🧮 Data Point: F**cked Unicorns
Well, here comes Mr. Merry Sunshine Julien Petit, founder of Mighty Nine, a strategic advisory firm focused on helping founders navigate venture capital, with a rather blunt look at Europe's recent unicorn euphoria. And the TL;DR is ce n’est pas bon, no es bueno, das ist nicht gut, non è buono, het is niet goed, it’s all gone a bit Pete Tong.
Dubbed "State of the European Unicorns Ecosystem," the 110-page report measures the change in valuations of Europe's 199 unicorns and concludes that 60 of them are no longer worthy of the name.
Petit uses a mark-to-market (MTM) methodology, comparing each company’s last-round valuation to a newly estimated current valuation. He calculates the current valuation based on revenue data from a triangulation of third-party databases, filings, media reports, and company disclosures, often producing estimates rather than hard figures, which are then standardized and used as the basis for recalculations.
In summary, this mainly matters for the UK, Germany, and France (37). While Europe's 199 unicorns raised €103.8 billion in venture capital, those three countries account for 62% of that total. And within that, it's often a handful of companies. So, it wouldn't take much for some of the systems to really take a giant punch in the lower extremities. (One interesting bit of trivia: Petit tracks "brain drain" in terms of unicorns who have moved their HQs to the U.S. France has the highest rate with 9 of 37 unicorns, 24%, relocated to the US. Yowch.)
In the bigger scheme of things, the problem was the pandemic-post-pandemic era, which left companies with distorted valuations they couldn't deliver. On their income statements, they may be okay, but they are nowhere near the growth that would justify the valuations.
Before we get to the bad, let's celebrate the good. France has one unicorn in the Top 10 in terms of valuation INCREASE: Exotec. According to Petit, its valuation has increased to €4.0B from €1.8B.
Now, on to the grim...
France ranks No. 2 on the F**cked Unicorn Leaderboard with 10 of 37:
So, whose nose has been bloodied? Well, here is Petit's list. Note: “Under Pressure” companies are those whose current mark-to-market valuation has fallen significantly below their last funding round (typically retaining around 40% of their value), while “Distressed” companies have experienced a near-total collapse in value, often retaining only a small fraction (around 5%) of their last-round valuation.
And the Biggest Loser is:
It's worth emphasizing again: This analysis does not imply that these companies are necessarily on the verge of insolvency or bankruptcy, though Petit does monitor press signals, such as reports of layoffs, downsizing, restructuring, etc. That's a whole 'nother thang.
Instead, the primary impact falls on investors who overpaid at the peak, with knock-on effects for founders and employees as lower valuations make future fundraising and equity outcomes more challenging. Which is like a major bummer, c’est dommage, qué pena, schade, che peccato, jammer, absolute pony and trap, mate.
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💸 Weekly Funding Recap: March 27
📇 Company: Hynaero
🏷️ Sectors: SpaceTech & Aerospace, ClimateTech, DefenseTech, DeepTech
🔍 Description: Hynaero is a French aerospace startup developing next-generation amphibious water bomber aircraft designed specifically for wildfire suppression. Its flagship program, the Fregate-F100, aims to deliver a high-capacity, purpose-built aerial firefighting platform with enhanced operational performance, safety, and mission systems. Unlike legacy aircraft adapted from other uses, Hynaero is building a dedicated solution to address the growing frequency and intensity of wildfires while strengthening European industrial sovereignty in specialized aviation.
