STATION F celebrates 6 years with 50,000m2 and more
It’s hard to believe that 6 years have already flown by since our Big Fat Launch. So much has happened over the years. For example, we celebrated our 1st year with 11,000 applications. We celebrated our 2nd year with the launch of Flatmates. We celebrated our 3rd & 4th birthdays trying to navigate Covid. And we celebrated our 5th year with having worked with over 5,000 companies and the announcement of our first unicorn, Hugging Face. Not too bad :)
Our campus is currently over 50,000m2 and continues to grow — we have numerous extension plans that are currently in the works. In addition, we continue to enrich our offers and build new things. However, this year for our 6th birthday, we thought that instead of constantly looking back, we would look forward and share the 6 things we find most exciting about our ecosystem right now.
1. Strong ecosystem resilience & morale
Yes, it’s not 2021 anymore — though that may not necessarily be a bad thing. While the entire global ecosystem is trying to navigate the current economic climate, we have been pleasantly surprised to see the resilience of our local ecosystem.
In 2022, the French ecosystem was the only major European ecosystem to see an increase in startup funding — despite the downturn. Station F companies, in turn, also had a record year, raising nearly €1 billion of the €14 billion raised by the entire ecosystem. 2022 also showed company creation at a record high, despite the creation rate slowing down.
2023 has proven complex and difficult to navigate with some sources announcing a slowdown of up to 68% in startup funding since the beginning of the year for the whole of France. What we are witnessing at Station F is closer to 20%.
Not surprisingly, layoffs have also been more tame in France than elsewhere. But I can’t say that this has noticeably affected ecosystem morale. Despite the challenges, the ecosystem is witnessing some exciting new projects in rather unusual circumstances — like Mistral’s recent €105m raise. OK, maybe AI is boosting morale worldwide. Still, we find that the government has also been an incredible ally, providing immense support during periods of downturn.
2. Advantages for key sectors like AI, Climate & Quantum Computing
Despite the complex geopolitical situation, France is well-positioned to be a leader in key sectors.
For example with quantum computing, the government has committed to making France a leading player, with nearly €2bn that will be invested over 4 years. In addition, companies like Pasqal, who managed to secure €100m in funding, Quanela or Alice & Bob have also helped create excitement around the space. No spoilers — but we are planning to strengthen our resources dedicated to quantum startups in the near future.
When it comes to climate-driven innovation, Europe as a whole is doing a lot to rise to the forefront. While regulation helps move the needle, a cultural shift is also underway. More and more founders and new fund managers are turning to ambitious, climate-focused projects. At STATION F we’ve been incredibly honored to host game-changing climate companies like Sweep, Woodoo, Neoplants and more.
And AI! France has always been strong in AI, hence the significant investments from companies like Microsoft or Meta in the past. Currently, the enthusiasm around this sector is reaching new heights. This became particularly visible to us when we hosted OpenAI’s Sam Altman at Station F last month. Although regulations are a matter of debate and not only in France, the fact remains that the country produces leaders such as Yann LeCun and Hugging Face. Plus, according to Sequoia Atlas, French engineering talent should put it in a good spot to play a leading role. At Station F we’ve been pleased to host some incredible AI companies — in addition to Hugging Face — including Finegrain, Clipdrop, Giskard, Quack AI, Pimento and more.
Of course there are other sectors where we feel France has real potential to shine, but these three examples are areas we are particularly excited about.
3. Next-generation entrepreneurs & investors
As our ecosystem gains in maturity, we have started to see new generations of entrepreneurs and investors alike.
On the entrepreneur side, what is really exciting is to see more founders with solid startup or scale-up experience. Many scale-up and unicorn employees are leaving to create their companies, with great experience under their belts. Accel and Dealroom published a great paper showing the rise of what they call “founder factories” in Europe — the local equivalent of the Paypal mafia — with companies like Blablacar and Doctolib leading the way for France. At Station F we’ve witnessed a rise in these types of profiles building new companies, and they often bring with them interesting domain experience for the problems they are often trying to solve.
