On July 7, 2020, RouteX COO Masahiro Tsukao joined in a member-only webinar “Members Monthly Meeting vol.3” hosted by Comité d’échanges Franco-Japonais (CEFJ) This article is the event report contributed by RouteX Inc. as below.
Vol.1 Guest: Prophesee CEO, Luca Verre
Vol.2 Guest: Open Innovation Expert & Author, Pascal Latouche
Vol.3 Guest: La French Tech, Kat Borlongan
On July 3, 2020, Comité d’échanges Franco-Japonais (CEFJ) held a webinar “Members Meeting” for its members only. It was held with many participants from member companies in both Japan and France.
As a guest, we had the opportunity to meet with Kat Borlongan, La French Tech, which is one of the most prominent startup ecosystem building projects in the world. At this time, she kindly speeched attractively with the title,
” French Tech post-Covid – what’s in it for Japan?”.
1. About Comité d’échanges Franco-Japonais (CEFJ) / Startups Creativity Challenge(SCC)
2. About La French Tech
3. Event report
4. Upcoming CEFJ events
1. About Comité d’échanges Franco-Japonais (CEFJ) / Startups Creativity Challenge(SCC)
Comité d’échanges Franco-Japonais (CEFJ) is a non-profit organization established in 1997 with the aim of contributing to the development of French-Japanese business relations and deepening mutual understanding in the global environment.
CEFJ has been supporting more active exchanges for business purpose, between French and Japanese companies for more than 20 years through a variety of programs and information, and currently has 157 members in both countries, supported by its huge network in France and in Japan but also in Europe and Asia.
Recently CEFJ has launched a new innovation program,
“Startups Creativity Challenge (SCC)”.
It will be held three times in total from 2019 to 2021 annually in order to further strengthen the relationship between Japan and France and to build organic startup ecosystems together.
The first edition, held in October 2019, was attended by 128 participants from both Japan and France. 4 enterprises and 9 startups also came together. The event was held at Station F, France’s largest incubation facility. In the presence of Mr. Nobuyuki IDEI, former CEO of Sony, Chairman and Founder of Quantum Leaps, and Ms. Anne Lauvergeon, former CEO of Areva, CEO of ALP, welcomed by President Kling and Delegate President Kuchly, the atmosphere is really attractive, and various kind of players actively discussed how to create new innovations between the two countries.
The second SCC event, scheduled to take place in December 2020 in Paris, will be even more practical than the first. The SCC will further accelerate cross hydride collaboration between large companies and startups and generate innovations.
2. About La French Tech
La French Tech is a French government-initiated project which is aiming to create an organic startup ecosystem in France with a mission:
“To make France one of the greatest places in the world to launch and grow global companies that make sense for our future.”
La French Tech is run by a team of members within the French government called “French Tech Mission”. It is located at Station F, the largest start-up support facility in Paris.
It is the largest startup ecosystem in the country, bringing together investors, policy makers and community builders, as well as providing funding, marketing and various program support to startups through its policies.
It has also contributed significantly to the global branding of French startups by setting up offices in cities around the world since 2015.
3. Event Report
The event, which began at 10:00 a.m. local time in Paris on July 7th 2020, was held online with attendees from CEFJ member companies in both countries.
Ms.Kat Borlongan, Director of La French Tech Mission, participated in this event and talked about her efforts to deal with the Covid-19 epidemic, her vision for the post-Covid-19 era, and how to relate to Japan in the future with the title
“French Tech post-Covid – what’s in it for Japan?”
She said at the beginning of his speech:
La French Tech is aiming to make the world a better place by building an organic ecosystem that produces global “Tech Leaders”.
The global spread of Covid-19 occurred in the midst of the French ecosystem’s rapid growth. But even in the midst of this crisis, the ecosystem seems to be continuing to grow through three points:
– Funding: $1.2 billion in start-up funding through the government
– Diversity: Continuous support for international entrepreneurs and women entrepreneurs
– Tech: Connecting advanced technologies and startups, such as AI, Cyber and Industry4.0, to drive further social implementation
From January 2021, La French Tech will launch a new program to promote the expansion of early stage startups outside of France in order to create “Tech Champions” from France.
She told that they are also focusing the Japanese market. In order to unlock the potential of startups, they want to build relationships with Japan that they don’t have in the US and China.
La French Tech is actively engaged in expanding its community to other cities around the world and branding French startups worldwide. And it also leads the active communications with the ecosystem players in Japan.
In the SCC 2019, the special session with Ms.Borlongan and Susumu Kataoka, General Director of Jetro Paris,
“L’écosystème Japonais et opportunités de coopération franco-japonaise dans l’innovation”.
“The Japanese ecosystem and opportunities for Franco-Japanese cooperation in innovation”
At this event, Mr. Kataoka talked about the J-Startup, a program to support the development of startups launched by Jetro and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, which is based on the motif of La French Tech. Thus, he declared that the startup ecosystem in Japan and France have a close relationship and will continue to have more active exchanges in the future.
CEFJ members asked many questions during the Q&A session.
4. Upcoming CEFJ events
CEFJ plans to deliver a variety of webinars and online content in preparation for the SCC in December 2020.
Starting in September 2020, webinars will be held every two weeks. We will invite experts to further accelerate co-creation between the two countries.
We hope you will join us!
CEFJ Members Meetings are member- only events. If you have any interests or inquiries about CEFJ and Prophesee, please don’t hesitate to send us a message.
To the World without Information Asymmetry, We’re committed to innovate startup ecosystems around the world.
If you have any inquiries, please feel free to contact us from our contact form as below.
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