In this edition:
🧠 In an industry where even a two-centimeter error can derail a multimillion-euro project, Freeda has raised €3.4M to bring the precision of AI to construction plans to stop costly mistakes from happening before a single brick is laid.
🧠 Despite U.S. giants like OpenAI and Anthropic dominating headlines and fundraising, Accel’s 2025 Globalscape report finds European AI application startups reaching 66% of U.S. levels, the highest ever over the past decade.
Chris O'Brien + Helen O'Reilly-Durand
Headlines
🗞️ Yann "the man" (which, alas, does not rhyme when pronounced with a French accent) LeCun is reportedly saying au revoir to Herr TechBro-meister Mark Zuckerberg and heading off to start his own venture, according to the Financial Times. LeCun is one of the godfathers (though not in a mafia sense) of modern AI and longtime conscience (for whatever that was worth) of Meta’s research wing. But after more than a decade building Meta’s FAIR lab, LeCun seems less than thrilled with Zuck’s new “move fast and burn $100 billion on AI” strategy. The Frenchie AI pioneer now finds himself reporting to 28-year-old Alexandr Wang, the $14B man from Scale AI who reportedly has been a bit of one. So, apparently, LeCun is like, yeah, nope, see ya. | Financial Times
🗞️ France’s newest indie art-school rock phenomenon, Slow Blackwave Voltage, announced the release of their debut album, Electric Glass. The band described the disc as an immersive, cinematic exploration of tension, texture, and modern alienation. Formed in the creative crucible of Paris’s left-bank studio scene, the five-piece band blends minimalist composition, noir-pop atmosphere, and analog grit into a sound that feels both intimate and electrified. With their dark palette, understated confidence...
...what? sorry...hang on...what's that? I'm getting a note from the producers...
Oh, sorry. My bad.
Actually, that's the co-founders of Beside, an AI startup that thinks your phone deserves a personal assistant with Ivy League credentials, and that just strutted out of stealth mode and into a $32 million funding round. The founders include Maxime Germain (CEO, who sold his previous startup to insurtech Alan), Bobby Giangeruso (Product), Aymeric Beaumet (CTO), Justin Bureau (Product), and Helene Blonz (Growth). Beside promises to turn every frazzled small business owner into a calm CEO by answering calls, booking appointments, and remembering who wanted “the usual.” Half its 20,000 users are reportedly glued to the app 14 times a day because missing a call is now as passé as voicemail. Investors like EQT Ventures, Index Ventures, and Slack’s Stewart Butterfield are buying into the vision. In a world where 80% of callers never try again, Beside wants to make sure your “sorry, I missed your call” moment never happens again. | Fortune, Beside
🗞️ Under mounting pressure from U.S. tech giants and the Trump administration, Brussels may hit pause on parts of its once-vaunted AI Act. The move marks a potential victory for Big Tech and could spark a renaissance for European startups long bogged down by compliance headaches. If softened, the rules might finally help the EU claim its place as the world’s third major AI power, behind the U.S. and China. | Semafor
🗞️ Anthropic is raising its bet on Europe, opening new offices in Paris and Munich as part of a hiring spree across the continent. The U.S. AI giant, valued at $183 billion after a $13 billion Series F, plans to expand teams in research, engineering, and sales, and has tapped former Google Cloud exec Thomas Remy to lead Southern EMEA operations. France now will host key leadership roles alongside clients like Sanofi, Doctolib, and Qonto. Anthropic says its EMEA revenue has grown ninefold in the past year, as it races to compete with OpenAI and Mistral for European talent. | Sifted, Maddyness
🗞️ The French government just unveiled the first results from compar:IA, its public AI model ranking platform, and the findings are...curious. A mid-range French model, Mistral-medium-3.1, somehow tops the list ahead of heavyweights like GPT-5 and Gemini 2.5 Pro. Even stranger, “lite” versions of Google’s Gemini models snagged top spots despite being less powerful and over a year old. Officials admit they know little about who’s actually voting: experts, random users, or a curious passersby? Which, of course, raises questions about the tool’s credibility. One can’t help but wonder: if France’s AI comparator can’t tell a heavyweight from a lightweight, what’s the point of the whole exercise? | Numerama
