The Innovator #6

SUPPLEMENT GRATUIT AU # 22701 DU QUOTIDIEN
”LES ECHOS” DU 24 MAI 2018
NE PEUT ETRE VENDU SEPAREMENT
AFRICA:
TECH’S
NEW
FRONTIER
LVMH’S DIGITAL
TRANSFORMATION
Q&A WITH
IAN ROGERS
LA FRENCH TECH
HAS THE HYPE
SURPASSED
THE REALITY?
ON THE MOVE
JACQUES ASCHENBROICH
EXPLAINS
VALEO’S STRATEGY
#6 – May 2018 – Special Edition for VivaTechnology
SPECIAL EDITION
FORFOR

ADVERTORIAL
THE NEW
JAGUAR I-PACE
100% ELECTRIC
A
step and four wheels to the
future. Electrical energy is
the future of the automotive
industry and more and more
builders have understood and
adapted their range to this new
solution which is better and better
controlled. At Jaguar, this transition
is translated by the birth of a new
model, completely in tune with the
times, an SUV that sports elegant
lines, luxurious and spacious interior
and autonomy. The breathtaking
performances of the I-PACE, since
that is his name, has been officially
presented at the Geneva Motor
Show. Designed by Ian Callum and
thought by Jaguar engineers, the
I-PACE is a vehicle full of promises
for the greatest use practices daily,
and especially without any polluting
emissions. For Jaguar, it represents
a remarkable beginning of a long
adventure towards a cleaner and
more efficient range. For the brand,
the electrification of its vehicles is
not just an argument of industrial
cleanliness, but a real appropriation
of a constant evolution technology,
in order to create new exciting
models to drive and that are always
in step with its own identity. With
the I-PACE, the first step of this huge
challenge is accomplished in the
most beautiful ways!
With the new Jaguar I-PACE, it has
never been so exciting and
convenient to own a 100% electric
vehicle. This is primarily due to
its unique design, but also and
especially to the progress made
both in the battery technology and
charging solutions. These factors
come together to make this vehicle
the most desirable, easier to live,
efficient and fun to drive, in the
world. At the heart of its structure,
we can find a state-of-the-art
90kWh lithium-ion battery composed
of 432 cells. Chosen for their high
energy density and better thermal
management: thanks to them, the
I - PACE boasts an autonomy of 480
km. The charge of the battery from
0 to 80% is done in barely 45 minutes
using a 100 kW fast charger.With a 7
kW wall box type home charger, you
can reach a 80% charge in 10 hours
30 minutes, perfect time for a charge
overnight. A variety of technological
solutions and applications for
smartphones optimizes the autonomy
of I-PACE and gives drivers complete
peace of mind, whether it is to monitor
the vehicle charge from home or
to ensure the remaining autonomy
during a trip.
Electrical performance
The new I-PACE is equipped with
four-wheel drive as standard.
Associated to the 400ps power and
696 Nm of torque, they make this 1st
Jaguar zero emission vehicle, one of
the most performant electric car. The
immediate availability of the couple,
inherent in the nature of an electric
vehicle, gives the new Jaguar SUV an
impressive acceleration ability, from
0 to 100 km / h in just 4.8 seconds.

ELLE VA FAIRE DU BRUIT,
MAIS PAS SUR LA ROUTE
NOUVELLE JAGUAR I-PACE 100% ÉLECTRIQUE
La nouvelle Jaguar I-PACE est notre premier SUV premium entièrement
électrique. Avec son design précurseur, son autonomie de 480 km*,
sa recharge rapide (80% en 85 minutes**), ses 4 roues motrices et ses
400 ch CEE, elle redéfinit les standards des véhicules électriques.
Et avec une accélération de 0 à 100 km/h en 4,8 secondes, elle prouve
qu’elle appartient bel et bien à la famille Jaguar. jaguar.fr
L’art de la performance
*Autonomie jusqu’à 480 km, qui est susceptible de varier selon notamment la configuration du véhicule, l’état de la batterie,
le style de conduite, le type d’utilisation, les conditions climatiques ou l’environnement routier.
**En utilisant un chargeur rapide de 50 kW à courant continu (DC). Les temps de recharge réels peuvent varier selon les conditions
environnementales et l’équipement de recharge utilisé.
Consommation mixte (l/100 km) : 0. Émissions de CO2
(g/km) : 0.
Jaguar France. Siren 509 016 804 RCS Nanterre.
Jaguar, partenaire de la 3ème édition de

— P.5
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
This issue marks the one-year anniversary of The
Innovator.The launch pad for our magazine was last year’s Viva
Technology conference. It was a fitting setting. The raison d’être
for the Paris conference, which is jointly owned by Les Echos
and Publicis, is to bring together big corporates and start-ups.
It is also one of The Innovator’s key missions.
Articles in our May Viva Technology special edition demonstrate
that there is a greater need for such collaboration then ever
before. It will be difficult for politicians in France and the EU to
realize their ambitions to become leaders in artificial intelligence
without the help and support of the private sector. Hub France
IA is working hard to bring together corporates and startups to
create a united AI ecosystem that complies with European ethics,
laws and regulations and serves the European economy first.
Viva Technology, which will this year gather some 100 of Africa’s
best startups and thousands of entrepreneurs from around the
world, is another great way for companies to engage with
startups. I urge them to take advantage of it.
ByJenniferL.Schenker
Editor-in-Chief,TheInnovator
THEBRIEF
COVERSTORY
AFRICA:THENEW
TECHFRONTIER
THEFINTECHTHATISDRIVING
THEGROWTHOFAFRICA’SSMES
HOWTECHISHELPINGTACKLE
AFRICA’SHEALTHCARECHALLENGES
POWERING(ANDEMPOWERING)
AFRICA
THESTATEOFTHE
FRENCHTECHNATION
FRANCE’SAIAMBITIONS
THE25STARTUPSTOMEET
ATVIVATECH
ANINTERVIEWWITHIANROGERS,
CDOOFLVMH
REINVENTINGLUXURYRETAIL
RE-ENGINEERINGTHEINTERNET
LIVINGWITHUNCERTAINTY
ANINTERVIEWWITHJACQUES
ASCHENBROICH,CEOOFVALEO
PREVENTINGAIBIAS
WHATEVERYEXECUTIVENEEDSTO
KNOWABOUTQUANTUMCOMPUTING
BLOCKCHAIN:BEYONDTHEHYPE
HELPINGCHANGEMANAGEMENT
TAKEFLIGHT
P.06
P.08
P.12
P.14
P.18
P.24
P.32
P.34
P.36
P.38
P.42
P.46
P.48
P.50
P.52
P.55
P.56
TABLE
OF CONTENTS

P.6 — THE INNOVATOR
JacquesBughin,
aseniorpartneratMcKinseyandscheduledspeakeratVivaTechnology.
Bughinistheco-authorofanewreportaboutwhatskillswillbeindemandin
2030 whenartificialintelligencedominatestheworkplace.
“Sinceemploymentitselfwill
beradicallytransformed companies
shouldnotadoptawait-and-see
approachbutuse AItoredefinethe
core oftheirbusiness.”
THE BRIEF
It’sbecomeafamiliarrefrain:
robotswillgetever-moresophisticated
until they effectively replace many
jobs now done by humans.
Justhowmanypeoplewillbeaffected
and how soon is proving hard to
forecast. One often-cited 2013
academic study estimated that up
to half of U.S. jobs could be
automated. But a study released in
April by the OECD predicted a less
dramatic effect: namely that 14%
of jobs in developed countries were
highly automatable, while a further
32%ofjobswerelikelytoexperience
significant changes to the way they
were carried out. So what should
companies be doing to prepare?
“The fundamental question on
employment is not how many jobs
will be displaced, but rather what
kinds of new skills do people have
to develop to maintain employment
intheageofAI,”saysJacquesBughin,
a senior partner at McKinsey & Co.
In a report to be released at Viva
Technology, McKinsey studied how
automation and AI will alter the
skills needed by the workers of
tomorrow.Theconsultancyidentified
25 core workplace skills that people
use in today’s jobs, and then
forecasted how the need for these
skills will evolve by 2030. (See
accompanying chart.)
The upshot: the workers who will
thrive in 2030 will not only need
robusttechnologicalskillslikecoding,
but will also need advanced social
and emotional skills. The latter
THEROBOTS
ARE
COMING!
AREYOUREADY?
includes negotiating techniques,
communication skills to ensure
changes are accepted by staff, and
the ability to empathize with others.
Suchsofterskillswillbeindispensable
to coping with the inevitable
challenges that will crop up when
humans work alongside robots and
AI. Unsurprisingly, the need for
physical labor will drop by 16% of
total work hours in Western Europe,
and the need for basic cognitive
skills gleaned during high school
will also fall by 17%.
Another of McKinsey’s findings was
thatchangeswillplayoutdifferently
across sectors. Companies in high-
tech sectors such ase software,
telecoms and media are more likely
to spend to retrain and redeploy
workers in the new areas of need.
But labor-intensive manufacturers,
retailersandbankingaremorelikely
to lay off workers because their jobs
can be automated more easily. It
willbeuptocompanies,civil-society
groups and governments to ensure
that laid-off workers have access
to retraining so they are not left
out of the labor force permanently.
Thebifurcationofworkersintohigh-
andlow-valuejobs,whichhaspicked
up pace in recent decades, will only
bedeepenedbyfurtherautomation.
“Thereneedstobeanurgentupgrade
to the skills of the workforce,” says
Bughin.“Thesetofskillsthatpeople
will need to thrive in the workplace
is getting more sophisticated. The
talent wars have already begun,
and will only accentuate over time.”
30150-15-30 45 60
Physical + manual skills
Basic cognitive skills
(high school equivalent)
Higher cognitive skills
Social + emotional skills
Technological skillls
-16
-17
7
22
52
CHANGE IN NUMBER OF HOURS OF VARIOUS TYPES
OF LABOR FROM 2016-2030

— P.7
THE BRIEF
Curious about your future robot co-worker? You can see
some of them up close at the Robot Park, sponsored by the French
utility EDF, during Viva Technology. Robotic arms that can be installed
in factories to safely work alongside humans will be displayed, as will
an agile rover than can be used to fight fires more safely. Startups and
large companies are racing to build industrial robots that are becoming
increasingly common in factories around the world. Challenges remain
though, including slashing costs to make the return on investment for
such robots more attractive.
As depicted in the accompanying chart, so far Asian countries like
South Korea and Singapore are leading in adoption of robots in the
manufacturing sector. Germany is not far behind because of its traditional
strength in automobile manufacturing and heavy industry. To date,
the automotive industry has been the biggest adopter of robots in
manufacturing and accounts for about 35% of all industrial robots.
Since 2010, the number of industrial robots has been increasing by
10% on average per year.
Togettechnologynewsincontexteveryweek,subscribetoournewsletter:http://innovator.news
MEETYOURFUTURE
OVERLORDS
350 525 700
Source:
International Federation of Robotics, World Robotics 2017 Report
ROBOTS IN INDUSTRIAL SETTINGS
NUMBER OF INSTALLED INDUSTRIAL ROBOTS PER 10,000
EMPLOYEES IN THE MANUFACTURING SECTOR
Republic of Korea 631
Singapore 488
Germany 309
Japan 303
United States 189
Italy 185
Spain 160
France 132
United Kingdom 71
China 68
0 175

