Digital InPulse: Powering Startups in France
At this year's Huawei Connect Europe 2023 in Paris, I had the chance to chat with four previous Digital InPulse winners and learn about their compahies as well as their experience of the contest. But, before checking out the videos below, here's a quick intro to what Digital InPulse is all about.
What is Digital InPulse?
Driven by the untapped potential of French startups for international development and our committment to supporting innovation on a global scale, Huawei has been organizing the Digital InPulse contest and support program since 2014. To date, we have provided support for 97 startupsEach year, startups in France develop a business proposal based on a specific theme. Entries are then selected and judged by a panel comprising representatives Huawei, incubator partners, and business partners. And each year, the program lands in several French cities to support the development of the innovation ecosystem in different regions. In 2023, the 10th edition of the contest ran in Lille, Nice, Paris, and Strasbourg.
The past three contest themes were #GreenTech in 2021, #Wellness (Health, Sports and More) in 2022, and #ConnectedTerritories in 2023.
What's the selection criteria?
In each city, two startups are selected and they are assessed on:- Relevance to the theme
- Innovation factor
- Business plan quality
- Project maturity
- International development plan
- Presentation quality
Why participate?
The winner and runner-up receive:- 20,000 (2nd prize) and 30,000 (1st prize)
- Support for entering the Asian tech ecosystem, including a business trip to China
- Visibility and networking in Europe through participation in events like VivaTech
Digital InPulse partners
Meet some of the previous winners:
Sporty Peppers
Sporty Peppers Founder and CEO Nathalie Pacquet introduces her company's mobile games, which are based on movement and provide a new way of moving and exercising. Easy, user friendly, and fun, you can play on your smartphone without any accessories!
The Elephant's Children
The Elephant's Children Co-founder Ameli Coulombier explains how the Archistoire platform powers mobile apps based on mixed-reality. These provide a genuinely engaging experience for location-based storytelling. Any organization (that runs, for example, a city, monument, museum, production site, industrial plant, or transportation hub) can create an edutainment experience that shares stories of the location with a given audience.
MOHA
MOHA Co-founder and COO Quentin Rychkewaert explains how MOHA, in partnership with research laboratories, has developed a unique artificial intelligence platform that measures work-related health risks for clients and helps mitigate these by directing them to appropriate solutions.
H24Care
H24CARE Founder and CEO Zahime Rai describes her company's software solution that is designed to reduce the overcrowding of hospital emergency services. The software facilitates triage and offers patients alternative healthcare facilities for rapid treatment based on their specific condition.
A number of other Digital InPulse winners also attended this year's Huawei Connect Europe event:
- Ubudu: provides complete location and distance tracking solutions to improve the efficiency and safety of operations in physical sites, including logistics, manufacturing, hospitals, and restaurants. Features incude asset tracking, geofencing, flow analytics, and wayfinding.
- HD Rain: offers high-res rain measurements and forecasts based on low-cost innovative tech, and offers subscriptions to its services for economic activities that may be affected by the weather.
- TomoGrow: effortlessly transforms fresh produce distributors into producers by creating vertical trusses tha can be deployed in convenience stores. This eliminates the need for the transportation and storage of fresh produce (which causes damage and loss) by shifting production in-store thanks to a network of smart, connected, and autonomous microfarms.
Disclaimer: Any views and/or opinions expressed in this post by individual authors or contributors are their personal views and/or opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views and/or opinions of Huawei Technologies.
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