Xavier Niel
About Xavier Niel
Xavier Niel is a French entrepreneur based in Paris. He is the founder, chairman and majority shareholder of the telecom group Iliad, which controls the Free brand in France. Bloomberg says Iliad also operates in Italy and Poland. His own holding company, NJJ, holds telecom operators in other countries, including Switzerland, Ireland and Monaco.
According to a Bloomberg profile, he began his career at 16, when he dropped out of high school and created chat services for Minitel. A SparkLabs biography says he started a business in 1993 at age 25 and exited seven years later for more than $50 million. He then built Free, which Wikipedia and IMDb describe as France's first free-access internet provider, created in 1999. Free Mobile launched in 2012.
Outside telecoms, he co-founded the free coding school 42 in 2013. He also financed Station F, the Paris startup campus that opened in June 2017. Wikipedia also lists him as a co-owner of Le Monde and a board member of KKR and ByteDance.
Crunchbase counts 26 investments for Niel as an individual. It shows 0 lead investments, 0 exits and 0 companies founded under this profile. Those figures cover only what Crunchbase attributes to him personally, and the company-founding count does not reflect Iliad or the other organizations above.
In 2010 he co-founded Kima Ventures with Jérémie Berrebi, according to Celebrity Net Worth. Crunchbase lists him as Kima's founder. A Crunchbase profile for Kima partner Jean de La Rochebrochard describes Kima as Niel's venture arm. It says Kima invests in about 100 new startups a year and has a portfolio of more than 600 companies. Those are Kima figures, not his personal angel count.
Crunchbase lists 14 AI investments for Niel since 2023. The named companies are Mistral AI, Arlequin AI, HrFlow.ai, Cube AI, Adaptive ML, Gradium, Poolside, Genesis AI, BottleCap AI, The Mobile-First Company, VizBlock and H Company.
Fortune reported in November 2023 that Niel and Rodolphe Saade were both seed investors in Mistral AI. In September 2023, Niel told AFP he planned strategic AI investments of up to €200 million. TechCrunch reported that this included a research center in Paris with an initial €100 million from Iliad. It also included Scaleway, Iliad's cloud subsidiary, which was building an Nvidia-powered supercomputer. Those are company-level and strategic commitments, separate from his personal startup checks.
In November 2023, Iliad and Saade's CMA CGM each committed €100 million to Kyutai. Fortune describes Kyutai as a Paris nonprofit open-source AI lab with €300 million in total funding.
In public comments, Niel has said that for AI you need researchers, computing power and companies that use them. He has said he wants European AI that does not depend on US or Chinese algorithms. He has also advised European AI founders to resist early buyouts and build leading companies.
Public sources place Niel's startup investing at the early stage, mainly through Kima, which backs many new companies each year. His personal AI portfolio is concentrated in Paris and Europe. It includes foundation-model, applied AI and AI infrastructure companies. Mistral AI was a seed investment. Stages for most other AI companies on the Crunchbase list are not confirmed here.
Niel has not published a check size or a formal investment thesis for personal angel deals. No check size is given here for that reason. Crunchbase shows 0 lead investments for his profile, so founders should not assume he leads rounds.
- Mistral AI: Paris-based developer of large language models, founded in 2023. Niel was a seed investor, per Fortune.
- Poolside: listed by Crunchbase among his AI investments.
- H Company: listed by Crunchbase among his AI investments.
- Adaptive ML: listed by Crunchbase among his AI investments.
- HrFlow.ai: listed by Crunchbase among his AI investments.
- Arlequin AI: listed by Crunchbase among his AI investments.
- Cube AI: listed by Crunchbase among his AI investments.
- Gradium: listed by Crunchbase among his AI investments.
- Genesis AI, BottleCap AI, The Mobile-First Company, VizBlock: listed by Crunchbase among his AI investments.
- Kyutai: Paris nonprofit AI research lab. Iliad committed €100 million in 2023 (not a personal angel investment).
- crunchbase.com/person/8c4276d0-b08b-9dd0-0f55-b6fd72b80fb5
- crunchbase.com/person/xavier-niel
- crunchbase.com/person/jean-de-la-rochebrochard
- linkedin.com/in/xavier-niel-09850b147
- bloomberg.com/billionaires/profiles/xavier-b-niel
- imdb.com/name/nm4759694
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xavier_Niel
- sparklabsgroup.com/who-we-are/xavier-niel
AI portfolio
Investing activity
Xavier Niel has made 26 investments according to Crunchbase. 14 of those investments since 2023 were in AI companies, including Mistral AI, Arlequin AI, HrFlow.ai, Cube AI and Adaptive ML.
Xavier Niel appears in 3 AI deals tracked by the Lounge deals desk, rounds totalling $28M. The rounds are mostly Seed and Pre-seed, with a median round size of $8M and the largest at $28M. The most recent are QuTwo (Pre-seed, €25M, Jun 2026), HrFlow.ai (Seed, $7M, Apr 2026) and BottleCap AI (Seed, $7.5M, Jan 2026).
Xavier Niel most often invests alongside Nico Rosberg, Romain Niccoli, Yuri Milner and Dieter Schwarz, and the companies they back on Lounge are mostly in AI.
Deals
Frequently asked questions about Xavier Niel
Does Xavier Niel invest in AI startups?
Yes. Crunchbase lists 14 AI investments since 2023 out of 26 total. They include Mistral AI, Poolside, H Company and Adaptive ML.
What is Xavier Niel's angel check size?
No personal check size is public, so we do not state one. Founders should not rely on third-party estimates.
Does Xavier Niel lead rounds?
Crunchbase shows 0 lead investments for his profile. Public sources do not show him leading rounds personally.
What stage does Xavier Niel invest in?
His public track record is early-stage. He was a seed investor in Mistral AI, and Kima Ventures backs many new startups each year. Stages for his other AI deals are not confirmed.
How is Xavier Niel connected to Kima Ventures?
Crunchbase lists him as Kima's founder, and Celebrity Net Worth says he co-founded it in 2010 with Jérémie Berrebi. Kima's own investments are separate from his personal portfolio.
What has Xavier Niel said about European AI startups?
He has said Europe needs its own AI capability so it does not depend on US or Chinese algorithms. He has also urged European AI founders to resist early buyouts.
Is Xavier Niel an angel investor?
Yes. Xavier Niel invests personally as an angel. Crunchbase counts 26 investments.
What AI companies has Xavier Niel invested in?
Xavier Niel's AI investments include Mistral AI, Arlequin AI, HrFlow.ai, Cube AI, Adaptive ML, Gradium, Poolside and Genesis AI. The 3 rounds on Lounge are listed on this page with amounts, dates and co-investors.
Where is Xavier Niel based?
Xavier Niel is based in Paris, France.
What stage does Xavier Niel invest at?
In the rounds tracked on Lounge, Xavier Niel has invested at Seed and Pre-seed, with a median round of $8M.