sophia business angels international venture academy and

VA Info pack 07042017 Sophia Business Angels - Proprietary and Confidential 1

Sophia Business Angels

International Venture Academy

and Coaching Day

7th April 2017


TABLE OF CONTENTS

Program .................................................................................................... 4

Company Profiles....................................................................................... 7

BEESHARY ................................................................................................................................................................................ 7 BOBBLY ................................................................................................................................................................................. 10 CARCOOL............................................................................................................................................................................... 13 COMTE DE GRASSE................................................................................................................................................................... 17 ELLWEE ................................................................................................................................................................................. 21 HEYDAY ................................................................................................................................................................................ 23 HYSEAS ................................................................................................................................................................................. 25 OPSEEKER .............................................................................................................................................................................. 27 ULTRAPROD ........................................................................................................................................................................... 31 WELLBACK ............................................................................................................................................................................. 35

Key note Speakers ................................................................................... 37

W.GROVER COORS .................................................................................................................................................................. 37 DEREK TAM............................................................................................................................................................................ 38

Judges & Coaches .................................................................................... 39

SOFIANE AMMAR .................................................................................................................................................................... 39 ALASTAIR AMSTRONG ............................................................................................................................................................... 40 FABIEN ASTIC ......................................................................................................................................................................... 41 JEAN-LOUIS BRELET.................................................................................................................................................................. 41 ORIANE BURLAT ...................................................................................................................................................................... 42 MOHAMED CHARIFI ................................................................................................................................................................. 42 JEROME CHIFFLET .................................................................................................................................................................... 43 PHILIPPE CLAUD ...................................................................................................................................................................... 43 ERIC COKINI ........................................................................................................................................................................... 44 RANI DANG ............................................................................................................................................................................ 45 EDGARDO DA FONSECA ............................................................................................................................................................. 46 DANIEL DEGANUTTI.................................................................................................................................................................. 47 GERALD DELPLACE ................................................................................................................................................................... 47 MARCEL DRIDJE ...................................................................................................................................................................... 48 TIM ELLIS .............................................................................................................................................................................. 49


LAETITIA ESTROSI-SCHRAMM ...................................................................................................................................................... 49 LEONARD FERTIG ..................................................................................................................................................................... 50 BURTON GINTELL..................................................................................................................................................................... 51 MIKE HESSABI ........................................................................................................................................................................ 52 CANDACE JOHNSON ................................................................................................................................................................. 53 MARTIN JOHNSON ................................................................................................................................................................... 54 PATRICK KEDZIORA................................................................................................................................................................... 55 SOREN KOFOED ....................................................................................................................................................................... 55 MARC LATOUCHE .................................................................................................................................................................... 56 JOHN LEONHARDT.................................................................................................................................................................... 57 ALICE MERCIER ....................................................................................................................................................................... 58 ANDRE NIZNIK ........................................................................................................................................................................ 59 LAURENT PATY ........................................................................................................................................................................ 60 CHRISTOPHE PEREZ .................................................................................................................................................................. 61 ANNIE PROD’HOMME ............................................................................................................................................................... 62 FRANÇOIS ROUXEL ................................................................................................................................................................... 63 LAURENT SAMAMA .................................................................................................................................................................. 63 FRANZ STEENBRUGGE ............................................................................................................................................................... 64 CATHERINE TAUPIAC................................................................................................................................................................. 64 DENIS VINCENT ....................................................................................................................................................................... 65 GIACOMO VIVANTE .................................................................................................................................................................. 65


Program

Sophia Business Angels Spring Entrepreneurship Venture Academy

Coaching Day for Investment Readiness

Venture Academy Agenda

8.00am

Welcome Coffee

8.30am Registration

9.00am 9.05 am

Welcome & Introduction by Chairman Key note speech by Derek Tam « Sheeps and why we are afraid of them… a day in the life of a cyberchondriac."

