The startup campuses have been gaining quite the popularity over the past couple of years, however, now, it seems that the game of startups has been taken to the next level, with the world’s largest start-up opening in Paris, called the ‘Station F’. This recently opened in Paris’s 13th arrondissement. Based on a former railway depot known as la Halle Freyssinet, the 34,000m2 space will accommodate more than 1,000 startups.
The building was previously considered a historical monument from the 1920s, and now it has been put to much greater use, with the building turning into a massive startup campus. The building was originally used as a freight station and now has been converted into a massive workstation. There is certainly some swagger about the building itself, as it has a very industrial look and feels, including the original concrete and shipping containers that have been transformed into meeting rooms.
The building is cut into three parts. The first part has a lot of services and event spaces: a 360-person auditorium, private meeting rooms, private offices, public services for startups, an on-site coworking coffee shop open to the public, a fablab, a post office and more. The second part of the building is the startup zone. This area has 3,000 desks and can host roughly 1,000 startups. As for the third part of the building, is a massive restaurant open to the public 24-7. It can sit 1,000 people and has four kitchens and a bar. However, it won’t be open until later this year.
The building in itself really captures the potential that is present in France itself. Sure, we see quite the industry in Berlin and London, capturing the highlights of Europe’s biggest industries, but now, Paris also has the opportunity to express the potential that is has – the funding is there, the engineering talent is there, there are tonnes of resources for startups and the government is paying attention. The French ecosystem has actually been advancing very well for quite some time now!
