Mistral AI, Pigment, Ekimetrics: How French scale-ups have successfully expanded into the UK

London has established itself as a key destination for French tech champions. Between its talent pool, the dynamism of its innovation ecosystem and its commercial opportunities, the United Kingdom has no shortage of advantages. Three French scale-ups tell Maddyness how they are approaching their expansion into the British market.

Temps de lecture : 6 minutes

Ranked as the world’s third-largest tech ecosystem behind the United States and China, the United Kingdom is more than just France’s geographic neighbour. For fast-growing French scale-ups, it represents a major strategic opportunity. With a valuation of $1.2 trillion, 185 unicorns created and more than $16.2 billion raised in 2024, the British market continues to demonstrate strong attractiveness.

London, the first step in international expansion

For Ekimetrics, a French company specialising in data and AI to support commercial decision making and business competitiveness, the choice of London as its first international office in 2013 was no coincidence. “The United Kingdom is an economic hub that no European company can ignore if it wants to make an impact, both in Europe and internationally,” explains Thierry Elmalem, General Manager and Senior Advisor of Ekimetrics UK.

A view shared by Pigment, the French scale-up specialising in AI-powered strategic planning solutions. For Rachel Phillips, Head of United Kingdom & Ireland at Pigment, “London is a major tech hub that connects easily to Paris, where Pigment is headquartered. It was therefore the natural place to open our first office outside France.”

“London is a major tech hub that connects easily to Paris,” Rachel Phillips, Head of United Kingdom & Ireland at Pigment. The bet quickly proved successful for both companies. Ekimetrics now reports 12 consecutive years of double-digit growth in the UK, while Pigment describes the British market as “one of our fastest-growing markets”.

The UK’s ambition to become an ‘AI Maker’

The United Kingdom is not only attractive because of the size of its market. Its innovation ecosystem and major investments in artificial intelligence make it a prime playground for technology companies. With more than £44 billion in private investment injected into the AI sector since 2024 and an ‘AI Opportunities Action Plan’ worth more than £2 billion, the country has strong ambitions, with the objective of becoming an “AI Maker”.

Mistral AI, the European champion of generative AI, quickly seized this opportunity. “The United Kingdom has always been a strategic objective for us,” confirms Audrey Herblin-Stoop, Vice President of Global Public Affairs and Communications at Mistral AI. “From the very beginning, we recruited three highly qualified British scientists, attracted by the country’s world-class universities and talent pool.”

This strategy is already delivering results, with partnerships signed with HSBC, Tesco and King’s College London. “Our partnership with HSBC, launched in December 2025, perfectly illustrates how AI can transform the financial sector,” explains Audrey Herblin-Stoop. Mistral AI is deploying its enterprise AI solutions to improve the bank’s workflows and services, while ensuring HSBC retains full ownership and control of its data.

The UK talent pool, a major asset

Beyond commercial opportunities, it is the quality of the talent pool that particularly attracts French companies. The United Kingdom produces more than 52,700 qualified AI graduates every year, the highest number in Europe.

“From a recruitment perspective, there are incredible talents in the United Kingdom, which allows us to build a highly performing team to lead the company’s next phase of growth,” says Rachel Phillips from Pigment. “There are incredible talents in the United Kingdom,” Rachel Phillips, Head of United Kingdom & Ireland at Pigment.

This talent quality is matched by a recognised level of market maturity. “British companies have long demonstrated strong maturity in MMM (Marketing Mix Modeling), marketing and commercial effectiveness, and data science,” observes Thierry Elmalem from Ekimetrics. This British expertise even helped the French company prepare for the opening of its US office in 2015.

Strong growth ambitions

The three French scale-ups have no intention of stopping there. Ekimetrics aims to make the United Kingdom “one of its most strategic markets worldwide, not only in terms of size but also in terms of influence”. The company reached a major milestone in 2025: 50% of its global revenue now comes from international markets, with the UK being a significant contributor.

For Mistral AI, ambitions focus on supporting strategic autonomy and accelerating the AI journey of British organisations. “The UK’s commitment to advancing AI, particularly through initiatives such as the AI Opportunities Action Plan, creates strong foundations for collaboration,” says Audrey Herblin-Stoop.

Pigment, for its part, continues to expand its UK teams, with recruitment across sales, customer success and partnerships. “We see a significant opportunity to leverage the prosperity of large enterprises here, particularly in our core verticals: financial services, retail, telecoms, life sciences and media,” explains Rachel Phillips.

Towards stronger Franco-British cooperation

Beyond their individual successes, the three companies share a common vision: increased collaboration between the French and British technology ecosystems. Their leaders all participated in the UK-France Summit in July 2025, a sign of the strategic importance of this bilateral relationship.

“Continued success depends on our ability to align behind a shared vision to build world-class companies capable of competing globally,” says Rachel Phillips. “This requires moving faster by investing in shared infrastructure, removing friction between markets, and carefully balancing regulation and innovation.”

For Jean-Baptiste Bouzige, CEO of Ekimetrics, partnerships with British and European AI players could prove decisive. “From a sovereignty perspective, this would allow Europe to differentiate itself on the global stage thanks to recognised expertise at scale in AI applications developed for business functions,” he believes.

Mistral AI shares this vision of strategic autonomy, with its ‘Mistral AI for Citizens’ initiative, designed to help governments strategically harness AI for the benefit of their citizens. An approach that aligns perfectly with the UK’s objective of fostering local innovation.

A British ecosystem that continues to invest

This growth momentum among French companies takes place within a broader context of major investments by the UK Government in tech and innovation. With £22.6 billion in public R&D funding planned each year until 2029-30, the United Kingdom is sending a strong signal to international investors.

Support measures are multiplying, including the creation of ‘AI Growth Zones’ to accelerate the development of AI infrastructure, a ‘National AI Research Resource’ aimed at increasing computing capacity twentyfold by 2030, and a new ‘Sovereign AI Unit’ endowed with £500 million.

“The United Kingdom is one of the most advanced and demanding markets when it comes to marketing, data and AI. This makes it the perfect environment for what Ekimetrics does best: helping executives make better and faster strategic decisions,” concludes Thierry Elmalem.

London Tech Week, which will take place from 8 to 12 June 2026, will bring together all British and international innovation players around these issues related to AI, cybersecurity and emerging technologies.

The Trade Services team at the British Embassy in Paris supports French companies in their expansion projects. Click here to find out more.