Founder & CEO of JFD, Delphine Remy‑Boutang, doesn’t mince her words. Europe has the talent, the research, and the ideas. What it lacks is scale and contracts.
Founded in 2012, JFD is a growth accelerator that connects innovative entrepreneurs, corporate leaders, and investors with one goal: turning European innovation into real business and industrial scale.
Ahead of the presentation of JFD’s 2026 European AI Barometer at Bercy, we sat down with her for a fast-paced, no-nonsense conversation about regulation, sovereignty, the myth of ‘small is beautiful’, and why 2026 is Europe’s make-or-break year.
Q: You spent 15 years in London at IBM, right at the birth of cloud and social tech. How did that shape your view of innovation?
DRB: I don’t regret a single minute. At IBM, I had what you might call carte blanche. Twitter and Facebook were emerging, cloud was just taking off, and I genuinely felt like we were building the future in real time. It taught me one thing: innovation doesn’t depend on where you’re from. It depends on where you’re going.
When I came back to France in 2012, I arrived just as the French tech ecosystem was being born: Bpifrance, then La French Tech. I saw the energy, the ambition - and also, very quickly, the structural limits.
Q: You founded JFD in 2012. What problem were you trying to solve?
DRB: A very concrete one: innovation without business doesn’t scale.
JFD was built on three pillars. Accelerate, through initiatives like the Margaret Awards. Insights, through tools like our annual tech barometer. And Connect - which is far more than networking. Connect exists to help entrepreneurs fill their order books. Because without contracts, there is no sovereignty, no scale, no impact.
Q: Let’s talk about the 2026 European AI Barometer. What’s the headline takeaway?
DRB: Europe produces 15% of the world’s AI research, yet AI innovation financing here is seven times harder to access than in the US. That’s the paradox.
We are brilliant at creating ideas. We are far less effective at turning them into global leaders.
Q: The report is quite critical of Europe’s regulatory approach. Do you see regulation as a brake on innovation?
DRB: Regulation is necessary, but regulation first is not a strategy.
In the past three years, Europe has produced 13,000 legislative acts, compared with 3,500 in the US. That complexity is costly. It creates friction. And today, 23% of European AI startups are considering leaving the EU.
Ethics without industrial power is just a wish list. If regulation becomes a glass ceiling instead of a safety net, we lose.
Q: You often talk about turning “compliance into oversight”. What do you mean by that?
DRB: I would have allowed more freedom to experiment, more room to play.
We need rules, yes. But rules that protect without excluding us from the game. The AI Act should be balanced by a European purchasing priority. That didn’t happen.
So now we must act through the market: European first procurement, demand‑side power, and a real Small Business Act mindset for tech. Today, it’s no longer “Small is Beautiful”. It’s Scale or Die.
Q: The barometer calls for a European “AI Mittelstand.” Why is that so important?
DRB: Because sovereignty doesn’t come from startups alone - it comes from mid‑sized, profitable, industrial tech companies embedded in value chains.
We’ve spent years supporting innovation. Now we must move from proof of concept to strategic industrial alliances. Public funding has done its job. Today, private companies must take over.
Our target is clear: 9% of private‑sector purchasing dedicated to innovative technologies within two years. Regulation protects. Business propels.
Q: Were there any findings that genuinely surprised you?
DRB: Yes. Despite everything, 80% of AI founders in Europe choose to stay here. That’s extraordinary.
At the same time, Europe controls just 5% of global computing power, while holding 15% of AI research output. The issue is not intelligence - it’s scale.
We need to shift the debate from public subsidies to public and private procurement. Today, public procurement stands at 9%. Private procurement is just 5%. That’s where the real lever is.
Q: So how do we move from theory to reality?
DRB: By deploying, not testing.
When a company like Carrefour doesn’t just experiment, but rolls out AI nationwide, things change. AI is transforming entire sectors, and adoption has been too slow. That was our warning last year. Now, acceleration is non‑negotiable.
We must move from subsidy to contract, from regulation to acceleration.
Q: On a scale of 1 to 10 - how optimistic are you about Europe?
DRB: Ten out of ten. Entrepreneurs have to be optimists.
2026 is the tipping point. We can still change course, but it has to happen now. Europe has a solid tech ecosystem. What’s needed is conviction, demand, and scale.
Q: Finally, what do you expect from the upcoming World AI Summit in India?
DRB: It’s a moment to present this collective work and show a different path.
Rather than consuming US tech, Europe must build alliances with strategic partners. India is one of them. The message is simple: AI for all, technology in service of people - and innovation that moves from promises to reality.
I won’t let go. Large companies can trust the entrepreneurs we bring to the table.
The European AI Barometer 2026, “United by Tech,” will be officially presented to AI minister, Anne le Hénanff, on 9th February at the French Ministry of the Economy. Access the barometer here.
