In Paris, the 6th edition of Vivatech, a major international event for innovation and digital technology, just opened. There are more than 400 startups from around the world here to showcase their latest innovations.
Vivatech and the IFC launched the Africa Tech Awards this year in partnership. Three African startups were honored with the award.
In the face of global warming, Africa is receiving more and more attention. According to Karen Bosman, strategic advisor to Wesgro, the official tourism, trade, and investment promotion agency for Cape Town and the Western Cape region, the continent is poised for significant growth.
“It has been the main driver of foreign direct investment over the past ten years. Green-tech has attracted the most foreign investment and it’s only just begun.
We are heading towards a world of green hydrogen and I think if Africa is able to harness it, it has everything to gain and it is an incredible opportunity”, said the advisor. Digital innovation has a cost, especially when it comes to the energy transition.
For Maurice Lévy, director of Publicis Groupe and co-founder of Vivatech, it is up to Africans to take their destiny into their own hands.
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“We need billionaires and the powerful in Africa to start investing in African startups. It’s up to them to do the job. And I call on them to do so! It’s in Africa’s interest, it’s in startups’ interest and it’s in their own interest”, concluded Lévy.
In the age of the “cloud” and “almost everything” digital, the location of the infrastructure that stores and processes millions of gigabytes of data are a strategic issue.
Some countries are raising the issue of digital sovereignty. Countries like the DRC, which has just launched a call for tenders for the construction of their own data centre.
“Creating data is one thing, but being in control of this data is another,” explains Eberand Kolongele, DRC’s digital minister. “And to be in control of this data today, you need to have infrastructures that can ensure the storage but also the sharing of this data. I think that our African countries, in particular the DRC, have taken the measure to ensure this digital sovereignty by setting up its own infrastructures which are housed on its soil, on its territory and which are controlled by its own engineers”.
Investments in African startups reached nearly $5 billion in 2021, twice as much as in 2020. The trend is not about to stop since, in 2022, African tech has already raised over a billion dollars.
The Green Theme
VivaTech has this year launched six themes: The Race to Net Zero Emissions, The Mobility Rebound, Future of Work, and Inclusion is a Mindset, Tech on the Edge and Web3. Two of those themes stand out this year, said Julie Ranty, Managing Director of VivaTech.
“The first theme is the topic of the environment and how tech is a vehicle for preserving our planet and reducing carbon emissions,” she told Euronews Next.
“It goes through topics like energy, CO2 recycling, changing production methods in agriculture, growing crops or preserving biodiversity, sponge farming. Honestly, we see that tech, and innovation, bring answers to all environmental issues”.
“I am convinced, and I see it every day in my work, that startups are the bearers of solutions, and technology is the most formidable lever, both in developing radical innovations and in offering solutions to help change habits, to respond to the most important challenges of these times”.
About Vivatech
Viva Technology, or VivaTech, is an annual technology conference, dedicated to innovation and startups, held in Paris, France. VivaTech was founded in 2016 by Publicis Groupe and Groupe Les Echos.
The first two days of VivaTech are for startups, investors, executives, students and academics, and it is open to the general public on the third day.
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The first year of VivaTech was held from 30 June to 2 July 2016 in Paris and gathered 45,000 visitors including 5,000 startup companies. In 2017, VivaTech was held at the Paris expo Porte de Versailles from 14 to 16 June in Paris. In attendance were 6,000 startup firms, 1,400 investors, and 1,500 journalists. French President Emmanuel Macron delivered the keynote address and announced the creation of a 10-billion Euro fund for innovation and the launch of a French technology visa for international entrepreneurs.
One thousand startups were exhibited in 20 open innovation “labs” sponsored by corporate groups (AccorHotels, Air France, KLM, Airbus, BNPP, La Poste, Cisco, Engie, Carrefour, LVMH, RATP Group, SNCF, Sodexo, Sanofi, Orange, TF1, Talan, Pari mutuel urbain, Vinci Energies, Valeo).
Speakers including Eric Schmidt, Daniel Zhang and John Collison were also in attendance. In 2018, VivaTech took place from 24 to 26 May in Paris. Over 100,000 visitors and over 300 speakers attended the third edition of the event including Mark Zuckerberg, Satya Nadella, Dara Khosrowshahi, Ginni Rometty, Chuck Robbins and Bill McDermott.
French President Emmanuel Macron returned to VivaTech in 2018 and announced that the French government will launch an R900 million programme aimed at investing in African startups.
A partnership was established with TechCrunch and the Startup Battlefield, a competition for startups where the winners attended the Startup Battlefield finals in San Francisco in September 2018. In 2019, the fourth edition of the event was marked by a trend toward positive innovation (“tech for good”) as well as the presence of 124,000 visitors at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles, on 16 and 17 May for professionals, and on 18 May for the general public.
Nearly 13,000 startups were present, as well as 450 prominent figures from all over the world, such as Jack Ma of Alibaba Group, Justin Trudeau, Olympic medalist Usain Bolt, Holly Ridings of NASA, and Ken Hu of Huawei, Young Sohn of Samsung, John Kerry and Margrethe Vestager.