AFRICA:
THENEW
TECH
FRONTIER
Look around any African city and some of the remotest villages
and it seems that everybody is carrying a mobile phone. That’s because the
continent is the world’s fastest growing region when it comes to mobile
penetration, according to the GSMA, a mobile industry trade
organization.
There were 445 million unique mobile subscribers on the continent in
2017, and that number is projected to grow to 638 million in 2025 in
Sub-Saharan Africa alone, according to a GSMA Intelligence report.
And in every sector that lacks infrastructure – a huge challenge across
Africa and one of the major factors that elevates costs and impedes
economic development – mobile is helping bypass traditional modes of
operation. New types of services developed to meet local needs have
emerged not just in finance (Africa is credited for giving the world mobile
money) but also in insurance, energy, education, agriculture, logistics
and health care. The innovation is attracting the interest of big corporates
in fields like health and energy who are looking for new business models
and new technologies and a better understanding of coming disruptions.
(See the stories on the following pages.)
“What is happening in Africa is that because of a lack of infrastructure
startups are leapfrogging what can be found in European or American
markets and are going straight to the next generation of mobile services,”
says Emmanuel Delaveau, a general partner at Partech Ventures, which
launched a dedicated Africa fund earlier this year. “This digitalization
of traditional areas of the economy is very intriguing. We consider Africa
to be one of the most exciting opportunities for the years to come.” Some
startups use basic mobile services like text messaging to move money
or provide education or healthcare services. But others are starting to
use cutting-edge technologies like blockchain for everything from digitizing
medical records to delivering affordable renewable energy.
“Our advantage is that we do not have enough infrastructure so it is
easy to start from scratch,” says Ethel Delali Cofie, a Ghanaian IT professional,
entrepreneur and consultant who is considered one of the top five women
impacting tech in Africa.
Cofie is part of a group advising the government of Ghana about how it
might use blockchain technology for things like immigration and passport
control. “There is barely any infrastructure, so it is easy to design,” she
says. It was the same thing when Africa leapfrogged landlines and went
straight to mobile. “We are a mobile-first continent now. The same thing
COVER STORY
— The combination of local talent, new technologies, VC money and big corporates’
deep pockets, expertise and ability to scale has the potential to profoundly transform life
on the continent.
By Jennifer L. Schenker

South Africa
1 - Jozihub Civ
2 - Capetown Garage Civ
3 - Black Girls Code Civ
4 - ThoughtWorks Civ
5 - TechInBraam Hy
6 - Jozihub Civ
7 - Silicon Cape Initiative Civ
8 - Impact Amplifier Civ
9 - Codebridge Civ
10 - Angel Hub Civ
11 - Eastern Cape Information
Technology Initia tive Civ
12 - Cape Innovation and
Technology Initiative (CITI) Civ
13 - Smart Xchange Hy
14 - CodeInBraam Civ
15 - SoftStart Technology Civ
16 - The House 4 Hack Civ
17 - mLab Southern Africa Civ
18 - Start-up Garage/88MPH Hy
19 - The Hub Civ
20 - Rlabs Civ
21 - Invo Tech Incubator Hy
22 - The Innovation Hub (TIH) Gvt
23 - Startup 90 Civ
24 - Grindstone Ci
Liberia
1 - iLab Liberia Civ
Côte d’Ivoire
1 - Jokkolabs Abidjan Civ
2 - W Hub Civ
3 - Akendewa Civ
4 - AMN Co-Working Space Civ
Ghana
1 - mFriday Civ
2 - Meltwater Entrepreneurial
School of Technology (MEST)
(Incubator) Aca
3 - gSpace Civ
4 - iSpace Civ
5 - Ghana Multimedia Incubator
Center Gvt
6 - Mobile Web Ghana Civ
7 - Kumasi Business Incubator Hy
8 - Oguaa Business INcubator Civ
9 - Hub Accra Civ
Togo
1 - Woe Lab Civ
Benin
1 - e-TRILABS Civ
2 - Jokkolabs Cotonou Civ
Nigeria
1 - L5Lab Civ
2 - Co-Creation Hub Civ
3 - Wennovation Hub Civ
4 - TechnologyIncubationCentre Gvt
5 - MinnaTechIncubationCentre Gvt
6 - Information Developers
Entrepreneurship Accelerator
(IDEA) Hy
7 - Focus Hub Civ
8 - Enspire Incubator Hy
9 - Calabar Technology Incubation
Center Civ
10 - 88 MPH (400 NG) Hy
Kenya
1 - iHub Civ
2 - m:lab East Africa Hy
3 - GrowthHub Civ
4 - NoLab Civ
5 - C40 Lab Aca
6 - AkiraChix Civ
7 - Lake Hub Civ
8 - iBiz Africa Aca
9 - iLab Africa Aca
10 - FabLab Nairobi Aca
11 - 88 MPH/Start-up Garage Hy
Rwanda
1 - kLab Hy
2 - The Office Civ
3 - THINK Technology Incubator Civ
Tanzania
1 - Kinu Innovation and
Co-Creation Space Civ
2 - TANZICT Hy
3 - Dar Teknohama Business
Incubator Civ
4 - Buni Hub Civ
Madagascar
1 - I-Hub Malagasy Civ
2 - Hobaka Civ
Mauritius
1 - Ebène Accelerator Civ
France (Réunion)
1 - Cyclotron Réunion Indian
Ocean (CYROI GIP) Aca
2 - Technopôle de la Réunion Hy
Zimbabwe
1 - Sky Hub Initiative Civ
2 - Hypercube Hub Civ
3 - Muzinda Umuzi Hub Civ
Mozambique
1 - MICTI Technology and Business
Centre Gvt
Morocco
1 - Jokkolabs Casablanca Civ
2 - New Work Lab Civ
3 - Girls In Tech (GIT) –
Morocco Chapter Civ
4 - OCP Entrepreneurship
Network Hy
Senegal
1 - Jokkolabs Dakar Civ
2 - CTIC Dakar Civ
3 - Africa Living Lab Aca
4 - Mobile Senegal Hy
5 - Jiguene Tech Hub Civ
The Gambia
1 - Jokkolabs Banjul Civ
Egypt
1 - Cairo Hackspace Civ
2 - The District Civ
-3 - Flat6Labs Hy
4 - IceCairo Civ
5 - Fab Lab Egypt Civ
6 - The Greek Campus Hy
7 - Technology Innovation
Entrepreneurship Center Gvt
8 - Alexandria Hackerspace Civ
Ethiopia
1 - IceAddis Aca
2 - xHub Civ
Cameroon
1 - ActivSpaces Civ
Uganda
1 - Hive Colab Civ
2 - @TheHub Civ
3 - Outbox Hub Civ
4 - GrameenFoundationAppLab Civ
5 - Hive Colab Civ
6 - Mara Launchpad Civ
7 - Women in Technology Uganda
(WITU) Civ
Tunisia
1 - Wiki Start Up Civ
Mali
1 - Jokkolabs Bamako Civ
Burkina Faso
1 - Yam Pukri Civ
2 - Jokkolabs Ouagadougou Civ
Congo
1 - BantuHub Civ
D.R. Congo
1 - Mwasi Tech Hub Civ
2 - Imani Hub Civ
Angola
1 - Angolan Institute of Support
for Micro, Small and Medium
Enterprises [INAPEM]
(ICT Incubator) Gvt
Zambia
1 - Bongohive Zambia Civ
Namibia
1 - Namibia Business Innovation
Centre (NBIC) Aca
2 - Fablab Namibia Hy
Botswana
1 - Botswana Innovation Hub Gvt
2 - First Steps Venture Center Hy
— P.9
TECHHUBSIN
AFRICA— Hubs have been springing up across the continent, fueled
by an increase in VC funding.
Gvt Government-LED [ 10 ]
Civ Civil Society [ 79 ]
Aca Academic Institution-Led [ 9 ]
Hy Hybrid [ 19 ]
TOTAL TECH HUBS BY 09/2015 = 117
GSDPM
ThismapwasproducedbythemapdesignunitoftheWorldBank

might happen with blockchain,” says Cofie, a scheduled speaker at Viva
Technology, a May 24-26 Paris tech conference. This year’s conference
will include an Afric@tech space that will welcome 100 of the most
promising tech startups in Africa, with a dedicated lab, country pavilions,
startup challenges and dedicated sessions.
A Growing Ecosystem
Innovation is not new to Africa. “It has always been entrepreneurial. The
world is just now noticing it,” says Cofie. When hubs starting springing
up in Europe around five years ago, money became available to create
them in Africa. After the iHub in Kenya – which is widely seen as a catalyst
for the region’s tech acceleration – proved the model, hubs started springing
up across the continent. (See the chart.) “Once you have hubs, accelerators
follow, and the more of those you have, the cheaper it is for startups to
have access to places to work, so more people decide to join and it becomes
a never-ending loop of growth,” says Cofie.
The growth is being fueled by an increase in venture capital funding. VC
funding raised by African tech start-ups in 2017 totaled $560 million,
compared to $366.8 million in 2016, a 54% growth year-on-year according
to a Partech Ventures study. (See the charts.)
What’s more, “we have more million-dollar funding deals happening in
Africa, the highest there have ever been,” she says. Among the latest such
deals was Partech Ventures’ new Africa fund’s first investment: a $3 million
Series A round of financing for TradeDepot, a Lagos-based company that
has developed a SaaS platform that integrates all participants in the trade-
value chain, including manufacturers, distributors and retailers.
Partech Africa – which announced earlier this year that it secured more
than €57 million in commitments toward its target size of €100 million
and says it is making good progress – is the first technology fund of such
a size from a top-tier international VC to be exclusively dedicated to the
fast-growing tech ecosystem in Africa. Silicon Valley investors are also
active in Africa. Tim Draper was among the first Silicon Valley investors
to bet on Africa with Savannah Fund and Draper DarkFlow. Andreessen
Horowitz, another well-known Valley fund, led a $9.2 million 2016 Series
A investment in Branch.co, a fintech focusing on bringing digital financial
services to mobile phone users in Sub-Saharan Africa. Finally GV, the
Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) and other funds grabbed headlines
when they invested $40 million in Andela, a startup that aims to train
Africa’s best software developers and get them jobs at some of the world’s
biggest tech firms. Still, many startups are facing a dearth of investment
capital, especially across the continent outside of the three tech hubs
(Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa) where investment funds are highly
concentrated.
COVER STORY
TOTAL FUNDING PER COUNTRY - 2017 (IN US$ M)
Partech analysis 2018
SouthAfrica
Kenya
Nigeria
Egypt
Rwanda
Ghana
Uganda
Senegal
Morocco
Cameroun
Tunisia
Zambia
Tanzania
167,9
147,0
114,6
1,21,52,73,9
10,716,020,4
36,7
36,9
0,4
Source: Partech Ventures