💻 Website: Hynaero
📍 HQ City: Bordeaux
🧗 Round: Seed, Series A
💰 Amount Raised: €117M
🏦 Investors: Bpifrance, la Région Sud
👨💼👩💼 Founders: David Pincet
🗞️ News: Hynaero raised €117M in a combined Seed and Series A round led by Bpifrance with participation from Région Sud and an undisclosed investor to advance the development of its Fregate-F100 amphibious firefighting aircraft. The equity financing will fund the Concept and Preliminary Design phases, support industrial structuring in France, and scale engineering teams ahead of a planned Preliminary Design Review in 2028. Founded in 2023 and incubated by Bordeaux Technowest, Hynaero is positioning itself as a sovereign European alternative in aerial firefighting, addressing aging fleets and increasing wildfire risk. The round brings total project funding to over €125M, including €7M in France2030 grants. | PR
📇 Company: Leviathan Dynamics
🏷️ Sectors: ClimateTech, DeepTech
🔍 Description: Leviathan Dynamics is a French deeptech startup developing decarbonized cooling and industrial water treatment solutions based on a patented vacuum compressor technology. Its products include Turbevap, a low-temperature evaporative concentrator that enables industrial wastewater recycling, and Golgoth, a next-generation cooling and heating system that replaces fluorinated gases with water, reducing energy consumption and emissions while enabling dual heating/cooling functionality.
💻 Website: Leviathan Dynamics
📍 HQ City: La Courneuve
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €8.2M
🏦 Investors: Keenest, Banque des Territoires, daphni, Team For The Planet
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Naoufel Menadi
🗞️ News: Leviathan Dynamics raised €8.2M to scale its decarbonized cooling and industrial water treatment technologies and opened its first 1,000 m² factory in La Courneuve to industrialize production. The company’s Turbevap system is already generating commercial traction with industrial clients such as Michelin and UPSA, while its Golgoth solution aims to disrupt cooling systems by eliminating fluorinated gases and reducing energy consumption by up to 30%. Positioned at the intersection of climate tech and industrial sovereignty, Leviathan benefits from strong regulatory tailwinds, including the EU F-Gas phase-out and France’s water reuse strategy. The funding will support industrial scale-up, hiring, and continued product development ahead of a planned commercial launch of its cooling systems in 2027. | Banque des Territoires
📇 Company: EGIDE
🏷️ Sectors: DefenseTech, DeepTech, AI & MachineLearning
🔍 Description: EGIDE is a French defence technology startup developing next-generation, cost-efficient defence systems to counter the growing threat of low-cost drones and strike munitions. The company is building electrically propelled interceptors and Mystique, a hardware-agnostic software platform that integrates distributed sensors, AI-driven detection, and layered interception systems across air, ground, and maritime domains. Its approach enables scalable, modular, and rapidly adaptable defence capabilities tailored to modern warfare and the protection of critical infrastructure.
💻 Website: EGIDE
📍 HQ City: Paris
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €8M
🏦 Investors: Expeditions, Eurazeo, Heartcore Capital, Galion.exe, Kima Ventures
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Simon Calonne, Florian Audigier
🗞️ News: EGIDE raised €8M in a seed round co-led by Expeditions, Eurazeo, and Heartcore Capital to accelerate the development of affordable, scalable defence systems amid rising geopolitical tensions and the proliferation of low-cost drones. Founded in 2025 by former MBDA engineers, the company is developing electrically-propelled interceptors and its Mystique platform to enable AI-driven, multi-domain defence operations. The funding will support product development and the expansion of a pan-European engineering team, positioning EGIDE as a key player in rebuilding Europe’s defence capabilities with a new generation of cost-effective, adaptable systems. | PR
📇 Company: DiappyMed
🏷️ Sectors: HealthTech, AI & Machine Learning
🔍 Description: DiappyMed is a French medtech startup developing digital solutions to personalise diabetes treatment. Its flagship product, EkiYou, is a digital therapeutic app that calculates personalised insulin doses based on meals, physical activity, and blood glucose levels. Powered by an external algorithm, the solution acts as a “pocket diabetologist,” helping patients reduce cognitive burden while improving daily disease management. The company also developed EkiYou Carbs, a carbohydrate-counting app co-built with Montpellier University Hospital.
