Author
AVOLTA
Date
Nov. 07th, 2019
French unicorns, a fantasy?
How insubordinate is that?
Our religion is data. Despite all the recent fuss about French Tech, Next40, French unicorns, the Startup-Nation, we do not fall dumbly into the ranks of wishful thinking. Reality is quite simple: fundraisings are growing fast yet, the Tech industry in France is still pretty immature compared to its UK and German neighbours, not to mention the US and has failed to produce giant exits so far.
Between Jan-17 and Jun-19, the French Tech ecosystem has produced 493 exits for €23.7bn+ in total transaction value. Yet, a mere 12.5% of the transactions exceed €150m and only 6 are 10-figures exits: Gemalto, Antelliq, Morpho, Lixens, Exclusive Networks, eFront. Even more stunning: among those 6 billion-euro exits, the “youngest” (Exclusive Networks) was created in 2003 – not really what we would call a “startup”.
So why does the French ecosystem fail to produce giant exits?