9.35am 5 Entrepreneurs & Companies Presentations

Each Entrepreneur makes a 7 minute presentation to introduce the company and its fundraising objectives. SBA coaches and experts provide feedback on the strengths and improvement areas needed for investment readiness.

10.45am 11.00am 11.15am

Coffee Break Presentation of The Camp Accelerator by Sofiane Ammar 5 Entrepreneurs & Companies Presentations

12.00am Individual Coaching Sessions Assigned coaches work with entrepreneurs to facilitate improvements to the pitching presentation, focused on the investment readiness and provide feedback on the proposition, idea and business plan.

12.15am Buffet Lunch and coaching


2.00pm

Keynote Speech by W. Grover Coors « Investment in disruptive technologies – Transistors to Hydrogen Fuel Cells »

2.30pm

Final Competition 10 Entrepreneurs & Companies presentations Each entrepreneur makes a second 7 minute presentation. Coaches and judges score each presentation and decide on the investment readiness

4.00pm

Coffee Break

4.15pm A panel of judges convene behind closed doors and score each of the presentations

There are four prizes: - Best Final Presentation - Best Improved Presentation - Most Investable Company - Best Team

5.00pm Winning Companies Announced « Closing « What Happens Next » ?

5.15 pm COCKTAIL


Michael Rogosin Memorial Prize for the Most Investible Team

Sophia Business Angels International Venture Academy

10 October 2014, Sophia Antipolis: Long-time Sophia Business Angels member, Michael Rogosin co-conceived what has now become the signature event for the SBA, the International Venture Academy together with SBA Members Karen Thomas, Burton Gintell, Annie Prod’homme, Michel Bernasconi, and Marilyn Davison in 2007.

Mike Rogosin’s strong commitment the importance of the team, strongly influenced his teaching at SKEMA and EDHEC and the many entrepreneurs he coached and mentored throughout his years in Sophia Antipolis.

His own experience as a Participant and Team Leader was influenced by his MBA studies at Wharton Business School and shaped in practice by his early career at Digital Equipment Corporation.

As Mike’s career moved to working with small entrepreneurial start up companies and teaching, his dedication to insuring excellent team work was the key driving force or fils rouge of his management model in practice. He believed that teams could be both innovative and productive while holding to the highest moral and ethical standards.

It is with this background and in his memory and honor that his wife and long time SBA Member Marilyn Davison together with the SBA Members are pleased today to inaugurate the Michael Rogosin Memorial prize for the Most Investible Team to be awarded at the Sophia Business Angels International Venture Academies.

Note: if there is not a most investible team as noted by the judges, the prize will not be given.

It will be a cash award of 250 euros


Company Profiles

Beeshary Venture / Company Name & website

Compagny: LaRuche France, Brand: BeeShary. WebSite: www.beeshary.com

Registered HQ City, Country

La Garde-Freinet, France

Presenter name, role & email

Clara Baglione, Co-founder and CEO. [email protected]

Insert Presenter Photo here

One line description of your company

BeeShary helps curious locals and travellers to discover truly regional crafts, art and delicacies through an online marketplace and real-life experiences.

The business activity that you require funding for

Product development, scale up, marketing & communication, commercial.

Investor Proposition

Amount of capital being sought: 300 000 euros Type of investors sought: Business angels. Exit strategy: 6 years. Equity proposition: 20%


Product / Service differentiation or advantage

First, we offer craftsmen and producers an easy-to-use online marketplace. They can focus on their passion while we take care of their online business. We charge a fee for providing the technical infrastructure and a commission on their online sales. Second, we offer travellers and locals a platform to discover real-life workshops with our partner craftsmen and producers. All workshops are 100% for free. We make money with the follow up sales. BeeShary is an absolutely new and innovative concept of getting to know a local region and its culture. We offer unique experiences to travellers and locals which can only be discovered on our platform. Furthermore, we are the only marketplace where you can find the selection of local products that we offer. We secure this advantage through very personal relationships with our producers and purposefully very low commissions.