💻 Website: DiappyMed
📍 HQ City: Montpellier
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €5M
🏦 Investors: Ventech, AFI Ventures, Sofilaro, IRDI Capital Investissement
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Omar Diouri, Coralie Lefevre, Youssef Raqui
🗞️ News: DiappyMed raised €5M in a seed round led by Ventech and AFI Ventures to accelerate the deployment of its diabetes digital therapeutic solutions. Alongside the funding, the company secured a strategic partnership with Sanofi to support the rollout of EkiYou, its insulin-dosing app, and to increase adoption among healthcare professionals and patients. Founded in 2021, the Montpellier-based startup aims to secure reimbursement from the French healthcare system in 2026. The funding will support team expansion, R&D, and training initiatives, as the company positions itself within a rapidly growing ecosystem of diabetes care innovation driven by the recent reimbursement of remote monitoring solutions in France. | Maddyness
📇 Company: Bitstack
🏷️ Sectors: FinTech, Web3
🔍 Description: Bitstack is a French fintech app enabling users to save and invest in Bitcoin through automated and user-friendly mechanisms such as rounding up everyday purchases. Positioned as a regulated and accessible crypto savings platform, Bitstack allows individuals to build long-term Bitcoin exposure with recurring investment plans, targeting mainstream adoption of digital assets across Europe.
💻 Website: Bitstack
📍 HQ City: Paris
🧗 Round: Series A
💰 Amount Raised: €3.9M
🏦 Investors: 8,000+ retail investors via Crowdcube
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Alexandre Roubaud, Kabir Sethi
🗞️ News: Bitstack raised $4.5M through a crowdequity campaign on Crowdcube, attracting over 8,000 retail investors—setting a European record for the number of participants in such an operation. Initially targeting $2M, the round was oversubscribed with $26M in demand from more than 25,000 registered participants. Investors accessed the same valuation terms as Bitstack’s $15M Series A, which closed in December 2025, led by 13books Capital. With over 300,000 users and €300M saved in Bitcoin, the company will use the funds to expand across Europe, launch a euro account with IBAN and a Visa debit card offering Bitcoin cashback, and scale hiring. | Finyear
📇 Company: Drinkee
🏷️ Sectors: FoodTech, E-Commerce & Retail
🔍 Description: Drinkee is a French startup developing connected self-service beverage solutions for large-scale events and venues. Its technology enables attendees to serve themselves autonomously in a controlled and seamless way, reducing queues, minimizing waste, and increasing operational efficiency and margins for event organizers. The platform is designed for high-traffic environments such as festivals, stadiums, and concert venues.
💻 Website: Drinkee
📍 HQ City: Évry
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €3.4M
🏦 Investors: Provence Angels, Arts & Métiers Business Angels, Force Business Angels, TRAIL Capital, Epsilon Value, RP & Partners
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Hippolyte Taliercio, Léo Siara, Adrien Germain
🗞️ News: Drinkee raised €3.4M with participation from multiple France Angels networks and institutional investors to scale its connected self-service beverage solution across Europe. Already deployed across 70+ festivals and 25 major venues—including Solidays, Hellfest, Garorock, Stade de France, and Wimbledon—the startup aims to accelerate commercial expansion, hire talent, and launch the next generation of its platform. Positioned at the intersection of event operations and automation, Drinkee is targeting the transformation of food & beverage distribution in high-density environments. | France Angels
📇 Company: Piston
🏷️ Sectors: AI & Machine Learning, SaaS & Enterprise
🔍 Description: Piston is building an “Agentic ERP” designed for mid-market companies operating in physical industries. Unlike traditional ERP systems, Piston leverages AI to enable rapid deployment without requiring fully structured data upfront and introduces autonomous execution capabilities across operations such as quoting, order management, inventory tracking, and logistics. The platform replaces passive ERP databases with intelligent systems that actively manage workflows, automate back-office tasks, and adapt dynamically to business processes.