— P.11
place in history,” says Viola Llewellyn, the co-founder of Ovamba, a
Cameroon-based fintech company (see the story on page 12) and a
scheduled speaker at Viva Technology. “Never before has the African
continent had a better chance to get it right. Will leapfrogging teach us
the best way to trade the trillions of dollars in commodities, products
and services profitably, responsibly and sustainably? Will we learn from
the failed oil and gas sector, where value has been eroded by dependency,
mismanagement and poorly structured regulation? Perhaps this time the
democracy of technology will create abundance, or at the very least
access for all.”
Corporate Collaboration
With Startups
Corporate VC could help meet the financial needs of startups outside
these hubs. Orange Digital Ventures Africa launched a €50 million African
corporate venture fund to stay at the helm of Africa’s mobile revolution
last year. And VINCI Energies, Total and Sanofi are all participating in
the Afric@tech lab at this year’s Viva Technology conference, with the
hope of forging collaborations with startups that could help them understand
disruptions, but also to manage disease and make affordable energy
available to those who need it.
The combination of local talent, new technologies, VC money and big
corporates’ deep pockets, expertise and ability to scale, has the potential
to profoundly transform life on the continent. “We stand at an amazing
B2B &TechAdoption
INVESTMENT BY SECTOR
Online&Mobilecustomer
services
Financialinclusion
13%
42%
45%
Source: Partech Ventures
Viva Technology speaker Temie Giwa-
Tubosun, founder of Lifebank, a Nigerian venture-backed startup that uses
motorbikes to deliver blood to Lagos hospitals.

tracted further investment from other platforms, such as Crowdcredit, a
Japanese fintech emerging markets investor, enabling it to expand its ope-
rations into other countries.
A $500 Billion Opportunity
The need is great. The owners of many African SMEs are “functionally
illiterate and not professionally trained,” says Llewellyn. “They can’t produce
a balance sheet. It is in their head and they can’t write it down in a way the
banks can understand.” Another issue is that many business owners and
small farmers can only communicate in their local dialect.
So how does Ovamba gets around these challenges?It uses on-the-ground
teams and technology to assess the risk. Traders or SMEs who need finance
can make a request via their mobile phones or a computer. A decision about
credit-worthiness is made within 48 hours with the help of algorithms that
have been trained using data not just about banking habits and sale cycles
but local customs, including ethics, social norms and business practices.
Knowledge about the economics of local trade – such as the way that se-
condhand clothing markets work and the fact that many SMEs are run by
women but fronted by their husbands for legal or cultural reasons – are also
factored in. Chat bots – a recent addition – are able to translate business
owners’ demands in local dialects into English, Arabic or French. (The chat
bots currently handle five broadly used dialects. They plan to add more.)
Financing is based on the Islamic model, which prohibits interest and works
on the basis of risk-sharing on agreed terms. Rather than giving loans,
Ovamba purchases the assets or receivables on behalf of its SME clients.
The merchandise is owned by Ovamba and is sold to SME clients at a pre-
agreed markup that isinclusiveof allcosts incurredandamargin for Ovamba.
Customers buy back the material over a period of time. The merchandise
is released in batches whenever a payment is made. The margin is anywhere
from 1.5% per month to 3% per month, depending on how long warehouse
space is used and whether Ovamba provides additional services such as lo-
gistics or customs clearance on a customer’s behalf. Ovamba has processed
over 1,600 transactions on its platform, representing $150 million in deal
flow, says Llewellyn. Ovamba has been able to fund $22 million of that. The
rest is being funded through a crowdsourcing platform that allows inves-
tors from the UK, U.S. and Japan to invest in local businesses. Once the
customers buy back all the merchandise Ovamba pays the investors and
takes a fixed fee for itself. There is little risk, she says, because if a customer
fails to pay, Ovamba is free to sell the merchandise elsewhere. The default
rate is less than 4% since coming out of beta, she says.
“People can’t believe startups focusing on emerging markets can have high
returns,” says Llewellyn. “They say it is not possible because they think
Africa is a mess. My message to them is you have just missed a $500 billion
blue ocean opportunity where you can do well.”
J.L.S.
Small and medium-sized businesses are the backbone of the
African economy, but most face significant challenges when it comes to
accessing quick, affordable and reliable credit. That is where Ovamba comes
in. The five-year-old startup, which currently operates in Cameroon and
Côte d’Ivoire, with plans to expand into Sudan, Nigeria, Senegal and
Morocco, offers a short-term funding solution for African SMEs in the trade
and commodities sectors who want to grow but are unable to front the cost
of trade or inventory purchase.
It’s a $500 billion revenue opportunity, if you include unbanked traders and
a chunk of the $2.7 trillion wholesale and retail markets, says Viola Llewellyn,
a scheduled speaker at Viva Technology, a Paris tech conference taking place
May 24-26. Llewellyn, who was born in London and now splits her time
between Cameroon and the U.S., was recently featured in Vanity Fair as one
of 26 black women business founders in the United States who have com-
pleted $1 million or more in fundraising.
“Microfinance operations will never meet the need no matter how hard
they try and banks are unable to measure SME risk,” says Llewellyn. “Ovamba
is about bridging the gap between technology and finance so that the disen-
franchised, under-served and un-served can connect to the products and
services they need.” A year after launch Ovamba attracted investment from
UK-basedGLIFinance,whosebackersincludeBlackrockGlobal,AXAInvestment
Managers and Barclays Wealth. Ovamba then set up its first operations in
Cameroon, a country with over 200 local languages, Muslim and Christian
communities, and an economy almost entirely comprised of SMEs. It was
the perfect place to prove the model, says Llewellyn. In 2016 Ovamba at-
TheFintechThatIs
DrivingtheGrowthof
Africa’sSMEs
— Ovamba Solutions is using mobile technology
and chat bots that understand local dialects to bridge
the credit gap
OVAMBA
Ovamba co-founders
Marvin Cole
and Viola Llewellyn.

one-and-a-half-year-old company has expanded its operations to Côte
d’Ivoire, Gambon, Senegal and Tunisia. “We have a chance in Africa because
we have a high level of mobile technology penetration and we are leveraging
that to bring value added services to the population,” says Ahouansou, a
laureate of the Prix Projet Afrique Future In Africa and an alumnus of the
Women In Africa Entrepreneurship Program. “This technology can be of
use by everyone, everywhere. The market is there. Our ambition is to scale
up outside of Africa and implement this solution in Europe and the US.”
KEA Medicals is not stopping there. The next step is to use artificial
intelligence and blockchain, a digital ledger technology that promises to
ensure transparency and traceability, to help hospitals and doctor’s offices
digitize more sensitive medical records. The records,will be the property
of the patient and can only be accessed with patients’ permission, through
the use of pin codes assigned to doctors. KEA Medicals is also working on
a digital system for hospital management so administrators know what is
happening in real time.
Using Technology to Leapfrog Ahead
If it succeeds, patients, doctors and hospitals in Africa could end up being
the first to go completely digital, one more example of how the Continent
is using technology to leapfrog ahead. KEA Medicals is one of 10 African
startupsthattheFrenchdrugmakerSanofiselectedtobringtoVivaTechnology,
a May 24-26 Paris tech conference that connects startups with big corporates.
The ten companies are finalists in the The Sanofi Africa Challenges, which
seek to identify startups with innovative and adaptive solutions with the
potential to disrupt Africa’s health sector. The challenges focus on multi-
device and multi-channel solutions that can both educate and inform health
professionals, solutions that can diagnose non-communicable diseases and
telemedicine solutions with mobile payment options.
“The continent has opportunities as well as challenges that are monumental,”
says Jon Fairest, Sanofi’s head of Africa. “As a company that has been part
of the healthcare system in Africa for decades we have to help. How can
we create new medicines and make sure they are affordable, ensure that
technologyhelpsmanagediseaseandefficientlyfreeupfundsforinnovation?’
HowTechIsHelping
TackleAfrica’s
Healthcare
Challenges
— Sanofi plans to work with startups to scale the best
initiatives.
SANOFI
YearsagoDr.VènaArielleAhouansouwatchedayoungmother-
to-bedieduringchildbirthbecausethewomancouldn’trememberherblood
type. By the time the information was retrieved it was too late to save her.
The experience spurred her to create KEA Medicals Pharmaceutics and
Technologies, a Benin-based startup that uses cutting-edge technology to
store and transfer basic medical information that can be accessed in times
of emergency.
People can register themselves via their mobile phones, providing key data
such as blood type, allergies, whether they have a chronic disease and who
to contact if there is a medical crisis. The information is placed onto a QR
code that can be integrated into a bracelet or on a patch that can be added
to a watch, mobile phone or personal jewelry. If someone passes out on
the street, hemorrhages while giving birth or is hit by a car, for example,
notjustdoctorsbutanyonenearbycanhelpbyeasilyscanningtheinformation
with their mobile phones. The bracelets cost $4 and the patches sell for
$2. They need to be renewed once a year. After a strong start in Benin, the
SANOFI’S
AFRICAN
HEALTHTECH
FINALISTS
BISAHEALTHAPPLICATION
GHANA
WHAT IT DOES : A mobile application
that allows users with an Android,
iPhone or Windows phone to directly
interact with medical practitioners
without being physically present at a
hospital.
bisaapp.com
INFOMEDHEALTH
EGYPT
WHAT IT DOES :Operatesa24-hour
hotlinewithdoctorswhoprovide
possiblediagnosesatadistancebased
onthesymptomsdescribed. Ifnecessary
patientsarereferredto geographically
closeclinics;thelocaldoctorsarethen
ratedbyusersontheplatform.
https://www.infomed-me.com/

— P.15
To that end Sanofi wants to connect with startups to see “how can we use
technology to connect nurses, physicians and pharmacies to increase the
level of understanding in the management of diseases,” says Fairest. For
example, Vula Mobile in South Africa, one of the 10 Sanofi Challenges
finalists, offers a mobile phone application that aids rural health professionals
in providing effective eye care by communicating directly with specialists
over a messaging system.
The aim is to reduce the impact of treatable and reversible illnesses. These
types of apps are even more crucial when it comes to the management of
chronic diseases. “The next big health explosion is Westernized diseases,
such as diabetes and cardio vascular diseases, as the population ages and
middle class expands,” says Fairest. “Africa is a ticking time bomb for health
– a lot of knowledge and expertise from the developing world can be
adapted and used to support the health care system in these developing
markets. The next step is around partnerships with government to come
up with the best solutions to get as much reach as possible. Technology is
going to be the cornerstone of that process.” Thanks to mobile technology,
it is now easy to get course material to medical personnel in remote areas.
Forexample,SouthAfrica’sAppenbergDigitalPublishingishelpingpublishers
of medical information make their content available on mobile apps. Its
technology ensures the content is up-to-date, interactive and easy to read
across a variety of devices.
And Otrac, a Nigerian startup chosen as one of the ten by Sanofi, enables
health workers to take courses and learn at their own pace on their mobile
devices irrespective of their location, and earn a formal recognition for
their achievements. “What we are finding is where we can use programs
to reach doctors in remote areas and start to educate them on disease
management programs we can really improve patient lives in terms of
early diagnosis and prevention,” says Fairest. “Some of the apps let you
know where to go for information ,where there is a group of expertise
SAGATARIX
KENYA
WHAT IT DOES : Throughitsapp
iSikCure,patientscanconnectand
communicatewithdoctors,laboratories,
pharmaciesandwellnessprovidersand
payforthehealthservicesreceivedfrom
theirmobilephones.
www.isikcure.com
GIFTEDMOM
CAMEROON
WHAT IT DOES : A mobile health
platform that uses text messages to
help mothers and pregnant women
access medical advice in rural
communities.
www.giftedmom.org
YAPILI
THENETHERLANDS
WHATIT DOES:Started by four
entrepreneurs who met in East Africa,
Yapili offers ways for Africans to
connect to health professionals to
seek medical care and advice on topics
such as pregnancy, diabetes,
hypertension, HIV and mental health.
https://yapili.com
KEAMEDICALS
BENIN
WHATITDOES: : Allows patients to
create their own digital medical
identity. The goal is to use artificial
intelligence and blockchain to digitalize
the entire health sector in Africa.
https://www.keamedicals.com/
Mobilephonesarethekeytoaccessingmanyhealth-relatedservices.

