In this edition:

🧠 VCs are pouring money into voice-based interfaces, powered by advances in speech recognition and natural language generation. Over the summer, CB Insights noted that Voice AI has become "the new battleground in the race to build the future of human-machine interactions." Paris-based GetVocal has joined the race, landing a $26M Series A to fuel a new era of human-guided, agentic voice AI. GetVocal CEO and Co-Founder Roy Moussa explains the company's human-AI hybrid vision for the agentic voice future.

⁠🧠 While B2C perfected one-click buying, B2B distributors still swim in PDFs and Excel sheets. French-Italian startup Volta just raised €11M to change that. Fast. CEO Paul Guillemin takes us inside Volta's plans to build the AI-powered operating system that will finally drag B2B commerce into the 21st century.

Chris O'Brien + Helen O'Reilly-Durand

Headlines

⛰️ Wie geht's? Get Ready For An Avalanche of News from the trenches of the Franco-German Summit on Digital Sovereignty held on November 18 in Berlin, aka le Sommet sur la souveraineté numérique européenne aka der Deutsch-Französischer Gipfel zur digitalen Souveränität...⛰️

⛰️ France and Germany kicked off a joint summit with a push to cut Europe’s dependence on US and Chinese tech. French Prez Emmanuel Macron set the tone, warning that Europe “refuses to be a vassal” and must build its own digital backbone and not remain a client of foreign giants. He called for a “European preference” in public tech procurement, noting that the US and China already do the same, and urged Europe to innovate before it regulates. Key summit moves included a united agenda for sovereign cloud and AI infrastructure and a push to re-balance power away from the “Magnificent Seven” US tech titans. | France24

⛰️ Chancellor Friedrich Merz backed Macron’s call for an EU-wide definition of a sovereign cloud and a “Buy European” approach in public procurement. After years of Franco-German squabbles over cloud rules, the two leaders signaled they’re finally on the same page: European data should be shielded from US and Chinese surveillance, and public contracts should favor homegrown solutions. The pair plan to push the European Commission to include a cloud sovereignty standard in the upcoming Cloud and AI Development Act (CAIDA) expected Q1 2026. Cybersecurity agencies from both countries are already refining an EU cloud score to help make the framework a reality. | Euractiv

⛰️ This all turned into a big bag of goodies for French hometown favorites Mistral AI. At the summit, both countries announced they will deploy a joint Mistral AI–SAP (the latter being Germany's software biggie) offering inside their public administrations. A binding agreement is due mid-2026, with high-impact use cases planned through 2030. Mistral CEO Arthur Mensch said he expects “several hundred million euros” in revenue from the partnership, with both companies investing tens of millions to integrate Mistral’s automation with SAP’s deeply embedded systems. Still TBD: the official definition of a “European digital service,” which Paris and Berlin want to enshrine in regulation to create a real Buy-European preference, even as SAP keeps working with OpenAI in Germany. | Les Echos

⛰️ Not to be left behind, France's Owkin made waves at the summit by unveiling Europe’s first pan-European agentic infrastructure designed to make biological data fully AI-ready. Built with Gustave Roussy and Charité, the project aims to supercharge drug discovery by harmonizing biomedical data across the continent and deploying next-generation agentic AI. Positioned as a flagship for European digital sovereignty in health, it sets out to prove that Europe can lead the race in AI-native biology—an arena still wide open. The initiative also establishes new standards for trusted, cross-border data collaboration, ensuring innovation stays rooted in European institutions and values. | Silicon Canals

⛰️ France and Germany also intensified their push to win support for Brussels’ new omnibus plan to loosen GDPR duties and stall parts of the AI Act until December 2027, arguing it will cut red tape for SMEs and free up innovation. But members of the European Parliament and civil-society groups warn that the draft replaces strict oversight with self-assessment, weakens safeguards for high-risk AI, and effectively deregulates core protections. Opponents say it panders to Big Tech just as deepfakes and election interference loom large. | Euronews

And now, in non-summit AI news...

