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For the first time, France was one of the best represented countries in Y Combinator’s Summer 22 batch. Three of the eight French startups selected by YC are also former residents of the Station F campus in Paris, so we spoke to the director, Roxanne Varza, to understand how that happened and what others could learn from it. Let’s dive in. Anna
Meet the French
France was among the top five countries represented in YC’s S22 batch, with: eight of his startups join the accelerator’s newest cohort. That was less than the US, India, the UK and Israel. But it was more than Germany, which sent six startups to YC this year — a near record for the country, but also less impressive given its larger population than France.
In absolute terms, France only matches its own S21 record, but that party had 390 participants. As ukbusinessupdates.com reported last month, the YC S22 batch was much smaller, with about 240 teams. This means French representation will increase proportionally, boding well for France’s goal of housing 100 unicorns by 2030.
Let’s add a caveat that we’re following YC by using “French” loosely here — nearly every one of these eight teams has an outside component, and some of them have a presence in the US or other countries as well. This is not specific to France, however, as YC noted that of the startups in the last batch, 35% were remote and 37% remote.
