STATION F startups raise record €2B as 2026 Future 40 is named

Bootstrapping, PhDs and physical AI

Five companies in the cohort are bootstrapped. Camille Aubery, an investor at STATION F, links this to a tougher funding climate, but also to founders who want to keep control. AI tools help too: Oguste reached €400,000 in annual recurring revenue in under a year without outside funding, and Revox used an AI agent to book 250 sales calls in a month. Two of the five are now raising.

The list spans AI, deeptech, developer infrastructure, robotics and climate tech, with sovereign AI and physical AI emerging as themes. Examples include Bleu Robotics, Allude and AICE, which builds low-cost subsea drone swarms. According to Aubery, 47 per cent of teams have at least one PhD and 75 per cent are repeat founders.

Founders return from Silicon Valley

Six of the companies took part in Y Combinator and then came back to France. Aubery says founders increasingly use the US ecosystem for networks and opportunities while building at home, where it is cheaper. Late-stage capital remains scarce: “We still lack liquidity and sufficient late-stage capital,” she said.

Founded by Xavier Niel in 2017, the 50,000-square-metre campus supports more than 1,000 startups a year through 40 programmes, and around 9,000 have passed through. Partnerships with Sanofi, Doctolib, AP-HP and Roche serve healthtech, while TotalEnergies acquires up to four companies a year from the campus. Converting corporate pilots into lasting customers remains difficult.