👋 Edito 👋

It was with great pleasure that I joined the Motley Crew of daphni's Cristian Pinto & Erica Delamare on their Venturing Abroad podcast. We talked about my unlikely path from a misspent youth in Kansas to a nomadic journalist career that took me to North Carolina and the innovative bowels of Silicon Valley. After years of reporting on Web 2.0, the return of Apple, and yada, yada, yada...I landed in France, where in the unlikeliest twist of all...my career got a helping hand from none other than...François Hollande! Of course, we also chat about navigating French bureaucracy, chronicling La French Tech’s incredible growth, the challenge of the current downturn, misconceptions about Silicon Valley and La French Tech, cultural shocks, journalism in the age of AI, and a whole lotta mo'!

Inside this week's edition:

👀 Upway raised $60M in Series C funding to expand its refurbished e-bike empire across Europe and the US. With sales doubling yearly and operations already profitable in multiple markets, Co-founder and COO Stéphane Ficaja explains how Upway is chasing its goal of 1M bikes by 2030.

Chris O'Brien + Helen O'Reilly-Durand

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Tech Talk

🇫🇷🚀 La French Tech Mission announced 80 startups selected for the French Tech 2030 program. By the numbers:

• 🎓 Deeptech: 83% of founders hold a PhD or engineering degree
• 💰 Traction: 75% are already commercial, racking up €138M revenue in 2024, with 1,300 net hires projected for 2025. Collectively: €1.1B raised, 353 patents, 45 factories either live or planned.
• 🌍 Going global: Startups aren’t staying local — physical/commercial presence in 53 countries, with 55% in Europe, 51% in North America, and growing footprints in Asia, MENA, Africa, and Oceania.
• 🤖 Hot sectors: AI dominates (18 startups), cybersecurity follows (14), and robotics is booming (13). Notable names: Comand AI, GitGuardian, Enchanted Tools, Shark Robotics, Quandela.

Each anointed startup receives a basket of goodies in the form of a one-year, personalized and collective support package from the French government that includes a dedicated startup manager who helps them with strategic areas such as financing, international growth, recruitment, regulatory issues, and intellectual property. They also get enhanced visibility and access to funding and commercial opportunities, along with tailored administrative and business assistance from a network of 60 public and private partners, plus inclusion in an elite community of French tech leaders. We should all be so lucky. | Maddyness, La French Tech Mission

🏗️ 🇫🇷 Mistral AI’s new HQ. When Maddyness said Mistral AI had secured a grand new headquarters not far from Sacré-Cœur in Montmartre, we heard speculation it would be in the fancy pants Grands Magasins Dufayel, the historic shopping center that underwent a grand restoration. But, nope! Turns out the unicorn has instead chosen the Marcadet Belvédère complex in further northern Paris. It is also a gleaming, low-carbon campus with rooftop views of Sacré-Cœur (if you squint). The 31,000 m² site mixes offices, student housing and shops. It's part of a bet to revitalize a rather défavorisé corner of the 18th Arrondissement. Que la gentrification commence! | Architectural porn here.

🙋‍♀️ 👉 Serena has appointed Margaux Gregoir as Partner to boost the growth of its corporate-focused investment funds. With a track record spanning Société Générale, Luko, and Alven, Gregoir brings deep expertise in fintech, insurtech, and climate tech. Her arrival underscores Serena’s ambition to cement its role as the go-to partner for major European corporates seeking to harness innovation - particularly in AI -as a driver of long-term competitiveness.

💶 🇫🇷 Many of France’s wealthiest tech founders may have breathed a sigh of relief this week as Parliament rejected the proposed “Zucman tax.” This wealth levy targeted high-net-worth individuals and startup shareholders. The move spares many of France’s top entrepreneurs from what critics dubbed a “tax on innovation,” aimed at redistributing extreme fortunes. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu, steering a fragile budget without relying on the constitutional 49.3 shortcut, called the 2026 plan a “budget of transition.” His team is now searching for middle ground between fiscal discipline and investment in growth sectors. For now, the tech ecosystem avoids a new layer of uncertainty. But with spending pressures mounting and the deficit widening, the reprieve may prove temporary. | Les Échos