🗞️ France’s nuclear industry just got its first humanoid colleague. Meet Hoxo, a robot designed in China and trained by Capgemini to work alongside humans at Orano’s Melox site. Equipped with AI smarts and a flair for nuclear chic, Hoxo can navigate, fetch tools, and even handle radioactive drums. For now, it’s in a four-month trial phase as it learns the ropes. We are absolutely certain that nothing can go wrong with this so EVERYONE JUST RELAX AND REMAIN CALM AND GO ABOUT YOUR DAY AS YOU NORMALLY WOULD. That is all for now. It's fine. It's all fine. | Nuclear Engineering Magazine
🗞️ Speaking of going nuclear...EDF is taking another step forward with its small modular reactor (SMR) plans. Its SMR baby, Nuward, has set a goal of 30 of the small reactors in service by 2050, according to CEO Julien Garrel. He told Reuters that the French power utility aims to finalize the conceptual design next year as an eager AI industry hungers for a faster solution to its energy cravings. | Reuters
OTHER HEADLINES
🗞️ Turns out 'Fedora Man' in viral Louvre heist photo isn't AI — just a French teen with style | Theories swirled about the sharply dressed stranger seen in pic after jewel theft. | CBC
🗞️ The French commitment: Powering AI dreams with low-carbon sources | France stands out across Europe’s AI and digital infrastructure landscape, due to its unique energy mix, favoring sustainable power sources. In an age where there is growing consciousness surrounding the need for decarbonization on one hand, and the ever-increasing demand for scalable AI-ready digital infrastructure on the other, this offers a ray of hope for Europe’s AI dreams. Let’s take a closer look at what the French are doing right, and how other nations with AI ambitions can emulate France. | W.Media
ICYMI
🗞️ How Certificall Is Fighting AI-Fueled Visual Insurance Fraud | Founded by insurance veterans in Toulouse, Certificall transforms photos and videos into certified legal evidence in under 90 seconds. The startup just raised €1M to help insurers, brokers, and industries prevent fraud, ensure compliance, and restore trust in the age of AI-generated fakes.| 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
🗞️ Mission Probabl: The Quest to Transform French AI Research into A Tech Champion | Scikit-learn, born at a French research institute, is one of the world’s most-used machine learning libraries. Probabl aims to turn it into a global business. Its journey reveals France’s AI potential and the structural hurdles of commercializing public research. | The French Tech Journal
🚀 The French Tech Journal is proud to announce our participation in Adopt AI - Grand Palais, the business sequel to the AI Action Summit and its influential AI business summit. Adopt AI will take place November 25 & 26, 2025, at the Grand Palais, Paris.
We're offering a 10% discount on regular and VIP tickets.👇
Over three days, Adopt AI will feature high-profile international speakers sharing visionary insights about how AI is transforming industries through case studies and expert-led sessions. The event will draw 25,000+ participants for hands-on discussions that drive real adoption.
🚨 What can you expect?
🎤 500+ speakers
🎯 Multiple conference stages with visionary keynotes and masterclasses
🏛 An inspiring CEO Stage featuring iconic global leaders in AI and business
🤝 250+ exhibitors from all sectors
🔍 Concrete AI use cases across industries
👉 An Adopt AI pass gets you full access to AI for Health, AI for Finance, AI for Industry, AI for Luxury, AI for Travel, AI for Sport, AI for the Planet, AI for Retail.
🧠 Making AI Plans: How Freeda Wants To Reinvent Building Buildings
Paris-based startup Freeda has just raised €3.4 million in pre-seed funding, led by Frst and Brick & Mortar Ventures, to scale its AI-powered plan review platform across Europe and beyond.
Freeda’s premise is deceptively simple: construction teams spend weeks manually checking architectural plans for compliance with fire safety, accessibility, other local regulations or brand standards and still miss errors that trigger delays and cost overruns.