Stage of your venture Beta product. List current & pipelined customers

SEO/SEA, Community management, Facebook Add, affiliation, forum. Currently 550 customers.

List current & planned partnerships

Chambre des métier et de l’artisanat, Chambre de l’agriculture, Offices du toursimes, Guide Michelin, Mon plan voyage, Hypee communication, Savac Voyage.

Target market & strategy In France there are 500,000+ local craftsmen and producers. The majority is male and 45 years or older.They all live for their passion but are digitally unfit. The curious travellers are 30-45 years old, digitally fit, seek for intercultural exchange and authentic experiences while travelling. The loca-consumers value ocality and are willing to spend extra money for consuming organic, high quality products when they can purchase it at the source.

Summarise your competitive environment

On the marketplace side our main competitors are ETSY and ALittleMarket. They have an established community of sellers. However, they are very product-centric and neglect the consumer’s demand for cultural exchange with the producers. On the travel side, we compete against Airbnb’s new service ‘Trips’. They have a large traveller audience and a strong brand in place but the service is very costly. It also lacks the unique touch which we provide.


Top Achievements to date

105 locals craftsmen and producers – 550 curious travelers customers

Management team and any existing Board members

Clara Baglione CEO and Co-founder Houda Behidji Co-founder and communication and marketing manager Nathalie Wainmain – associate and product manager Nathalie Saulnier - associate Romain Chavigny – Web Developer Maxime Margalet- Intern Business Developer

Prior Investment Rounds

Round Date Stage Financing Valuation Bootsraping 01/01/17 Seed 58Keuros -

Shareholders & % Holdings

Clara Baglione: 67.5% Houda Behidji: 22.5% Nathalie Wainman: 5% Nathalie Saulnier: 5%

Key Financial Performance & Projections Financial Year Beg/End: WARNING: Those numbers are currently in the hands of KPMG in order to be verified. 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 Revenue

34129

207462

582108

1602417

2982128

EBIT - - - - - # Employees

4 11 15 19 21


Bobbly Venture / Company Name & website

Bobbli www.bobbli.com


Currently in Tunis, Tunisia. Moving to France or US shortly (being studied)

Presenter name, role & email Zied Jallouli CEO [email protected]

Insert Presenter Photo here


Instantly discover and buy products you see in film and TV.


Marketing Business Development Optimization Features Development

Investor Proposition Amount of capital being sought: 600K EUR Type of investors sought: BA Exit strategy: IPO or acquisition by Media Entertainment Group/E-commerce/Advertising corporation Equity proposition: 20%


Products: - The App (ios) allows users to instantly discover and buy products they

see in film and TV. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3mcHTH12aY&feature=youtu.be Users can shake their phones and save the tagged frame from the scene they like and discover products later or push a button a get tagged frames that are synchronized with the video. Other features are available too.


- Website

- CMS allows the video treatment and metadata management. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3mcHTH12aY&feature=youtu.be Competitive advantage:

- Non-invasive experience for users (Pull instead of push) - “Shareablity” of our format - Cost structure and business model - Patent

Stage of your venture Pre-launch List current & pipelined customers

At this stage mainly ecommerce APIs (Amazon-Ebay-Yoox-Lyst…)


Hollywood Studio Product Placement Company

Target market & strategy

USA Population: Female 18-45 - Urban - Fashion Lovers - High spenders Content: - Premium - Episodic (focus on series) - High commercial potential Go to market: Hyper targeted advertising (Custom ads) Promotion from media partners ASO/Community management

Summarize your competitive environment

Many attempts have been made to solve this problem but no solution has succeeded to deliver the right user experience with the right business model and scalability. Delivery Agent The take Tagflix Spylight


Accelerated in San Francisco Supported by Microsoft French Tech Ticket Winner Working product In discussion with a leading Hollywood Studio and product placement company.