SANOFI
whether it be in disease management or diagnosis or treatment. As these
networks grow in numbers to tens of thousands it will possible to create
a ready-made clinical database so we can measure outcomes in communities
where these programs are being used.”
Real-World Solutions for Real-World Problems
Beyond education, African tech startups like KEA Medicals are bringing
real-world solutions to real-world problems. In some cases telemedicine
solutions are helping doctors in remote locations get second opinions to
help with the diagnosis of disease. And, startups are finding ways to bring
the right medical equipment to the doors of people with chronic disease.
Take the case of Medtrucks, another one of the 10 startups selected by
Sanofi to come to Viva Technology. It operates mobile medical units equipped
with dialysis equipment that provide care for patients with kidney disease
who live in remote areas. In Morocco one-third of kidney disease patients
do not have access to dialysis treatment. And many of those that do must
travel great distances. Medtrucks is able to treat 30 kidney patients with
a mobile truck equipped with five beds. Sanofi is also interested in startups
that can help everyone stay healthy by digitally connecting to doctors.
GiftedMom, which uses text messages to help mothers and pregnant
women in Cameroon access medical advice in rural communities, is one
example.
Sanofi plans to continue working with three of the 10 startups it is bringing
to Viva Technology. The winners will be announced at the conference.
“These type of events are crucially important as a conduit to bring everyone
around the table and shape the dialogue and take targeted approaches
on specific topics for Africa – around Africa optics and challenges – and
channel the right people, with the right dialogue at the right time,” says
Fairest. “There are startups sitting with brilliant ideas and Vivatech gives
them a forum where they can sit down with companies like Sanofi that
can help make their vision happen.”
J.L.S.
Left,apatchfromKEAMedicalsPharmaceuticalsthatstoresbasicinformation.
Above,Dr.VènaArielleAhouansou,thefounderofKEAMedicals.
APPENBERG DIGITAL
PUBLISHING
SOUTHAFRICA
WHAT IT DOES : Helpspublishersof
medicalinformationmaketheircontent
availableonmobileapps.Itstechnology
ensuresthecontentisup-to-date,
interactiveandeasytoreadacrossa
varietyofdevices.
http://www.appenberg.co.za
MEDTRUCKS
MOROCCO
WHAT IT DOES : Operates mobile
medical units equipped with dialysis
equipment that provide care for
patients with kidney disease who live
in remote areas.
https://medtrucks.com
VULAMOBILE
SOUTHAFRICA
WHATIT DOES:Amobilephone
applicationthataidsruralhealth
professionalsinprovidingeffectiveeye
carebycommunicatingdirectlywith
specialistsoveramessagingsystem.
Theaimistoreducetheimpactof
treatableandreversibleillnesses.
www.vulamobile.com
OTRAC
NIGERIA
WHATITDOES: Enables health workers
to take courses and learn at their own
pace on their mobile devices
irrespective of their location, and earn
a formal recognition
for their achievements.
https://otrac.com.ng

It’sagreatironythatAfrica–oneofthesunniestplacesonEarth
– has less access to energy than nearly anywhere else. The World Bank’s
2017 State of Electricity Access Report emphasizes that UN Sustainable
Development Goals like health, education, food security and employment
are all largely dependent on consistent, reliable access to energy. While nearly
one billion people in Sub-Saharan Africa alone may gain electricity access
by 2040, an estimated 530 million will still not have electricity access due
to population growth.
Solar is the cheapest and most abundant form of energy, but finding and
connecting with thousands of small micro-grid distributors is difficult. As a
result, many homes and entire villages in Africa lack adequate energy. Other
challenges include making reliable estimates about how much energy first-
time users will consume and figuring out how to get people – many of whom
have little or no access to banks – to pay for their energy use.
So African startups are beginning to connect with big energy companies to
figure out how cutting-edge technology and new business models could help
electrify the continent.
Take the case of The Sun Exchange, a South Africa-based startup that is
taking part in the Africa Tech Lab during Viva Technology, a May 24-26 Paris
tech conference that connects startups with big groups. Sponsors of the lab
include the French energy companies VINCI Energies and Total.
The Sun Exchange doesn’t just put together energy projects, it incentivizes
investors – which could be individuals or large energy companies – to buy
local solar panels through their platform and then lease them to local villages
to earn monthly income paid in bitcoin.The system uses the crypto-currency
ENERGY
so that payments can easily be accepted and made from anywhere in the
world in minutes. The blockchain, a digital ledger technology underpinning
the exchange, enables transparency and traceability of payments.
“There are no standards for microgrids yet,” says Abraham Cambridge, CEO
of The Sun Exchange. “Our role is to serve as a global portal and marketplace
for those projects. Our innovation is not just in the payment system but also
in streamlining the on-boarding and having our teams of solar engineers
checking the solar projects.” The Sun Exchange makes money on the mark-
up, says Cambridge. If, for example, it costs $1 million to install a solar
project, The Sun Exchange will sell the project for $1.1 million. The exchange
is also creating its own cryptocurrency called SUNEX, which is designed to
reward the people who use its platform. Any SUNEX bought through their
tokensaleorearnedontheplatformcanbeappliedtoasolarprojectinsurance
fund. The fund covers the cost of solar plant relocation in the event of a
customer default. “This makes projects far less risky for utilities, making
them more bankable”, he says.
Innovation doesn’t stop there The Sun Exchange is planning to build
cryptocurrency mining equipment into their system. Surplus solar energy
generated by the local solar panels will be used to “mine” cryptocurrency, a
process that involves an immense number of mathematical calculations,
which in turn occupies vast computer server capacity, requiring a lot of
electricity. The mining business is lucrative enough that 20% to 30% of the
cryptocurrency generated can be given away to local villagers for free, while
still getting the owners of the solar panels a reasonable return. Once the
digital currency is sent to their mobile phones, villagers can use it to pay for
the electricity they consume. “It is a closed system,” says Abraham. “They
are effectively connected to the electricity but by asking them to pay for it
we ensure they don’t overuse it. It also gives people an immediate and easy
way of joining the crypto-economy that is already radically transforming
how money flows around the African continent.” Leftover cryptocurrency
can be used by villagers for other things like topping up mobile phones.
Leapfrogging Ahead
It is just one example of how African startups are leapfrogging. Just as the
introofmobilephonetechnologyallowedAfricanstoskipfixed-lineinstallations,
in the case of energy it is helping them to skip thermal plants and power
linesbutalsopropellingthemintotheworldofblockchainandcryptocurrency,
even before Western countries embrace the technologies en masse. The Sun
Exchange has recently partnered with the United Nations Development
Program to scale into Eastern Europe. It is not yet working with VINCI
Energies or Total but hopes the energy companies will eventually become
Powering
(andEmpowering)
Africa
— Startups are helping the French energy giants
Total and VINCI Energies experiment
with renewable energy, new business models and
technologies like blockchain.

— P.19
customers. Participating in the Africa Tech Lab is a start. “We need to figure
out how to leverage the implementation of micro grids and blockchain in
Africa and we think the best way is to ask the local ecosystem, starting with
startups,” says Lydia Babaci-Victor, development and innovation director of
VINCI Energies.
The company envisions applying blockchain to uses such as monetizing
energy surplus or to creating smart contracts in association with smart grids
projects.To make the innovation ecosystem stronger, VINCI Energies and
Total are collaborating on the Africa Tech Lab. “No one should be innovating
alone,” says Babici-Victor. “Things are moving too fast and there are so many
things going on that you cannot do it on your own. This is why we are taking
an open innovation approach with Total to help projects emerge.”
Working With African Startups
“The aim of the Africa Tech Lab is to make sure we accompany and help the
rise of the local innovation ecosystem and at the same time address our
future challenges,” she says. “We need not only new technologies but new
business models.”
To get started VINCI Energies conducted an audit in 2016 of the African
ecosystem to get a good picture of the countries where the most startups are
emerging. “What we saw was especially 10 countries that were going very
fast. Morocco is one of them,” says Babaci-Victor. “Last year one of our
customers launched a challenge and 100 startups responded. Three months
ago they posted another challenge and 800 startups applied. The innovation
ecosystem is booming in places like Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa, Senegal,
AFRICATECH
ENERGY
STARTUPS
SAMAWATENERGY
SOMALIA
WHAT IT DOES : A renewable energy
company that provides affordable,
off-grid, solar home solutions to
residents in Somalia through the use
of a micro-leasing, rent-to-own
system.
www.samawatenergy.com
THESUNEXCHANGE
SOUTHAFRICA
WHAT IT DOES :Incentivizesinvestorsto
buylocalsolarpanelsthroughtheir
platformandthenleasethemtovillages
toearnincomepaidinbitcoin.Ituses
someofthesolarpowergeneratedto
minecryptocurrency,someofwhichis
distributedtovillagers.
www.thesunexchange.com

