The French Tech Journal is an English-language newsletter by @obrien covering France's entrepreneurs, startups, VCs, and digital transformation. Twice each week, it brings exclusive interviews and analysis right to your inbox. Subscribe here ⤵️⤵️⤵️.

RT @Raph_dOrnano: 🚨 $2B for a seed round? No product? No revenue? No demo?. Thinking Machines (@thinkymachines) just made history and redef….

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🗣️ Mhadhbi: "The name reflects what we aim to do: create real financial and market value while leveraging the collective intelligence of investors to inspire meaningful change." 📣.#climate #impact #Sustainability

With a recent €1.5 million fundraise from La Banque Postale’s innovation fund and 115K, ValueCo’s co-founders believe they can revolutionize how ESG is measured and valued in the market. 📐

ValueCo CEO Mariem Mhadhbi On Making #ESG Count in Capital Markets 📈. Founded in 2022 by Mhadhbi and Mathieu Joubrel, ValueCo bridges the gap between finance and sustainability by helping investors and companies align ESG with market expectations. 🪴.

💣The Big Deals: This week in #FrenchTech funding. @MorphoLabs, WattAlps, Sekei, Calyxia, @Sirfulltech, and @entalpic_ai.

“We want to give people a fairer kind of telecom provider, and we want to bring people into the digital world where they have access to these resources," Ronzano said. "If we increase the number of people that have access to the internet in the world, I will be a happy man.”.

International travel is a starting point for a larger ambition: Driving eSIM adoption through greater transparency and lower costs to connect 3 billion people who don't have access to mobile data.

After moving back to Spain, he got his first eSIM 🤳 and was inspired by the potential for new telecom services. 📱He recruited 3 co-founders: @AnnekCoen (Swile), Mehdi Chraibi (Spades, Orange), and @jgo2t (Cajoo) and created the Paris-based company in 2024.

The inspiration came from Spanish 🇪🇸 entrepreneur and investor @eronzano, who for the past decade has been the conquistador of French 🇫🇷 tech. ⚔ Besides co-founding and selling KelDoc, he has been one of France's most prolific angel investors. 😇 💸.

Seed Of The Week is @Kolet, the telecom startup that raised €4m to develop its eSIM platform for international travelers. 🛫.

Now Beyond Aero is preparing for the next step: Building an entire electric plane. "This is a really good moment for us as founders," said Guillotin. "I truly believe in us as a company. It's a big milestone. But for the industry, it's just the beginning."

Beyond Aero's small aircraft was a proof-of-concept, a demonstration that the hybrid system could power a private jet designed for business customers and clear early regulatory hurdles. The company was co-founded by @EloaGuillotin, @hugotarle, and @ValChomel.

France's national statistics agency said that as of 2020, the nation had 4,480 aerospace companies that employed 263,000 people. 🧑‍🏭👩‍🏭 . -->>The problem is that the products being made by this industry are terrible for the environment. So a revolution is needed.

With aerospace a major piece of the French economy, the nation is counting on such aviation innovation to secure the sector's future. ✈️🙏 . --> France is the world's second-largest aeronautics exporter with a 22% market share, lagging only behind the U.S. with 35%.

This week in The French Tech Journal: A Deep Dive Into France's Sustainable Aviation Plans 🛩♻️. @beyond_aero recently staged the first test flights of its hydrogen-electric system for low-carbon airplanes. By @obrien

An inside look at how @SwanApi raised its €37m Series B despite the grim market for fintech and Series B rounds. Swan was co-founded by @MatBreton @NicoBenady and Nicolas Saison. @lakestarvc led the latest round. More here --->

The focus now: Conquering the US.

For several months, @FelixCapital partner Julien @codorniou introduced Adrien to several advisors to discuss scaling the app. "And after about three or four months, I had met a lot of really inspiring people," Miniatti said. "And I said, okay, Julien, let's do it.".

CEO and founder @AdrienMi explained why he finally broke down and took outside funding for a company after bootstrapping his other startups over the past decade.

Seed Of The Week: @omada_app raised €7.1 million to accelerate the international expansion of its social sports prediction app.