The newly re-elected French President promises to quadruple the number of French unicorns by 2030.
French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday he was hoping for a surge in the number of French tech unicorns by 2030. Unicorn is industry slang for a privately held startup valued north of $1 billion. The newly elected leader sees growth in the country’s tech sector as crucial to his plans to boost the overall economy, according to reporting in Reuters.
Macron said he wanted the number of French technology unicorns to reach at least 100 by 2030, compared to 27 at present. “What target am I fixing for us? To try to develop ten tech giants in Europe, in the coming five years, and to increase the number of our unicorns to at least 100 by 2030, which is feasible”, Macron told the Paris VivaTech conference.
Catching up
Paris has traditionally lagged New York, California and Europe’s London as a technology and finance hub, but the French technology sector has recently notched up several high-profile fundraising rounds for some companies.
Macron’s initial election as President in 2017 coincided with the launch of the tech sector start-up site ‘Station F’ in Paris. Macron also welcomed the fact that Paris has been home to some high-profile tech sector flotations.
Earlier this year, French online bank Qonto raised €486 million; technology and data management company Castor raised $23.5 million while Shift Technology closed a $220 million fund-raising round last year. French cloud computing company OVHCloud floated last year, while French music streaming platform Deezer is planning a Paris stock market listing as well.
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