Cameroon and the Ivory Coast. We focus on the startups in the countries
where the ecosystem is dense enough.” Events such as one last year in South
Africa, which gathered the tech ecosystem in Cape Town to pitch to large
corporations,areanindicationofhowmuchtheAfricantechsectorisevolving.
“What I saw was really impressive,” she says. “The level of startups is very
high.” Similar events pairing startupsandbigcompaniesarebeing organized
this year in Casablanca, Lagos, Dakar and Nairobi.
The focus on Africa startups is part of larger digital transformation programs
at both Total and VINCI Energies. Total approaches open innovation through
more than 1,000 active partnerships with both public and private research
institutions, universities, customers, suppliers, small businesses and startups;
throughitscapitalventurefundTotalEnergyVentures;itspartnertheTechstar
Paris Accelerator and its own multicorporate “plant 4.0” startup incubator.
VINCI Energies is accelerating internal entrepreneurial projects through a
program and it separately has a corporate investment fund that aims to pair
ENERGY
startupswithoperationalpeopleinsidethecompanywhocanserveasmentors
in developing global solutions for customers. The company has reviewed
some 2,500 startups since Babaci-Victor joined in 2014. It selected 180, with
which it works actively via different forms of partnerships, and it has invested
in seven.
“The challenge for VINCI Energies is not if it can set up a startup program.
It is what comes afterwards, to make sure the startups will develop alongside
us. This is especially true for our startups in Africa,” says Babaci-Victor. “What
I want is to build a real offering from VINCI Energy that includes training,
methodology, the right ecosystem and then all what they need to accelerate.
Without a presence locally it is very difficult to build tangible pragmatic
solutions used in an African country. Our presence locally, our innovation
strategy globally and this rising of the innovation system throughout Africa
are three key factors that are prompting us to be active and do it.”
J.L.S.
“TheaimoftheAfricaTechLabis
tomakesureweaccompanyand
helptheriseofthelocal
innovationecosystemandatthe
sametimeaddressourfuture
challenges.Weneednotonly
newtechnologies
butnewbusinessmodels.”
LydiaBabaci-Victor,
Development and innovation director of VINCI
Energies
WECASHUP
FRANCE
WHAT IT DOES : Amobilepayment
systemforemergingmarkets.It
currentlytargetsbanks,telecom
operatorsande-commercemarket-
placesbutplanstoexpandintothe
energysector,usingAIandblockchain.
https://www.wecashup.com/
MANDULISENERGY
UGANDA
WHAT IT DOES : Delivers on-grid and
off-gridenergyprojects.Itsproprietary
digital platform uses artificial
intelligence and blockchain for the
control and management of electricity
generation and distribution.
www.mandulisenergy.com
PAYGOENERGY
KENYA
WHATIT DOES:Developed a
smart-meter system that brings clean
cooking fuel to the masses by allowing
pay-as-you-go distribution of liquid
propane cooking gas in East Africa.
www.paygoenergy.co
REUNIWATT
REUNIONISLAND
WHATITDOES: A solar forecasting tool
that’s been designed to meet the
reliability standards of an island grid
heavily reliant on solar farms. Its target
customers include energy traders,
transmission and distribution system
operators and micro-grid operators.
www.reunitwatt.com

National finalists pitching
in Indonesia, April 2018
When students live a
Real Life Innovation Experience
©Copyright2018L’Oréal-Allrightsreserved
34000 students from 2000 schools
worldwide have just competed
in the 2018 Edition of the
Brandstorm Competition,
with the challenge of inventing
the professional hair salon
experience of the future. Can
you explain what the game is
concretely?
— Brandstorm is the
L’Oréal’s worldwide
innovation game.
The competition
offers students
to put themselves
in the shoes of
entrepreneurs.
It gives them a
hands-on case study
to tackle. During
6 months, the
contestants work
in teams to create
a concept, confront
their ideas and work on the feasibility
of their project. A final round gathers
all the international finalists in Paris to
participate in a Tech Fair event in which
students pitch their ideas in front of juries.
Each year, more than 150 students are
recruited for internships or permanent
jobs. It’s a way to detect the innovative
talents that will invent the beauty of the
future with us. Perhaps, the future CEO
of L’Oréal is among these students…
Why is Brandstorm so important
for L’Oréal?
— It’s a way to share two strong pillars
of the Group’s identity with potential
candidates: entrepreneurship and
innovation.
Innovation is one of our founding
values. We always have in mind the
fact that our company was founded by
a scientist. At L’Oréal, it is vital. Always
thinking outside of the box allows us to
discover new ways of creating products
that are truly different and innovative.
This year, more than 8000 ideas were
gathered from 34 000 students.
Entrepreneurial spirit is part of
our heritage which has always been
encouraged in the way we work. Today,
it is still the driving force behind a
company which values the importance
of individuals and their talents.
The game was created 25 years
ago. Its success continues to grow
each year with a growth of 76%
since 2016. How do you explain
such consistent success?
— Brandstorm offers real life experience.
Working on innovation in an experimental
mode is increasingly attractive- that’s why
the number of applicants has more than
doubled in the last two years. It’s a great
opportunity to discover our culture and
the way we work at L’Oréal.
What do you bring to students?
— From the students’ perspective,
L’Oréal is committed to providing
participants with an exclusive learning
experience, offering 80 hours of
e-learning resources, digital certification
and personalized coaching from
L’Oréal’s experts and external partners.
Additionally, a day of workshops the
day before the Final with experts and
partners is organized.
How has the game evolved to
meet students’ expectations?
— Initially, Brandstorm was a business
game with a marketing focus.
Over the years, it has branched out and
offers a multi-disciplinary experience.
Also, the competition has become
accessible for all universities, beyond
partner schools. This year, students
came from 2000 universities versus
300 in the past.
The scope has also been revised and
enlarged to new fields and expertises,
such as engineering.
All teams are encouraged to tackle the
challenge from different perspectives:
marketing, technology and CSR.
To illustrate this, awards are given in
three categories: Brand, Tech and CSR
awards.
Thanks to a new gaming platform,
participants from different majors can
team up and work together virtually.
Last but not least, the format of the final
round has evolved from a traditional
event to an agora, a startup-like fair
where students pitch their ideas in front
of jurie.
https://www.facebook.com/
lorealbrandstormofficial/
Carole
PASCO-DOMERGUE
Chief Marketing Officer
for Global HR,
L’Oréal Group
ADVERTORIAL

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Share our visions of the future

FRENCH TECH
The online advertising firm Criteo is the poster child of France’s
newfoundsuccessintechnology.Founded in 2005, it was nurtured by French
founders,expandedearlytotheUnitedStates,andwentpublicinaspectacularly
successful listing in New York in October 2013 with a $2 billion valuation.
Criteo executives, such as its founder J.B. Rudelle and former chief operating
officer Pascal Gauthier, moved on to help found a new crop of French startups.
This feel-good story has lately gone sour. Criteo shares have halved in value
in the past year to trade below the IPO price. The business model of re-
targeting ads to people as they surf the web is under assault as tracking gets
harder, and critics say Criteo has done a poor job of diversifying into new
products. In late April, Rudelle was called back by the Criteo board to retake
the helm as chief executive and fix the mess.
Criteo’s current woes are not the only issue. Gauthier wonders why his former
colleagues at Criteo haven’t founded more new companies or had more big
exits by now. Such renewal has been typical in the tech world since alumni
ofPayPal,anearlySiliconValleysuccessstory,wentontofundmanyemblematic
startups like Palantir, Tesla Motors and LinkedIn. “Creating unicorns is still
not a French speciality,” says Gauthier, while looking out over the Paris skyline
during an interview at the top of the Pompidou Museum. France is home to
only three unicorns, or private tech companies worth more than a billion
euros, while the United Kingdom has 10, Germany 5, Switzerland 3, and
Sweden 2, according to a March Dealroom.co report. Gauthier is trying to
add another unicorn to the list: he is now at the helm of a Paris-based start-
upcalledLedger,whichbuildsinfrastructureforblockchainandcryptocurrencies
by leveraging France’s traditional strengths in encryption and chip and pin
technologies.Other aspiring French unicorns are also in the pipeline. But the
Criteo saga stands as an example of how tough it can be for companies to
stay on top of the fast-changing technology market. It also shows how much
remains to be done to realize the dream of making France a true technology
leader. While access to capital has improved and more people are flocking
to entrepreneurship, too few companies manage to reach critical mass. Too
many are still selling out early, often to foreign buyers. Nicolas Dufourcq,
who heads the state-backed bank BPIfrance, which is a major tech investor,
says he often urges entrepreneurs not to sell their companies, and instead
emulate an earlier generation of French companies. “I tell them to persevere,
keep going. The founders of Atos, Capgemini, Dassault Systemes could’ve
sold out many times but didn’t.”
So why aren’t more heeding Dufourcq’s advice? To assess the progress of
THESTATE
OFTHE
FRENCHTECHNATION— The Innovator surveyed 20 influential figures to assess how France is doing in its effort to nurture
a vibrant tech sector.
By Leila Abboud and Jennifer L. Schenker

— P.25
J.B.
Rudelle
Founder and
chairman
Less*
Founder and
chief executive
officer
Project Sapiens
Founder
BuzzFeed
President
(Left in Nov. 2017)
Teemo
Co-founder
and chief
executive officer
Aldebaran
Robotics
Chief technology officer
Viadeo
Chief technology officer
Karos
Co-founder
and chief
technology
officer
Amazon
Web Services
Principal
evangelist --
machine learning
and AI
Less*
Cofounder and
chief technology
officer
Lifen
Founder and chief
executive officer
Kaiko
Founder
AOL**
Senior director
for analytics
and optimization
Social Bakers
Chief executive officer (Sept. 2015 - April 2017)
Ledger
President
AlephD
Founder and
chief executive
officer
THE CRITEO DIASPORA
Criteo has been an incubator for top tech talent at many other companies. But alumni have not
gone on to create and exit as
many new companies as some expected.
Jonathan
Wolf
Chief product
officer
Rudelle recently
returned to
Criteo as chief executive
Romain
Niccoli
Cofounder and
chief technology
officer
Greg
Coleman
President
Franck
Le Ouay
Cofounder and
chief scientist
Benoit
Grouchko
Product
manager
Pascal
Gauthier
Chief operating
officer
Julien
Simon
Vice president,
engineering
Maxime
Agostini
Business
development
manager
Tristan
Croiset
Software
engineer
Robert
Lang
Executive MD
fast growing
markets
*Less was acquired by BlaBlaCar in April 2018.
**AlephD was sold to AOL in January 2016.
the French ecosystem, The Innovator surveyed 20 influential figures working
in the field today, including the BPI’s Dufourcq; the former French minister
Fleur Pellerin; the founders of the promising start-ups Algolia, ManoMano
and BlaBlaCar; and venture capitalists from Index Ventures, Partech Partners,
BaldertonCapital,ISAIandRingCapital.(Thecompletelistoftherespondents
who agreed to be named is on pages 24-25.) Our aim was to get a sense of
what has been achieved in the past decade and what remains to be done.
Weaskedquestionsonthefollowingareas:France’seffortstopromotestartups,
access to capital, regulation, administrative burdens and tax, access to talent,
prospects for exits, and the educational system. We also conducted interviews
with many of the participants.
Here are our findings:
LESSON #1
French government efforts to encourage startups
are paying off
Last June, President Emmanuel Macron spoke to a raucous crowd at the
opening of Station F, the massive startup incubator funded by the telecoms
billionaire Xavier Niel. “I want France to be a startup nation, a nation
that works with and for the startups, but also a nation that thinks and
moves like a startup,” Macron said. Since then Macron and his ministers
have never missed an opportunity to talk up French Tech or visit Station
F. It’s easy to be cynical about such hype. In fact, French government
efforts to make life easier for startups began almost a decade ago and
was backed by the two prior presidents, not just Macron.
The most visible of them was the creation of the French Tech label by
then-junior minister Fleur Pellerin. Tech start-ups widely adopted the
image of the red rooster and it helped raise awareness both domestically
and abroad at big tech fairs like CES in Las Vegas. Beyond the French
Tech label, additional important changes were made. Pro-business reforms
were enacted, such as ending penalties for founders whose companies
declare bankruptcy. Most important, the BPI was given a broader mandate
and a bigger budget to fund innovation.
The state-backed bank has invested €1.3 billion annually for the past