With Freeda, a project owner can upload plans and receive a detailed error report within 48 hours, combining machine analysis with human expertise from architects and engineers.
It’s the kind of hybrid approach, equal parts industrial process and deep learning, that the founders hope could finally bring construction into the AI era.
🧠 Accel: AI Applications Best Bet For EU Startups To Win Against US Leviathans
For all the fretting over the apparent dominance of the U.S. when it comes to artificial intelligence, a new report from Accel Partners offers a dose of optimism for European boosters looking to make the case that their ecosystem can hold its own against their cowboy cousins across the Atlantic.
At the highest level, Accel’s 2025 Globalscape report won't contain too many surprises for anyone who follows tech and hasn't been living under a rock for the past three years. But according to Philippe Botteri, Partner at Accel, the competition at the application layers is actually smaller than it has been by historic standards.
"We've been doing this report over the past 10 years," he said. "This is the highest that the ratio has been. So there is a lot of progress."
AI Funding News
For the week ending November 7, there were 6 AI startups that raised a total of €27.4 million.
📇 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
📇 Company: Freeda
🔍 Description: Freeda is a Paris-based ConstructionTech startup using AI to detect hidden errors in architectural and construction plans before they cause costly delays. Combining artificial intelligence with human expertise from architects, engineers, and safety specialists, Freeda delivers verified plans within 48 hours — compared to 100+ hours of manual review. Its mission is to eliminate design-phase inefficiencies, which account for 70% of construction project delays, saving companies millions in rework and lost revenue.
💻 Website: https://www.freeda.so
📍 HQ City: Paris, France
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €3.4 million
🏦 Investors: Frst (lead), Brick & Mortar Ventures
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Peter Starr (CEO, ex-AECOM), Augustin Perraud (COO, ex-Xange & ScorePlay), Charles Desbaux (CTO, ex-Darktrace), Mariano Rodriguez (CSO, ex-Gladia)
🗞️ News: Freeda raised €3.4M to accelerate hiring across architecture, AI engineering, and process automation, and to expand internationally across Europe, the UK, the US, and the Middle East. The company verified 10,000 plans in 2025 and targets 1 million by 2026. Freeda also joins Station F’s Future 40 program, recognizing it among the top 4% of startups on campus. | The French Tech Journal
📇 Company: Avnear
🔍 Description: Avnear is a French fintech leveraging AI to democratize wealth management strategies historically reserved for high-net-worth investors. Its proprietary Gestion Gradual Security® system enables progressive, data-driven investing instead of lump-sum allocations, reducing exposure to overvalued markets and improving long-term resilience for retail investors. By combining real-time Bloomberg data access with expert oversight, Avnear offers institutional-grade investment intelligence to individuals starting from just €300.
💻 Website: https://www.avnear.com
📍 HQ City: Paris, France
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €2 million
🏦 Investors: Private and industrial investors (undisclosed)
👨💼👩💼 Founders / Team: Founding team of institutional finance and private banking experts with 100+ years of combined experience, having managed over €700 million in assets before launching Avnear
🗞️ News: Following an earlier round from business angels, Avnear raised €2M in Seed funding to strengthen its AI-based Gradual Security® technology, expand its product line (including ESG options), and scale its commercial operations. The company aims to reach €150 million in assets under management within two years by making professional-grade investment strategies accessible to all investors. | Planet Fintech
📇 Company: Karavela
🔍 Description: Paris-based startup developing foundation AI models for neuroscience to decode and model brain activity from raw MRI data. Founded in May 2025, Karavela aims to build a “fundamental brain model” that can help understand neural mechanisms underlying various pathologies, paving the way for precision medicine, diagnostics, and brain–computer interfaces. The company’s approach combines large-scale data acquisition from leading research institutes (including NeuroSpin and the Institut du Cerveau) with deep learning architectures inspired by foundation model paradigms.
