The 17 hottest tech startups in France

It's easy to find information online through Google, but what if you want to find people? Yatedo is a search engine for people that brings together information from all over social media and the web to generate profiles for different people. Those pages include contact information, career history, and social media profiles, all in one place.

The company brought in $1.6 million (£1.09 million) in seed funding from True Global Ventures in 2012.

Founders: Amyne Berrada and Saad Zniber

Pearltrees is a French startup that helps its users collect URLs, photos, and files, from around the internet and then sort them into interests.

The technical term for an organised collection of everything you like is "interest graph." Facebook has a similar functions called Facebook Graph, but Pearltrees is trying to use that technology to connect you with what you like in a smarter way. It can sort your favourite music and films, suggesting new interests.

Since launching in 2009, Pearltrees has brought in a total of €10.4 million (£7.5 million) in funding, most recently raising €6.6 million (£4.7 million) in 2012 from The Group Accueil and other investors.

Founders: Nicolas Cynober, Alain Cohen, Francois Rocaboy, Patrice Lamothe

If you've ever organised a gift for someone in the office, you know how tricky it is to get everyone to pay up. Leetchi solves that problem by allowing users to create a money pot. Friends and coworkers can use Leetchi to contribute to the pot through an app on their smartphones.

The site was founded in 2009, and has raised a total of $7.9 million (£5.4 million), bringing in $5.5 million (£3.7 million) in 2012 from investors including Idinvest Partners. It used that money to expand into the UK and Germany.

Founder: Céline Lazorthes

Searching for apps in the App Store isn't easy, and it's tricky for app developers to get their apps seen by potential users. That's why app discovery platforms like Appsfire are so important. So important, in fact, that Paris-based Appsfire was acquired in February for $30 million (£20 million) by Mobile Network Group.

Appsfire pivoted away from mobile app discovery in December 2013, changing focus to mobile ads. The company raised a total of $8.7 million (£5.9 million) from investors including Idinvest Partners and Xavier Niel.

Founders: Ouriel Ohayon and Yann Lechelle

Qobuz is a music streaming company that lets customers stream and download high-resolution music of a higher quality than what you'd find on iTunes or Spotify. Just like Tidal, Qobuz places an emphasis on audiophiles, people who are prepared to pay extra for better quality music.

The service launched in 2007, but started to spread around Europe in 2013, when it launched in the UK. The price for the high-end, HI-FI subscription is £19.99 per month, the same as Tidal's top tier.

Founders: Alexandre Leforestier and Yves Riesel

Withings is a Parisian hardware company that creates internet of things devices. Its first product, the WiFi body scale, was launched in 2009. It connects to the internet to measure and track weight and body fat.

Withings has also launched a wearable health tracker, the Withings Pulse. It measures heart rate, blood oxygen level, and also tracks your sleep. As well as its scales and health tracker, Withings also produces a blood pressure monitor, a baby monitor, and baby scales.

Founders: Cédric Hutchings and Eric Carreel

Founded in 2001, Vente Privée is one of the originators of the online flash sales model, offering a collection of products at a reduced prize for a set amount of time.

Vente Privée's flash sales model has appealed to some big names — musician Iggy Pop released an album of covers of French songs on the site in 2012.

The site operated only in Europe until 2011, when it created a joint venture with American Express to launch a US version. Both Vente Privée and American Express invested $20 million (£13 million) in the new venture, but it didn't work out and the US company was shut in 2014.

Founders: Jacques-Antoine Granjon, Xavier Court, Claude Sorbac, Julien Sorbac, Michaël Benabou, Eléonore Sabates, Ilan Benhaïm and Philippe Naggar

Criminal Case is one of the biggest games on Facebook, and Pretty Simple Games is the Paris game studio that built it. The company was started in 2010 with funding from Idinvest Partners and it now boasts over 35 million monthly active users across its games.

The statistics for Criminal Case are pretty mind-blowing. Pretty Simple Games said in 2013 that it had over 100 million users, with 6 million users returning every day to play. As for revenue, Pretty Simple says it's in the eight figures.

Founders: Corentin Raux and Bastien Cazenave

Gameloft is a French video game developer and publisher based in Paris, as well as 28 countries around the world. It focuses on mobile games, producing hundreds of different titles. Gameloft currently has 113 different iPhone games available to download, with many of them using the "freemium" model of a free download with optional paid extras.

CEO Michel Guillemot says that 1 million Gameloft games are downloaded every day and the company has 5,200 developers working across 27 development studios.

