In this edition:

🧠 Thanks to developments in AI, photonics is stepping out of the lab and into the clinic. HyprView uses light to uncover the invisible biology inside tumors, information microscopes miss entirely. This opens the door to faster, smarter, and far more predictive cancer diagnostics. Co-Founder Victor Outters sheds some light on their vision for this new diagnostic tool.

Chris O'Brien + Helen O'Reilly-Durand

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Headlines

🗞️ Mistral AI just dropped its new “Mistral 3” lineup of open-weight models, a 10-model launch aimed at proving Europe can ship frontier AI without locking it behind an API. The headline act is Mistral Large 3, a multi-modal, multilingual frontier model designed to go toe-to-toe with closed rivals like GPT-4o and Gemini while matching the best open competitors.

Under the hood, it uses a granular Mixture-of-Experts setup (41B active / 675B total parameters) and a massive 256k context window, positioning it for enterprise-grade document analysis, coding, assistants, and automation. Alongside it comes “Ministral 3,” nine smaller dense models in 3B, 8B, and 14B sizes, offered in Base, Instruct, and Reasoning variants. Mistral is arguing that small models can actually be better once fine-tuned. The practical hook: these models run on a single GPU, so companies can keep data on-prem, developers can work offline, and edge devices—from laptops to robots—can stay smart even with spotty connectivity.

That efficiency push feeds Mistral’s growing physical-AI ambitions, with partnerships spanning robotics, drones, and in-car assistants. In short, the startup is betting that the next AI race won’t be won by sheer scale, but by open access, customization, and models that are fast, cheap, and everywhere.

"This work is deeply rooted in our mission of putting frontier AI in everyone’s hands as we look to help bring the industry into a new era of AI, which we call ‘distributed intelligence,’" wrote CEO Arthur Mensch on LinkedIn. | Mistral, Les Echos, TechCrunch

🗞️ Gradium has burst onto the French AI scene as Kyutai’s first spin-off, thanks to a splashy €60M seed round just three months after being created. Led by FirstMark Capital and Eurazeo, the round also attracted Kyutai’s heavyweight backers Xavier Niel, CMA CGM boss Rodolphe Saadé, and former Google chair Eric Schmidt, plus Korelya Capital and Amplify Partners. At the helm is Neil Zeghidour, one of Kyutai’s earliest scientific founders, who notes that the startup will still share a building with their BFFs at Kyutai, which is still a shareholder. The startup’s mission is to push audio-native language models that speak naturally, expressively, and in real time to make voice the default interface between humans and machines. Gradium will commercialize Kyutai’s open research like Moshi and Hibiki, responding to strong early demand from sectors such as gaming and customer support, and says it has already landed its first clients within six weeks. Paris is home base, but a 'Frisco foothold is planned because of course. | Maddyness

🗞️ Paris has a new robotics moonshot that just popped its head out of the stealth gopher hole. UMA is building general-purpose mobile and humanoid robots meant to handle human-level tasks in factories and commercial settings. The team is training these machines with a cocktail of high-fidelity simulation, reinforcement learning, and full-stack robotics so they can perceive the world, manipulate objects precisely, and adapt on the fly.

For an early-stage company, UMA’s bench is unusually stacked: founders Rémi Cadène, Robert Knight, Pierre Sermanet, and Simon Alibert were slumming it at such second-rate shops as Meta AI, DeepMind, and Tesla. Indeed, one Humanoid Robotics news site dubbed them: The European Robotics 'Supergroup.' The advisory roster reads like a rogues gallery of modern AI: Yann LeCun, Hugging Face’s Thomas Wolf, and Valeo.ai’s Matthieu Cord.

"Since the dawn of civilization, people have dreamt of a machine that can help with the grind of daily life and give them more time to do the things that really matter," wrote co-founder Knight on LinkedIn. "Today we stand on the brink of seeing that vision come true through the convergence of AI and mass-produced robots and I am humbled and thrilled to have a chance to play a part, within my lifetime, as Chief Robot Officer of UMA."