🦾 💸 More than 100 entrepreneurs from 26 countries have joined forces to launch United Founders, an €80 million pan-European fund focused on deeptech, AI, health, and security. Born out of a frustration with Europe’s fragmented venture capital scene, the initiative blends investment and community: founders investing in founders. With hubs spanning Paris, London, Munich, and Prague, the group aims to back early-stage startups and help them scale globally, targeting Europe’s next generation of “decacorns.” The first deals are AI and healthtech and hint at a new continental ambition: Make Europe Competitive Again (MECA!) in the global venture tech race. | Maddyness

🩺 👨‍⚕️France’s healthtech darling Doctolib is under fire after the country’s competition watchdog slapped it with a €4.6 million fine for abusing its dominant market position. The Paris-based unicorn is valued at €5.8 billion and used by millions of patients to book doctor appointments. But it was accused of locking healthcare practitioners into exclusive contracts and squeezing out rivals. Regulators also took aim at Doctolib’s 2018 acquisition of MonDocteur, which internal documents allegedly described as a move to “kill” a competitor. Doctolib, which now operates in four European countries, has hit back, calling the decision a “misunderstanding” and announcing plans to appeal. The case reignites France’s broader debate over how to rein in its most powerful tech champions. | Sifted

👾👽 STATION F just dropped its annual Future 40 – 2025 Edition and to the shock of absolutely no human in existence, it is laden with AI companies. Using our Proprietary Back-Of-The-Napkin-LLM, it would appear that 26 to 28 of the companies are either AI-native or AI-powered companies (agentic systems, GenAI, AI OS, AI-native tools) or Deeptech or AI-adjacent (using AI in data, robotics, biotech, or energy). Nearly three-quarters of founders are engineers, 17 hold PhDs, and 42% repeat founders. | Station F, Les Echos

💡🏃 As New and First Hexa CEO Matthieu Gombeaud recently threatened/promised to do, the startup studio is moving faster and launching new stuff. In this case: Hexa Sprint, a new bridge between its Start and Scale programs. It's an acceleration program for early-stage startups gearing up for their first fundraise. Each six-month cohort brings together around fifteen teams who receive €500,000 in funding and tailored mentoring through Hexa’s “10x Method.” The inaugural cohort focuses on European defense and dual-use tech, led by new partner Guillaume Lerouge, formerly of Thales. Ultimately, the plan is to support dozens of startups each year across AI, DeepTech, and hardware. | France Forbes

⚖️ 👩‍⚖️ A landmark moment in France’s digital regulation: the Paris prosecutor’s office has opened a preliminary investigation into TikTok, suspected of endangering the health and lives of its users. Triggered by a report from Socialist MP Arthur Delaporte, the probe has been entrusted to the Brigade de lutte contre la cybercriminalité (BL2C) and follows alarming parliamentary findings about the app’s psychological impact on minors. French authorities are scrutinizing TikTok’s algorithm for possible accusations of pushing vulnerable users toward harmful content, a first in France’s legal landscape. The investigation targets serious offenses, including incitement to suicide and data system manipulation, potentially exposing TikTok to heavy penalties. TikTok, for its part, has rejected the accusations, insisting it offers strong safety protections for teens and is cooperating with French regulators. | FrenchWeb

Upway's Journey To Transforming The E-Bike Market

Upway Co-founder and COO Stéphane Ficaja is calling in by video from the company's warehouse in Gennevilliers, northwest of Paris. He pauses for a moment to swing around his laptop camera slightly to show the rows of e-bikes waiting for refurbishment.

"We have all the bikes here," Ficaja said, with a hint of pride.

In these days of virtual call backdrops, this one is far more fitting for a company that has quietly built the largest online bike shop in Europe, albeit one that doesn't sell a single new product. Instead, it has pioneered the market for refurbished e-bikes, selling more than 100,000 over the past five years and expanding to nine countries.

With sales doubling since last year and projected to double again next year, the company announced on Thursday that it had raised a $60 million Series C funding round led by A.P. Moller Holding with participation from Galvanize, Ora Global, and continued support from existing investors, including Sequoia Capital. That brings Upway's total funding to more than $125 million since its founding in 2021.

I interviewed Ficaja earlier this year on stage at VivaTech 2025 about his background, including his time working at Uber, for a session called "Beyond Two Wheels: How Upway is Rethinking Light Mobility." We caught up on Thursday after the funding announcement to discuss the latest news, and it's clear that the company's ambition and momentum have only grown since we last spoke.

