Luxembourg Looks at Building Relationships with European Partner Startup Ecosystems

During his second day of the working visit to Paris, France, on Thursday 15 June 2023, Luxembourg's Minister of the Economy, Franz Fayot, and his delegation attended the Viva Technology fair and met Paris&Co and SATT Lutech.

This day was dedicated to the startup ecosystem and the Viva Technology fair, and it began with the announcement of the Luxembourg State's continued participation in the "Digital Tech Fund".

During a press conference, organised jointly with Alain Rodermann, managing partner of Expon Capital, Minister Fayot announced that the Luxembourg State continues to participate financially, alongside a group of investors, in the "Digital Tech Fund", in order to meet the financing needs of young innovative companies in the startup phase and thus to consolidate the development of the startup ecosystem in Luxembourg. New investors have also decided to invest in the fund, including the Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce.

Paris&Co

According to the Finance Ministry, one of the key actions to take considering the development of the startup ecosystem in Luxembourg is that of building solid relationships and exchanges with partner ecosystems, in Europe and internationally. A visit to Paris&Co was organised in this context. The Minister of the Economy, accompanied by a delegation of around 40 people, was received by Loïc Dosseur, CEO of Paris&Co, and Pierre-Yves Guice, CEO of Paris la Défense.

Paris&Co is the innovation agency for Paris and the entire metropolis. With several offices in Paris, including spaces in the Arche de La Défense, it is made up of a team of 90 people. The agency operates in particular about fifteen innovation programs, in multiple sectors such as tourism, sport, finance, sustainable cities. It aims to be an accelerator of impact projects through a plurality of mechanisms dedicated to the identification of sustainable solutions and their mobilisation in the service of economic, ecological and social transitions. Each year, Paris&Co hosts and supports around 500 startups, encourages urban experimentation, supports social innovators and organises large-scale events to transform society through innovation. Paris&Co also collaborates with more than 100 private companies and public institutions, in an Open Innovation approach.

The objective of the meeting was to learn more about the activities of Paris&Co, to discuss best practices in supporting startups and to discuss possible partnerships. Three Luxembourg startups interested in the French market (FiveOffices; DataThings; Passbolt) as well as three French startups interested in expanding into the Luxembourg market and the Greater Region (Electra; ERS - Ecosystem Restoration Standard; Greenscope) have briefly presented their project.

SATT Lutech

Another axis of the roadmap is that of strengthening researchers’ involvement in the startup ecosystem and facilitating the transformation of their discoveries into innovation, then into commercial products and services. The afternoon, therefore, continued with a visit to the SATT, the technology transfer acceleration company (Société d'Accélération de Transfert de Technologies) Lutech, the SATT specifically attached to Sorbonne University.

The SATT, as a technology transfer operator on behalf of the University, has as its core business the maturing of inventions from the laboratories of the Sorbonne University alliance. Its objective is to transfer the innovative technologies of its academic shareholders to the industrial world by granting operating licenses to companies.

In France, the SATT network includes thirteen companies that intervene in terms of promoting research for their shareholders and other potential customers. Funded by the French National Research Agency (ANR), the SATTs also have the means to directly support projects in the maturation phase.

The delegation later attended detailed presentations by Agoranov, MyStartup Program, SUMMIT - the House of Modelling, Engineering and Technology and Paris Parc.

Agoranov is an incubator for innovative startups, which has already incubated more than 450 startups, including five so-called “unicorns” (privately held startups with a value of over $1 billion).

MyStartup Program is a system developed within the framework of the University Innovation Center (PUI) of the Sorbonne University Alliance, with the aim of supporting entrepreneurship projects resulting from research. MyStartup Program thus supports researchers, doctoral students, doctoral students, teacher-researchers, teacher-researchers, engineers or research or study engineers wishing to create a startup by setting up collective workshops as well as through sessions individual in the presence of mentors. This is a structuring program for the PUI.

SUMMIT is a transverse service unit created in January 2021. This is an original structure, born from the merger of Tremplin Carnot Interfaces and Smiles, with the aim of promoting the results of research from the laboratories and research units of Sorbonne University by positioning itself at the interface between companies and the academic world, by supporting research teams and providing engineering skills, assistance with setting up and monitoring projects.

Paris Parc is a 15,000 m2 building under construction on the Pierre and Marie Curie campus which will in particular accommodate companies from the Sorbonne University ecosystem and its close partners and will serve as a reunion place for the all of the Sorbonne University Alliance's innovation and entrepreneurship activities.

The working visit ended with the discovery of the Sorbonne Center for Artificial Intelligence (SCAI), created in 2019. It is a fundamental research institute at the heart of AI, in mathematics, computer science and robotics, but also at the frontier of disciplines, around contemporary issues: health and medicine, climate and environment and digital humanities. SCAI is also an educational laboratory, whose ambition is to meet the growing needs for initial and continuing training in the field of AI.

At the end of the working visit, Minister Fayot concluded that "the many exchanges with the startup ecosystem and the structures dedicated to supporting young innovative companies over the past two days have been very rewarding. I am convinced that the measures of our new roadmap 'From seed to scale' are decisive for strengthening innovative entrepreneurship in Luxembourg and that the actions already started will bear fruit”.