Curious about France’s growing reputation as a startup hub? Here is what Americans need to know

French startups raised €4.83bn in the first half of 2026, putting the country on track for its strongest funding year since 2022, the French Tech Journal reported.

Those who have been following France’s startup ecosystem know this is part of a larger story. Since 2017, when President Emmanuel Macron announced his plan to make France a ‘startup nation’, the country has invested billions into attracting new talent. Part of that initiative includes tax incentives to attract capital, a new visa pathway to bring in foreign entrepreneurs and billions of euros of investment into green energy, robotics, semiconductors and biotech to build domestic industrial independence.

Last year, Paris briefly overtook London as Europe’s top startup hub, according to a ranking published by data platform Dealroom. That was largely due to how fast tech businesses were growing in the French capital.

As more Americans move to France to study, work and retire, France’s growing startup ecosystem may appear enticing. In fact, some Americans have already founded in France – take, for example, Olivier Jeannel, born in California, who created Rogervoice to help the deaf or hard of hearing communicate more easily over the phone.

However, while French startup funding has risen recently and rapidly, the US and France have had tech connections for a long time, said Alexandros Dohn, entrepreneur, business angel and startup adviser.

“This is not a recent trend,” he told The Connexion. “It is nearly 50 years of continuous American industrial and R&D presence on the Riviera, and that is why it's worth it having also a closer look into this scene.”

Mr Dohn mentioned the role of IBM and Texas Instruments as early industrial anchors which helped support Sophia Antipolis – Europe’s leading technology park – in the French Riviera by establishing research and development (R&D) bases there. Despite this longtime connection, European and American startup ecosystems look very different.

France’s unique ecosystem

A significant differentiator is France’s public-private machine, said Mr Dohn, who co-founded K2MATCH, a platform connecting startups with investors and other partners.

For example, Bpifrance, France’s public investment bank which started in 2013, plans to invest €10bn in the French AI ecosystem by 2029. Acting as both a direct investor and a limited partner, or passive investor, it is a big reason France outperformed the UK in venture capital fundraising in 2025, Mr Dohn said.

Paris is also positioning itself as a leader in DeepTech financing (DeepTech refers to technologies rooted in substantial scientific discoveries). This comes at a time when DeepTech is receiving around 32% of all venture capital investment across Europe, Mr Dohn said.

Additionally, France proposes the Crédit d’impôt recherche, a research tax credit, which makes it so startups do not necessarily need to be profitable to conduct R&D.

The result is a country “where the state genuinely de-risks early-stage capital,” Mr Dohn said.

The more visible manifestations of this strategy are the French Tech Visa, a pathway designed to draw foreign entrepreneurs to France, as well as VivaTech, Europe’s biggest startup and tech event hosted in France. Since 2018, President Macron has also hosted the annual Choose France summit to encourage more foreign investment.

Perspective shift

These initiatives may be attractive, but the fact remains that big funding is largely more available in the US.

Gaelle Charrol, a France-based investor helping businesses scale up, noted that many businesses choose to leave Europe when they surpass pre-seed and seed-level investment. Private equity is newer and less deep on the continent compared to the US.

“You can be really backed up by funds in the US more easily than in France,” Ms Charrol told The Connexion.

That said, funding is more available in sectors of interest such as tech, DeepTech and AI. Luxury and real estate may also be good sectors of investment for an American business coming to France to target, Ms Charrol said.

For Mr Dohn, creating a startup in France versus the US comes down to a difference in mindset.

He described “two different philosophies that both work, just optimized for different things.”

For example, France, and Europe in general, tends to prioritize depth and endurance. Investors are interested in the startup’s fundamentals, team and ability to perform over the course of many years, rather than a few quarters.

“It is a mindset built for compounding rather than sprinting, and it produces founders who build extremely resilient, well-run companies with real staying power,” Mr Dohn said.

On the other hand, the US prioritizes speed and conviction, with investors rewarding ambition even if all the numbers have not backed up the startup yet.

“Founders who move fast and think big thrive in that environment,” Mr Dohn said.

For those startups seeking funding in France, Ms Charrol emphasized the importance of networking. For example, she cited a hospitality business she had worked with that managed to close under €500,000 quickly thanks to a co-founder's network connections, rather than the deal alone.

The process of creating a business itself takes longer in France, she said. She remembered creating a business in a matter of days in the US whereas now, trying to create a business during the summer vacation in France, her accountant and lawyer have been working on the process for a month.

“I think this is really painful for a company. So it's something that they need to consider 100%,” Ms Charrol said.

No matter which country they want to create a startup in, Ms Charrol offered a piece of advice:

“Know the market, that’s the first step,” she said. “Then understand the culture as well.”