We are also seeing more repeat founders working on their 2nd or 3rd company. We find this entrepreneurial maturity super exciting and the teams are usually very strong. These founders also often manage to attract tier-1 investors and great international talent to join their teams.
Finally, when it comes to investors, there is clearly a rise in the creation of more early-stage funds, family offices and business angels. When it comes to early-stage funding, we feel that the ecosystem has really taken off. Newcomer funds and family offices like New Wave, Singular, Purple, Origins, Snaw and more are now regularly finding their way into competitive deals. Our investor community at Station F currently counts over 400 investment vehicles and continues to grow each month. We are also noticing that the culture of angel investing has also become more prevalent throughout the entire ecosystem. Many of our entrepreneurs at Station F also now invest in their neighbors’ businesses. To top it off, the government has plans to adopt the UK’s SEIS & EIS scheme — which would only make things even better.
4. More celebrities in tech
It may sound superficial but it’s definitely not. We believe that the increase in celebrities involved in our ecosystem actually points to a huge change in culture and mentality towards startups and investing.
More and more high-profile French athletes have started investing in startups — perhaps thanks to Sorare, who counts the likes of Kylian Mbappé, Antoine Griezmann and many others in its cap table. However, we’re seeing more and more high-profile athletes invest in startups that are outside of sports: footballers like Edouard Mendy, for example, invested in educational gaming company Powerz. And while football probably sees the highest concentration of investors, we are seeing athletes from other sports as well as cinema stars turn to investing as well.
For the moment, the majority of athletes only do the occasional angel investment — but there are some that go further. For example, football player Blaise Matuidi recently became Cofounder and General Partner at fund Origins (you can listen to him discussing his fund on the Station F podcast here). And Mamadou Sakho — also a football star — recently became cofounder of the commercial investment startup Bloks. We’re super thrilled to see people from the Station F community involved in these projects.
5. Influx of international talent
Now, the one thing that has really blown me away recently is the growth in exceptional international talent landing in our ecosystem.
In 2017, the French government launched the French Tech Visa scheme, allowing entrepreneurs, tech employees and investors easier access to come and work in France. In what felt like almost overnight we saw many more international profiles in our ecosystem. Station F has always had a large international population, with ⅓ of our community coming from abroad. Our best represented countries on campus have changed a bit since Covid, but the US has always been the best represented country after France.
However, until recently, many of the people coming from abroad had prior ties to France ; the person had studied in France, had worked for a French company, had a French companion, etc. What we are witnessing now is different in that many people are leaving top international companies (primarily leading US tech companies, if I’m being honest) and coming to join French companies without a prior link. In some cases, the people don’t even speak French. This is something we feel is very exciting and captures the attractiveness of our ecosystem and companies. At Station F, we are of course happy to connect them with our network and to facilitate their arrival in France.
We are also noticing many more tier-1 international investors in France — though many are opting to hire French team members rather than set up offices (for the moment). Funds like Sequoia, a16z, General Catalyst, Lowercarbon Capital and more have all invested in Station F companies and are actively covering the market.
6. An ecosystem with a conscience
Another way to phrase this would be: we are not assholes :)
But in all sincerity, this is one thing I’ve always found quite remarkable about this ecosystem. Across the entire ecosystem, there is an incredible open-mindedness, collective willingness to help one another and learn.
Despite business heating up, we still notice that the ecosystem has a very strong conscience and cares deeply about many issues that would often be classified as impact and diversity. Yes, there is still lots to be done. But we see promising changes — and more initiatives to improve the situation. At Station F we are very proud to have worked with all of our partners to reach 41% of our companies cofounded or founded by women last year. And this year, we are working to grow our Fighters Program (for underprivileged founders), with ambitions of working with 1000 founders per year.
Wine, cheese… and technology!
France will of course always be known for incredible culture, history, wine, cheese, museums and whatnot. But what we are seeing now is that it is starting to be known for its business environment and startups as well. This is a major change that we could not be more excited to be a part of. We want to say thank you to everyone who has contributed to this incredible environment we are now in — whether you are at Station F or not. At Station F we strive to continually equip and empower the next generation of entrepreneurs and we could not be happier to celebrate our 6th birthday with wine, cheese & technology :)
