NEW YORK – July 18, 2017— After a successful second edition in fall 2016, eight new French startups were selected to participate in the third session of the French-American Creative Lab, taking place from November 6 to 15, 2017. Both a creative and economic development program tailored to acquainting startups from the cultural and creative industries with the American market, the French-American Creative Lab is developed by the Cultural Services of the French Embassy and Business France, in collaboration with their longtime partner, Made in NY Media Center by IFP. The third edition of the program includes two new elements that have been incorporated thanks to a strengthened partnership between its co-producers:
- After kicking off in New York, where the Digital Lab has traditionally taken place, the program will add a new leg in Los Angeles, the third largest tech hub in the U.S. and second only to New York in its offerings for cultural and creative innovators. The French-American Creative Lab has also partnered with 18Havas, Havas’ global research and innovation network, a move that will provide even more networking resources to participants.
- More one-on-one business meetings and networking opportunities will be offered to the startups in order to help lay the groundwork for the successful launch of their product in the United States.
A program of French Tech New York and French Tech Los Angeles, the 2017 edition is supported by the Institut français and FACE Foundation. The French-American Creative Lab also benefits from a network of institutions and major French incubators (Paris&Co, 104factory, l’incubateur du CENTQUATRE-PARIS, NUMA, Créatis, Imaginove, Lafayette Plug and Play, and l’Institut Français de la Mode).
“While the cultural and creative industries represent a market of nearly $700 billions and are responsible for 4.8M jobs in the United States, they are also a major growing sector in France” said Thomas Michelon, Deputy Cultural Counselor of the French Embassy to the United States. “Due to this new partnership between the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the United States and Business France, France-based entrepreneurs will have the opportunity to strengthen their strategic position in the US market by discovering Los Angeles’ rapidly growing tech ecosystem at the heart of the film and entertainment industry”.
Several criteria, including the international potential and innovative aspect of the projects, guided the jury’s selection process. The selected startups were chosen based on their abilities to disrupt the U.S. tech market, and relate to the fields of augmented reality, digital copyright issues, fashion, audiovisual innovation, and publishing.
BEAR is an augmented reality solution that allows publishers and brands to significantly grow their audiences and quickly reach the tech-savvy user or consumer who wishes to connect the physical and digital worlds.
Euveka is a startup in France’s Drôme region specializing in robotic technologies linked to morphology and biomimicry. Euveka manufactures and develops evolutive and connected mannequins controlled by design software that are destined to be used by clothing industry professionals.
FireFly Cinema offers solutions for managing and encoding high-resolution (up to 8K) digital dailies using Cloud Infrastructure at unprecedented speeds and for an unbeatable price.
On the web, most images circulate without source or author information attached. IMATAG.com produces invisible and unbreakable watermark technology that ensures that any published image will forever be linked to its author.
Racontr is an interactive digital design solution for graphic designers that allows them to create websites and mobile and desktop applications in no time. Racontr gives creative freedom back to users by letting them craft digital creations without hindrance.
Short Edition is the community publisher of short literature (200,000 regular readers, 7000 authors selected and 85 000 short stories). Short Edition created the Short Story Dispenser, a disruptiing innovation to promote culture and to improve customer relationship.
SkyBoy creates Overlap Reality®, a technology that immerses cultural or touristic website visitors into an immersive experience in which reality and the virtual overlap.
Over the course of the 10-day program, these eight startups will discover the New York and Los Angeles ecosystems through an intensive program of workshops and training sessions, with special emphasis on one-on-one business meetings and networking opportunities. The French-American Creative Lab is designed to help entrepreneurs gain insight on how to adapt their products or services to the American consumer and define a marketing strategy tailored to a US audience. Participants can also expect to make contact with tech world change-makers and build a network to help prepare for the launch of their product in the United States in the 12 to 18 months after the completion of the program.
Chaired by Thomas Michelon, Deputy Cultural Counselor of the French Embassy in the United States, the jury was composed of Joana Vicente (Made in NY Media Center by IFP), Thomas Jorion (18Havas), Karine Bidart (Paris&Co), Antoine de Possesse (Orange), Fari Breguet (Microsoft), Olivier Padiou (Valtech), Jess Kwan (Archer Gray), Elisabeth Leontieff-Hirshon and Cécile Fouché (Business France), Mathieu Fournet and Daphné Lora (Cultural Services of the Embassy of France).
ABOUT
The Cultural Services of the French Embassy promotes the best of French arts, literature, cinema, digital innovation, language, and higher education across the US. Headquartered in New York City and Washington D.C., with offices in eight other cities across the country, the Cultural Services brings artists, authors, intellectuals, and innovators to cities nationwide. It also builds partnerships between French and American artists, institutions and universities on both sides of the Atlantic. With dedicated departments in Los Angeles and New York, the Cultural Services foster the development of French and American startups in the cultural and creative sector. www.frenchculture.org
Business France is the national agency supporting the international development of the French economy, responsible for fostering export growth by French businesses, as well as promoting and facilitating international investment in France.
It promotes France’s companies, business image and nationwide attractiveness as an investment location, and also runs the V.I.E international internship program.
With a workforce of 110 multilingual collaborators spread across 10 offices in the United States and Canada, Business France North America works with over 1000 French companies yearly, and organizes close to 50 B2B events across North America including about 10 acceleration programs.
For further information, please visit: www.businessfrance.fr
FACE Foundation is an American nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting French-American relations through innovative cultural and educational projects. In partnership with the Cultural Services of the French Embassy, FACE promotes artistic, literary and educational exchange and collaboration between creative professionals from both countries. With additional corporate, foundation, and individual support, FACE administers grant programs in the performing and visual arts, cinema, translation, and secondary and higher education, while providing financial sponsorship to French-American festivals and other cultural initiatives. FACE focuses on new and recent work of living artists and the promotion of bilingualism and the French language. FACE Foundation (French-American Cultural Exchange) is a 501(c)(3) organization chartered by the state of New York. www.face-foundation.org
French Tech New York and French Tech Los Angeles
New York City was named a “French Tech hub” in June 2015, followed by Los Angeles in October 2016. A French Tech hub is an “entrepreneurial ecosystem” structured to accelerate the development of French startups wishing to expand internationally and increase the attractiveness of French Tech to foreign entrepreneurs, investors, and local media. Both New York and Los Angeles combined, the French Tech network is made up of nearly 130 French entrepreneurs, investors, engineers, designers, developers, groups, associations, media, public servants, and research institutions, among other entities, that actively work toward the growth of startups and for their international development and recognition.
Media Contact:
Camille Desprez- +1 (212) 439-1417 – camille.desprez@diplomatie.gouv.fr
FrenchCulture.org – @franceinnyc – #CreativeLab – facebook.com/frenchculture
frenchculture.org/digital-cultures/grants-and-programs/french-american-digital-lab