Recently, during the 10^th edition of France Digital Day, representing more than 1,800 French digital entrepreneurs and investors, the French tech sector announced its ambitious plans to stay atop the tech industry for years to come.

With €8.9bn raised in 2021 YTD (+78% vs 2020), the French Tech VC ecosystem has matured, and Bristol-based Tech focussed investment bank ICON Corporate Finance predicts France will play a major role in creating European Tech champions such as Sorare, Alan, Ledger, Mirakl, Back Market, amongst others.

Indeed, Sorare, declared they had earned $555 million - a record for French tech - by creating a digital card exchange game based on blockchain, whereas Mirakl, an online marketplace specialist had raised $473 million.

Today, the number of French Unicorns, defined as unlisted start-ups valued at least one billion Euros, doubled to 21 in 2021 YTD.

As a matter of fact, Minister Bruno le Maire told during a conference “We were a start-up nation; we are going to become a nation of large technology companies”. Indeed, the government indicated that by 2025 it aimed to have 25 “unicorns”.

Alan Bristow, CEO of ICON, commented that “Funding to European tech companies has reached record-breaking levels” making France now lies third in European tech rankings, behind the UK and Germany, boosted by government investment of $4bn, Brexit, and post-pandemic optimism among investors.

Source: www.euractiv.com