💻 Website: https://karavela.ai/
📍 HQ City: Paris, France
🧗 Round: Pre-Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €2 million
🏦 Investors: HCVC, Daphni, First Momentum, and several business angels from the neuroscience, entrepreneurship, and AI sectors
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Bertrand Thirion (CSO, ex-Inria Saclay), Charles Maussion (ex-Owkin), and Alexis Thual (ex-Meta, ex-Arkhn)
🗞️ News: The funds will support team expansion, international MRI data partnerships, and the development of Karavela’s first brain foundation model, with clinical collaborations planned for 2026. The company’s long-term goal is to advance AI-driven neuroscience and enable next-generation tools for diagnostics and drug discovery. | Les Echos
📇 Company: Pearl
🔍 Description: Pearl is a Paris-based startup building a new AI-powered system of action for revenue teams. Designed by former operators from Pigment, Algolia, Meta, and Dataiku, Pearl transforms how sales and revenue operations teams work by combining the intuitive interface of modern AI tools with the operational depth of a CRM. The platform turns conversations, notes, and deal updates into automated actions — enabling sales teams to focus on what truly drives revenue.
💻 Website: LinkedIn
📍 HQ City: Paris, France
🧗 Round: Pre-Seed
💰 Amount Raised: $1.4M
🏦 Investors: Kima Ventures, STATION F, Sunrise, and a group of operators & angels from Meta, Adobe, Datadog, Airtable, WhatsApp, and Pigment
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Alexis Pawlik (CEO, ex-Facebook & Pigment), Adrien Gabizon (co-founder, ex-Pigment & Algolia), Sami Touil (CTO), Julie Chabin (Head of Product & Design)
🗞️ News: Pearl emerged from stealth with backing from top European and Silicon Valley angels. Selected among STATION F’s Future 40, the company’s pre-seed round will accelerate product development of its AI-native platform for revenue teams, positioned to redefine productivity and execution in B2B sales operations. | LinkedIn
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🗣️ Announcements 🗣️
🗣️ Microsoft GenAI Studio 3rd Edition | Microsoft France announces the opening of applications for the third promotion of its Microsoft GenAI Studio acceleration program, dedicated to supporting French startups in the adoption and development of solutions based on artificial intelligence. | Deadline: December 3 | Apply here
🗣️ 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 📆
📆 Tectonic European Defense Summit | November 12-13 | Gather with the brightest minds in defense technology, policy, and innovation to forge the future of European security. | Buy Tickets
📆 Paris Meetup | fal x Hugging Face x BFL | November 13 | Join us for an evening of AI, creativity & connection. fal, Hugging Face, and Black Forest Labs invite you to an exclusive Paris meetup combining short talks, quick presentations, and open networking. Whether you're an AI engineer, developer, founder, product manager, or AI artist interested in generative media, this is your chance to connect with peers, demo new tools, and explore collaboration. | Request to join
📆 GitLab Epic Conference Paris | November 13 | Discover how GitLab’s unified platform and AI agents are transforming the way software is built — empowering teams to deliver secure, compliant software faster! | Register
📆 Iterate - Paris Hackathon | November 15 | The Iterate Paris Hackathon is on! Brought to you by Maki, Source & Motier and powered by Anthropic, Lovable, ElevenLabs, Unaite and Iterate. | Request to join
📆 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
📆 Databricks DATA + AI World Tour Paris | December 2 | This day will be an opportunity to discover concretely how French companies put AI into production, through keynotes and inspiring testimonies from companies such as Decathlon, Danone, Covéa and Michelin. Finally, this event will also be an opportunity to exchange with the executives of Databricks, including Guillaume Brandenburg, RVP and Managing Director at Databricks, Yannis Daubin, Vice President - South Europe, Israel, Middle East & Africa and Samuel Bonamigo, SVP & GM, Emea. | Register
📆 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
📆 The Blueprint for scaling AI Support: live in Paris | December 4 | AI is transforming customer experience at an unprecedented pace. The AI Agent Blueprint reveals how leaders across customer service, CX, and AI transformation are deploying AI fast, scaling confidently, and achieving measurable business impact. | 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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