Unlike their cousins at Gradium, they did not run into the street waving a big fat check. But on the UMA website, it says the company is backed by a "strong first round" from Greycroft, Kima Ventures, and Unity Growth, plus a swarm of star angels spanning Mistral’s Guillaume Lample, Hugging Face’s Clément Delangue, Datadog’s Olivier Pomel, Xavier Niel, and even F1 champ Nico Rosberg.

The startup is betting Europe can compete at the frontier of humanoid and industrial robotics, starting where the economics are strongest: logistics and manufacturing. First pilot programs are slated for 2026. | AI World, LinkedIn

🗞️ HPE (the company once-upon-a-time known as Hewlett-Packard before decades of corporate pratfalls splintered it into multiple obscure acronyms) and Nvidia are plugging their “AI factory” vision into Grenoble, unveiling a beefed-up partnership meant to make AI deployment across HPE infrastructure faster, more scalable, and more sovereign. The pair will open the EU’s first AI Factory Lab in Grenoble, where customers can test, tune, and validate workloads on EU-based infrastructure. | MSN, HPE, Intelligent CIO

🗞️ The AI giveth. And the AI taketh away. French insurance giant Allianz is reportedly planning to cut 1,500–1,800 jobs at Allianz Partners, its travel insurance arm, over the next 12–18 months, with most reductions hitting call centres as AI automates more customer service and claims work. The company hasn’t confirmed the numbers publicly but says it’s reviewing how tech shifts will affect roles that depend on manual processes, and is currently in confidential talks with works councils. | Reuters

🗞️ Havas is making a French AI connection, acquiring homegrown data and cloud specialist Unnest, a startup founded in 2021 that builds data, analytics, and AI stacks on platforms like Google Cloud, Azure, Snowflake, and AWS. The AI tools will be folded into the Business Science ecosystem of Havas, the French communications giant to form what the company describes as a 120-strong data “strike team.” | BW MarketingWorld

🗞️ France’s Culture Ministry has finished a months-long consultation between cultural leaders and tech leaders about finding a balance between AI and creative rights and after hoping to get everyone to hold hands and sing Kumbaya, well, it seems that didn't quite happen but everyone is feeling darn good that best efforts were made. In a press release this week, Cultural Minister Rachida Dati and her team noted that there were five plenary meetings and forty bilateral meetings, and so everyone felt seen and heard and so on and so forth. But...Minister Dati warned that today’s patchwork of deals with publishers and creators isn’t enough to guarantee fair pay for the works used in training. That's bad for both sides: Creatives don't get paid; AI don't get data to train their models. AI peeps may not like this next bit: Dati floated the idea of remedies that are more restrictive, including putting the burden of proof on AI providers to justify the origins and inspirations of outputs. There would also be a default assumption that protected cultural content was used to train AI unless companies could prove otherwise. “I want to reiterate, both to the rights and developers, that I am fully mobilized to achieve ethical and responsible AI models," Dati said in a statement. " This development represents an exceptional opportunity for the French economy, including its cultural and creative industries, but it must be a winner for all." | Culture Ministry, Fashion Network

🗞️ Someone did not get the memo from Da 'Prez that France is All About Zee AI. 'Cause a French court in Nanterre has issued the country’s first ruling on workplace AI rollouts, saying companies must consult the works council even when AI tools are only in a “pilot” phase. In this case, because the AI apps had already been used for months by many employees (with broad training and access), the court treated the pilot as a real initial deployment, not a mere experiment. It ordered the project suspended until consultation is completed, with a €1,000-per-day penalty for violations and €5,000 in damages to the works council. The decision warns employers that AI “tests” can still trigger consultation duties if they are wide in scope or effectively signal that deployment is underway. " | National Law Review