🗞️ China’s Rising AI Star Lands in Paris and Declares France “The Center of European AI.” Manus, the Chinese AI agent that went viral for building apps and websites without a single line of code, has picked Paris for its first European office. This is its fourth globally after Singapore, Tokyo, and San Francisco. The startup, whose agent now counts 10 million users, plans to hire engineers and sales teams as it scales across Europe. Co-founder Tao Zhang says Manus’ explosive launch that attracted 3 million waitlist sign-ups in days came down to “the right product at the right time.” The company behind it, Butterfly Effect, also built Monica, the AI-powered browser extension that lets users query models directly on webpages. | Les Echos

🗞️ Move Over, Wikipedia. INSEAD’s Botipedia Is Here. INSEAD just unleashed Botipedia, billed as the world’s largest AI-powered knowledge portal, 6,000 times bigger than Wikipedia. Brainchild of professor Phil Parker, a generative AI pioneer, it uses Dynamic Multi-method Generation (DMG) tech to generate verifiable, sourced content in 100+ languages. With over 400 billion potential entries, Botipedia aims to smash language barriers and put unprecedented knowledge at the fingertips of millions. It's already in use at INSEAD via the Human and Machine Intelligence Institute (HUMII). | PR

🗞️ Hugging Face just doubled down on Google Cloud, letting companies build AI with open models in a few clicks. The partnership promises faster downloads, TPUs as easy as GPUs, and tighter security, all designed for the 10 million AI builders on Hugging Face. Irony alert: announced just before the EU digital sovereignty summit, it’s a reminder that open-model convenience and European “tech independence” don’t always go hand in hand. | Google Cloud, Hugging Face

🗞️ Opcore Backs European Digital Independence...at the Other Summit. Opcore (Iliad/Infravia) announced a €4 billion data center in Seine-et-Marne, promising hundreds of jobs and hundreds of megawatts of AI-ready computing power, a revelation still nicely timed to the European digital sovereignty theme. Set to open in 2027 on a former EDF site, it was the largest investment announced at Monday's Choose France summit. And a strong signal that some French companies are taking the “European preference” pledge seriously, even if they were not invited to sit at the big kids' table in Berlin. | Le Monde

🗞️ Grok Goes Rogue As Musk’s AI Plays Fast and Loose with Bataclan Truths. Nothing says “AI maturity” like reinventing history. 10 years after the Bataclan terrorist attack and in a jaw-dropping lapse of judgment, Elon Musk’s chatbot Grok propagated long-debunked extreme-right claims about torture at the Bataclan, inventing fake survivor testimonies and gruesome details that never happened. The story first resurfaced via a post on X from a far-right account, Melissa_Nemesis, and Grok eagerly amplified it, giving the rumor a shiny new AI stamp of “credibility.” Even when confronted by actual survivors, Grok doubled down, mixing up journalists with victims, blaming its errors on “emotional timing” and “algorithmic fatigue.” After several humiliating corrections, the AI finally admitted its “hallucination, ” a technical term for confidently lying to millions. | Le Monde

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🧠 From Cavemen to Conversational AI: GetVocal and the Human-Agentic Voice Renaissance

In the world of artificial intelligence and tech constantly hunting for the next thing over the horizon, there is definitely a kind of vibe in the air at the moment that voice is the new interface.

When GetVocal CEO and Co-Founder Roy Moussa hears this talk and thinks about the evolution of voice technology, however, he doesn’t reach for a futurist metaphor. Instead, he goes straight back to the Stone Age.

“Voice, I would say it's the oldest interface, right?” he said. “When we were cavemen, we passed on stories by mouth. Now we just did a loop around and went back to the richest modality we have in explaining our thoughts.”

That mix of basic human perspective and cutting-edge tools has become something of a signature for GetVocal, the Paris-based conversational AI startup that has just raised $26 million in Series A funding led by Creandum, with Elaia and Speedinvest participating. It’s the second round this year for the company, an indication of both its own momentum as well as the growing interest in the Voice AI space by venture capital.

Moussa recognizes that the space is getting heated. At the same time, beyond his confidence in the company's technology, he also believes that it is taking a fundamental approach that will set it apart from competitors. Rather than obsessively trying to deliver fully autonomous AI agents to enterprises, the company instead wants to create ones they can trust.

For GetVocal, that means finding the right balance between humans and AI.

By developing a hybrid system where AI agents work under human supervision while gradually learning to handle more complex tasks, GetVocal aims to create a service that delivers actual gains in efficiency without overpromising full-scale automation.

"It's the best of both worlds approach," Moussa said. "It's how to make decisions in real-time conversations and take actions that affect your revenue or affect your customer relations and brand perception. How to make that confidently, responsibly, and according to your business logic and business protocol, while still leveraging the best of what LLMs today give us."

