In only a few days, France will host the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit, with heads of state flocking to Paris to fulfill world tech leaders. They’ll almost certainly announce some huge investments and diplomatic agreements targeted on security or the environmental affect 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 appears on the present tendencies within the tech ecosystem.
Whereas all eyes are at present on the U.S. and China with OpenAI seeking to increase tens of billions of {dollars} and DeepSeek capturing everybody’s consideration, there was a growth in AI startups in Europe, too. In 2024 alone, AI corporations 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 almost certainly 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 Collection B spherical.
European nations that have a tendency to draw VC funding usually have additionally grow to be the primary AI funding hubs, with the U.Ok. main the group, France and Germany following go well with, and the Nordics punching above its demographic weight. Right here’s the breakdown from 2020 to 2024:
Curiously, as AI corporations grow to be larger, they have an inclination to draw worldwide buyers, with U.S. VC companies accounting for round 50% of cash invested in AI corporations on the Collection 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 reworking at present’s society,” Minister Delegate for synthetic intelligence and digital applied sciences Clara Chappaz stated 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’ll have seen that there are fairly just a few French engineers and researchers working for AI corporations within the U.S., too.
The workforce behind the French AI Report seemed extra carefully 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 corporations are optimizing the info workflows and pipelines, comparable to Linkup and Kestra, or enhancing inference efficiency, comparable to ZML, or growing brokers that may sift by way of massive knowledge units and enhance productiveness. Mud is an effective instance of that.
However the actuality is that the majority AI startups in France are specializing in functions for particular verticals. Based mostly 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, nevertheless it’s a surprisingly numerous group of corporations with three huge areas of curiosity: imaging instruments, drug discovery, and medical remedy enchancment.
Equally, whereas a big chunk of the AI business is targeted on productiveness good points 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 matters which are associated — appear to be an enormous focus. There are additionally a handful of promising new supplies corporations which are rising (Altrove, as an example).
All the businesses included within the listing can be found here. You’ll additionally discover loads of AI corporations engaged on one job perform — gross sales, buyer care, HR or authorized — and utilizing AI to simplify the most typical duties.
In fact, some corporations aren’t going to be there in 5 years. However a lot of them are at present rising at a speedy tempo. We’re nonetheless firstly of the AI revolution, and although it’s straightforward to consider the AI business as a zero-sum sport with one nation or one firm “successful” over the others, it looks like the AI growth is extra distributed than anticipated.