From Business Insider, June 22:
- Paris's Station F, a converted train station, is a prolific incubator for tech startups.
- The incubator has doubled down on the AI boom and is getting more interest from US startups.
- Business Insider visited the vibrant space to see how it's driving France's tech boom.
In Paris's balmy thirteenth district, an airy rail depot that's been converted into a startup incubator is now the epicenter of France's tech boom.
Walking through Station F, it's hard not to see how the 366,000-square-foot space has been influenced by Silicon Valley, with its amenities like a huge cafeteria and an under-construction yoga studio that are reminiscent of Big Tech campuses.
But Station F's director, Roxanne Varza, told Business Insider that it is not trying to become an American incubator. "We've been inspired by a lot of players, and we look up to Y Combinator. But we're not trying to be Silicon Valley," she said.
Now, politics is helping drive international founders here, including Americans, Varza told BI during a recent visit.
Trump 2.0 is driving talent migration
The election of Donald Trump and Brexit were among the biggest catalysts driving international founders to Station F, Varza told BI. After France, the US and UK are the most represented nationalities on campus, which houses entrepreneurs from 70 nationalities, Varza said.At times of political volatility, the campus has been a magnet for founders seeking a global outlook and a supply of talent. Trump 2.0 — and its aftermath, including the announcement of Stargate and DeepSeek — galvanized European founders to step up, Varza said.
The US tech ecosystem secured $209 billion in VC funding in 2024, about 17 times more than France. But Paris is catching up to its global counterparts. In 2025, technology research platform Dealroom billed the city as Europe's new tech champion, overtaking London's mantle. From 2017 to 2024, the combined enterprise value of startups based in Paris increased 5.3 times, more than any other European tech hub.
Climate tech founders in particular have been coming from the US to Station F amid the Trump administration cutting incentives for green industries in the US, Varza said.
Materials discovery startup Entalpic, which launched in 2024, has had a flurry of US applicants vying for jobs at the company since the start of the year, its cofounder, Alexandre Duval, told BI. Duval had planned to move his startup out of Station F once it reached 20 employees, but decided to stay. "We have so many resources here: meeting rooms, onboarding, events, opportunities to meet people. It's good," he said.
Competitive equity
Station F, the handiwork of French billionaire Xavier Neil, launched in 2017 to drive entrepreneurship in France's tech ecosystem.The Station F team accepts around 40 startups every month. In addition to access to the incubator's coworking space, startups get resources and mentorship, including from government officials and Big Tech companies, such as Meta and Microsoft, that have offices at Station F.
Station F's flagship Founders Program offers founders workshops and masterclasses. In return, the incubator takes 1% equity — a more favourable figure than the 6% taken by Y Combinator. The incubator also aims to write checks of $50,000 to $100,000 to around 20 upstarts each year.
The result is a hubbub of innovators collaborating and ideating all days of the week — a far cry from how some corners of LinkedIn see Europe's tech ecosystem as the butt of the joke for its supposed lax work culture compared to Silicon Valley.
Station F has welcomed everyone from the prime minister of Ethiopia to the CEO of Cisco — and the morning I arrive, the CEO of GitHub is scheduled to speak for a Q&A as part of VivaTech, France's flagship tech event that attracted speakers such as Nvidia's Jensen Huang. "The No. 1 reason people come here is for the access to people," Varza added.
A hotbed for AI startups
Like many of its international counterparts, Station F has doubled down on the AI boom.Government initiatives under France's president Emmanuel Macron, as well as generous financing from the country's national bank, Bpifrance, have galvanized the region's AI startups.
In 2023, French AI startups raised $1.9 billion, per PitchBook data. In 2024, this figure rose by more than 50% to $2.98 billion. Notable rounds included Mistral's $600 million raise in June 2024 and H's mammoth $220 million seed round in May 2024.
So far this year, French AI companies have raised $1.7 billion in VC funding, and Macron announced in February an additional $112 billion in private sector funding earmarked for the country's AI ecosystem....
....MUCH MORE
Previously:
The Creator of the iPod and the iPhone Seeks to Dethrone Tech’s Giants
It’s a crisp January morning in Paris’s 13th Arrondissement, and
outside Station F, the former freight terminal that is the epicenter of
France’s startup scene, twentysomethings climb out of cars hailed using
iPhone apps....
"Station F: A symbol of France's startup ambitions"
"The Hottest Startups in Paris"
"The Race is On for European AI Research"
Profit From The Global Riot Control Industry
"The Top-10 French Artificial Intelligence Startups"
Tony Fadell’s Next Act? Taking on Silicon Valley—From Paris
"French government officials advocate for a €500m investment in blockchain technology"
The country might be better served adding to the €1.5 billion that
President Macron has pledged for research in Artificial Intelligence.
But I might be biased.
No time for a lull. Since 2018 we've been pitching French tech as an economic engine to supplant Germany and this would be an awful time to pull up on the reins.
Do whatever it takes, either get the deficit under control (6.1% of GDP? That's American-level depravity but with a currency you don't issue) or do a Frexit and go back to the franc so you can inflate it away, what ever it takes to make the investments now.
From Sifted.eu, November 8:
An event organised by Xavier Niel, ai-Pulse, came back to Station F in Paris for a second edition — but with a few degrees less hype...
Turn that frown upside down. Previously on Niel:
"Station F: A symbol of France's startup ambitions"
"Xavier Niel SPAC Said to Weigh Bid for French Supermarket Chain"
"French Groups Swoop For Depressed British Assets"
Apparently 1066 wasn't big enough in the cross-channel asset-grabbing biz..
"Billionaire Xavier Niel Invests €200 Million in French AI Push"
"Xavier Niel, a Driving Force of French AI, Is Now Shaping TikTok"
And on the long game, the outro from July's "GenAI startup Dust’s founders on raising €15m, leaving Silicon Valley and launching in Paris":
....It's taken a bit longer for France to develop the ecosystems, the connections, than we thought it would take, six - seven years ago but it is indeed happening. If interested see...
"Venture Capital: "These 12 startups could be France’s next unicorns"
French Tech: "Macron's €109 Billion ‘Adieu’ to All the AI Doomerism"
