On September 15, 2020, the Institut Polytechnique de Paris (IP Paris) and HEC Paris announced the creation of Hi! PARIS, an interdisciplinary research and teaching center dedicated to AI and Data Science. Less than 18 months later, the EdTech SaaS company HFactory, developed in the center’s ecosystem, came out of stealth mode at the end of February with the ambition of reviving higher education teaching on Data Science and AI.

The number of French EdTech companies continues to grow: between 2014 and 2017, it increased by 47%, according to a study by Deloitte Digital and Caisse des Dépôts. The distance learning that had to be instituted during the Covid pandemic has further accelerated the creation of these startups and companies that aim at innovative education and training.

HFactory, a start-up developed thanks to the support of Hi!

The Hi! Paris center created by IP Paris and HEC Paris, joined in July 2021 by INRIA, dedicated to Artificial Intelligence and Data Science, supports the emergence of high-potential projects and the development of start-ups, HFactory is one of them. Gaël Richard, Executive Director of Hi! PARIS Center states:

“Hi! PARIS is founded on three pillars: education, research and innovation, and HFactory is ideally positioned at the convergence of these three dimensions. Less than 18 months after the creation of the Center, it is particularly gratifying for us to see such a start-up develop in our ecosystem.”

Inge Kerkloh Devif, Executive Director of the HEC Paris Innovation & Entrepreneurship Center, confirms:

“We are very proud to see our support of HFactory flourish within the Hi! PARIS ecosystem. The Covid-19 pandemic has revealed the need for new pedagogical approaches and innovative learning tools, and we are particularly supportive of start-ups that can make an impact in this area.”

While it is recognized that practice-based methods of teaching AI and data science prevail, teachers and trainers struggle to organize real group projects and hands-on work and thus provide an engaging learning experience.

Based on this observation, HFactory was created to enable educators to create more enjoyable data science and AI learning experiences based on “active learning” through:

• a packaged service for organizing data challenges and hackathons,
• the delivery of the world’s first Learning Content Management System (LCMS) dedicated to data science and AI education.

Both products, which incorporate an integrated Data Science environment, are already actively used by the Hi! PARIS Center and will be available in SaaS mode in the first half of 2022.

Ghislain Mazars, founder and CEO of HFactory, concludes:

“Developing a great product requires close interaction with customers and pilot users, and we were fortunate to have the active support of the Hi! PARIS Center in this phase. We now look forward to continuing and deepening our partnership with the Center, its members and corporate donors, and contributing to the international visibility of Hi! PARIS through our own business development.”

Translated from Lancement d’HFactory, start-up EdTech développée au Centre Hi! PARIS consacré à l’Intelligence Artificielle et à la Science des données