French VC Deal Flow: Trends, Sectors, and Valuations
French venture deal flow reached $13.2 billion across 1,200+ deals in 2024. AI accounted for 35%+ of total volume, followed by enterprise SaaS, fintech, healthtech, and climate tech.
Deal Flow by Stage (2024)
| Stage | Deals | Volume | Median Size |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pre-seed / Seed | 600+ | $1.2B | $1.5M |
| Series A | 250+ | $3.1B | $10M |
| Series B | 120+ | $3.8B | $25M |
| Growth (C+) | 50+ | $5.1B | $80M |
Sector Heat Map
AI / ML: $4.6B (Mistral, Hugging Face, Kyutai drove mega-rounds). Climate Tech: $1.8B (hydrogen, batteries, carbon capture). FinTech: $1.4B (Qonto, Pennylane, Alma). HealthTech: $1.2B (Doctolib growth, biotech pipeline). Enterprise SaaS: $2.1B (Contentsquare, Pigment, PayFit). Deeptech: $1.5B (quantum, semiconductors, space).
Valuation Trends
French Series A median pre-money valuations: €25M (up from €18M in 2022). Series B medians: €80M. AI companies command 2–3x premium vs sector averages. Down-round frequency: 8% (below European average of 12%).