👋 Inside this week's edition:
👀 The cost is staggering, the competition fierce, but France's tech ecosystem continues its annual pilgrimage to Las Vegas for CES. We look at the numbers and try to understand this nuttiness. The delegation is smaller, and we've put together a database of attendees so you can see who made the annual trek.
Chris O'Brien + Helen O'Reilly-Durand
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Tech Talk
💸 📉 French Tech M&A Hit a Wall in 2025. Deal volume rose 15% last year, but deal value plummeted 73% to €4.1B, back to 2020 levels. Only six mega-deals topped €100M, including Gojob and Younited. IPOs were practically extinct (just one: Younited via SPAC). Entrepreneurs are cashing out, happy with €20 - €30M exits, but the ecosystem misses the mega-moves that recycle capital. Growth equity funds are stepping in to consolidate promising startups, but don’t expect fireworks in 2026: political uncertainty and election season loom. French M&A might be busy…just don’t call it booming. | Les Echos
👋 💼 Fanny Moizant Exits Vestiaire Collective After 16 Years. The cofounder of the French luxury resale platform leaves following recent organizational changes, a move she describes as neither expected nor chosen. "I am leaving the company as part of the recent organizational changes. This was not a decision I initiated, nor one I expected, but I accept that it marks the end of an extraordinary chapter," she wrote on LinkedIn. Moizant’s exit comes as new CEO Bernard Osta pushes international expansion (hello, US & Asia!) and ramps up AI for buyers and sellers. Vestiaire, valued at €1.1B in 2023 and still unprofitable, had shelved IPO plans in a tough market. Moizant added, "As for me, I’m OK. Through this difficult chapter, I received an unexpected gift: it helped me truly understand that 'In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.' (Albert Camus) I don’t know exactly what comes next yet, but I move forward with energy, resilience, and fire in my belly." | Maddyness, LinkedIn
👨⚖️⚖️ A Paris court on Monday delivered a long-overdue reality check to the online rumor mill, convicting 10 people for cyberbullying France’s first lady, Brigitte Macron, over grotesque false claims about her gender and sexuality. The defendants—aged 41 to 65—earned themselves prison sentences (some suspended), mandatory cyberbullying training, temporary social media bans, and a collective bill of nearly $12,000 in damages. Judges cited the “particularly degrading, insulting, and malicious” nature of posts that ricocheted across the internet, sometimes racking up tens of thousands of views under the guise of “humor.” Brigitte Macron, who skipped the trial but spoke publicly about the toll, said the case was meant to set an example, one that suggests online conspiracy theories are not, in fact, consequence-free performance art. | LA Times
🏗️ 🤖 BTP Startups Trade “All-Digital” for Real-World Impact. French construction and infrastructure startups are swapping flashy apps for boots-on-the-ground innovation. Leonard, VINCI’s innovation platform, says the new wave focuses on decarbonization, safety, and productivity, with AI embedded directly into equipment, machines, and materials, not just dashboards. Startups like HyLight (drones instead of helicopters), Strong By Form (low-carbon composites), and Ostrea (recycled shells) are turning regulations and climate challenges into business opportunities. Launch Day, January 14, will showcase 50 of these field-ready solutions. BTP enthusiasts, click here to attend | Maddyness
👁️👋 Prophesee founder Luca Verre announced his departure as CEO of the troubled neuromorphic vision pioneer. Behind the gratitude he expressed, the timing is telling: the deeptech darling has executed a sharp pivot toward defense, riding the drone-war boom after a bruising year marked by a blocked fundraising round and a stint in court-supervised restructuring. Once constrained by Sony and slowed by China exposure, Prophesee has refocused on defense and industrial markets, where its event-based “metavision” sensors—modeled on the human retina—are now detecting drones and inspecting factories instead of chasing smartphones. With roughly 70% of revenue coming from industrial clients and defense traction accelerating, the company is trimming risk, dialing back consumer ambitions, and aiming for profitability next year. | LinkedIn
🛠️ 💼 Sociologist Marion Flécher argues that the startup world doesn’t overthrow capitalism...it dresses it in hoodies. Her research shows that while startups flatten hierarchies and preach autonomy, they introduce new forms of control: employees are nudged to overcommit, self-discipline, and even overperform. The result is loyal, engaged teams… but also porous work-life boundaries, burnout risks, and silent suffering. Startups may look “cool,” but behind the ping-pong tables, the rules of capitalism still apply, just with a friendlier face. | Le Monde
