website: Ublo
📍 HQ City: Paris
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €1.8M
🏦 Investors: Banque des Territoires (lead), The Moon Venture, 50 Partners, Kima Ventures (existing investor)
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Flavien Douetteau, Agathe Machavoine
🗞️ News: Ublo will use the funding to hire across product, tech, and sales, accelerate product development—particularly automation and analytics—and expand its footprint across new European markets. Founded in 2020, the company serves over 250 organisations in six countries, including major public institutions such as the City of Paris, Hospices Civils de Lyon, and Grand Paris Aménagement. | Tech Funding News
📇 Company: Cube (formerly Cube3)
🔍 Description: Angers-based tech accelerator operating a hybrid model that combines startup acceleration, direct investment, and in-house media production. Cube supports early-stage startups with business, legal, HR, and regulatory guidance while providing significant visibility through proprietary media formats and content creation.
💻 Website: Cube
📍 HQ City: Angers
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €700K
🏦 Investors: Bpifrance, Banque Populaire Grand Ouest, Nicolas Bacca (Ledger co-founder), Emmanuel Picot (Marco&Co family office), Jean-Pierre Nadir, Amixem
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Valentin Demé (CEO & Founder)
🗞️ News: Cube closed a €700K funding round to scale its hybrid accelerator model that merges financing, operational support, and media exposure. Launched in 2023, the accelerator has backed 20 startups selected from over 300 applicants and claims to have facilitated €7M in total startup funding. Cube differentiates itself by embedding content creation into its core offering, operating six in-house studios and producing formats such as Plan Cube and Spotlight, which together have generated 35M impressions and catalysed early investments, positioning Cube at the intersection of tech acceleration and the creator economy. | EU-Startups, Ouest France
📇 Company: Drama Studios
🔍 Description: Independent game studio developing next-generation, hyper-realistic video game experiences. Drama Studios is best known for Unrecord, an open-world FPS police game leveraging cutting-edge visuals and immersive design to push realism and player immersion.
💻 Website: Drama Studios
📍 HQ City: Rennes
🧗 Round: Series A
💰 Amount Raised: Undisclosed
🏦 Investors: Tencent (lead)
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Théo Hiribarne, Alexandre Spindler, Corentin Hery
🗞️ News: Drama Studios secured a Series A investment led by Tencent following a successful Seed round and the delivery of a strong early playable of Unrecord in under six months. The funding will be used to accelerate game production, expand the team, and scale both the studio and the project globally, reinforcing confidence in the studio’s creative and technical vision. | LinkedIn
📇 Company: C12
🔍 Description: French deeptech startup developing quantum processors based on spin qubits embedded in carbon nanotubes on semiconductor chips. Spun out of French academic research (CNRS and École normale supérieure), C12 focuses on building an industrially scalable path toward a universal quantum computer.
💻 Website: C12
📍 HQ City: Paris
🧗 Round: Public innovation grant (France 2030)
💰 Amount Raised: €13.9M (non-dilutive public funding)
🏦 Investors: French State via France 2030 (operated by Bpifrance); previous investors include BNP Paribas, Bpifrance, 360 Capital, and Varsity
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Pierre Desjardins (CEO & Co-Founder)
🗞️ News: C12 secured a €13.9M innovation grant under the France 2030 plan to accelerate the industrialisation of its quantum processors through the 24-month QARTIQ project. The funding will support chip fabrication, reproducibility, system integration, and connection to HPC and cloud environments. C12 is already working with industrial partners, including Air Liquide (chemical simulations), Thales (defence and radar applications), and Dassault Aviation (aerospace and multiphysics simulations), as it moves from laboratory validation toward scalable, industrial quantum computing systems. | Maddyness
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