Zied Jallouli: CEO Zied Ben Salem: Lead Mobile Mohamed Hamroun: Lead Web PT, Nihel Gargouri: Metadata Management Advisors: Thomas Adner, Aurore Belfrage (EQT Ventures), Mondher Ben Hamida (Apple), Microsoft 4Africa, Patricia GANGUZZA Aim Productions Inc…


Note: Previous rounds have been raised in Tunisia (valuations and costs have to be taken into account, exchange rate has changed quite significantly) Round Date Stage Financing Valuation 1 07/2013 Pre-seed 25K € 125K € 2 01/2015 Seed 105K € 550K €


Other “CCA” and grants.


Current

Name Nationality Represented by Ownership % Zied Jallouli Tunisian 47.04

Leila Aouichri Tunisian 19

Carl Thomas Adner Swedish 7.93

Therese Adner Swedish 7.93

Francesco Prono Italien 1.59 Ewald Hubèrt Bos Dutch 14.28 Marc Béatrix French 0.56

Sis&Me Invest AB Swedish Aurore Belfrage 1.67

100

Key Financial Performance & Projections Financial Year Beg/End: 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 Revenue 0 0 0 $66,268

$6,416,785

$93,351,334

EBIT -$376,126

$4,505,589 $82,923,464

# Employees

3 6 4 18 40 60


Carcool Venture / Company Name & website

Carcool LATAM SAC We are a mobility software company with two apps in the market. Carcool (www.carcool.pe) Colectivo (www.colectivoapp.com) The Carcool app is targeted at students, safely sharing rides in a common, trusted, community. Colectivo is targeted at people who work inside Lima city, but live outside the city and share a common destination. Both share the same principles of being the best at matching drivers and riders at the best prices. The Carcool app was developed first. Using the same algorithm and infrastructure, we repurposed it to develop Colectivo.


Lima, Peru.


Jose De la Fuente, CEO [email protected]


We build ride-sharing software, conveniently matching riders with drivers in a safe environment at a lower cost than alternative methods.



Marketing to grow the user base and scaling up our operations. The social nature of our SW means we have millions of potential users. We use both traditional and digital marketing tactics to increase awareness. We plan to take our business model to big cities in Peru (Arequipa and Trujillo) and Colombia (Bogota and Medellin) Due to continuous user feedback, we update the products every two weeks.

Investor Proposition Amount of capital being sought: $300,000 Type of investors sought: Smart money (angel money; angel experience and coaching). Eventually, we plan to pursue VC investments. Exit strategy: Bought by BlaBlaCar, Lyft, Uber, Waze, Easy Taxi (we have LATAM secret sauce) Equity proposition: 20% Convertible Note


Carcool: There are numerous apps out there that let people share a ride, but being in a dangerous country like Peru (like all developing countries) that's not necessarily safe. That’s why we developed an app which can only pair you with people you work or study with at the same workplace/campus and thereby share a ride with someone you can trust.

Colectivo: Based on the Carcool technology, Colectivo is an app for chargeable rides. Focused on working with numerous vans and cabs (all of them previously registered with us for security reasons) that are assigned to popular routes ready to be shared with people using Colectivo. The volume of traffic in Lima and overpopulation are big problems; we also have a lot of empty cars and a lot of people unable to reach their destination in a fast, cheap and secure way. The solution is to pair the people with an empty vehicle with customers who might share a common destination. This is also eco-friendly.

Stage of your venture Carcool Status: The Carcool 2.0 is already on the market and we are on the last phase of development for 3.0, which brings a new interface and lots of new features. It’s ready for pre-launch. We are always improving our existing products while doing a lot of market research and focus groups. Colectivo Status: Post launch with paying customers and working as a service with numerous improvements on the pipeline.


List current & pipelined customers

Carcool:

Our pipeline customers are the young adults studying on the numerous universities across the country, we already have signed arrangements with the most populated campuses on Peru.