💻 Website: Piston
📍 HQ City: Paris
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €3M
🏦 Investors: daphni, Drysdale Ventures, OVNI Capital, Motier Ventures, Kima Ventures, Arthur Waller, Alexandre Ducoeur Martins, Cedric Sellin, Flavien Kulawik, Eric Fourrier
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Eric Lacaille, Florian Bachelot
🗞️ News: Piston raised €3M in a seed round led by daphni to develop the first “Agentic ERP” for mid-market companies in physical industries. The startup aims to solve longstanding ERP challenges—slow deployment and lack of automation—by building AI-native systems capable of learning from imperfect data and autonomously executing operational workflows. Positioned as an alternative to both legacy enterprise suites and fragmented tool stacks, Piston targets companies managing complex operations across production, inventory, and logistics. The funding will support product development and team expansion as the company seeks to define a new category of AI-powered enterprise software. | LinkedIn
📇 Company: K-Motors
🏷️ Sectors: DeepTech, CleanTech, Mobility & Transportation
🔍 Description: K-Motors is a French DeepTech company developing high-power electronic switching systems for electric mobility. Its core innovation, the PowerSwitcher, is an integrated module that replaces multiple traditional components (contactors, fuses, sensors) to improve battery protection, reliability, and energy efficiency. The technology also enables intelligent hybridisation of multiple energy sources within electric vehicles, enhancing performance and extending battery lifespan.
💻 Website: K-Motors
📍 HQ City: Peynier
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €3M
🏦 Investors: Bpifrance, Kyocera Ventures, Région Sud Investissement, LCL, Société Générale, CEPAC
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Nelson Lukes
🗞️ News: K-Motors raised €5M to transition from proof-of-concept to pre-industrial scale and begin deploying its PowerSwitcher technology for electric vehicles. The round includes €3M in equity and €2M in debt, with backing from Bpifrance, Kyocera Ventures, and regional financial institutions, reinforcing both its industrial and strategic positioning in France. The company has already secured pilot programs with OEMs and signed its first U.S. contracts in 2025. The funding will support industrialisation, initial client production in 2026, and commercial expansion across Europe and the U.S., as K-Motors aims to become a key player in next-generation electric mobility infrastructure. | Bpifrance
📇 Company: Nabu
🏷️ Sectors: AI & Machine Learning, SaaS & Enterprise
🔍 Description: Nabu is a French startup developing an AI-powered platform to automate customs declarations and streamline cross-border trade operations. Its technology transforms shipping documents and client instructions into ready-to-submit customs filings, reducing manual workload and improving efficiency across the logistics chain. The platform aims to modernize a largely underserved and outdated segment of international trade infrastructure.
💻 Website: Nabu
📍 HQ City: Strasbourg
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €3M
🏦 Investors: Getlink, Maersk Growth, InvestorX, Team Ignite Ventures, Techstars
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Arnaud Doly
🗞️ News: Nabu raised €3M in a round led by Getlink, which acquired a 24.9% stake via its subsidiary Getlink Services. Existing investors, including Maersk Growth, also participated. Founded in 2022, Nabu is building an AI-driven platform to automate customs processes, a historically under-digitized segment of global trade. Already deployed within Getlink’s operations, the solution reduces manual processing and accelerates logistics workflows. The funding will support product expansion, new features, and international growth across Europe, with plans to enter Germany and the UK next. | LinkedIn
📇 Company: MindDay
🏷️ Sectors: HealthTech
🔍 Description: MindDay is a French mental health app built on cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) principles, offering over 60 guided programs and 300+ interactive sessions addressing stress, anxiety, sleep, depression, and relationships. Designed with clinical input, the platform positions itself as an accessible, scientifically grounded daily mental health companion. Increasingly, MindDay operates through a B2B2C model, integrating into insurance and employer ecosystems to deliver preventive mental health services at scale.
💻 Website: MindDay
📍 HQ City: Paris
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €2M
🏦 Investors: Impactivist, INCO, Mutuelles Impact, XAnge
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Boris Pourreau
🗞️ News: MindDay raised €2M to accelerate its shift toward a distribution-led growth strategy focused on partnerships with insurers and mutuals. The company recently integrated Santéclair’s ecosystem, giving it access to nearly 10 million insured users via partners such as Allianz, MAAF, MMA, and GMF. With nearly 2 million downloads and 50,000 paying subscribers, MindDay is positioning itself as a key player in the evolving mental health app market, where growth increasingly depends on embedding solutions into healthcare and insurance infrastructures rather than direct-to-consumer acquisition. The funding will also support international expansion, starting with a full English-language launch targeting North America. | FrenchWeb
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