three years, a big jump from its traditional levels. As a result, the BPI has
become the biggest single backer of French venture funds, and also made
direct investments in start-ups such as Sigfox, Devialet, and Doctolib.
Macron has gone further on the reform front to make hiring and firing
easier for all types of companies. He also introduced a flat tax rate of 30%
on capital gains and dividends, which Xavier Niel has said is one of the
most significant reforms for companies looking to invest in new technology.
Our survey respondents unanimously say France’s efforts in recent years
went beyond mere marketing and have really helped tech entrepreneurs.
And 90% of them also think that Macron’s election has helped the outlook
for France as a home for tech companies and scientists.
To build upon this success, several of those surveyed say more must be
done to simplify corporate law so as to make it more flexible and lower
the costs involved in founding companies. Nicolas Colin, one of the founders
of the incubator The Family who has also worked in government, says
regulations still too often favor old-school incumbents over disruptive
startups. “In every sector, the government should adopt policies to encourage
innovation without letting corporate lobbyists wreck the process,” he says,
citing healthcare, education and agriculture as areas to focus on.
LESSON #2
French founders are going international sooner
For too long, France has been a trap for startup founders who first focused
on building a business domestically, and neglected or delayed developing
sales abroad. Several of the respondents to our survey cited this “France
first” approach as one of the historical reasons why the country hasn’t
produced more large tech companies in the past decade.
“Unlike the U.S. or China, France simply isn’t big enough for unicorns to
subsist only on local sales,” says Nicolas Celier, a venture capitalist who
co-founded a new fund called Ring Capital last year. “Start-ups here need
to think about expanding internationally much earlier.” Thankfully, this
provincialism is changing. The long-distance carpooling service BlaBlacar,
one of France’s unicorns, went on an aggressive international expansion
in 2014 and 2015. Armed with roughly $300 million in VC funding, it
launched in India, Brazil, Russia and central Europe, buying four companies
along the way. Some markets didn’t take off but Russia is now BlaBlaCar’s
biggest market in terms of rides.
Algolia, a fast-growing French enterprise software company founded in
THE STATE OF THE FRENCH TECH NATION
A survey of 20 leading figures in the sector reveals how far the ecosystem has come and how far it has to go
Do you believe the election of President
Emmanuel Macron has improved the
outlook for France as a home for
technology companies and scientists?
Has the marketing of ‘French Tech’
and France as a startup nation gotten
ahead of reality?
Yes
Strongly
agree
Agree, but more
needed
Disagree, little
has changed
No
opinion
Strongly disagree, 0 %
No Too early
to say
Yes, it is
a big
problem
Sometimes,
but it is
manageable
No, not
at all
Yes No SometimesYes No No opinion
No, 5 %
No opinion, 5 %
Does France’s often negative image
abroad as a place to do business affect
tech startups’ ability to grow?
Can you attract and keep good tech
talent in France?
France has reduced administrative burdens and regulations on startups,
and is now an attractive place to found a company.
French government efforts
to encourage startups pay off
French founders are going
international sooner
Access to capital has improved
but more is needed at late stage
Exits are still very tough
to come by
No opinion, 5 %
No, 5 %
No view, 20 %
No view, 10 %
90 %
0 %
10 %
25 %
70 %
5 %
50 %
5 %
45 %
35 %
15 %
75 %
50 % 25 % 10 %
50 %
15 %
Do startups in France
have access to enough
early-stage capital?
Do startups in France have
access to enough later-stage
capital to gain critical scale
and compete
internationally?
It would be preferable if
more French startups
really scaled up via
listings on public
stock markets
instead of selling
before they gain
critical mass.
Is there still worry that
France’s best companies
are being sold off to U.S.
and Asian buyers?
Yes
90 %
Yes
70 %
Yes
35 %
Yes
60 %
No
20 %
No

— P.27
FRENCH TECH
2015, is another good example of how France’s new breed thinks globally.
Its founders aimed to build a global business from day one so they made
English the official language for the staff and the website. After going
through the prestigious Y Combinator accelerator in Silicon Valley, Algolia
opened its headquarters in San Francisco. But 60% of its roughly 200
employees and all its engineering talent remains in France; the two co-
founders split their time between the U.S. and France. Algolia creates
technology that allows developers to build a search engine for their app
or website. It has reached roughly $20 million in annual recurring revenue
from subscriptions, two-thirds of which are in U.S. “The distance and time
difference can be a pain,” says Nicolas Dessaigne, one of the co-founders.
“But we knew we could build a great team of engineers in Paris much
faster than in the Valley, where our brand is not well known.” This hybrid
approach was also used by Criteo, which expanded into the U.S. early on
but kept its software development teams in Paris.
Martin Mignot, a partner at Index Ventures, which has backed Algolia and
BlaBlaCar, sees the dual-country strategy as a competitive advantage. “I do
think French engineers are really high quality – better and cheaper and more
loyal then their U.S. counterparts,” says Mignot. “But the French are pretty
terrible at marketing so it is good to bring U.S.-style marketing and sales
talent and merge them with French engineers. That is the most powerful
combination.”
Several of those surveyed agreed that France simply doesn’t have enough
experienced tech executives who can drive growth into the hundreds of
millionsofeuros.«Hiringexecutivesthathaveworkedatlargetechorganizations
is expensive in the U.S. but at least you can find them there,” says Nicolas
Brusson, a co-founder of BlaBlaCar. “You still struggle to find them in Europe,
especially in Paris.”
LESSON #3
Access to capital has improved but more is needed
at later stages
The good news: France is no longer a laggard in the European venture-
capital stakes. Total investment into French start-ups hit €2.5 billion last year,
a three-fold increase from 2013 levels, according to Dealroom.co data. This
remains much smaller than the €7 billion euro invested in the U.K. last year,
but the fact that France is on par with Germany is significant progress. Our
survey respondents believe that France has ample funding for early-stage
start-ups. About 90% say access to early funding has improved in the past
five years, and 70% think it is now adequate.
But behind the rosy numbers of rising tech investment, it can still be very
difficultforentrepreneurstoraisemoney,especiallyinthebusiness-to-consumer
segment. Philippe de Chanville, one of the founders of ManoMano, an online
store for do-it-yourself tools and gardening supplies, got rejected by some
30 French funds along the way. The low point came when a prominent
French angel investor refused to believe the company’s rosy revenue targets.
He snapped at de Chanville and his co-founder Christian Raisson that he
“didn’t invest in clowns” before stomping out of the room. Eventually
ManoMano did secure funding from Partech Partners and the BPI, among
others. Since then, the business has grown rapidly, expanding to serve Spain,
Italy, Germany and the U.K. It’s now widely considered a future unicorn and
is expected to make €500 million in sales this year. “Don’t listen to what
local investors tell you because they will kill your dreams,” says de Chanville.
“It’s a problem with the general mindset. “There is a real lack of ambition
and believing that success is possible.” The picture is darker when it comes
LIST OF RESPONDENTS
TO THE
INNOVATOR’S
SURVEY
Benoit Bergeret Hub France IA, founding member
Nicolas Brusson BlaBlaCar, co-founder
Nicolas Celier Ring Capital, co-founder
Jean-David Chamboredon ISAI, chief executive
Nicolas Colin The Family, co-founder
Philippe Collombel Partech Partners, managing partner
Nicolas Dessaigne Algolia, co-founder
Philippe Dewost Head of Leonard, VINCI’s Open
Innovation Program
Carlos Diaz The Refiners Seed Fund,
general partner
Nicolas Dufourcq BPIfrance, general manager
Pascal Gauthier Ledger, president
Bernard Liautaud Balderton Capital, managing partner
Martin Mignot Index Ventures, partner
Fleur Pellerin Korelya Capital, acting CEO
Christian Raisson ManoMano, co-founder
Greg Revenu Bryan, Garnier & Co, managing partner
Sébastien Soriano ARCEP, head
(French telecoms regulator)
Roxanne Varza Station F, director

FRENCH TECH
to late-stage capital, which promising startups need if they are to truly be
able to scale up. Some 60% of those polled say there is not enough growth
capital available nowadays in France. To be fair, growth capital is lacking in
Europe in general, so this is not a France-specific problem. As a result, the
best French startups often turn to well-known U.S.-based investors for growth
capital. The thinking is that U.S. funds also bring with them expertise and
know-how about international markets that most French VCs cannot match.
That’s what ManoMano ended up doing. In September, the company raised
€60 million in a round led by General Atlantic, a U.S.-based growth fund.
LESSON #4
Exits are still very tough to come by
The goal of all startups is to achieve an initial public offering or exit by selling
to a larger company. It’s only when an IPO or exit occurs that the venture
capital investors who backed the startup are rewarded, ensuring a healthy
ecosystem. A large majority of our respondents expressed the desire that
French startups stay independent longer so as to get big and list shares in
Europe. But this route remains difficult: European equity investors are less
knowledgeable about technology than their U.S. or Asian counterparts.
Liquidity for listed tech shares can be lacking. As a result, listing locally is
lessattractiveandriskier,saysGregRevenu,amanagingpartneratinvestment
bank Bryan Garnier. “Companies going public on Euronext have traditionally
seen lower growth than ones that go public on the Nasdaq,” he says. Ideally,
Europeshouldcreateanequivalentofthetech-focusedNasdaqstockexchange,
said Sebastian Soriano, who heads ARCEP, France’s telecoms regulator. Over
time, European investors would become more tech savvy and more startups
could list regionally.
Dessaigne, the Algolia CEO, admitted that his firm would likely choose New
York if it were to do an IPO. “It would be too hard to do it in France today,”
he says. “We can’t make that decision out of ego or national pride – it has to
be what’s best for the company.” Since listings in Europe remain difficult,
ALGOLIA
UNITEDSTATESANDFRANCE
WHAT IT DOES : :Makes software for
companies to help them improve
search functions across websites and
apps. Total funding amount:
$74.2million,accordingtoCrunchbase.
https://www.algolia.com/
FRENCHTECH
STARTUPS
TOWATCH
StationF,XavierNiel’smassivestartupcampus,
hasbecomethefocalpointoftechinParis.
LEDGER
FRANCE
WHAT IT DOES : Makes secure
hardware wallets that allow people to
store their Bitcoin and Ethereum
holdings offline without fear of being
hacked.Total funding amount:
https://www.ledger.fr/
DOCTOLIB
FRANCE
WHAT IT DOES : An online and mobile
booking platform for doctors in
Europe. Total funding amount:
https://www.doctolib.fr/

