In this edition:

🧠 Antibiotics are failing. French biotech Phagos thinks the answer lies in nature’s own bacteria-killers: phages. With €25 million and an AI platform to match viruses with their prey, the startup could rewrite the rulebook on how the world fights infection. Find out how the AI boosted French biotech is paving the way to personalized medicine.

🧠 Claimy, a Paris startup backed by €1.5 million in pre-seed funding, is building an AI-powered platform to locate and reclaim lost royalties, attacking a $15 billion global problem that’s eroded transparency and trust in the booming music economy. Co-Founder and CEO Pierre-Alban Mulliez explains how the company is using AI and data science to address one of the entertainment industry’s most opaque financial systems.

Chris O'Brien + Helen O'Reilly-Durand

Headlines

🗞️ Mistral AI, the 800-pound gorilla of France's AI scene, is trading in its cozy Paris digs for a grand new headquarters in Montmartre that is "just a short walk from Sacré-Cœur," according to those sneaky journos at Maddyness. The decacorn, which just raised a kajillion euros and is now valued at €11.7 billion, is moving from the 10th to the 18th arrondissement in early 2026 to make room for its fast-growing team that is projected to hit 1,000.

“The funding round allowed us to solidify our position in the global AI ecosystem. In this context, our new headquarters is meant to be a true flagship, worthy of what we have become and of our ambitions. It’s also an important step to reinforce our roots in Paris,” Audrey Herblin-Stoop, Mistral AI’s Director of Public Affairs, told Maddyness.

The Maddyness story does not explicitly reveal the exact location of the new Mistral digs, but word on the street is that the likely spot is the freshly renovated Grands Magasins Dufayel. The building was constructed in the mid-19th century and was one of the city's original landmark department stores, back in olden times when people used to go to stores to buy stuff. Ask your grandparents about it, kids.

Construction company VINCI bought it in 2019 and, in partnership with Yrieix Martineau Architecture (YMA), set about renovating it under the ambitious-sounding name "Le projet WOW," which is the French term for, well, Wow, I guess.

On the other hand, if this is the new crib, well...Mistral has got itself a nice chunk of edificial eye candy in Paris's 18th district, the city's emerging startup hub | Maddyness

🗞️ Speaking of Mistral, the fast-rising AI powerhouse, is turning its sights on science. The startup is building a new division, Mistral for Science, to apply its AI muscle to fields like physics, chemistry, and biology, aiming to crack problems that stump human researchers. Co-founder Guillaume Lample says the company now has the scale and success to explore bold new frontiers after raising a kajillion euros and being now valued at €11.7 billion. | Sifted

🗞️ Dealroom dropped its Global Tech Ecosystem Index – Sector Edition 2025, and Paris placed #3 on the AI rankings. Kinda cool! 💪

That said, while we don't want to poop on anyone's parade, it's worth noting that when it comes to AI, the report also makes it clear that the Bay Area is a Devourer Of Worlds...

🗞️ Paris-based AI firm LightOn posted a 15% jump in first-half revenue despite a net loss of €3.7 million, as it ramped up spending on infrastructure and new hires. The company, Europe’s first listed GenAI player, said its annual recurring revenue hit €1.51 million by September and could surge up to €4 million by year-end, which means its revenues may soon be visible to the naked eye. LightOn, whose clients include Safran and the French Space Command, recently inked a partnership with ArianeGroup’s Sodern and is eyeing expansion into the Middle East. | Reuters

🗞️ Publicis, the ad giant, says 73% of its operations now run on AI, fueled by €12 billion in data and tech investments since 2015, helping it deliver 5.7% organic growth and outpace rivals. “AI alone does not work,” CEO Arthur Sadoun insists. But with the right foundations, he says, it’s clearly working for Publicis, he added. And weren't we all hoping AI would power more advertising in our lives? | Reuters

🗞️ Andreessen Horowitz coined one of its GenAI reports, "The AI Application Spending Report: Where Startup Dollars Really Go." And no, the answer is not, "Up in smoke?"! Hometown favorites Photoroom lands at No. 22 on this distinguished list:

🗞️ Abu Dhabi’s G42 is taking its AI ambitions global, with plans to launch a sovereign AI cloud in France as part of its push to build a network of “AI Factories” across Europe. The company has already set up advanced infrastructure in Grenoble, marking a major expansion of its supercomputing footprint alongside projects rolling out in the U.S., Africa, and Southeast Asia. | PR

