Emmanuel Macron's victory in the French presidential election on May 7 was also a victory for the thriving Parisian tech community. "No one was expecting him to beat the old giants of politics," says Cedric Giorgi, director of special projects at internet-of-things startup SIGFOX. "But he did it, with a young team and by leveraging digital."
Macron is expected to announce reduced taxes on investment and to launch a special visa scheme to attract foreign tech workers. Meanwhile, the city stands to gain further, in light of Brexit. "Macron should continue to boost the digital section," says Roxanne Varza, director of incubator Station F. "Innovation is at the heart of his political project."
Founded by 24-year-old Anaïs Barut in 2014, medtech startup DAMAE Medical has developed a handheld probe that allows doctors to instantly diagnose if skin moles are cancerous or benign. The device is able to obtain in-depth images of the skin-cell patterns and distinguish between normal skin-cell patterns and abnormal ones. In May 2017, it announced the closing of a €2 million (£1.67m) investment round with private investors and several VC firms. damaemedical.fr
Zenly is the first French startup to raise investment - €28 million, to be precise - from Peter Fenton, one of Silicon Valley's top VCs. Members of Zenly's social network can share their location with family and friends. "This may sound totally 2010 but they have managed incredible growth," says Roxanne Varza, director of Station F. Zenly founder Antoine Martin, who developed the product with former Google and Apple engineers, says it has the ambition to become the next Snapchat. zen.ly
In June, real-time search startup Algolia raised $53 million (£41m) in a Series B round led by Accel Partners, taking their investment fund to $74.2 million. The Y Combinator alumnus counts Medium, Stripe, Twitch, Periscope, Crunchbase and Vevo among its 3,000 customers, and handles 25 billion searches a month. Its new Algolia Offline feature allows them to use the search engine without a web connection. It plans to open an office in London in 2017. algolia.com
Doctolib allows patients to book an appointment with one of 17,000-plus medical doctors via its app. The service, launched by Stanislas Niox-Chateau, Franck Tetzlaff, Ivan Schneider, Jessy Bernal, Thomas Landais and Steve Abou Rjeily, costs €109 per month. It recently expanded to Berlin and raised €26 million in a Series C round. "They just signed with the Hôpitaux de Paris," says Alice Zagury, CEO of incubator The Family. "They are the market leader." doctolib.fr
WHERE TO EAT: Ober Mamma, 107 Boulevard Richard Lenoir, 75011 Paris. An Italian in Paris? It's worth it for the authentic ingredients and buzzy vibe.
WHERE TO VISIT: Station F, 55 Boulevard Vincent-Auriol, 75013 Paris. The world's biggest startup campus is home to 1,000+ companies.
TECH INCUBATOR: The Family, 25 Rue du Petit Musc, 75004 Paris. The Family's mission is to support and educate entrepreneurs, taking five per cent equity in exchange for long-term support. With offices in London and Berlin, its alumni include Algolia and Agricool.
WHERE TO DRINK: Le Barav, 6 Rue Charles-François Dupuis, 75003 Paris. This bistro is great for "debates over wine", says The Family's Fanny Lou-Benoit.
Developed by robotics experts Clément Boussard and Stéphane Evann, Stanley Robotics' Stan is a valet robot that can park cars. Its electric platform moves and stores vehicles in reserved bays in private car parks, maximising use of space by increasing the number of vehicles in an area by 50 per cent. The company raised €3.6 million in 2017 from Elaia Partners, Bpifrance and Idinvest Partners, and is already operating at the city's Charles de Gaulle Airport. stanley-robotics.com
Dataiku helps data scientists write their own algorithms and manage datasets. The company, founded in 2013 by Florian Douetteau, Marc Batty, Thomas Cabrol and Clément Stenac, has been profitable since 2014 and raised $14 million in a Series A round in 2016. Clients include L'Oréal, Hostelworld and Bechtel. "They are the best team I know in big data and are rapidly expanding in the US," says Nicolas Dessaigne, CEO of Algolia. dataiku.com
In 2009, surfer Anders Bringal and sailor Alain Thébault broke a speed record on board the Hydroptère, a trimaran that can "fly" over water. Eight years later, their startup uses battery-powered "Bubbles" to shuttle passengers over the River Seine. This zero-emission mode of transportation can hold five passengers and has a 100km range. Production of the first fleet of Bubbles started in February and it began its rollout this summer. seabubbles.fr
PayFit's software-as-a-service web interface helps more than 600 companies manage their payrolls and deal with HR tasks from booking holidays to managing recruitment. "If you look at a French payslip you'll understand why we're so needed," Firmin Zocchetto, PayFit's CEO, says. "There are around 40 lines of technical details that most of us don't understand at all." The startup, founded in 2016, has raised €5.6 million from Otium Ventures and Station F founder Xavier Niel. "We plan to expand to Spain, Italy, the UK and Germany in 2018," says Zocchetto. "We're already adapting our product to local labour rules." payfit.com
Using the Cityscoot app, Parisians can reserve and ride one of 1,000+ 50cc electric scooters in the city centre for 20 cents an hour. The vehicles have a top speed of 45kph and a battery range of 105km. CEO Bertrand Fleurose, who founded Cityscoot in 2014, developed the idea over the course of a decade and now counts Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo among its supporters. Fleurose is now planning to expand to other European cities, including London. cityscoot.eu
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