The scope on the student population in Peru is over 900,000 and growing fast. Once we start to bring enterprises to the Carcool network, we will expand our customer base to a great percentage of the adult working population. Colectivo: Our focus is the people who work in the Business District, but live outside the city. Our routes reflect that. At least half the people who work in the Business Districts live outside the city and they struggle to find good transport to and from work. This is a market of about 4.5 million potential customers.


Carcool Current Partnerships: Pontifícia Universidad Católica del Perú (50,000 potential users) Universidad de Lima(15,000 potential users) Universidad Católica de San Pablo (6,000 potential users) Universidad San Ignasio de Loyola (15,000 potential users) All of them are universities with partnerships with us who will embrace Carcool and encourage their students to travel using the app. Carcool planned partnerships: Universidad Cesar Vallejo (64,000 potential customers) Universidad Ricardo Palma (15,000 potential customers) Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos (30,000 customers) Universidad San Martín (60,000 potential customers) Colectivo planned partnerships: Grifo Primax Grifo Repsol These are the largest gas station chains across Peru. We propose to give our drivers discount gas and our users a discount in their shops. Faga Motors Faga is one of the biggest Chinese car retailers in the country and they are willing to provide vehicles to increase our fleet.

Target market & strategy Carcool:


Our target market is the young adults who need a cheap, fast and secure ride to go home. Our focus currently lies on the university students but we are planning to expand to enterprises so people can travel with their co-workers with the same benefits as the university students.

We already made a launch plan with YouTubers promoting the apps. We also have universities encouraging their students to use Carcool and numerous activities and events inside the campuses to install Carcool on the student phones.

Colectivo: Our target is the people who works on Lima but live outside the city, Lima’s population is outnumbered by the people who lives outside the city, that’s why the market is so big and there is a need for it to be secure. We have existing routes and we plan to expand our fleet to cover the demand. After that we plan to cover other popular routes across the city.


Carcool: It is the first in its class on the country, while other cab companies like Uber and Easy Taxi dominate the taxi industry, they can’t offer the benefits and price that Carcool does. Colectivo: Uber and Easy Taxi, but the pricing is 6x and they cannot offer the security measures of Colectivo.

Top Achievements to date Test with real users; MVP tested; Monetization Agreements with strategic companies.


CEO: Jose de la Fuente (7 years startup experience) CTO: Sandro Jurado (15 years experience, with previous startup experience) Marketing and Communication: David Ramirez (previous startup experience) Board members: Giancarlo Falconi, former Head of Acceleration of Wayra Peru (Telefonica) Kurt Junek, CEO of TCONTAKTO and MK Business) Amaru Aranda, CFO of HIBU Javier Albarracin, CEO of Quantico Trends



Round Date Stage Financing Valuation Discovery 12/2015 Develop MVP USD 15,000 Convertible Note USD 1m Seed 04/2016 launch and test USD 75,000 USD 500,000


Jose de la Fuente 70% Giancarlo Falconi 17% Kurt Junek 10% Javier Albarracin 2% Amaru Aranda 1%

Key Financial Performance & Projections Financial Year Beg/End: 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 Revenue 0 $300,0

00 $3,000,000

$8,000,000

$29,000,000

$50,000,000

EBIT 0 -100,000

40,000 500,000 2,100,000 4,000,000

# Employees

6 12 18 24 35 40

Comte de Grasse Venture / Company Name & website

Comte De Grasse SAS www.comtedegrasse.com (site under development)


Grasse , France


Bhagath Reddy, Founder, [email protected] Alex Poblah, President, [email protected]


Luxury Distillery focused on creating the world’s most intriguing and authentic portfolio of spirts (gin, rum, blended whiskey and single malt whiskey) through innovative technology sharing from Grasse perfume industry and heritage.

