Why La Poste takes 4 start-ups from its IoT accelerator to Slush rather than CES

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 The post office takes four start-ups (see box) of its French IoT acceleration program to Slush, a start-up show held on 21 and 22 November 2019 in Helsinki, Finland. This is a first for the group, which has so far favored the CES of Las Vegas, the high mass of consumer electronics, and Viva Technology, a major Parisian salon created in 2016.

Need to better target trade shows as needed

 "It has been noted, but this concerns the world of start-ups in general, that the maturity of start-ups is increasing and that they are refining their operations more and more according to geographical sectors.explains to L'Usine Digitale Vanessa Chocteau, director of La Poste's French IoT program. Not all start-ups are in North American marketing logic ". This is why the group has decided to diversify the events on which it is going.

If the CES and Viva Tech remain unavoidable, La Poste has selected three other events: Bpifrance Inno Generation (in October in Paris), IFA (in September in Berlin, Germany) and Slush. Why did you choose this Finnish salon? Vanessa Chocteau, who speaks "a very thoughtful first" evokes a living room "particularly interesting" and "iconic". "Finland is the most digitized country in Europe"she adds. She believes that it is important for La Poste to go see what is happening there. Especially since Slush is particularly focused on health, smart health connected objects and cybersecurity, themes at the heart of the French IoT program.

Looking for investors and prospects

Spontaneously, the 15 start-ups of the French IoT program have spread over different events. "The four startups going to Slush have an interest in developing in Eastern Europe and are asking a lot of questions about the realization of a fundraiser that may interest investors outside the French domestic market"explains Vanessa Chocteau. Arguments confirmed by the young shoots. This show is acclaimed by Stimergy for choices of "prospecting, visibility and meetings with investors"says CEO Christophe Perron. Stimergy wants to meet prospects who could host its services on their infrastructure as well as European investors in order to achieve a new fundraising.

ExactCure, which announced Thursday, November 14, 2019 have raised 1 million euros from OneRagtime, also seeks to get closer to investors to prepare a second round of table by the end of 2020. The jstart-up founded in early 2018 has also chose to turn to Slush because of a "more digitalised healthcare market in the Nordic countries than in France", adds co-founder Fabien Astic. The opportunity to solicit potential customers while ExactCure has just announced the signing of its first contract with Vidal, specialist in medical information for health professionals. The idea is to integrate their solution into the Vidal Sentinel software, dedicated to healthcare professionals in hospitals.

  A preparation upstream of Slush

La Poste and the four youngsters do not go blind on Slush. The French IoT team approached the Business France Finland team to prepare for the move upstream of the show and stall the accompaniment on site. Information about people coming to the show, list of important interventions in plenary, names of Finnish champions in such areas, data on the spatial organization of the show …

The goal is to have a panoramic view of what to expect to be more effective once there. The day before the event, Business France Finland will welcome them and prepare them through two sequences: a pitch preparation for investors and a meeting with the Finnish incubator Vertical.vc, which can put them in contact with investors. Because the goal remains to establish contacts or even to draft partnerships.

 The four startups who go to Slush

 – ExactCure (health): develops a digital twin that simulates the effect of drugs in the patient's body based on their personal characteristics (age, weight, chronic diseases …) to help them avoid sub-doses, overdoses and drug interactions.

 – One Face (cybersecurity): develops a facial 3D biometric authentication solution for digital transactions.

 – Southpigalle (services): develops hyper-personalized virtual assistants, which apply to all of the company's business lines (sales teams, after-sales service, communication, training, etc.), in order to foster collective intelligence in companies.

 – Stimergy (smart city): proposes a solution allowing to recover the heat produced by the computer servers and to inject it into the hot water networks of a building or to heat the water of a swimming pool.

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