As the new year kicks off, we’re once again asking French VCs to peer into the crystal ball and tell us what they see on the horizon. Spoiler alert: the fog hasn’t entirely lifted, but patterns are starting to emerge.
The cost is staggering, the competition fierce, but France's tech ecosystem continues its annual pilgrimage to Las Vegas with a calculated new strategy
As 2025 draws to a close, we’re taking a look back in articles at what has been an epic but turbulent year for French tech.
The Montpellier-based studio stunned the industry when Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 swept The Game Awards with a record nine wins. It is French tech's biggest global success of the year, proving that a small French studio can outperform the industry's biggest players.
Emma Capron, Founder & CEO of Slash Intérim, felt the temp-work sector had been stuck in a time capsule. She decided to jailbreak it. Revenues doubled last year, and the company just raised €6M.
A comprehensive mapping by France Biotech and France Deeptech identifies 40 companies operating at the intersection of biology and breakthrough technology, and argues that France could become a global leader in this emerging field.
Brevo’s €1bn valuation was driven by a PE-led growth buyout: General Atlantic and Oakley take 50%, Partech exits, and the cap table resets. It’s a landmark French-tech liquidity moment that gives Brevo powerful partners for U.S. expansion, bigger M&A, and AI-powered growth.
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 - opening the door to faster, smarter, and far more predictive cancer diagnostics.
Rift raised €4.6M for its on-demand aerial surveillance network of autonomous long-endurance drones that provide governments and operators instant, low-cost “intelligence as a service” as Europe seeks faster, safer ways to monitor and protect critical territory.
Two reports, two moods: Atomico sees sunshine and a trillion-euro tech titan on the horizon. PitchBook forecasts storm clouds and a stress ball. European tech in 2025 is a sloppy mess with big dreams and a terrible hangover, but a can-do attitude if it can just stop tripping over itself.
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.
GetVocal raised a $26M Series A to fuel a new era of human-guided, agentic voice AI. Its system blends ancient communication instincts with cutting-edge tech to deliver trusted, enterprise-ready automation.
Macron warns that space is no longer a sanctuary, announcing major new space defense investments and says he wants 'New Space' French startups to help counter rising orbital threats from Russia and other hostile powers.
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.
A controversial partnership between legendary French retailer BHV and the Chinese low-cost retailer erupted into a cultural and economic fight. Amid Paris protests and a government crackdown on illicit goods, France faces a reckoning over algorithmic commerce and its principles.
The French startup 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.
