👋 Inside this week's edition:
👀 As the new year kicks off, we’re once again asking French VCs to peer into the crystal ball and tell us what they see on the horizon. Spoiler alert: the fog hasn’t entirely lifted, but patterns are starting to emerge.
Chris O'Brien + Helen O'Reilly-Durand
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Tech Talk
🛒🏷️ The sale of Paris-based AI MarTech startup Beyable to the UK's SaleCycle this month didn't lead to any SCREAMING HEADLINES, in part because the valuation wasn't disclosed, and in part because it doesn't appear that the company ever raised any outside VC. Still, the outcome for Beyable, the artist formerly known as Attuneo, is worth noting for a couple of reasons. First, Beyable was founded in 2014 by Julien Dugaret, Florian Papillon, Saidi Mohamed, and Julien Delhomme. Which, in AI years, makes it approximately 1,500 years old. The company apparently managed to get along just fine for a time, not raising money and just doing its thang. Then, according to its filings, it hit some bumps in the road around 2023-2024, where profits fell. The company underwent some kind of restructuring to improve its liquidity and debt situation. From the outside, this may have looked worrisome. However, in reality, the company was in the midst of some kind of generative AI transformation and in October 2023 had been accepted into the first cohort of Microsoft's Generative AI Startup Studio program in Paris. And now, two years later, it gets snapped up by the Brits. (I wouldn't be surprised if it has raised some kind of Seed round at some point during those 2 years...) By joining forces with SaleCycle, the combined group aims to create a strong European alternative to US-dominated marketing suites, spanning personalization, identity, and full-funnel conversion. In any case, one can choose their own moral of this story. But it was certainly a telling example of a capital-efficient French SaaS success finding scale through smart M&A rather than heavy VC backing. | Fashion Network, BGF, LinkedIn
⚖️👮 Once hailed as a guru of French tech, The Family co-founder Oussama Ammar is now spending a fair bit of time with prosecutors. France’s financial crimes unit has been investigating him since June 2023 for alleged tax fraud and money laundering, following a complaint from the Ministry of the Economy. That’s on top of a separate judicial probe accusing him of siphoning off millions from The Family, claims pushed by his former partners after his dramatic 2021 exit. Arrested at Nice airport in early 2025, Ammar said he was quickly released, though the legal baggage clearly stayed behind. With courts in the UK and the Cayman Islands already ordering him to pay more than €14 million, the fallen tech star’s empire now looks less like disruption and more like a cautionary tale. | Maddyness
🟢🥬 Hexa is officially going green. The startup studio has tapped Selency founder Maxime Brousse as Partner to launch Carbon Zero, its first climate-focused cohort under the new Hexa Sprint program, handing out €500k for roughly 10% equity to 12 early-stage startups.
After raising €50 million, scaling Selency, and angel-investing in 70+ startups, Brousse is here to get his hands dirty. Carbon Zero will back climate startups that aim to replace legacy systems, not politely optimize them, betting that climate wins only when economics do. | Hexa
🤑📲 Speaking of Hexa, the artist formerly known as eFounders, one of its firstborn startups, is all grown up. It took Aircall a respectable eight years to crawl from zero to $100 million in ARR. Then it apparently found the turbo button. In just three more years, the cloud telephony startup doubled that figure, crossing $200 million in ARR by the end of 2025 and quietly joining the very exclusive club of French Tech “double centaurs.” Now profitable, with 22,000 customers and no urgent need for fresh cash, Aircall is suddenly very zen about its future and much less chatty about that once-hyped Nasdaq IPO. Based now in New York, the company is now piling on AI features, global expansion, and bigger ambitions. Next stop, according to management: $500 million in ARR. | Les Echos
🏦💪 Karmen bagged a €50m financing line from Sienna Investment Managers, proving that in a tightening credit market, institutional money still flows to fintechs that actually lend. This private debt facility is designed to fuel Karmen’s short-term BFR financing for TPEs and SMEs, with larger tickets and broader sector coverage. The deal marks Karmen’s third refinancing in four years and follows its late-2025 takeover of Silvr, underscoring a quiet consolidation underway in alternative SME finance. As banks pull back, fintech lenders with solid underwriting and a bit of institutional patience are picking up the slack. | Finyear
French VC Outlook 2026: More concentration, Fewer Bets, Bigger Stakes
French VC is entering 2026 with fewer deals, bigger checks, and far less room for error.
