The rise of Paris as a global tech hub

La French Tech

In 2019, President Emmanuel Macron and the French government committed to invest € 5 billion in French tech companies. This results in Bpifrance, a French state bank, being one of the most active European investors. In addition to that, the government wanted to simplify the administration French startups face in their race to become a unicorn and to eventually go public.  

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La French Tech was born, a government-backed initiative that promotes French startups around the world and connects them with other startups, investors, policymakers and community builders. Of course, next to the government's determination to kickstart the growth of tech companies, the startups can rely on the presence of top universities and high-tech research organizations. A unique mix of ingredients that also made a significant impact in San Francisco.  

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Big, bold ambitions

The foundation is there. But how about the talent? The rise of innovation in France (and especially the Paris region) is truly remarkable in Europe. in 2019 they've set the goal to reach 25 unicorns by 2025. Research by Omar Mohout (Partner & Head of Digital at Nova Reperta) shows that with 26 unicorns and counting, they already surpassed this target in 2022. There is a major movement growing in the French tech ecosystem, being demonstrated in the 2022 Ranking of highest startup funding rounds in France(top 10 displayed).

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Growing start- up scene

The Paris Tech scene has over 8,000 startups and the world’s largest startup campus, Station F. It's one of the top locations we will pay a visit during our Metaverse tour in November 2022. Station F is also home to major tech events such as Metaverse Summit, VivaTech and ChangeNow. They also have their own startup programs that support founders during every step of the way.  

Paris serves as an international tech community’s meeting place for making global connections and finding the right partners. Thanks to several grants and funding packages, companies will find extensive support throughout the different stages of their market development.  

Paris as the Metaverse capital

Art and fashion play a crucial role in the – still – early days of Web3 and Metaverse. That’s why it’s easy to understand why we have been seeing a lot of metaverse projects popping up in Paris, the capital of art and fashion. And it was, again, President Macron who pointed out that Metaverse and Web3 could be helpful in the promotion of cultural and creative content in Paris.  

Some of our favorite metaverse projects:

1/ Mira World: a hyper-realistic experiential metaverse that bridges reality with virtual worlds.

2/ MyEggo: A patented egg-shaped design to give birth to your digital identity. The hardware needed for a future in metaverse.

3/ Dogami: yes, we also love fun projects. It doesn’t always need to be as serious. That’s why we’ve added Dogami. Creating the petaverse and making sure you’ll never have to clean (physical) poo aof your dog anymore.

Believe in Paris as a global tech hub

All necessary foundations are there:  

• Government support
• Talent
• Venture Capital
• Universities
• Fortune 500 HQ's  
• Highest GDP in all of Europe including London, Frankfurt, and Amsterdam
• ..

Paris is growing into an innovative ecosystem including companies of all sizes, from startups to global multinationals, in a variety of industries. Many of these are collaborating on their Day After Tomorrow, investing in new trends like Web3 and the Metaverse.

There should be little doubt Paris will play a crucial role in the upcoming European Tech Revolution.