🗞️ Doctolib is teaming up with Inria to ramp up its AI ambitions in healthcare, forming a joint research team to build “clinical AI” models that can understand, reason, and support doctors and patients. The focus is on trustworthy, explainable systems aligned with European ethics—no black boxes—able to connect symptoms, medical history, and context to recommend personalized actions. First targets: optimizing care pathways with generative models that suggest ideal clinical sequences, and improving diagnostics by proposing hypotheses with confidence levels. The partnership fits Doctolib’s broader AI push, as the now-profitable unicorn rolls out patient assistants and positions itself as a European leader in sovereign, reliable health AI. | Maddyness

🗞️ Word is circulating that Franco-Tunisian entrepreneur Karim Beguir, co-founder of InstaDeep, is teaming up with a former European finance minister to launch a “Europa Compute Initiative” meant to tackle Europe’s growing dependence on foreign AI infrastructure. The plan would build a network of energy-efficient AI data centers inside the EU and pair them with dedicated renewable power deals, aiming to close the continent’s “compute deficit” and anchor AI training under European jurisdiction, according to the report, which has not been confirmed. Beguir was born in Tunisia to a Tunisian father who studied medicine in Paris and a French mother. He attended university in France before founding InstaDeep, an AI biotech company in Tunisia, eventually relocating to London, but also establishing a strong research presence in France. Two years ago, BioNTech acquired InstaDeep for nearly $700M. | TMO Mag

Other Headlines

🗞️ Business schools have a responsibility to ‘train the leaders of tomorrow’ amid global ‘fragmentation’, says ESSEC dean Vincenzo Vinzi | Higher education has a duty to “train the leaders of tomorrow,” says the head of one of Europe’s leading business schools, as geopolitics threatens to decouple economies, reverse globalization, and shake up the traditional pathways for talent and migration. | Fortune

🗞️ “80% of French Data Centers Will Be Obsolete by 2030”: Interview with Digital Realty’s Fabrice Coquio | Fabrice Coquio, President of Digital Realty in France, talks about a rapidly evolving industry where AI is no longer a promise—it’s a technical, energy, and strategic shock. | DirectIndustry e-Magazine

🗞️ Miss France 2026: Artificial intelligence predicts the name of the future winner. Will it be right? Find out on December 6th. | While the public will have to wait until December 6th to find out who will succeed Angélique Angarni-Filopon, an initial estimate is already circulating. The consulting firm Avisia, specializing in data and artificial intelligence models, published a projection on December 1st based on the analysis of digital trends. | Entrevue

ICYMI

🗞️ How Cybersecurity Startup MokN Combats Phishing With Deceptive 'Fake Doors' | When stolen credentials breached his 'impenetrable' system, Gautier Bugeon had an insight: give attackers fake doors to try. His startup MokN raised €2.6M, hit $1M ARR in 16 months with half its clients being billion-dollar companies, and is now expanding to America. | The French Tech Journal

🗞️ How Phagos Plans to Kill Superbugs with AI and Nature’s Own Viruses | 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 we fight infection. | The French Tech Journal

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🧠 How HyprView Is Using Photonics And AI To Bring Cancer Diagnostics Into the Light

For decades, cancer diagnosis has relied on tumor-testing techniques that would be recognizable to a 19th-century pathologist. Clinicians still reach for the same H&E (Hematoxylin and Eosin) staining protocol, the same glass slides, and the same optical microscopes.

Cancer has evolved. The tools designed to understand it haven’t kept pace.

HyprView, a Caen-based deeptech startup, was founded in 2022 by spectroscopy specialist François Auvray. He was joined in 2024 by former Googler and health-tech operator Victor Outters. They believe the future of oncology rests on a simple idea: every tumor emits far more information than current diagnostics know how to capture.

Their mission is to literally shine a light on the hidden biology inside every tumor and use AI to make sense of it.

“Traditional pathology examines cell morphology, not behavior. That’s a crucial difference,” Outters explained. “Two tumors may look identical under a microscope, yet respond entirely differently to treatment.”

AI Funding News

For the week ending November 28, there were 3 AI startups that raised a total of €18.5 million.