🧠 Can Volta Bring B2B Commerce Out Of The Stone Age with AI?

B2C went digital fifteen years ago. B2B… didn’t.

While Amazon perfected one-click checkout, distributors still juggle PDFs, Excel sheets, calls, and unending email threads.

French-Italian startup Volta, created in 2024, believes the gap is now too wide to ignore and too strategically important to leave unsolved. 

Less than a year after raising €6 million, the company has secured another €5 million, this time led by global early-stage venture firm RTP Global, bringing total funding to €11 million. With over €1 million in new revenue in the past six months and a team that has grown from 5 to 30 in under a year, Volta is moving fast.

CEO Paul Guillemin is on a mission: build the AI-powered operating system that will finally drag B2B commerce into the 21st century.

“B2B is a major digitalization challenge,” Guillemin said. 

AI Funding News

For the week ending November 14, there were 7 AI startups that raised a total of €46.15 million.

📇 Company: Beside
🔍 Description: Provides an AI-powered telephony & messaging assistant for small businesses—capturing inbound calls and texts and turning them into actions (bookings, follow-ups, notes, scheduling) by rebuilding the full telephony stack with AI for the “real economy.”
💻 Website: Beside
📍 HQ City: Paris
🧗 Round: Series A
💰 Amount Raised: $32M
🏦 Investors: EQT Ventures, Index Ventures, Stewart Butterfield, Clement Delangue, NextView Ventures, ISAI, Volo Ventures, Factorial Capital, Mathilde Colin, Pierre Valade, Jean-Charles Samuelian (beside.com)
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Maxime Germain (CEO), Bobby Giangeruso (Product), Aymeric Beaumet (CTO), Justin Bureau (Product), Hélène Blonz (Growth)
🗞️ News: Beside secured $32 M to enable small businesses to transform their call/text volume into growth, leveraging AI to handle missed calls, book appointments, take notes, and update systems automatically. | Fortune

📇 Company: Filiz
🔍 Description: Filiz is a French EdTech SaaS platform that helps private schools and apprenticeship centres manage their financial, administrative, and academic operations. Already used by 500+ campuses, the platform streamlines funding flows, attendance-linked public payments, invoicing, compliance, and academic planning. Filiz is now expanding into an integrated all-in-one operations system with upcoming AI-powered tools for task automation, planning, and real-time insights.
💻 Website: Filiz
📍 HQ City: Olonne-sur-Mer, France
🧗 Round: Seed / Early Growth
💰 Amount Raised: €6 million
🏦 Investors: Hexa
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Maxime Jacquet, Aurélia Jacquet
🗞️ News: Filiz raised €6M from Hexa to scale its education-operations platform across Europe, marking one of the largest administrative EdTech rounds in 2025. The startup has tripled revenue year-on-year to reach €2M ARR while remaining profitable. The partnership with Hexa includes both capital and multi-year operational support, aimed at expanding Filiz’s reach, strengthening its leadership team, and evolving the product to support larger multi-campus networks. The round stands out in a year where comparable European EdTech raises — such as DigitalErleben (€1M) and Kidola (€1.3M) — remained in the lower single-digit range. Filiz aims to grow revenue 10× within five years as private education surges across Europe. | EU Startups

📇 Company: Dialog
🔍 Description: AI-powered “brand agent” that reinvents e-commerce by enabling visitors to ask questions, receive personalized product recommendations, and interact through natural conversation. Trained on each brand’s catalogue, content, stock and tone, Dialog integrates directly into product pages, homepages and search bars — multiplying conversions by up to 3× and powering over 1M customer conversations.
💻 Website: Dialog
📍 HQ City: Paris, France
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: $4.4 million
🏦 Investors: Galion.exe (lead), Kima Ventures, Weaving Group, Hexa, plus business angels from La Redoute, Criteo, Decathlon, CDiscount, Veepee, AB Tasty, Hugging Face, Pigment
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Antoine Grimal, Louis Pinsard
🗞️ News: Dialog raised a $4.4M seed round to accelerate product development and expand across Europe. Already deployed at brands such as OhMyCream, Delsey Paris and MG Motor, its AI sales agent drives 3× higher conversion, +25% AOV, and 95% CSAT across more than 300 e-commerce customers. The funds will support deeper capabilities and commercial scale as conversational buying becomes the new default in global e-commerce. | LSA