After a bruising 2025 marked by political chaos and thinning early-stage funding, capital is concentrating into fewer funds, fewer startups, and much higher-stakes bets. AI still dominates, but the mood has shifted from flashy apps to hard infrastructure, defence, sovereignty, and energy resilience. Beneath the headline fundraising numbers, several top investors warn the system is more fragile than it looks.
Buckle up: this is the year where conviction replaces optimism, and mistakes get expensive. We take the pulse of France's VCs.
💸 Top Funding Deals 💸
📇 Company: Harmattan AI
🏷️ Sectors: DefenseTech, AI & Machine Learning, Aerospace
🔍 Description: Defense technology company developing vertically integrated autonomous systems, including AI-enabled ISR and strike UAVs, layered air-defense solutions, drone interception, electronic warfare platforms, and C2 systems. Harmattan AI focuses on sovereign, controlled autonomy deployed at scale for NATO and allied forces.
💻 Website: www.harmattan.ai
📍 HQ City: Paris, France
🧗 Round: Series B
💰 Amount Raised: $200M
🏦 Investors: Dassault Aviation
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Mouad M’Ghari (CEO & Co-Founder)
🗞️ News: Harmattan AI raised a $200M Series B led by Dassault Aviation as part of a strategic partnership to integrate controlled, sovereign AI into next-generation combat aviation systems. The funding will support global scaling, expansion into new operational domains, and industrial-scale manufacturing of AI-enabled ISR, electronic warfare, and autonomous defense platforms, with applications across Rafale F5 and future UCAS programs. |
📇 Company: FineHeart
🏷️ Sectors: HealthTech & BioTech
🔍 Description: FineHeart is a clinical-stage medical technology company developing next-generation Active Implantable Medical Devices (AIMDs) for advanced heart failure. Its flagship product, FlowMaker®, is the world’s first fully implantable cardiac output accelerator, designed to work in synergy with natural heart contractions while minimizing energy consumption and infection risk.
💻 Website: Fineheart
📍 HQ City: Bordeaux
🧗 Round: Series C
💰 Amount Raised: €35M
🏦 Investors: Groupe Pasteur Mutualité, Groupe Etchart, European Innovation Council (EIC), EIB Fund, FH Founders, Lurra, IRDI Capital Investment, Groupe Doliam, NACO, Aquiti Gestion, Galia Gestion, Broadview Ventures, M Capital, UI Investment, Verve Capital
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Arnaud Mascarell (CEO & Co-founder); Dr. Stéphane Garrigue (CSO & co-inventor), Dr. Philippe Ritter (Co-inventor)
🗞️ News: FineHeart secured €83M in combined private and public funding to accelerate the clinical and industrial development of its FlowMaker® device and to help structure the European Active Implantable Medical Devices (AIMD) sector. The €35M Series C first closing activates €48M in non-dilutive grants from the IPCEI Tech4Cure program, positioning FineHeart as a cornerstone of Europe’s healthcare sovereignty strategy in advanced implantable cardiology devices. | Les Echos
📇 Company: Enodia Therapeutics
🏷️ Sectors: AI & Machine Learning
🔍 Description: Develops small-molecule drugs that trigger degradation of disease-causing proteins as they are being synthesized, using a platform combining proteomics and machine learning.
💻 Website: Enodia Therapeutics
📍 HQ City: Paris
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €20.7M
🏦 Investors: Elaia; Pfizer Ventures; Bpifrance Elaia Partners, Bpifrance, Pfizer, Sambrinvest, MACSF, Investsud, Argobio, Institut Pasteur, Wallonie Entreprendre
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Caroline Demangel, Yves Ribeill
🗞️ News: Enodia will advance its lead program toward preclinical candidate selection, with ambitions across inflammatory, autoimmune, and viral diseases. | Endpoint News
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