Founders ask us whether to land in Paris or London as if the city is the decision. It isn't. The decision is whether you want a desk and a community, or a wire transfer and a board seat. Station F's Fighters Program gives you free desk space and program-specific funding with no fixed deadline on the site, which tells you it's built for founders who need runway and proximity, not a cheque. Seedcamp writes cheques of $350,000 to $1,250,000, which tells you it's built for founders who already have a company worth pricing.
Station F: campus, not capital
Station F doesn't take equity for the Fighters Program. You get free desk space plus program-specific funding, and there's no fixed application deadline, so you can apply when your product is ready rather than when a cohort opens. That matters for incorporation: nothing about the programme forces you to set up a French entity on day one. Plenty of Fighters Program founders keep their original holding company and just use Station F as a physical base in Paris with investor and corporate traffic walking past their desk every day. The residence permit question is separate from the programme itself: a desk at Station F is not a visa, it's proof of activity you can attach to a French tech visa or talent passport application, which still runs on its own timeline through French immigration, not through Station F.
Seedcamp: money with a cap table attached
Seedcamp puts $350,000 to $1,250,000 into a company, and the programme page doesn't currently confirm application dates, so you apply when you have traction to show, not against a deadline. Taking that money generally means incorporating where Seedcamp can hold a clean equity stake and where UK or Delaware-standard SAFE and share documents are familiar to the next investor in your round. London gives you faster access to that next cheque because the fund network around Seedcamp is denser there than in Paris. It does not give you a UK visa automatically. Cost of living is the honest trade-off here: London is more expensive to run a team in than Paris, and a $350,000 cheque disappears faster against London salaries and office rent than the same amount would in most French cities.
The equity accelerators sitting between the two
If neither a pure campus nor a pure cheque fits, look at the accelerators that take a stated equity slice for cash plus a programme. Startup Wise Guys puts in roughly EUR 50,000 for 3 to 6 percent equity with no fixed deadline. Entrepreneur First gives an equity-free grant to support ideation before you've even formed a company, then up to $250K once you have. Conector Startup Accelerator takes 4 to 7 percent for its programme and services, though its current application status isn't confirmed on the programme site, so check directly before planning around it. None of these three require you to incorporate in Paris or London specifically, which makes them a useful middle path if you want structured mentorship without picking a capital, the equity percentage is the real cost, not the city.
Grants that don't touch your cap table
If you can win one, a grant beats both a campus and a fund on dilution. The EIC Pathfinder hands out grants of up to EUR 4 million, with smaller booster grants of EUR 50,000, against two 2026 deadlines: the Open call on 12 May 2026 and the Challenges call on 28 October 2026. Innovate UK Funding Competitions run multiple open calls at once, with amounts that vary by competition, up to £1.66 million, £900,000, £3.1 million and £2.4 million depending on which one you enter, with closing dates including 21 October 2026 and 28 October 2026. Invitalia's Smart&Start Italia offers zero-interest financing covering 80 percent of eligible expenses, rising to 90 percent for all-women or under-35 teams, on a rolling basis with applications reviewed within 60 days and no ranking round to wait for. Innosuisse covers up to 70 percent of direct project costs with the start-up funding the rest, and you can submit on an ongoing basis since there are no fixed tenders. If your company can plausibly incorporate in Italy or Switzerland to access these, the grant route is cheaper than any accelerator cheque you'll see in Paris or London.
Revenue financing if you'd rather not sell equity at all
Two programmes on our list skip equity entirely and price against your revenue instead. Wayflyer finances anywhere from €5,000 to €20 million against revenue-based repayment, which works if you already have sales and just need working capital, not a campus or a board seat. Levenue advances up to 35 percent of your future ARR upfront, which is a faster, smaller version of the same idea. Neither cares whether you're incorporated in France, the UK or anywhere else in the EU, because the underwriting is on your revenue line, not your jurisdiction.
Where to actually incorporate
Incorporate where your money and your next investor sit, not where your desk is. If you're taking a Station F desk and applying separately for EIC Pathfinder grants (12 May 2026 or 28 October 2026), a French SAS keeps your grant paperwork and your programme paperwork in the same jurisdiction. If you're taking a Seedcamp cheque of $350,000 to $1,250,000, incorporate wherever Seedcamp's standard documents expect you to, which in practice means a structure the next London or US investor already recognises. Don't let a free desk talk you into an entity that makes your actual capital harder to raise.
Our position
Take Station F if you need twelve months of cheap, dense, in-person momentum before you're ready to price your company. Take Seedcamp if you're already priced and want the next cheque to come faster than Paris can currently deliver it. Don't treat EU-LAC Digital Accelerator's services package, valued at 30,000 to 40,000 euros under its currently live call #6, as a substitute for either: it's acceleration services, not cash, and worth adding on top of a Paris or London base rather than instead of one.