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Business Standard
29-07-2025
- Business
- Business Standard
Mehran Gul's debut book decodes the innovation ecosystem through its people
We see the United States as the source of just about all the technologies that define modern life, and most of the companies that created them are based there. But is that changing premium Ajit Balakrishnan Mumbai Listen to This Article The New Geography of Innovation: The Global Contest for Breakthrough Technologies by Mehran Gul Published by HarperCollins 368 pages ₹599 For anyone fascinated by questions about technological innovation, why it happens, what makes it happen and so on, this book has some wonderful case studies. For example, France saw the emergence of a private initiative, Station F, which has become a symbol of France's ambition to become the tech capital of Europe. When Emmanuel Macron inaugurated the facility in 2017, he made a pitch for why this is the place for the smartest people with the biggest dreams. 'I like to compare
LeMonde
27-06-2025
- Business
- LeMonde
French tech struggles to raise funds as it seeks profitability
In its bid to prove itself a global tech powerhouse, Paris has not shied away from using superlatives. Case in point: Station F, the world's largest start-up campus, owned by Xavier Niel (a member of the Groupe Le Monde supervisory board), and VivaTech, the biggest tech event on the planet, according to its co-founder Maurice Lévy (Publicis). But in the "start-up nation", a term championed my French President Emmanuel Macron, the mood is far from celebratory. Fundraising rounds, which climbed steadily until 2022 – reaching a record €13.5 billion that year – have been declining ever since: €8.3 billion in 2023, then €7.8 billion in 2024, according to the consulting firm EY. Hopes for a rebound faded further in the first months of 2025, with investments projected to fall sharply over the first five months of the year (down 30% compared to the same period in 2024). Since January 1, only three funding rounds have raised €100 million or more: Loft Orbital in the space sector (€170 million), Powesco in energy (€150 million) and Alice & Bob in quantum computing (€100 million). Optimists still believe that major fundraising could happen in the coming months. According to the Financial Times, Mistral, the French leader in artificial intelligence (AI), is reportedly in the midst of raising another $1 billion (over €856 million).
Yahoo
22-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
'We're not trying to be Silicon Valley': Inside Station F, where Paris is incubating the next tech and AI juggernauts
Paris's Station F, a converted train station, is a prolific incubator for tech startups. The incubator has doubled down on the AI boom and is getting more interest from US startups. Business Insider visited the vibrant space to see how it's driving France's tech boom. In Paris's balmy thirteenth district, an airy rail depot that's been converted into a startup incubator is now the epicenter of France's tech boom. Walking through Station F, it's hard not to see how the 366,000-square-foot space has been influenced by Silicon Valley, with its amenities like a huge cafeteria and an under-construction yoga studio that are reminiscent of Big Tech campuses. But Station F's director, Roxanne Varza, told Business Insider that it is not trying to become an American incubator. "We've been inspired by a lot of players, and we look up to Y Combinator. But we're not trying to be Silicon Valley," she said. Now, politics is helping drive international founders here, including Americans, Varza told BI during a recent visit. The election of Donald Trump and Brexit were among the biggest catalysts driving international founders to Station F, Varza told BI. After France, the US and UK are the most represented nationalities on campus, which houses entrepreneurs from 70 nationalities, Varza said. At times of political volatility, the campus has been a magnet for founders seeking a global outlook and a supply of talent. Trump 2.0 — and its aftermath, including the announcement of Stargate and DeepSeek — galvanized European founders to step up, Varza said. The US tech ecosystem secured $209 billion in VC funding in 2024, about 17 times more than France. But Paris is catching up to its global counterparts. In 2025, technology research platform Dealroom billed the city as Europe's new tech champion, overtaking London's mantle. From 2017 to 2024, the combined enterprise value of startups based in Paris increased 5.3 times, more than any other European tech hub. Climate tech founders in particular have been coming from the US to Station F amid the Trump administration cutting incentives for green industries in the US, Varza said. Materials discovery startup Entalpic, which launched in 2024, has had a flurry of US applicants vying for jobs at the company since the start of the year, its cofounder, Alexandre Duval, told BI. Duval had planned to move his startup out of Station F