Red Rooster Dispatch #20
From funding to infrastructure: May starts strong
Hi friends! 👋
We’re heading into May with a very concrete moment for our ecosystem: French Tech Connect Poland 2026 is just around the corner and it’s shaping up to be our biggest edition so far! 🇫🇷 🇵🇱
🚀 This time we’re going national scale bringing together Warsaw and Kraków communities in one place with a strong focus on what’s actually moving the market right now: AI, defense, energy and infrastructure.
💡 At the same time the past weeks brought a few signals worth paying attention to from large-scale infrastructure investments like Data4, to funding dynamics in AI and deeptech, and a visible strengthening of the France-Poland strategic axis.
In this edition of Red Rooster Dispatch we keep it focused: key events, real signals and a few opportunities you might actually want to act on. Let’s get into it! 🔥
🐓 French Tech Connect Poland 2026
The first national-sized event of the French Tech Connect is here gathering Warsaw and Krakow ecosystems in the Varso Tower on May 21st! Here is the key info you need to know:
📍 Warsaw, CIC Warsaw
🗓️ May 21st, 2026
🕒 5:30 pm
Let’s break our last year’s record for the Venture Café’s biggest attendance (600+)! Join one of the largest tech events in the country, with a crowd of founders, investors and key players of the tech community.
Three main tracks presented by our strategic partners are:
🛡️ Security & Defense Tech by Orange Polska
💼 Productivity & Applied AI by Webellian
♻️ Energy & Infrastructure by GreenFuture Energy
Our startups-dedicated track for the French Tech Awards Ceremony:
🚀 Startup Pecha Kucha (3x3 startups) + Jury and Vote of the Public - By XFactory - Forvis Mazars'.
Your project is focused on one of our tracks?
💼 CCIFP Avril Tech Business Meeting
La French Tech Warsaw had the honor to be invited to the CCIFP Business Meeting under the theme of ‘Impact of technological revolutions on business’ as partners: alongside the host BNP Paribas Polska.
The organization was represented by Walid Barsali, speaking as the President of La French Tech Warsaw and took the opportunity to present how we work to connect Polish and French founders, startups and groups; participating together with experts of the field:
🎤 Magdalena Miecielica – Director of Strategy & Transformation Department, BNP Paribas Polska
🎤 Aleksandra Czetwertyńska – Director, 42 Warsaw
🎤 Maja Schaefer – Co-Founder & CEO, Zowie
🎤 Aleksandra Pedraszewska – Vastpoint VC, Founding Partner
It was a great occasion to reaffirm #TeamFrance bonds in Poland and meet key actors of the tech sector!
📈 Data4 open their second data center in Jawczyce
La French Tech Warsaw had the pleasure to be invited by Yann Boulay for a key moment in Poland’s data center network development alongside their CEO Olivier Micheli and the Country Manager Adam Ponichtera.
🌍As demand for cloud computing, AI workloads and high-performance infrastructure surges, this new 10 MW facility strengthens Warsaw’s position as a strategic digital hub in Central and Eastern Europe.
🚀 The broader campus is designed to reach up to 60 MW of capacity, reflecting long-term confidence in Poland’s growth trajectory as a tech and data-driven economy.
💡Data4’s expansion is backed by nearly €200M already invested in Poland, with plans to reach €600M by 2030. This scale signals strong, long-term confidence from a major European operator in Poland’s stability, talent base, and connectivity.
🇫🇷 🇵🇱 Emmanuel Macron in Poland: a partnership scaling up
🎯On April 20, 2026, Emmanuel Macron traveled to Gdańsk for the first Franco-Polish bilateral summit, following the momentum of the Treaty of Nancy. The objective was to accelerate strategic cooperation in defense, energy, and key technologies with a shared roadmap aimed at strengthening European sovereignty.
⚛️ Among the major topics, civil and military nuclear issues are taking center stage , with discussions on European deterrence, enhanced military cooperation, and industrial projects, particularly in space and telecommunications 🛰️📡
👉 Beyond the symbolic aspect this rapprochement positions Poland as a key strategic partner for France and confirms the shift of Europe’s economic and security center of gravity toward the East 🌍
💸 Top Funding April 2026: Deeptech and AI drive momentum in France
April 2026 confirms a strong dynamic for the French tech ecosystem, with funding activity heavily concentrated around AI, deeptech, and industrial innovation.
Among the standout deals, Donecle raised €10M on April 15, 2026 to scale its AI-powered drone inspection platform for aircraft maintenance and accelerate expansion across Europe and the U.S. In parallel startups like Agriodor (€15M) and Phonely ($16M) highlight continued investor interest in agritech and AI-driven software solutions .
More broadly, funding activity peaked mid-month, with a batch of deals, including HrFlow.ai and Mirabelle, contributing to a total of €45.6M raised across 12 startups in a single week (April 13–17) .
👉 The takeaway: while mega-rounds remain limited, France is seeing a high density of mid-sized deals, particularly in strategic sectors, reinforcing its position as a leading hub for applied AI and industrial tech in Europe.
🧑💻Other May Thursday Gathering at Venture Café: Thursday Gathering #256 DEFENCE DEEP DIVE
Get ready for a milestone evening! Next week Venture Café is officially kicking off their collaboration with FORT Kraków bringing a high-stakes, high-tech energy to the floor.
📍 Warsaw, CIC Warsaw
🗓️ May 7th, 2026
🕒 6:00 p.m.
The event will be the occasion to attend the Demo Day of the NATO DIANA program, an initiative implemented within the structures of North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and currently supporting around 150 companies across the Alliance, developing innovations in various tech domains.
💡During the Demo Day participants will have the opportunity to meet companies developing autonomous systems that have been selected for acceleration in Poland. Solutions will be presented by companies from around the world (United States, Denmark, Greece, Sweden, United Kingdom…) offering a unique opportunity to engage directly with teams building next-generation technologies with real deployment potential.
🔎 Check what’s new this spring
With the ecosystem picking up pace, now’s a great time to see what’s new 👀 We’ve just updated our job board with the latest job offers and V.I.E. positions: whether you’re on the hunt or simply exploring, it’s definitely worth a scroll 🚀