📇 Company: OWLO
🔍 Description: OWLO is a deeptech spin-off from Institut Langevin (ESPCI, CNRS, PSL) developing a real-time, 3D, label-free microscopy technology for medical and pharmaceutical applications. Its imaging module, powered by advanced optics and AI, allows clinicians and researchers to visualize oocytes, embryos, and organoids in 3D — dramatically enhancing IVF assessment accuracy and enabling breakthroughs in drug discovery and ophthalmology.
💻 Website: OWLO
📍 HQ City: Paris, France
🧗 Round: Pre-Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €2.5 million (including €0.5m debt and €0.5m subsidies)
🏦 Investors: daphni (lead), Cercle de Chiron, iXcore, Thibault Courthéoux, Alain Decombe
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Paul Balondrade, Nicolas Guigui, PhD, Victor Barolle, Alexandre Aubry
🗞️ News: OWLO raised €2.5M to develop its first product version by end of 2025. The company’s 3D, non-invasive microscopy solution aims to significantly improve IVF success rates (currently ~25%) by allowing embryologists to assess oocyte maturity and embryo viability more precisely. The technology originates from a decade of research at Institut Langevin and is positioned to transform fertility treatments first, with extensions into pharma R&D and ophthalmology. | Les Echos, LinkedIn

📇 Company: Paage
🔍 Description: Paage is an AI-powered platform designed for independent creators and small brands, enabling them to build and manage a complete online presence without technical skills. The platform centralises design, content creation, payments, audience management, and e-commerce into an AI-driven “cockpit” that interprets natural language to instantly create interactive pages. Paage aims to become the daily operating system for the social commerce generation.
💻 Website: Paage
📍 HQ City: Paris, France
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €2.2 million
🏦 Investors: Aglaé Ventures, Kima Ventures, Cassius; angels including Alexandre Eruimy, Felix Malfait, Darren Lachtman, Enzo Mattioli Ferrari
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Jean Ronin, Nicolas Garcin
🗞️ News: Paage raised €2.2M to expand its AI capabilities, grow its product and engineering teams, and accelerate international expansion—especially in the U.S., where 60% of its 100,000+ users are already based. Founded in 2025, Paage differentiates itself from traditional website builders by offering an AI co-pilot that helps creators instantly design pages, manage audiences, and integrate payments and CRM tools. The funding follows rapid global adoption driven primarily by community and word-of-mouth growth. | TechFundingNews

📇 Company: KLODIOS
🔍 Description: KLODIOS is a French health-intelligence startup developing a sovereign, highly automated, and deeply personalized monitoring platform for healthcare organizations. Combining advanced AI with hands-on field expertise, the company helps hospitals, institutions, and health professionals navigate regulatory, economic, and ethical complexity through precise, actionable health intelligence.
💻 Website: Klodios
📍 HQ City: Caen
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €1.2M
🏦 Investors: Normandie Business Angels, Normandie Participations, Bpifrance, Caisse d’Epargne Normandie, CIC
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Nicolas VIVET, Clément VIVET
🗞️ News: Four years after its creation, KLODIOS completed its first funding round to accelerate both its AI development and its user-success operations. The new capital will reinforce the R&D team to advance automation and personalization, while expanding on-the-ground support for healthcare professionals. The company aims to become a leading European player in health monitoring and the French market reference within two years. | Normandie Incubation

📇 Company: fluiidd
🔍 Description: fluiidd develops intelligent industrial monitoring sensors with real-time, on-device AI processing. Spun out from 10 years of research at the CEA, its technology helps industrial operators reduce maintenance costs by 30% and prevent critical production stoppages through advanced predictive monitoring.
💻 Website: Fluiidd
📍 HQ City: La Ciotat
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €650,000
🏦 Investors: Provence Angels, Femmes Business Angels, INSEAD BA Network, Région Sud Investissement (RSI)
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Mathieu Darnajou, Philippe Guenebaud
🗞️ News: fluiidd secured over €650k in its first funding round, bringing together three business angel networks and leading regional fund RSI. The capital will allow the startup to scale its commercial and marketing teams, continue R&D to expand predictive AI capabilities, and industrialize the manufacturing of its intelligent sensors. | LinkedIn

🗣️ 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 📆

📆 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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