In only a few days, France will host the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit, with heads of state flocking to Paris to satisfy international tech leaders. They’ll most probably announce some massive investments and diplomatic agreements targeted on security or the environmental impression of synthetic intelligence.
Forward of the summit, early-stage VC agency Galion.exe, progress funding agency Revaia, and advisory agency Chausson Partners teamed as much as create the French AI Report, which seems to be on the present developments within the tech ecosystem.
Whereas all eyes are at the moment on the U.S. and China with OpenAI trying to raise tens of billions of {dollars} and DeepSeek capturing everybody’s consideration, there was a increase in AI startups in Europe, too. In 2024 alone, AI firms represented round 20% of all VC funding within the area.
In whole, that represents round $8 billion in funding for AI startups in 2024. That metric is most probably going to develop quickly, as AI startups are nonetheless comparatively younger. Seventy p.c of the capital raised by AI startups in 2024 was for a seed to Sequence B spherical.
European international locations that have a tendency to draw VC funding on the whole have additionally change into the primary AI funding hubs, with the U.Okay. main the group, France and Germany following swimsuit, and the Nordics punching above its demographic weight. Right here’s the breakdown from 2020 to 2024:
Apparently, as AI firms change into greater, they have an inclination to draw worldwide traders, with U.S. VC companies accounting for round 50% of cash invested in AI firms on the Sequence C spherical and later.
In France extra particularly, there are “greater than 750 startups which have created 35,000 jobs and function in all areas which are remodeling at this time’s society,” Minister Delegate for synthetic intelligence and digital applied sciences Clara Chappaz mentioned at a press convention.
She additionally talked about that there are 2,000 scientists targeted on AI analysis and 600 doctorate college students engaged on synthetic intelligence. And you will have seen that there are fairly just a few French engineers and researchers working for AI firms within the U.S., too.
The crew behind the French AI Report seemed extra intently on the prime 400 AI startups in France and tried to determine the rising stars. Whereas Mistral AI and Poolside are already some acquainted names for readers who’ve adopted the AI business, the overwhelming majority of AI startups aren’t engaged on the subsequent basis mannequin.
On the infrastructure entrance, some firms are optimizing the information workflows and pipelines, reminiscent of Linkup and Kestra, or enhancing inference efficiency, reminiscent of ZML, or creating brokers that may sift by giant knowledge units and enhance productiveness. Dust is an effective instance of that.
However the actuality is that the majority AI startups in France are specializing in functions for particular verticals. Primarily based on this report, two essential areas for AI startups in France are well being and local weather.
Owkin and its spin-off biotech firm Bioptimus have been main the pack on the well being tech entrance, however it’s a surprisingly various group of firms with three massive areas of curiosity: imaging instruments, drug discovery, and medical remedy enchancment.
Equally, whereas a big chunk of the AI business is targeted on productiveness positive aspects for workplace staff, synthetic intelligence can be actively getting used to construct the next-generation of local weather startups. Along with agritech, carbon and power administration — two subjects which are associated — appear to be an enormous focus. There are additionally a handful of promising new supplies firms which are rising (Altrove, for example).
All the businesses included within the record can be found here. You’ll additionally discover loads of AI firms engaged on one job operate — gross sales, buyer care, HR or authorized — and utilizing AI to simplify the commonest duties.
In fact, some firms aren’t going to be there in 5 years. However a lot of them are at the moment rising at a fast tempo. We’re nonetheless at the start of the AI revolution, and although it’s simple to consider the AI business as a zero-sum recreation with one nation or one firm “profitable” over the others, it looks as if the AI increase is extra distributed than anticipated.
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