📇 Company: Damae Medical
🔍 Description: French MedTech pioneer developing non-invasive 3D digital biopsies and real-time AI diagnostic tools for dermatology, enabling faster, more precise detection and treatment planning for skin cancers.
💻 Website: Damae Medical
📍 HQ City: Paris
🧗 Round: Series B
💰 Amount Raised: €15M
🏦 Investors: Creadev (lead), Kurma Partners, ISPB, BNP Paribas Développement
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Anaïs Barut (CEO & cofounder), Prof. Arnaud Dubois (scientific cofounder), David Siret
🗞️ News: Damae Medical raises €15M Series B to accelerate the global scale-up of deepLive™, its CE-marked and FDA-cleared 3D digital biopsy device powered by LC-OCT imaging and real-time AI. The funding will support commercial expansion in Europe, the U.S., and Australia, strengthen industrial production in France, and broaden the AI portfolio beyond basal cell carcinoma (97% diagnostic accuracy) to melanomas, actinic keratoses, squamous cell carcinomas, and inflammatory diseases. Already installed in 100+ centers across 15+ countries, deepLive™ is increasingly integrated into clinical workflows and reimbursement pathways as a new standard for non-invasive dermatological diagnosis.

📇 Company: Sim&Cure
🔍 Description: Medtech company developing AI-powered Digital Twin software for neurovascular treatment planning, enabling clinicians to simulate and optimize endovascular interventions for cerebral aneurysms using patient-specific models.
💻 Website: Sim&Cure
📍 HQ City: Montpellier
🧗 Round: Series Extension
💰 Amount Raised: €2.3M (€10M Total Series A)
🏦 Investors: Elaia (lead), IT Translation Investissement, IRDI Capital Investissement, SWEN Capital Partners, Sofilaro, Tudigo, Holnest
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Mathieu Sanchez (CEO & Co-founder), with the founding team established in 2014
🗞️ News: Sim&Cure secures a €10M Series extension to accelerate global expansion—notably in China and APAC—advance its Digital Twin product suite (Sim&Size™, Sim&Train, Sim&Predict), and reinforce R&D and commercial teams. With 35,000+ treatment planning procedures supported across 45+ countries and integrations with Siemens Healthineers and Philips, the company is strengthening its position as a leader in personalized neurovascular care. | PR

📇 Company: Komia
🔍 Description: AI-powered restaurant operations platform helping small and mid-sized foodservice chains manage staffing, inventory, deliveries, and daily operations in real time—bringing enterprise-grade tools (used by giants like McDonald’s) to independent and regional restaurant networks.
💻 Website: Komia
📍 HQ City: Lyon
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €1.2M (including €400k in loans)
🏦 Investors: PMS Group, DMG Promotion (family office of Aurélien Tchouameni), Malick Diouf, JK Invest (Jules Koundé), Vanessa Shi (Dayoshi / Chikin Bang / Yatai Ramen), Bpifrance, Réseau Entreprendre Rhône, various CHR-sector business angels
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Micael Manuel Joao (CEO), Bastien Renart
🗞️ News: Komia raises €1.2M to scale its all-in-one restaurant management app, already used by 400+ establishments and 3,000+ daily users across France. The funding will accelerate national expansion, bolster tech and commercial teams, and deepen the platform’s predictive AI for sales forecasting, inventory, and staff scheduling. Born from two years of in-restaurant testing with franchise partner NBK La Naanerie, Komia is now targeting rapid deployment across France’s 11,000 franchise restaurants—before expanding further into Europe, where the company already supports early clients in Spain and Belgium. | Les Echos

🗣️ 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 📆

📆 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

📆 VOICE AI Space Paris Conference | December 10 | Voice AI Space Paris Conference is part of the Future of Software Technologies Event, a unique federation of 25+ vendor-neutral tech conferences (Apidays, Generation AI, Green IO, and more), bringing together 6000+ participants and 300+ sessions across 3 days. Your ticket also grants full access to 3 days of conferences. | Tickets

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