🗞️ France is eyeing a tech-boost for its aging Mirage 2000D, now exploring AI-driven upgrades and new counter-drone weapons to keep the jet relevant in modern conflict. Drawing lessons from drone sieges like Ukraine’s, the service aims to outfit the platform with lower-cost munitions, smarter targeting software, and possibly reintegrate precision guidance systems. | AeroTime

ICYMI

🗞️ Inside TiHive: How a French Deeptech Startup Is Revolutionizing Quality Control, One Diaper at a Time | The Grenoble-based company just raised €8M to scale its terahertz-AI technology that can see inside products on production lines | The French Tech Journal

🗞️ VSORA: The French AI Chipmaker Taking on NVIDIA with High-Performance, Cost-Efficient AI Hardware | Backed by €40 million in funding, CEO Khaled Maalej believes the company is set to disrupt the AI hardware market with its Jotunn8 chip, leveraging a fabless model and advanced chiplet architecture to slash the cost of deploying large language models and generative AI at scale. | The French Tech Journal

🧠 How Phagos Plans to Kill Superbugs with AI and Nature’s Own Viruses

Founded in 2021 by technophile-entrepreneur Alexandros Pantalis and microbiologist Dr Adèle James, Phagos is on a mission to put an end to bacterial disease using nature’s original predator of bacteria: bacteriophages.

Their vision is to replace static antibiotics with “evolving drugs” built on AI and phage biology.

The company’s first application is in animal health, a sector heavily impacted by bacterial infections and antibiotic resistance.

Today, Phagos employs around 50 people, 90 % of whom specialize in microbiology, computer science, data, AI, and R&D. With a recently raised €25 million Series A, Phagos is ready to scale its veterinary solutions, with a horizon that extends to human health.

🧠 Claimy Wants to Use AI to End Music’s Missing Money Problem

Every year, billions of euros slip through the cracks of the global music economy. This includes unclaimed royalties due to misattributed metadata and “black box” payments that vanish into opaque databases.

For decades, this has been the industry’s open secret: The harder it’s become to track where a song is played, streamed, or remixed, the easier it’s been for money to go missing.

Now, a new French startup believes it can finally close that gap. Claimy, founded in Paris in 2023, has developed an AI-powered platform designed to locate and recover missing royalties at scale. The company, which recently raised a €1.5 million pre-seed round, is betting that smarter data and machine learning can bring long-overdue transparency and efficiency to one of the entertainment world’s most chaotic accounting systems.

And in the process, it can put much-needed money directly into the pockets of artists.

“The money is there,” said Claimy Co-Founder and CEO Pierre-Alban Mulliez. “It’s just got to be chased down.”

AI Funding News

For the week ending October 17, there were 6 AI startups that raised a total of €18.7 million.

📇 Company: Probabl
🔍 Description: French AI startup spun out from Inria and official operator of scikit-learn — the world’s most-used open-source machine learning library (2.5B+ downloads). Probabl develops industrial-grade, sovereign, and transparent data science solutions to help enterprises move from fragmented, artisanal ML practices to scalable, traceable, and responsible AI operations.
💻 Website: https://probabl.ai
📍 HQ City: Paris / Saclay / Sophia Antipolis / Berlin
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €13M (total funding €18.5M)
🏦 Investors: Serena, Capital Fund Management (CFM), Mozilla Ventures, French Tech Souveraineté (Bpifrance – France 2030)
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Yann Lechelle (CEO, ex-Scaleway), Gaël Varoquaux (Scientific Advisor, Inria), and 12 co-founders from the scikit-learn community
🗞️ News: Largest commercial open-source software (COSS) seed round in Europe to date. The funding will accelerate Probabl’s mission to industrialize open-source AI, expand internationally, and build enterprise-grade tools around scikit-learn. The company positions itself as Europe’s flagship for sovereign, open, and transparent AI — championing the philosophy that “open always wins.” | Maddyness, La Tribune, FrenchWeb

📇 Company: BiznessMatch
🔍 Description: French 'phygital' networking startup reinventing professional matchmaking for SMB leaders. BiznessMatch connects entrepreneurs directly through an AI-powered platform and a network of international business clubs—offering an alternative to LinkedIn by matching companies based on needs, competencies, and location rather than profiles or SEO visibility. The platform enables instant RFPs and quotations, complemented by physical meetings that strengthen real business relationships.
💻 Website: https://biznessmatch.com
📍 HQ City: Paris
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €1.8M
🏦 Investors: Undisclosed (private investors)
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Dimitri Pontif (Founder & CEO, ex-professional athlete and real estate entrepreneur)
🗞️ News: The funds will fuel AI development (natural language processing, multilingual translation, and data scraping optimization) and support international expansion with new BiznessMatch clubs planned in La Rochelle, Bordeaux, Nantes, Toulouse, the U.S., and China. The company positions itself as a “business-first” alternative to LinkedIn, blending digital efficiency with real-world connections. | Maddyness

