The Deeptech North America – NETVA program led by the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs has announced the selection of 14 Deeptech start-ups for its 2020 edition. These innovative French start-ups will receive personalized support and will benefit from an analysis of opportunities and the development of technological partnerships in the United States.

To carry out the NETVA’20 program, the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs relies on the support of its partners and sponsors, first and foremost the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation and Bpifrance. Led by the teams of the Science and Technology Department of the French Embassy in the United States, NETVA aims to provide concrete responses to the need for internationalisation of French startups, originating from and/or backed by research laboratories, developing innovative products with high added value.

This support program is dedicated to young innovative French startups wishing to prepare themselves for the realities and specificities of the North American markets in order to succeed in their internationalization.

French Deeptech start-ups in the spotlight

Since 2010, the NETVA program has offered a unique opportunity for young innovative French companies to benefit from preparation and networking within the broad network of the French Embassy in the United States.

NETVA is aimed at early-stage start-up projects operating in the fields of artificial intelligence, the industry of the future, health, biotech, agritech, energy…

The winners of the 2020 edition

• AgenT combines 10 years of academic research, neurosciences and artificial intelligence to develop the first blood diagnosis to detect Alzheimer’s disease up to 20 years before the appearance of irreversible symptoms.
• Amiral Technologies develops and markets blind failure prediction software for IIoT-compatible equipment, creating a new scientific method for extracting health indicators from industrial time series.
• Byond provides deep learning and artificial intelligence solutions to patients, physicians and medical laboratories to improve the relevance and understanding of laboratory tests.
• Carbon Waters develops biodegradable protective additives for coatings targeting the transport, aerospace, energy, infrastructure and marine industries.
• CERTIS Therapeutics develops MRI guidance solutions for minimally invasive therapies to drastically improve patient outcomes during thermal tissue ablation (cardiology, oncology and neurology).
• Deepsense is developing a SaaS solution for biometric authentication by facial recognition, made reliable by passive liveness detection algorithms, compatible with any device and detecting advanced fraud attempts (photos, videos, masks).
• Grapheal introduces a portable patch for continuous wound monitoring. This technology combines new materials, integrated wireless electronics, data analysis and IoT technologies to monitor chronic wounds and provide infection alerts.
• With ImVisio, the first digital immersive microscope dedicated to routine diagnostics, Hewel S.A.S. promotes the convergence between current work processes used in pathology (optical microscopy) and Digital Pathology.
• PowerUp facilitates, with its M.A.P.® technology, the precise diagnosis of the state of health of batteries in real operating conditions and allows to adapt their charge accordingly thanks to its knowledge of their ageing mechanisms.
• SPARTHA Medical develops multifunctional (antimicrobial / anti-inflammatory) custom coatings for implantable medical devices.
• SurgAR increases the efficiency of surgical procedures with software that combines computer vision and artificial intelligence techniques to provide the first real-time augmented reality functional system on a mobile organ.
• Vaxxel is developing the first live, attenuated, multivalent vaccine against human metapneumovirus and RSV, administered intranasally.
• VeriQloud aims to make quantum cybersecurity feasible for small and medium infrastructures, providing very high data protection for a wide range of use cases, by developing software and applications for quantum communication networks.
• Wise-Integration offers a solution to reduce energy consumption thanks to an innovative component (power GaN integrated ASIC) used in a patented system architecture.

Heading for the United States with a two-stage programme

The winners of the 2020 edition, recently selected by a jury of 14 French innovation experts and members of 6 American regional committees, will participate in a personalized program, divided into two distinct phases (depending on the evolution of the global health situation, of course):

• June 24 and 25, 2020: organization of an intensive training seminar on the approach to North American markets. Composed of workshops, pitches and presentations by French and American innovation experts, the aim is to enable French entrepreneurs to better understand the specificities of North American innovative ecosystems and to prepare their immersion in the United States,
• Autumn 2020: programming of an immersion stay in the United States, designed in the form of workshops and seminars. Its advantages: to allow selected French entrepreneurs to confront their business models with the realities of North American markets, to meet the key players in their field of activity and to take part in various events that enhance the value of their projects.

New extensions

Since 2010, the Scientific Service of the French Embassy in the United States has accompanied more than 130 start-ups in the different North American ecosystems.
Each laureate has obtained about ten individualized appointments with potential partners, participated in numerous workshops and was presented to the large network of the French Embassy in the United States.

After extending the NETVA program to the innovation ecosystems of Houston and Chicago in 2019, the program opens this year to the Los Angeles and Southern California innovation ecosystems.

Translated from Deeptech North America – NETVA’20 : 14 start-up deeptech françaises innovantes ont été sélectionnées