On October 27th, a virtual event was organized to welcome the FAISE (French Alps International Softlanding Exchange) program winners and honorees, to allow them to meet the Grenoble Alpes team (La French Tech in the Alps, Invest in Grenoble Alpes and Tarmac incubator) and our partners abroad: La French Tech Taiwan and Empowered Startups (BC, Canada).
Two startups from Taipei and two from Vancouver were selected in 2020 to attend the Grenoble Alpes bootcamp in December 2020. The goal of their participation in the week-long immersion bootcamp in the Grenoble Alpes ecosystem was to evaluate their development prospects. However, because of the health crisis, the “live” Grenoble Alpes bootcamp has been postponed to 2021. In early December several other live but virtual events are scheduled.
The October the 27 virtual Welcome Reception webinar and took place in two parts: starting at 10am with Taiwanese startups and at 4.30pm with the Canadian startups. This private virtual event allowed the international entrepreneurs not only to meet the project team and learn more about Grenoble Alpes ecosystem and its breadth of opportunities for startups, but also to pitch their business and to exchange with program partners and special guests. Attendees of both webinars included experts who will present masterclasses at the beginning of December 2020, entrepreneurs from Grenoble’s Tarmac incubator, the organizers of the GIANT High Level Forum, as well as Grenoble Alpes Metropole employees. All were able to better understand entrepreneurs’ projects and begin to elaborate a path to their success in the local ecosystem.
The British Columbia section of the webinar was also an opportunity for the Consul of France in Vancouver to expertly provide a history of the FAISE project and an overview of the deep relationships between Grenoble Alpes and BC Canada, links that have been burnished in spite of the health crisis.
In the morning, the Taiwanese winners Uniigym (https://www.uniigym.com/) and AIPLUX (https://aiplux.com/) introduced themselves. The first has created an interactive fitness solution and the second offers a platform to patent. The afternoon saw presentations by the two Vancouver winners, Trich Analytics (https://www.trichanalytics.com/), with its preventative and non-invasive methods of environmental micro-analysis, and Origen Air, developer of air purification solutions via a combination of botany, genetics, and engineering.
Also presenting in the afternoon session were the four Vancouver FAISE competition semi-finalists: Origen Clean (https://www.origenclean.com/), whose organic, non-toxic detergent mist cleans and disinfects pathogens; Grant Me (https://grantme.ca/) and its EdTech platform; Flik (https://weareflik.com/) a community for women entrepreneurs with curated apprenticeships; Sherwa (https://sherwaonline.com/) with an an app-based online platform and social network for gamers.
Both sessions concluded with a detailed outline of the FAISE program’s next steps. First up, the four winning startups will pitch during the High Level Forum HLFConnect Briefing on December 1st (http://hlf-giant-grenoble.org/hlf-upcoming-events/#hlf-connect), along with award-winning startups from other international programs. On December 3rd, they will attend live masterclasses, allowing entrepreneurs to learn more about legal, financial, cultural and relocation aspects. B2B meetings will also take place between entrepreneurs and Grenoble Alpes ecosystem stakeholders in order for the startups to get ready for their arrival in person in 2021.
Let’s welcome and wish good luck to these international entrepreneurs, who will stay on course and develop high-performance solutions in spite of the current health crisis. We look forward to the innovation and diversity they will bring to bear in our already outstanding ecosystem in the Alps!