📇 Company: Astriis
🔍 Description: French industrial deeptech startup developing predictive maintenance software that uses vibration analysis and AI to anticipate mechanical failures up to 18 months in advance. Its technology, built on 30 years of CNRS research, analyzes the vibrational “signature” of rotating machines (wind turbines, hydraulic turbines, etc.) to detect anomalies and prevent costly breakdowns.
💻 Website: https://www.astriis.com
📍 HQ City: Chambéry, France
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €1.7M (€700K equity + €1M loans)
🏦 Investors: Crédit Agricole, Grenoble Angels, Investessor, Samba (Savoie Mont Blanc), Amba (Arts et Métiers Business Angels), BNP Paribas, Bpifrance
👨💼👩💼 Founder: Nicolas Saubin (President & Founder)
🗞️ News: The funding will support Astriis’s commercial expansion, including three new hires. Its AI-driven platform, protected by nine patents, is already used by TotalEnergies and EDF, and is expanding internationally in wind, hydro, and industrial sectors. | Les Echos

📇 Company: OneTake AI
🔍 Description: French AI startup building a conversational video editing platform that allows users to edit, enhance, and professionalize videos simply by speaking in natural language. Its agentic AI automates cuts, removes silences, generates subtitles, and formats content for social platforms—offering entrepreneurs and creators a fast, intuitive way to produce professional-grade videos.
💻 Website: https://onetake.ai
📍 HQ City: Paris
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: $1M
🏦 Investors: 33 entrepreneur-users (community-led round, avg. ticket $30K)
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Sébastien Night (CEO, Centrale Nantes engineer; founder of Le Mouvement des Entrepreneurs Libres), Vladimir Rill (Co-founder)
🗞️ News: Funds will support the launch of OneTake 7, a breakthrough version integrating natural language understanding for conversational AI video editing, multi-format publishing, and patent filings. The round highlights OneTake AI’s strong community-driven model, with investors drawn from its own power users.

📇 Company: Vaultys
🔍 Description: French cybersecurity startup specializing in sovereign digital identity and post-quantum cryptography. Vaultys develops a decentralized, peer-to-peer suite of identity and access management (IAM) solutions — including VaultysID, SmartLink, and Console Shadow IT — designed to ensure full data sovereignty and protection against AI- and quantum-enabled cyber threats.
💻 Website: https://vaultys.com
📍 HQ City: Strasbourg, France
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €600,000
🏦 Investors: Alsace Business Angels (ABA), private investors (including Marie-Hélène Fagard / Fagard Associates), and Bpifrance
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Jean Williamson, François-Xavier Thoorens
🗞️ News: Vaultys closed its first fundraising round of €600,000 to accelerate the deployment of its sovereign IAM suite and announced a strategic partnership with the CEA-List institute for the development of decentralized cryptographic technologies. The company aims to bring military-grade security to enterprises and public institutions, ensuring full independence from foreign infrastructures.

📇 Company: Komu (ex-Contestio)
🔍 Description: French SaaS startup reimagining customer engagement in e-commerce through community building. Komu enables brands to transform their customers into engaged communities via interactive spaces, challenges, and co-creation features embedded directly in online stores. Its AI-powered platform boosts loyalty, basket size, and customer lifetime value.
💻 Website: https://www.komu.eu/
📍 HQ City: Paris, France
🧗 Round: Pre-seed
💰 Amount Raised: €700,000
🏦 Investors: Undisclosed
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Killian Olivier, Rémi Labatut
🗞️ News: Komu, incubated at HEC Paris, raised €700K to accelerate growth and expand its AI-powered community platform for e-commerce. Integrated with Shopify and Magento, Komu helps brands double purchase frequency, increase basket size by 30%, and boost lifetime value by 150%. The company aims to become Europe’s standard community layer for online retail. | LinkedIn

🗣️ Announcements 🗣️

🗣️ AI Startup Accelerator | For its 3rd edition, the AI Startup Accelerator program at Station F is partnering with SNCF Connect & Tech, Hugging Face, and HEC Paris Incubation & Acceleration Center to support French startups that are building the future of mobility through open source AI. For 6 months, you will have the opportunity to collaborate with the experts of our partners, to experiment with your solution on concrete use cases, to access real data, and to benefit from a strategic and technical mentorship to take your product to the next level. | Apply by October 31