💸🚗 Blablacar SPV at 90% Discount. According to our friends at Les Echos, a French Tech entrepreneur offered their Blablacar SPV shares at a 90% discount in a December email to a handful of investors — only if the deal closed before December 29. The motive was likely tax-driven, in their opinion. Such unicorn discounts are increasingly common for 2021–22-era tech darlings; raise new funds today, and most would probably miss their “unicorn moment.” | Les Echos
💹 🌍 Akeneo Posts Strong Growth, Still in the Red. The Nantes-based product info specialist grew revenue 23% to €63.4M in 2024 (from €51.4M in 2023) while narrowing losses to €13M (versus €29.5M). With 400 employees (60% in France) and subsidiaries from the US to Germany, the company completed its 2023 acquisition of Unifai to strengthen data reliability. Despite growth, profitability remains elusive, but international expansion and solid funding (€135M in 2022) signal ambition. | Les Echos
⚖️ 🚀 European Rules will Hit French Startups in 2026. Brace yourself: the AI Act kicks in August (high-risk AI systems, transparency, and innovation sandboxes), the Data Act makes real-time access to connected-device data mandatory by September, and the Cyber Resilience Act adds new security reporting obligations starting this year. Add the proposed 28th regime for startups (think “European Delaware”), NIS2 for cybersecurity, electronic invoicing, and pay transparency rules, and you’ve got enough regulation to make any founder double-check their compliance checklist. The advice is to stay informed, start early, and maybe invest in a good lawyer. | Les Echos
French Tech's Vegas Gamble: Why Hundreds Of Startups Still Bet Big on CES
There's just something about the French and CES. I've never been able to figure it out.
But still, once again, early January rolls around, and the massive French delegation of startups has flown across the pond to Vegas, baby. Accompanied by Business France or a regional government or some other sugar mommy/daddy.
There are more than 100 startups this year at the mega-mega tech trade show, making what has become both a ritual and a calculated risk.
Why?
"A place that allows you to meet the world in four days and sign contracts in two hours — you won't find that anywhere else," Stéphanie Pernod, deputy president for economic affairs of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, which brought 36 startups to Nevada, told Le Figaro.
Pulling from a variety of different sources, we put together a handy dandy database of 111 French tech companies at CES 2026.
💸 Top Funding Deals 💸
📇 Company: BrightHeart
🔍 Description: Paris-based medtech startup specializing in AI-powered prenatal ultrasound. BrightHeart assists obstetricians by analyzing ultrasound images in real time—particularly complex organs like the fetal heart—to improve early detection of congenital malformations, reduce diagnostic errors, and streamline clinical workflows.
💻 Website: BrightHeart
📍 HQ City: Paris
🧗 Round: Series A
💰 Amount Raised: €11M
🏦 Investors: Odyssée Venture (lead), GO Capital; participation from Sofinnova Partners, clinicians, and medical technology experts
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Cécile Dupont (CEO)
🗞️ News: BrightHeart raised €11M in a Series A to accelerate its expansion in the United States, strengthen its European presence, and continue improving its AI-powered prenatal ultrasound platform. Founded in 2022, the company previously raised €2M in seed funding from Sofinnova Partners. In 2025, BrightHeart secured five FDA authorizations, enabling future clinical deployment in the US and reinforcing its regulatory and scientific credibility. | Maddyness
📇 Company: Quideos
🔍 Description: French fintech specializing in protecting farmers, cooperatives, and agri-food companies against agricultural price volatility. Quideos designs price-hedging contracts that allow clients to fix purchase or sale prices in advance, improving margin visibility while avoiding speculative use.
💻 Website: Quideos
📍 HQ City: France
🧗 Round: Series A
💰 Amount Raised: €5.2M
🏦 Investors: Demeter (lead), Breega; participation from Groupe Crédit Agricole, Clint Capital, and business angels
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Gaël Pagès, Mickaël Delmas (CEO)
🗞️ News: Quideos raised €5.2M to scale the commercial deployment of its agricultural price-protection solutions, convert existing commercial leads into active clients, and prepare team expansion from 2026. Founded in 2023, the startup operates under a regulated investment firm license obtained after 18 months of approval by the ACPR and AMF. The company aims to cover €1B in agricultural transactions by 2029, with initial growth focused on France before expanding across Europe. | Maddyness
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