EURO-
MEDITERRANEAN
HUB
AIX-MARSEILLE
PROVENCE
24_26_05_PARIS
STAND L06

many startups choose to sell to corporate buyers. A large majority of our
respondents expressed the desire that French startups stay independent
longer so as to scale up and list shares in Europe. About 70% of respondents
said they worry that the best startups are still being sold to foreign companies.
They often don’t have much choice, since large French companies aren’t
in the habit of buying startups. There are signs that things are evolving:
BNP Paris and the telecoms group Altice bought startups last year. But these
were relatively small deals worth a few hundred million euros. Selling to
corporates can also go terribly wrong— just look at how Nokia botched its
2016 takeover of the French health-device maker Withings. The founders
recently bought back the company from Nokia to try to revive it.
Phillippe Dewost, a seasoned tech executive who now heads Leonard,
VINCI Group’s new open innovation program, cautions that successful
exits will be the true measure of France’s progress in tech. The former
government adviser also worries that the torrent of public money deployed
by the BPI in recent years may not generate spectacular returns. «Lately
we’ve all been cheering at any new investment round and proclaiming
our unicorns,” Dewost said. “But we shouldn’t forget that valuation is
opinion; cash out is a fact. La French Tech will only have delivered once
exits occur and funds are returned to all limited partners, including the
French government.” Philippe Collombel, co-managing partner at Partech
Partners, urges patience. “Let’s wait to see how companies like Sigfox and
Algolia do,” he says. “It is still too early to declare victory or defeat. The
story is still in the making.”
J.L.S.
DATAIKU
WHATIT DOES: Platformtofacilitate
collaborationbetweenanalystsand
datascientists.Ithelpsteams
prototype,buildanddeliverproducts
moreefficiently.Totalfundingamount:
https://www.dataiku.com/
SCALITY
WHATITDOES: Foundedin2009,the
startupsellssoftwaretomanageand
protectdataforcompaniesusing
multiplecloudsystems.Totalfunding
amount:$152million,accordingto
Crunchbase.
https://www.scality.com/
FRENCH TECH
FleurPellerinvaultedtopromin-
encein2013asthepublicfaceof“La
French Tech,” a government-backed
initiativetopromoteFrenchstartups.
As a junior minister for all things
digital, she helped raise the
international profile of the sector and
enact tech-friendly reforms. She’s now
the acting chief executive of Korelya
Capital, a venture fund with €200
million under management. She
recently spoke to The Innovator about
theevolutionoftheFrenchecosystem.
Does France produce enough
unicorns?
FP: We don’t create enough unicorns.
Itwasoneofmycrusadesasaminister
and is still one of my crusades as an
investor. There is a real difficulty to
grow global companies from France.
We still lack the ability to scale.
Entrepreneurs and the VC investment
funds haven’t managed to grow their
businesses to become worldwide
champions.
In the past the French government
moved to create a global chip
company by merging the French and
Italian players. Given the lack of a
single market in Europe, is there a
need for this type of industrial policy
to create global champions in new
fields such as AI?
FP: Iwouldnotrelyonthegovernment
to build a new economic actor but I
would rely on them to enact good
regulatory measures and fix some
market failures. They should be
thinkingaboutnewantirustregulations
because they do not always play into
the economic interests of European
players. In Europe we have 130
telecom operators while in the U.S.
there are three or four, so how can
we compete? It is the same in many
other sectors. There must be some
kind of balance. When it comes to AI,
crypto-currency, and blockchain there
is a need for regulation in these fields.
The way you regulate the market will
determine whether you have a
competitive edge or not. Smart
regulations canreally be an asset. The
decisions that are made on ICOs,
blockchain, AI and crypto-currencies
will determine whether we can create
big domestic or European markets to
compete with the Chinese and
Americans. I would hate to see a new
wave of innovation and have Europe
shoot itself in the foot.
What are some of the other ways
French companies could go global?
FP:Thereisachancetobuildstrategic
alliancesbetweenEuropeanandAsian
players. By adding the know-how of
somebigregionalandAsianchampions
and promising European startups,
maybe we can build companies that
can compete globally. That is the bet.
Cathay Capital is doing it with the
Chinese and here at Korelya Capital
we are trying to build bridges with
Southeast Asia.
TheCrusadefor
Unicorns
AnInterview
With
Fleur Pellerin
Theformerministerthinks
smarterregulationcanhelp
FrenchTech
CreditMXavierLahache.

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ThetimingcouldnothavebeenworsefortheFrenchenergygiant
Total to announce that it had signed an agreement with Google Cloud to
jointly develop AI to analyze oil and gas exploration and production data.
ThedealcamejustweeksaftertheFrenchgovernmentannouncedanambitious
plan to shore up the country’s own AI sector, which included a pledge of €1.5
billion ofpublicmoney. The French mathematician and deputy Cédric Villani,
author of the recent governmental report on artificial intelligence, did not
hesitatetohidehisdispleasure.“Intermsofsovereigntyandeconomyitwould
be much better if a French solution were developed in this particular case,”
Villani said in an interview with The Innovator. “It is one of many examples
of a French actor saying ‘we need a great AI solution so let’s turn to big experts
like Google or Facebook or IBM.’ They reject the idea of searching for an idea
here,” he says, even though France is home to top tech talent and research
centers. To ensure that its AI sector thrives, the Villani report recommends
adopting an aggressive data policy, targeting four strategic sectors (health,
transportation, environment and defense), boosting the potential of French
research, planning for the impact of AI on labor and ensuring AI supports
diversity and inclusivity. But the support of the private sector is key. The lack
of it is why critics say a top-down, government-led approach will not be
enough to help France and Europe catch up in the AI race.
Competition is Fierce
On the positive side Google, Samsung and Fujitsu have all announced that
they are setting up AI centers in the country. “The fact that they are coming
here is a sign that we are not out of the race,” says Villani. “When important
things occur here it means you still have a chance to have a good position.”
But the new research centers also increase the risk that more of France’s
top AI talent will end up working for foreign companies. The list is already
France’sAI
Ambitions
— The key to competing with the U.S. and China
is engaging big corporates and consolidating
efforts across the Continent through a bottom-up
approach.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
long. Notable examples include Yann LeCun, Facebook’s director of AI
Research; and the French academic Françoise Soulié-Fogelman (LeCun’s
PhD advisor), who was later hired to teach China’s top AI students at Tianjin
University. Soulié moved back to France recently and is bringing the French
AI ecosystem a fresh, much-needed insider’s view on the Chinese AI sector.
While the Villani report outlines ways to try and stop the brain drain, the
competition for talent is fierce.
Governments around the world are deploying extensive AI strategic plans
withcomprehensivepolicyplatforms,researchactivitiesandfinancialsupport
for private investment. The Chinese government, which aims to become
the world leader in AI by 2030, has announced a detailed three-year plan
withconcretegoalstobeachievedby2020,suchas increasingthemanufacturing
sector’s energy efficiency by 10%. Meanwhile, Canada and the United States
aredeveloping theirownstrategies.“While Canadaseeks toincreasescientific
excellence in Al and develop a framework on ethics, policy and the legal
implications of AI, the United States focuses on the need for basis and long-
term research on AI but considers the government’s role as a regulator to
be minimal,” notes a March report produced by the European Political
Strategy Centre (EPSC), the European Commission’s in-house think tank.
In Europe, only a few countries, including France and the United Kingdom,
have adopted AI policies. At the end of April the EU announced that it wants
to invest €1.5 billion in artificial intelligence by 2020 to catch up with Asia
and the United States, which are each investing at least three times more.
In 2016 European private investments in AI totaled around €2.4 billion to
€3.2 billion, compared to almost €10 billion in Asia and €18 billion in the
U.S. The lag could have serious repercussions for Europe.
“It is difficult to imagine any segment of society that will not be transformed
by AI in years to come,” notes the EPSC March AI report. It quotes estimates
that the global adoption of AI across a wide variety of sectors will drive
worldwide business revenues from €6.4 billion in 2016 to more than €37.8
billion in 2020. More broadly, AI could contribute €12.8 trillion to the global
economy by 2030, representing an increase of 14% on today’s global GDP.
Mastering Europe’s Destiny
“To master our destiny requires us to master AI technology and the AI
ecosystem, says Nathanael Ackerman, an engineer who has served as an
advisor on AI and innovation to the French Ministry of Economy. That is why
Ackerman co-founded and is now heading up Hub France IA, a not-for-profit
organization that wants to serve as the “operating system” of the French
artificial intelligence ecosystem by uniting all actors, including big corporates,
SMEs, startups, research labs and not-for-profit organizations. The French
hub wants to take a leadership role in the development of AI Europe-wide
and in defining and communicating an AI industrial policy for France and
Europe. “Very few big corporates concretely understand what are the new
usages of AI and how they can use it to develop their businesses,” says

— P.33
Ackerman. “The hub is a one-stop shop for AI for big companies. If they
have strategic or technical questions they can ask the hub and the hub will
find the person who is able to answer. We plan to introduce a marketplace
for talent, technology, projects and mergers and acquisitions before the end
of 2018. Training for corporate executives has already started, and includes
the strategic impact of AI and management-level courses on best practices
in AI adoption and ethics.” SNCF, RATP, Société Générale, Air France, Air
Liquide, Leonard, TF1 Le Groupe, La Banque Postale and France Télévisions
are already members. “Many other big companies have expressed an interest
in the Hub, including LMVH, Renault, L’Oréal, Accor, La Poste, Ipsos, La
Française des Jeux, EDF, Orange and Capgemini.” says Ackerman. Benoit
Bergeret, a Hub France IA co-founder and its treasurer, says that “today
corporates hear about AI tools that Google and others have developed. These
tools are fantastic but when you are talking about industrial-level problems
those tools will only get you about 20% of the way.” Adds Bergeret, a serial
entrepreneur who is the general manager of Cyclope AI at VINCI Autoroutes,
“The Hub is helping companies identify and push AI systems all the way
down to production by connecting corporates to the right actors in the
ecosystem.”
United We Stand
The Hub France IA’s ambitions are not limited to helping France’s corporate
giants. Its experts are actively advising the European Commission on its AI
policy. “Nothing new will happen at the European level if it’s not engaging
all the main stakeholders, including the member states,” says Jean-Luc
Dormoy,whospearheadsHubFranceIA’sworkwiththeEuropeanCommission.
“Matthias Machnig, the new German minister for industry (SPD), has a
clear idea of the necessity of startup existence and growth, at least that’s
HUB FRANCE IA AT
A GLANCE
Objective: Toserveasthe”operatingsystem”and”one-stop-shop”
oftheFrenchartificialintelligence(AI)ecosystembyunitingall
actors,includingbigcorporates,SMEs,startups,researchlabsand
not-for-profitorganizations. Italsoseekstotakealeadershiprolein
thedevelopmentofAIEurope-wideandindefiningand
communicatinganAIindustrialpolicyforFranceandEurope.
Corporate Members to Date:SNCF,RATP,SociéteGénérale,Air
France,AirLiquide,Leonard(groupeVINCI),LeGroupeTFI,
LaBanquePostale,FranceTélévisions
What It Plans to Offer: Amarketplacefortalent,technology,
projectsandmergersandacquisitionsbeginningsummer2018.
Trainingforcorporateexecutiveshasalreadystartedandincludes
thestrategicimpactofAIandmanagement-levelcoursesonbest
practicesinAIadoptionandethics.
Cross-Sector Working Groups:Education;Legal,Ethicsand
Design;Skills,InclusionandJobTransformation;Opensource,
StartupsandEcosystem;GlobalAIBarometer;Bridge-buildingwith
EUinstitutionsandEuropean,NorthAmericanandAsiantechhubs.
Business Groups: Mobility,energy,smartcitiesandsmart
buildings,cybersecurity,robotics,conversationalagents,human
resources,health,wellness,sport,financeandinsurance,media,
telecom,creativeindustries,industrialprocesses,theintelligent
enterprise,digitaltransformationofgovernment.
“EuropemustcreateaunitedAI
ecosystemthatcomplieswithEuropean
ethics,lawsandregulationsandservesthe
Europeaneconomy.
France,withitsdeeptechnologyexpertiseand
experienceofEuropean-levelleadership,isa
goodplacetostart.”
NathanaelAckerman,
co-founder and managing director, Hub France IA
what he says; now, the solutions still have to come.” Dormoy points out that
amongmanyothers,SebastianThrun–whowontheDARPAGrandChallenge
for the autonomous vehicle while a professor at Stanford, and initiated
Google’s activities in the domain – is German and studied at the Fraunhofer
Institute, but found no satisfactory support in Europe. “Personally, I believe
that the solution must come step by step – which does not mean slowly –
in particular by changing the mindsets of the elite and using incentives to
engage the private sector,” says Dormoy.
Aggregating Opportunities
For the Hub, that means complementing government-driven directives with
a bottom-up approach that involves forging relationships with other hubs in
Europe. The idea is to organize meetings with startups and big companies
in hubs in places like London, Berlin and Amsterdam, and exchange expertise
and experts. “Every hub needs to have a clear view of the AI ecosystem so
throughthisnetworkofhubswecanspreadinformationaboutAIdevelopment
andhelpcreateopportunities,”saysAckerman.“Forexample ifabigcompany
in France is searching for a specific service maybe it exists somewhere else
in Europe. That is why we will set up a marketplace for projects and also
for mergers and acquisitions in Europe. The European Union is taking a top-
down approach to AI, but we think it is important to construct a network of
hubs in Europe from the bottom-up so we can aggregate opportunities.” If
it works, France – and Europe – could still have a shot at competing with
the United States and China. “Europe must create a united AI ecosystem that
complies with European ethics, laws and regulations and serves the European
economy,” says Ackerman. “France, with its deep technology expertise and
experience of European-level leadership, is a good place to start.”
J.L.S.