🗣️ Pioneers AI Lab | The AI Lab unites the top 8 AI builders in Europe every 3 months to build global consumer and prosumer products at STATION F, Paris. | More details on the next application batch

📆 Events 📆

📆 AWS Gen AI Loft Paris at Station F | October 7 - 21 | The AWS Gen AI Loft is not limited to technology; it brings together start-ups, developers, investors, and industry experts. Whether you are looking for in-depth knowledge or expert answers, our Gen AI Lofts offer you all the support you need to make your projects a reality. | Registration and details

📆 CODE + MATTER Opening | October 21 | CODE + MATTER brings together Alexis André, Julien Espagnon, William Mapan, and Florian Zumbrunn. Four artists who write programs rather than prompts, transforming algorithms into paintings, sculptures, reworked prints, and installations. | Register

📆 AI x Oncology & Gene Editing | October 30 | Oncology and gene editing are no longer emerging fields; they are at an inflection point. ​AI-driven single-cell analysis, CRISPR variants beyond Cas9, and programmable recombinases are moving from proof-of-concept to clinical and industrial applications. These technologies are not only redefining therapeutic paradigms in cancer but also expanding into agriculture and synthetic biology. ​This evening convenes founders and investors at the frontier to examine how these innovations translate from the lab bench into platforms and products that can reshape industries. | Waiting List

📆 The European AI Championship 2025 - Launch party | November 5 |What is the European AI Championship? ​Coming soon: 15 of Europe’s top AI engineers will battle live on stage, building real-world solutions using AI tools. They will represent their country to win, and you'll be able to watch and cheer for them with 1500 fellow engineers and AI-curious minds. Experience a championship where code meets competition, and AI hype meets AI application, wrapped in a unique, entertaining show. Think Eurovision, but for AI builders! | Buy tickets

📆 Data & AI Leaders Summit | November 5-6 | Paris becomes the nerve centre of data and responsible artificial intelligence. Access a program rooted in business reality: case studies, AI audits, governance, industrialisation, and sustainability. France's AI ecosystem is dynamic but under pressure: talent shortages, projects stuck at the POC stage, regulatory uncertainties (AI Act), and poor-quality data. Data & AI Leaders Summit Paris helps you move forward with technical content, immediately applicable and designed for the field. | Register

📆 dotAI | November 6 | We’re putting the spotlight on the best engineers in fabulous stages, so that their work is beautifully wrapped, their ideas travel better, and so that future leading engineers can aspire for that recognition. | Register

📆 The Sovereign Cyber & Defence AI Forum | November 17 - November 20 | For ten years, European Cyber Week, organized by the Cyber Excellence Cluster and its members, has been bringing together French and European cybersecurity and cyberdefense players around a common goal: building sustainable digital sovereignty in line with the geopolitical challenges and commercial issues of the contemporary world. Civilian and military experts, startups and large groups, researchers and institutions: all will be present to discuss major technological, industrial, and societal issues. Cyber and artificial intelligence for defense, training, and guidance, Capture the Flag Challenge, wargaming, Bitflip, dual innovations, European and international defense, business and networking, resilience. | Register

📆 SophI.A Summit 2025 | November 19 - November 21 | The seventh edition of the international AI conference will take place at Sophia Antipolis Technology Park on the French Riviera, to reveal the latest advances in the field of artificial intelligence and its applications. This event brings together global AI experts in biology, health, mobility, and smart applications, covering both core technology and its applications, who will present their work through meetings, debates, round tables, and posters. | Buy Tickets

📆 Adopt AI | November 24 - 26 | The iconic Grand Palais will host the business-focused continuation of the AI Action Summit, led by President Macron alongside Heads of State and Government.Over three days, Fortune 500 CEOs, top researchers, and forward-thinking C-level leaders will showcase how AI is reshaping industries, driving strategy, and merging human and machine intelligence. | Buy Tickets

📆 ai-Pulse | December 4 | Hosted by Scaleway at Station F. Join leaders and engineers for a one-day technical conference dedicated to AI breakthroughs, research, and product demonstrations.| Register

📆 apidays Paris | December 9 - 11 | CNIT Forest, Paris | As Europe’s capital of tech, policy, and innovation, Paris provides the perfect setting to explore the convergence of APIs and AI. At the heart of this intersection, apidays Paris sparks essential conversations on data security, digital sovereignty, and sustainable innovation in the age of intelligent systems. | Buy Tickets

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