Ficaja said Upway had not intended to raise more money this year. But given the acceleration in the business, they decided to seize their chance.

"The market for people buying an e-bike every year is pretty huge. So the opportunity is very big," he said. "And if anything, what I learned working at Uber is that when the opportunity is big, you don't want to be constrained."

💸 Top Funding Deals 💸

📇 Company: nextProtein
🔍 Description: nextProtein is a Paris-based AgTech company producing sustainable insect-based ingredients — protein powder (nextMeal), oil (nextOil), and fertilizer (nextGrow) — for aquaculture, livestock, and pet food. Using a circular production model that relies on low-value agricultural by-products, nextProtein delivers cost-efficient, low-impact alternatives to fishmeal and other conventional proteins. Its operations span France and Tunisia, where it is expanding to industrial scale.
💻 Website: https://www.nextprotein.co
📍 HQ City: Paris, France
🧗 Round: Series B
💰 Amount Raised: €18 million (plus €4 million in senior debt)
🏦 Investors: Swen Capital’s Blue Ocean Fund (co-lead), British International Investment (co-lead), Mirova, RAISE Impact; with debt financing from Société Générale, CIC Paris Innovation, and Banque des Start-ups by LCL
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Mohamed Gastli (CEO) and Syrine Chaalala (General Manager)
🗞️ News: nextProtein raised €18M in Series B funding to launch its second production facility in Tunisia, capable of producing 12,000 tons of insect-based ingredients annually — including 2,500 tons of protein powder. The new site will help the company reach profitability and compete at commodity scale with conventional protein sources. Investors highlighted nextProtein’s leadership in sustainable agri-food innovation and its potential to reshape global feed markets. | Feed Planet

📇 Company: Fairmat
🔍 Description: Fairmat is a Paris-based deeptech company pioneering the recycling of carbon fiber composites through advanced AI, robotics, and its patented Infinity Recycling process, which enables near-infinite reuse of materials. Its “FairFactories” in France and the U.S. combine software, automation, and machine learning to deliver ultra-efficient, circular production for sectors such as mobility, energy, sports, and construction.
💻 Website: https://www.fairmat.tech
📍 HQ City: Paris, France
🧗 Round: Strategic / Growth Extension
💰 Amount Raised: €10 million
🏦 Investors: Infinity Recycling (Circular Plastics Fund, lead investor)
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Benjamin Saada (Founder & CEO)
🗞️ News: Just seven months after raising €51.5M, Fairmat secured an additional €10M in equity from Infinity Recycling to accelerate global industrialization of its recycled composites and expand into new verticals. This marks Infinity Recycling’s first investment in France and reinforces Fairmat’s leadership in sustainable industrial deeptech. The company now operates two factories (France and U.S.) and produces between 6,000–10,000 m² of recycled composite material per month, aiming for full circularity by 2027. | FrenchWeb

📇 Company: Tsuga
🔍 Description: Tsuga is a French AI-native observability platform built on a Bring Your Own Cloud (BYOC) model, enabling enterprises to deploy observability tools directly within their own cloud environments (AWS, GCP, Azure, etc.). Designed to eliminate data transfer markups, enhance governance, and provide full control, Tsuga merges the simplicity of SaaS with the security and cost-efficiency of on-prem. The platform is open-source-first and uses AI to proactively monitor and optimize performance, turning observability into a competitive advantage.
💻 Website: https://www.tsuga.com/
📍 HQ City: Paris, France
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €8.7 million
🏦 Investors: General Catalyst (lead), Singular, with angel participation from Amjad Masad (Replit), Charles Gorintin (Alan, Mistral AI), Jonathan Benhamou (Resilience), Olivier Bonnet (BlaBlaCar), and Philippe Corrot (Mirakl)
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Gabriel-James Safar (CEO, ex-Madumbo & Datadog) and Sébastien Deprez (ex-Madumbo & Datadog)
🗞️ News: Emerging from stealth with €8.7M in Seed funding, Tsuga aims to redefine observability by combining AI-native insights, BYOC deployment, and open-source integration. The funds will accelerate product development and expand its engineering and customer success teams as it brings its next-generation observability platform to market. | EU Startups, Tech EU

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