More and more Walloon start-ups at Vivatech

At the first events in 2016 and 2017, Digital Wallonia already had a presence in partnership with Startups.be and, each time, six start-ups involved in the event. This year, with AWEX as the organiser, 11 start-ups played a part in the Walloon stand from 24 to 26 May, as well as Gambit, who were demonstrating their new mobile app on the BNP Paribas stand.

Las Vegas may be able to boast about the fact that it hosts, among other events, CES, Paris can counter that with Vivatech, a “major technology trade show”, which has quickly established itself as “the ultimate conference for start-ups and large groups in France” (but also in Europe). There is no doubt that this ambition was achieved in the first year of the event, and continues to flourish in 2018. More than twenty large companies (most of them French) gave start-ups the opportunity to exhibit on their stands. As well as this, some twenty countries (including Belgium with Digital Wallonia) were there with their own pavilion. We can say it: in 2016, Digital Wallonia was a pioneer.

This year, more than 100,000 people flocked to the Parc des Expositions, Porte de Versailles in Paris. The event has seen visitor numbers rise by 50% every year since 2016. In the space of 3 years, Vivatech is now on the brink of attracting the same number of visitors as the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. With one small difference, that is worth pointing out: at the Paris event, most visitors are families who come on Saturday (the last day).

As well as visitors, there were more than 8,000 start-ups exhibiting, 10% of which were not French (more than 1,000 foreign start-ups were recorded), demonstrating that the event opens its doors to the world, while remaining resolutely French. This year, African start-ups were given pride of place. This offered an opportunity to find out about different approaches to and uses of digital technology.

It is worth pointing out, while we are on the subject of African companies, that the Agence du Numérique, the Kikk Festival and the City of Namur made the most of this event to sign up to the EFAN (Ecosystème francophone des acteurs du numérique), which brings together associations from Côte d’Ivoire (in the presence of the Minister of Economy), Tunisia, Quebec and Bordeaux Métropole. There is no doubt that the EFAN will help promote many fruitful collaborations.

While Vivatech focuses on start-ups, large groups are increasingly making their presence felt, by striving to make the event more open to digital technology in general, rather than just young businesses (which are still the main target). Indeed, when stepping over the threshold of the Parc des Expositions, the first thing you saw were the Facebook, Alibaba and IBM logos. A company like Microsoft was also well represented so that start-ups, developers and entrepreneurs could find out about all the different possibilities offered by their artificial intelligence solutions.

Guests of Emanuel Macron the day before, at the “Tech For Good” day, the CEOs of IBM, Microsoft and Facebook all visited the event. The President of France also came to check it out. There is no doubt at all that the presence of such iconic decision-makers consolidates the status of the event, and attracts even more influential people from the digital industry in France and beyond.

Viva Technology is a trade show at which most exhibitors promote software. This year, more companies were presenting robots, with a range of different uses.

Exhibitors included, close to the Digital Wallonia stand, SoftBank, the Japanese giant known for its humanoids, who presented “Pepper” whose main feature is that it can feel (or rather identify/recognise) the human emotions expressed on our faces. Pepper adapts its behaviour to the emotions expressed by its “master”, in order to serve him/her better. Most of the interaction with the robot is achieved via a tablet attached to its chest.

Another new product, a French one this time, was Alice the robot by Ciberoïd. This is the sixth generation of this robot, and the results are very impressive. 1.55 metres tall (weighing 40kg), Alice is what is known as a “Cobot”, a collaborative robot that interacts with humans and provides specific, distinct services.

Inmoov, the robot built entirely using a 3D printer (designed in 2012 by a French artist) was also there, among many others.

L’Oréal also provided a demo (for the second year in a row) of its robot that applies make-up. Although it still makes a few mistakes, the progress made in one year is impressive.

For the last word on this theme, on Saturday, to entertain the general public, a tournament of battles between 8 robots was organised. It is worth mentioning that in 2020, the Bordeaux-based partner (see section on EFAN above) will be organising the Robocup.

As far as the vehicles of the future are concerned, Navya, who was also here for the second time, was outside the Parc des Expositions to introduce its “100% self-driving electric minibus” offering people the chance to take a short journey in it. This vehicle has been partly developed by Valeo, who were joined on their stand by a number of start-ups involved in artificial intelligence or, to a lesser extent, in the development of software “bricks” for self-driving cars designed to recognise or avoid obstacles.

Navya may be keeping its “wheels on the ground”, but some other, far more futuristic, innovations, were also on show:  Seabubbles, the sea (or rather river) taxi, who has announced its first crossing for 2019. Seabubbles does not sail (as it doesn’t touch the water), it literally flies above the water. Even though there wasn’t a demo, this video gives you a good idea of what the company is aiming for.

Airbus also introduced its future flying taxi. Once again, no live demo (given the size of the engine), but the possibility of seeing the 4 propellers of this future “monster of the air”.

EVA X01 is another aerial and urban means of transport, currently for two people. Just as impressive as the other vehicles, it is aiming to be the first airplane with a vertical take-off and landing.

The delegation of Walloon start-ups had doubled compared with last year. Another interesting point was that it wasn’t just start-ups (so we need to broaden the definition), but also companies like [profiles type="single" slug="acapela-group" display="link"]Acapela[/profiles] (founded in 2003), [profiles type="single" slug="capflow" display="link"]Capflow[/profiles] (created in 1995 and launched in 2002) and [profiles type="single" slug="expert-it" display="link"]Expert-IT[/profiles] (1996). However, each one was proposing innovative solutions in very specific sectors. For example, Expert-IT has developed Virtual Clinic, artificial intelligence used to treat sleep disorders. [profiles type="single" slug="alx-systems" display="link"]ALX Systems,[/profiles], which bases some of its technology on artificial intelligence, also carried out a demonstration of how the software works.

[profiles type="single" slug="sortlist" display="link"]Sortlist[/profiles], a start-up specialising in helping large groups find the right marketing agency for their needs, was at the event for the third time. The company opened its offices in Paris last year, during Vivatech, and took the opportunity to consolidate its links with certain clients, and find new prospects.

Two start-ups involved in fintech/management software were also there:  [profiles type="single" slug="digiteal" display="link"]Digiteal[/profiles] and [profiles type="single" slug="emasphere" display="link"]Emasphere[/profiles]. Digiteal recently won a European project encouraging it to roll out its solution abroad, and Emasphere has just signed a contract with a large trust company working in France.

[profiles type="single" slug="taptap" display="link"]Taptap[/profiles], who specialise in retail with interactive screens, already has a strong presence in France, with offices in Lille (a hub for mass-distribution in France) and Paris (at Station F), also made the most of the Walloon delegation to consolidate its links. The same strategy was adopted by [profiles type="single" slug="myskillcamp" display="link"]MySkillCamp[/profiles], who are starting to enjoy a certain appeal in France. For its part, [profiles type="single" slug="loginteam" display="link"]Loginteam[/profiles] came to build on certain opportunities.

The companies that took part found that Vivatech provided fast, practical opportunities to forge links with decision-makers from large French groups who are not normally easy to get close to.

Having a presence at the Parc des Expositions during this event provides an opportunity to talk to people who are driving innovation and/or the key contacts in CAC 40 organisations, who are keen to hear about innovation and sometimes more modest businesses.

Initial feedback was enthusiastic and positive even if, given the number of exhibitors, you need to come up with even more ingenious ways to get yourself noticed, let alone stand out from the crowd.