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The sight of OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman and French President Emmanuel Macron being mobbed by techies at Paris-based Station F recently was a reminder — if any were needed — of the business incubator’s powerful gravitational pull.
A former rail depot converted into a 34,000 sq metre workspace, the site was once more used to hosting rolling stock and a few pigeons than dignitaries and Big Tech executives. Today, visitors will be greeted instead by rooms scattered with Lego’s studded bricks and beanbag chairs, cargo-container meeting rooms and a Space Invaders games arcade.
The brainchild of billionaire Xavier Niel, Station F has become a honeypot for founders, investors and corporates since opening in 2017.
The incubator accepts 50 new start-ups every month, and more than 7,000 have called the place home at some point. Silicon Valley groups have also moved in. Amazon Web Services, Apple, Google and others host “mentorship” offices where founders can seek advice. Snap has a studio at the Paris hub where you can trial the social media company’s augmented reality glasses.
Station F start-ups raised more from investors in 2024 than the entire Italian tech scene did the year previously, director Roxanne Varza cheerfully notes. In fact, Station F companies have now raised more than €1bn — a sum equal to about 15 per cent of the total amount raised by start-ups annually in France — for three consecutive years. A sharp rise from the €250mn raised in 2017.
The best-known alumni are artificial intelligence company Hugging Face, now based in the US, and healthcare insurer Alan. Describing his Station F days, Hugging Face co-founder Thomas Wolf says, “It’s nice to have people around you who support and give you confidence because nothing you’re doing works in the beginning.
“When we eventually left Station F for an office in Paris, it was a lot less fancy. We were quite a bit more lonely: we missed belonging to a movement.”
AI at the core
That movement today is headed in the direction of AI. Of Station F’s 40 best-performing start-ups, 34 have the technology at the heart of their business.
One of these companies is Entalpic, which is using generative AI to formulate and test chemical hypotheses, with the aim of replacing outdated industrial processes. Hugging Face’s Wolf is an investor, as is AI pioneer Yoshua Bengio.
Among others there is .omics (pronounced dotomics), which uses AI to engineer plants to make them more resilient against pests, disease and climate shifts. There is also a pair of start-ups — Presti and finegrain — with a more prosaic but very useful job for AI: making it easier to edit photos online.
Arguably, for a hub that has acquired a strong business reputation, Station F should have produced more household names. But start-ups disappearing into larger companies count as a win too — some of this “exit” cash will recycle back into the ecosystem. Station F alumni acquired in 2024 include Sonio (bought by Samsung), Datakalab (Apple) and Quickwit (datadog).
Station F is also investing in some of the companies it is helping to build. The hub vows to back up to 20 companies a year with cheques of €50,000-€100,000. The hub also offers indirect investment support by circulating a list of fundraising companies to 500 investors every month.
The future
Some wonder whether the hub — and France generally — will remain an attractive destination for entrepreneurs and investors after Macron’s term ends in 2027. The French president has promoted and backed the country’s tech industry and recently announced €109bn worth of investments in AI in France over the next few years.
But Station F’s appeal is arguably as much cultural as financial. La Felicità, run by the Big Mamma food group, is the sprawling restaurant attached to the incubator. What do the people building the future eat? Lots of pizza. They also attend karaoke sessions here on Tuesdays. “The restaurant has helped us so much — people come and they’re like, ‘wait, there’s a start-up hub here too?’,” says Varza.
New features — such as a bike repair shop — have kept hipster-levels high at Station F. “We have over 100 parking spaces but no one has ever asked for one. Everyone comes here by bike or scooter,” says Varza. The hub, which also rents apartments, plans to boost revenues further with a new hotel.
China-born Yuting Jiang has just renewed her spot at the hub for another six months. The 28 year-old and her husband are developing a new social network that prioritises friendly debate. “Social networks are turning into computational propaganda,” Jiang says. “We want to see less polarisation and more nuance.”
Jiang pays €400 a month for her Station F residency. For this, she gets pitching experience, mentorship and introductions to investors, along with a 30 per cent discount at the restaurant. Most of all, she likes the cachet. “You get instant attention when you tell people you’re at Station F.”
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