Years of effort are finally beginning to be recognized and rewarded. French Tech is now setting out to conquer the Consumer Electronic Show (CES), which is taking place in Las Vegas. This leading event for lovers of high-tech products offers a choice showcase for connected products with the “French Tech” label. France, the second largest national delegation behind the United States, will present many connected objects.
In total, more than 260 French companies came to the event. Among them are big names such as L’Oréal, whose subsidiary Kérastase has designed a connected brush in partnership with Withings. The specialist in connected objects related to health has just been acquired by Nokia. Other startups, which represent 30% of the exhibitors of the Eureka Park, will be discovered in the space reserved for young innovative startups.
Karim Oumnia, who is participating in his third CES, explains: “This has allowed us to sign partnership contracts with large manufacturers, but also with distributors. He continued: “the French Tech label allowed us to participate in the Davos forum”.
Accompaniment
To support French companies, the Minister of the Economy and Finance, Michel Sapin, the Secretary of State to the Minister of the Economy and Finance, in charge of the Digital Economy and Innovation, Axelle Lemaire, as well as the Republican presidential candidate, François Fillon, will be present at the show.
Many startups are supported in Las Vegas. Among these “good fairies”, we find La Poste, which brings several to Las Vegas, the public agency Business France. The latter focuses on products that can be marketed in the next six months, “to show the diversity of the French offer in terms of connected objects”, explains Éric Morand. The person in charge of innovative services adds: “We help startups to optimize their presence, but it is also a showcase” to “attract foreign investment in France”.
According to CB Insights, French Tech funding has reached four-year highs, with $1.5 billion in the first nine months of 2016 (+71% compared to all of 2015). In the third quarter, “France attracted more funding than German tech startups, and came close to the level of UK startups.”
“Paris is starting to seriously compete with London and Berlin in terms of the number of deals financed by venture capital and the volume of transactions,” noted venture capital firm Atomico in early November.
They are there!
At CES Unveiled, which took place on January 3, before the official opening today, January 5, the media and professionals present were able to appreciate several innovations. Examples include a bracelet that monitors the blood sugar level of diabetics or the lactate level of athletes (PKvitality, Paris), a cane that alerts the relatives of an elderly person in the event of a fall (Nov’in, Saint-Étienne), and an “active cushioning” sports shoe (Digitsole, Nancy).
Here we go again…
Jérôme Pasquet exhibits for the second year his startup 10-vins. It is a connected version of its electronic sommelier, a single-dose machine that serves glasses of wine in ideal tasting conditions.
The contacts made last year have opened up “opportunities in markets that we were not expecting”, pushing the company to focus on hotel professionals in addition to the general public, but also to launch in London and Singapore, he says.
Source: JDN