once it reached 20 employees, but decided to stay. "We have so many resources here: meeting rooms, onboarding, events, opportunities to meet people. It's good," he said. Station F, the handiwork of French billionaire Xavier Neil, launched in 2017 to drive entrepreneurship in France's tech ecosystem. The Station F team accepts around 40 startups every month. In addition to access to the incubator's coworking space, startups get resources and mentorship, including from government officials and Big Tech companies, such as Meta and Microsoft, that have offices at Station F. Station F's flagship Founders Program offers founders workshops and masterclasses. In return, the incubator takes 1% equity — a more favourable figure than the 6% taken by Y Combinator. The incubator also aims to write checks of $50,000 to $100,000 to around 20 upstarts each year. The result is a hubbub of innovators collaborating and ideating all days of the week — a far cry from how some corners of LinkedIn see Europe's tech ecosystem as the butt of the joke for its supposed lax work culture compared to Silicon Valley. Station F has welcomed everyone from the prime minister of Ethiopia to the CEO of Cisco — and the morning I arrive, the CEO of GitHub is scheduled to speak for a Q&A as part of VivaTech, France's flagship tech event that attracted speakers such as Nvidia's Jensen Huang. "The No. 1 reason people come here is for the access to people," Varza added. Like many of its international counterparts, Station F has doubled down on the AI boom. Government initiatives under France's president Emmanuel Macron, as well as generous financing from the country's national bank, Bpifrance, have galvanized the region's AI startups. In 2023, French AI startups raised $1.9 billion, per PitchBook data. In 2024, this figure rose by more than 50% to $2.98 billion. Notable rounds included Mistral's $600 million raise in June 2024 and H's mammoth $220 million seed round in May 2024. So far this year, French AI companies have raised $1.7 billion in VC funding, and Macron announced in February an additional $112 billion in private sector funding earmarked for the country's AI ecosystem. High-profile investors such as Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst, and Lightspeed Ventures have flocked to back prolific AI startups founded in France, such as Mistral, Dust, and Poolside. Open-source AI company Hugging Face, now valued at $4.5 billion, was once incubated in Station F. Now, Varza said, around 40% of France's AI startups are spinning out of the program. In 2024, 34 out of 40 of the top startups touted by Station F — its "Future 40" — were AI companies. "Station F is one of the biggest AI communities in Europe," Varza says. "It's also an entry point for so many tier one investors coming to Europe — and we're seeing more Series A and B rounds too." Beyond helping AI startups raise financing, Station F also participates in regulatory debates about France's tech ecosystem, Varza added. "Right now, the government is talking about how we can fiscally incentivise AI companies and push creation. We're in those discussions very actively." I was keen to speak to AI and climate founders, and within two minutes, Varza had grabbed two people for me to speak to. It was a reflection of how Station F operates: touting collaboration over competition. Despite the vast space, I saw founders from different startups huddled together in various pockets of the station, congregating for in-house events such as Q&As, as well as the bustling restaurant space. "We saw incredible things happen when people were working in close spaces," Varza said. "You see everything from VR and AI companies collaborating — and even companies winding down and neighbouring teams acquiring them." She recalled how one startup in the incubator wanted to pivot and copied a neighbouring company's idea. "It's our only copycat story, but they both ended up being pretty successful," she added. Station F is working on initiatives with Japan and the Gulf region, Varza said — but what excites her most is the opportunity to take what they've built in Paris and "build those bridges" internationally across Europe. Read the original article on Business Insider
Free Malaysia Today
12-06-2025
- Business
- Free Malaysia Today
NAIO hails France's Station F as model for startups, AI advancement