THETOP25
STARTUPS
TOMEET
ATVIVATECHA selection of young companies disrupting business
FUTUREOFWORK
TALMUNDO
THENETHERLANDS
WHATITDOES:An HR platform that simplifies the
on-boarding process for new employees, from
signing a contract to starting work.
https://www.talmundo.com/
FUTUREOFWORK
REALWEAR
UNITEDSTATES
WHATITDOES:A shock resistant augmented reality
head-mounted wearable device for connected
industrial workers.
www.realwear.com
FUTUREOFWORK
DAQRI
UNITEDSTATES
WHATITDOES: An augmented reality platform for
industrial use that aims to improve communication,
training and diagnostics.
http://www.daqri.com.
MOBILITY
STARSHIP TECHNOLOGIES
UNITEDKINGDOM
WHATITDOES:Building a fleet of autonomous
robotic vehicles that deliver a wide range of goods to
customers’ homes or offices.
https://www.starship.xyz/
MOBILITY
IRIDIUM DYNAMICS
AUSTRALIA
WHATITDOES:Makes high-performance
fixed-wing drones for a wide range of commercial
markets.
https://iridiumdynamics.com/
FUTUREOFWORK
DATAIKU
UNITEDSTATES
WHATITDOES: A software platform that pulls in
data from across a company and uses visual
design to make it accessible to employees in order
to drive analysis and decision making.
https://www.dataiku.com/
RETAIL
DEMOOZ
FRANCE
WHATITDOES: A platform that enables
consumers to try gadgets that might not be
available in local brick-and-mortar retailers by
connecting them with other consumers who have
already purchased them.
https://demooz.com/
HEALTH
QMENTA
UNITEDSTATES
WHATITDOES:Blendsadvancedimagingand
computationalanalyticstodiagnoseandstudy
neurologicaldisease..
https://www.qmenta.com/
ENERGY
IRLYNX
FRANCE
WHATITDOES:Leverages thermal infrared
technology and sensors to create smart buildings
that detect the presence of people to automate
energy savings.
http://www.irlynx.com/
ENERGY
ENERGIENCY
FRANCE
WHATITDOES:Developedasoftware-as-aaservice
(SaaS)platformforcompanies thatemploysmachine
learningtomakemoreefficientusesofenergy.
http://www.energiency.com/
FINTECH
PAYJOY
UNITEDSTATES
WHATITDOES:PayJoyhasbuiltaconsumerfinance
platformthatusesdatasciencetomakeloansto
peoplewithlimitedaccesstobankssotheycanafford
consumerelectronicssuchassmartphones.
https://www.malong.com/

— P.35
FUTUREOFWORK
SHIPPEO
FRANCE
WHATITDOES:A real-time transport platform
that gives shippers greater visibility into the
tracking of deliveries while allowing direct
communication with end customers.
https://www.shippeo.com/
FUTUREOFWORK
TELLMEPLUS
FRANCE
WHATITDOES:Deploys artificial intelligence
where the data is produced and where decisions
need to be made in order to automate the creation
and deployment of predictive models
www.tellmeplus.com
FUTUREOFWORK
YOBS
UNITEDSTATES
WHATITDOES:Analyzesvideointerviewsofjob
candidatestodeterminetheiraptitudeand
emotionalintelligence,helpingcompanieshirethe
bestpeople.
https://www.yobs.io/
MOBILITY
MOTIONTAG
GERMANY
WHATITDOES:Allowstransportationcompaniesto
tracktravelersusingtheirsmartphones,eliminating
theneedtocheckinandbuyseparatetickets.
https://motion-tag.com/
RETAIL
SOUNDHOUND
UNITEDSTATES
WHATITDOES:A voice-enabled AI and
conversational platform that lets developers and
businesses include voice search and assistants in
their products.
https://www.soundhound.com/
RETAIL
WYND
FRANCE
WHATITDOES: A point-of-sale platform that
helps businesses manage sales channels both
in-store and out-of-store.
https://www.wynd.eu/
AGRITECH
NEO.FARM
FRANCE
WHATITDOES:Arobotic-drivenfarmingsystemthat
reducestheneedtousechemicalsandpetroleum.
http://neo.farm/
SMARTCITIES
CITYTAPS
FRANCE
WHATITDOES:Processes pay-as-you-go
payments through mobile money so that water
utilities can connect the urban poor to their
networks.
www.citytaps.org
ENERGY
ENERBEE
FRANCE
WHATITDOES:Develops energy harvesters that
capture energy from motion and can be used to
replace batteries in both consumer and industrial
connected objects.
http://www.enerbee.fr/
Compiled and written by Chris O’Brien.
O’Brien is European c orrespondent
for VentureBeat, currently based in France.
Before moving to France in 2014,
he spent 15 years covering Silicon Valley for the
San Jose Mercury News and Los Angeles Times.
FINTECH
PERSONETICS
ISRAEL
WHATITDOES:Offers a predictive service that
enables financial institutions to deliver persona-
lized customer experiences across online, mobile
and tablet platforms with the goal of increasing
customer interaction.
https://personetics.com/
FINTECH
GAMBIT FINANCIAL
SOLUTIONS
BELGIUM
WHATITDOES:Arobo-advisorthatcanbeused
bybankstocreatepersonalizedfinancialadvicefor
clients.
http://gambit-finance.com/
RETAIL
QOPIUS
FRANCE
WHATITDOES:Uses computer vision, robots,
connected cameras and smartphones to track
stock for retailers.
https://www.qopius.com/
RETAIL
GESTOOS
SPAIN
WHATITDOES:AnAIplatformthatenables
camerasandsensorstosee,analyzeandrespond
tohumangesturesandbehaviorinmultiple
environments.Usesincludeintegrationintodigital
signagetoincreaseinteractionswithconsumers
insidestoresandshoppingmalls.
http://gestoos.com/
RETAIL
BLUEFOX
UNITEDSTATES
WHATITDOES:Helps businesses and brands
detect nearby mobile phones so they can interact
and engage with customers without requiring
them to first download an app or opt-in.
https://bluefox.io/

Ian Rogers, the former
directorofAppleMusic,ischiefdigital
officer of LVMH, the Paris-based
conglomerate that owns 70 luxury
brands, including Céline, Christian
Dior, Berluti, Bulgari, Fendi and
Givenchy. (LVMH also owns Groupe
Les Echos, The Innovator’s parent
company.) Rogers is responsible for
LVMH’s forayintomulti-brand luxury
e-commerce, 24 Sèvres, a boutique
shopping website and mobile app
named after the Paris street where
LVMH’sflagshipParisdepartmentstore
Le Bon Marché is located. In the last
yearhehasadditionallyhelpedLVMH
to ramp up its e-commerce business
acrossbrandswithnewsitesforCéline
handbagsandBerlutishoes; launched
the first online store in China for the
group brand Louis Vuitton ;and
approved the launch of LVMH brands
in the luxury section of Tmall, the
Internet giant Alibaba’s multi-brand
e-commerce site.
Rogers, who will help preside over
the LVMH Innovation Awards at Viva
Technology, a May 24-26 Paris tech
conference, recently spoke to The
Innovator’s editor-in-chief about how
tech is transforming the luxury sector.
tionship with Farfetch and with
other marketplaces around the wor-
ld. We have also increased our ef-
forts when it comes to search engine
optimization and affiliates such as
Google Shopping and Lyst as part of
our overall e-commerce strategy.
What would you say is 24 Sèvres’
primary differentiator online?
IR: The first is a unique and exclusive
selection. The French and Parisian
take on fashion wasn’t represented
until 24 Sèvres came online. 24
Sèvres is the only online multi-brand
to offer Louis Vuitton, Dior and
looking for. It is not just about being
a multi-brand retailer. We have in-
vested heavily in our brand-to-
consumer platforms. Last year
Céline, Givenchy and Berluti
launched direct e-commerce from
their web sites and most all LVMH
brands, including Louis Vuitton and
Dior, expanded e-commerce geogra-
phically including China. Sephora,
in cosmetics, is the clear industry
leader, and we are building our
strength in multi-brand fashion
e-commerce as well with 24 Sèvres.
Many of our brands have a rela-
It has been one year since LVMH
launched 24 Sèvres. Although LVMH
does not break out traffic to the site,
press reports say the figures still
trail way behind those of other
digital luxury e-commerce players
such as FarFetch and Yoox
Net-A-Porter. Is that a fair
statement? Are you pleased with the
site’s progress?
IR: We are extremely pleased. We
don’t compare to those e-commerce
players. The way we look at the
landscape is you have to be able to
offer all the things a customer is
FUTURE
OF RETAIL
DefiningtheLuxuryCustomer
Experience
AnInterview
With
IanRogers,
ChiefDigitalOfficerofLVMH
©EdouardJacquinet

The Innovator #6

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