Founders: Michael Guillemot

Founded in 2011, Chauffeur-Privé is one of Uber's biggest competitors in France, and is raising big money to expand its ridesharing service. Unlike Uber, Chauffeur-Privé allows users to book rides in advance.

The company raised €5 million (£3.6 million) from CM-CIC Capital privé and XAnge in January, valuing the company at a figure over €20 million (£14.4 million). CEO Yan Hascoet told Le Figaro that Chauffeur-Privé is going to use that funding to expand outside of France.

Founders: Yan Hascoët, Othmane Bouhlal and Omar Benmoussa

Quantic Dream is a video game developer and motion capture studio. The company produces inventive video games that are often very different to what the rest of the industry is doing because they're not just about men running around with guns.

One early hit for Quantic Dream was "Omikron: The Nomad Soul" in 1999. It's best known for featuring a soundtrack of original music by David Bowie. "Fahrenheit" came next in 2005, which featured an interactive storyline about a man investigating mysterious crimes. But Quantic Dream's biggest hit was 2010's "Heavy Rain," a game about multiple characters whose stories eventually came together.

Founders: David Cage and Guillaume de Fondaumière

When people get tired of dating app Tinder, they often turn to Happn. The app tracks which other Happn users you pass while travelling around town. These Happn passers-by are catalouged and then it's up to the user to choose which ones they like. If two people match, then they can talk.

Happn has been a hit with investors, bringing in $8 million (£5.4 million) in funding since its launch in 2013. CEO Didier Rappaport has a history of building French startups, too. He was previously a cofounder of Dailymotion.

Founders: Antony Cohen, Didier Rappaport

Deezer is a streaming service (like Spotify) from France that can be used through its app and website, as well as through speakers and in-car entertainment systems. Deezer also offers a high-definition music streaming service called Deezer Elite which streams music in a format that is higher quality than MP3s. Deezer Elite was first tested in the US, but it is being launched around the world.

Deezer's most recent funding round was back in 2012, when it raised $130 million (£88 million) from investors including Warner Music Group owner Access Industries and Idinvest. The company also recruited a new CEO, with Dr. Hans-Holger Albrecht joining the company and board following the departure of Axel Dauchez.

Founders: Jonathan Benassaya and Daniel Marhely

Parrot is a hardware manufacturer best known for developing the Parrot AR.Drone.

The company started out in 1994, and spent its early years focusing on Bluetooth, noise recognition and products for the car. But it gradually shifted to drones, launching the AR.Drone in 2010 and acquiring a majority stake in Swiss drone company senseFly in 2012.

Unlike many professional drones, the Parrot AR.Drone can be controlled by anyone with a smartphone. Other Parrot products include the Jumping Sumo and Rolling Spider robots and the Parrot H20 automatic plant hydrator.

Founders: Christine de Tourvel, Jean-Pierre Talvard and Henri Seydoux

If you're a multi-millionaire looking to listen to some music, chances are you may end up buying something made by French audio hardware manufacturer Devialet. The company was founded in France in 2007, and started off producing high-end audio hardware that rich people put in their music studios. Devialet's previous flagship product, the D-Premier, sells for around £12,000.

But now, Devialet has launched a new product: The Phantom speaker. It's a giant spherical speaker, which Devialet sells for £1,390 and up. Devialet has packed a lot into that sphere, though, and it claims that the Phantom speaker is "the best music equipment in the world."

Founders: Pierre-Emmanuel Calmel, Emmanuel Nardin, Quentin Sannié, Manuel de la Fuente and Mathias Moronvalle

Dailymotion is a video-sharing website that works in a similar way to YouTube. It's localised for different locations, with 35 different local versions.

The French government invested in Dailymotion back in October 2009, and Orange completed an acquisition of the company in 2013. Since then. Dailymotion has expanded to offices in London, New York, San Francisco and Tokyo as well as its head office in Paris.

It was reported in 2014 that Microsoft was interested in Dailymotion, potentially even acquiring a minority stake in the company. That came after the French government blocked an attempt by Yahoo to buy a majority stake in the company.

Founders: Olivier Poitrey and Benjamin Bejbaum

BlaBlaCar is a ride-sharing app that matches up passengers with drivers who have free space in their vehicle. When you book a ride, you select what mood you're in: Bla, BlaBla, or BlaBlaBla. That shows how much you want to talk to your driver.

The company raised $100 million (£683 million) in new funding in July 2014 from investors including Index Ventures, Accel Partners, ISAI, and Lead Edge Capital. It's using that money to expand into new countries. BlaBlaCar opened a Delhi office and started operations in India in January, entering the country just as Uber was banned there.

Founders: Nicolas Brusson, Francis Nappez, Frédéric Mazzella

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