NAIO head Shamsul Izhan Abdul Majid said the office is building cross-border innovation pathways in sectors such as healthcare, transport, agriculture, education, public services and MSMEs. (Bernama pic) KUALA LUMPUR : France's vibrant startup ecosystem, exemplified by Station F, offers a compelling roadmap for Malaysia's artificial intelligence (AI) entrepreneurs, says the head of Malaysia's National Artificial Intelligence Office (NAIO). Shamsul Izhan Abdul Majid said Station F, the world's largest startup facility located in the heart of Paris, boasts more than 1,000 startups, an installed presence of global venture capital and a deep corporate innovation network. Inspired by this model, he said NAIO is building cross-border innovation pathways in sectors such as healthcare, transport, agriculture, education, public services and micro, small and medium-sized enterprises. Speaking at the launch of the France-Malaysia Innovation Day 2025, Shamsul said France has set a new high bar in technology innovation, emphasising the government's commitment to continued collaboration and idea sharing between Malaysia and France. 'By reducing friction in cross-border research and development, we empower AI startups to thrive on both sides of the world. 'This is how AI diplomacy becomes real: with a focus on collaboration, shared governance and sector legal information that corresponds to the challenges of our time,' he said. By connecting France's technological depth with Malaysia's talent, Shamsul said Malaysia is more than prepared to build inventions that are not only advanced but also adaptive, inclusive and human-centred. 'France's contributions to AI, engineering and cutting-edge research, from quantum machine learning to world-leading robotics, offer boundless avenues for joint collaboration.' French ambassador to Malaysia Axel Cruau, who was also present at the event, affirmed Malaysia's role in spearheading digital innovation in Southeast Asia. 'With Malaysia's chairmanship of Asean this year, its push for the Asean Digital Economic Framework Agreement (Defa), and its organisation of Smart City Expo Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia is poised to position itself as a regional leader for innovation, digital transformation, and ethical AI use,' he said. Defa, introduced at the 2023 Asean Economic Ministers' meeting in Indonesia, provides a vision of digital transformation committed to empowering Asean businesses in unlocking a borderless era of economic growth. Cruau also reiterated France's commitment to supporting Malaysian tech startups through French Tech Malaysia, a French government initiative aimed at expanding the country's entrepreneurial ecosystem in Malaysia.
Entrepreneur
30-05-2025
- Business
- Entrepreneur
10 Indian AI Startups Selected for Global Accelerator Programme in Paris
The initiative aims to provide Indian startups with global exposure, access to international markets, and opportunities for cross-border collaboration You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media. Ten Indian AI startups have been selected to participate in a global acceleration programme in Paris as part of the IndiaAI Startups Global Initiative, an international effort led by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) in partnership with Station F and HEC Paris. The initiative aims to provide Indian startups with global exposure, access to international markets, and opportunities for cross-border collaboration. The selected startups, which span diverse domains such as privacy engineering, conversational AI, earth observation, edtech, cybersecurity, and deeptech image editing, were chosen through a rigorous multi-stage process. They will participate in a four-month programme at Station F, the world's largest startup campus. The accelerator includes a one-month virtual onboarding module followed by a three-month in-person residency in Paris. During this period, the startups will engage with European investors, mentors, and innovation networks through programming developed by HEC Paris, one of Europe's leading business schools. Speaking on the announcement, Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw highlighted the strategic significance of the initiative, calling it a milestone in India's "innovation diplomacy". He noted that the move follows Prime Minister Narendra Modi's participation in the AI Action Summit in February 2024, signalling India's intent to shape global AI standards. "India's AI ecosystem is now on the cusp of a global breakthrough. Through initiatives like this, we are enabling our most promising startups to tap into international markets, form global alliances, and create scalable, impactful solutions," he said. The selected startups include, PrivaSapien Technologies, Staqu Technologies, SatSure Analytics, Storyvord, VolarAlta, Smartail, Secure Blink, and Voicing AI. "The IndiaAI Startups Global Initiative is more than an acceleration program, it is a bridge between India's talent and the world's innovation hubs," said Meity secretary S Krishnan. "These 10 startups exemplify the strength, diversity, and global potential of Indian AI. We are proud to support their next leap as global AI leaders." MeitY Additional Secretary and CEO of the IndiaAI Mission, Abhishek Singh, said the programme is designed as a bridge between Indian talent and international innovation hubs, reflecting India's growing strength and ambition in AI. This initiative is aligned with the broader IndiaAI Mission launched in March 2024, which aims to foster responsible and inclusive AI development across seven strategic pillars including compute infrastructure, innovation, skills development, and startup financing.
