In September 2019, President Emmanuel Macron was about to wrap up a speech on late-stage funding in France. According to a press briefing and a few discussions with a supply, every thing that he was speculated to announce had been introduced.
But he dropped an surprising quantity. “I’ll leave you with a goal: there should be 25 French unicorns by 2025,” Macron stated. A unicorn is a personal firm with a valuation of $1 billion or extra.
When you point out France in a dialog with foreigners, they don’t instantly take into consideration startups. In December 2018, I coated a two-day roadshow of the French tech ecosystem with 40 companions of worldwide enterprise capital corporations, in addition to restricted companions, from Andreessen Horowitz to Greylock Partners, Khosla Ventures and extra.
The similar clichés got here up time and again — taxes, labor legislation, lengthy lunches… You identify them. But it doesn’t matter if these clichés are true or not (trace: They aren’t), the French tech ecosystem has been thriving. And 2019 has been a exceptional 12 months with regards to reaching unicorn standing and elevating late-stage rounds of funding.
A brand new group of unicorns
According to a current report from VC agency Atomico, there are 11 unicorns in France. Some of them have been round for years, similar to BlaBlaCar (a ride-sharing market for lengthy distance rides), OVHcloud (a cloud internet hosting firm), Deezer (a music streaming service) and Veepee (an e-commerce firm previously often called Vente-privee.com).
But in 2019 alone, a handful of corporations have reached unicorn standing. Here are a number of examples.