The business activity that

Product Manufacturing: The developmental life of the project is divided into 3 stages spanning 0 – 36 months PHASE 1:- Gin & Rum Development and Implementation of production site ( 0 – 9 months)


you require funding for

PHASE 2 :- Whiskey Development & Rest of Europe Phase (10- 24 months) PHASE 3:- US and Expansion Phase (25- 36 months) The current round of funding is to support our financial needs through Phase 1 of the project.

Investor Proposition

Amount of capital being sought: - Euro 500,0000 Type of investors sought:- Business Angels


Our Value Proposition: We will deliver a superior product and brand experience in our range of 4 distinct spirits made from a combination of tangible innovation and tradition. The Grasse perfume distilling heritage will make for a compelling storyline to complete the overall value proposition cycle Competitive advantages

Innovation and fresh storyline in a relatively predictable market. Superior Product, extract flavours at lower temperatures using technology from perfume to enhance the palate and taste

of the product without compromising on the texture and mouth High quality raw materials. Exclusive source of fresh spring water, Gourdon. Consistent innovation to retain consumer interests

Diverse and Capable Team

Stage of your venture

R&D status and plan

Micro feasibility test completed, proof of concept at a theoretical level. Product development started in March 2017.


None Yet


Industry collaboration and partners University of Nice, Sophia Antipolis: Public Research Laboratory, we have partnered together for innovation of perfume

technology into spirits. BPI, France: We have successfully applied and secured the ‘Bourse French Tech Emergence’ grant for Euro 35,000 from

BPI France. We have also submitted our application for “L'Aide pour le Développement de l'Innovation”.

Bhagath Reddy, Indian, Principal promoter Corporate Merchandising and brand building background, with experience in launching luxury fashion brands in new markets and sustaining brand equity

Alex Poblah, Parisian, GM Operations Well versed and experienced with the functioning and steps involved of setting up new businesses in France. Alex is an engineer previously having worked with large corporations such as LEONI etc

Henric Molin, Swedish, Product Development MD Spirit of Hven, Chemist and owner of Spirit of Hven distillery in Sweden. Henric also develops recipes for some truly innovative new craft spirits

Scott Allen, Scottish, Technical Design MD Allen Associates, vast technical expertise in distillery design and implementation having worked with the best names in the industry such as LVMH, Pernod Ricard, William Grant & Sons, Seagrams etc

Anurag Malhotra, Indian, International Trade Advisor CEO MANTTRA/ BIG LOTS Co-promoter with varied experience in manufacturing and international trade.

Burton Gintell, New Yorker, Interim Finance Director A veteran of the spirits industry having had his own distillery in Scotland, Burton is now an active member of the Sophia Business Angel group. His core skill set being finance, being a certified accountant himself as well as being the former CFO of a NYSE listed wine and spirits group


Tournaire: Grasse based manufacturer of perfume distilling equipment and ancillaries. Close collaboration between Henric, Scott and Tournaire to develop equipment.

Spill.Net: Paris based brand building company which specializes in 360 degrees luxury brands including visual, packaging and digital content. Allen Associates: Stirling, Scotland based technical design company specializing in distillery design and consultancy services

for major spirit companies like LVMH, William Grant & Sons, Beam Suntory etc. Spirit of Hven: Swedish product development and testing laboratory specializing in spirits and alcoholic beverages. Team Cote d Azur: Instrumental in building connections and facilitate implantation especially through seed phase. Incubator PACA Est: Guiding us through localization, familiarize ourselves with the local eco system, human

resource and building and effective and sustainable business. City of Grasse:- We have secured the support of the Mayor of Grasse and his office for the successful

implementation of the project. GREDEG: Academic research partnership with GREDEG to study the implantation of the project into the local

ecosystem. Credit Agricole: is our official banking partner, we have opened the company account with them. Vaughan Avocats: Our legal advisor is Pierre Callede Agence Greismar: Architecture and structural work for the building.

Target market & strategy

Market Positioning: Above Premium to Luxury category spirits. Retail Price starting from Euro 55 for the Rum and Blended whisky, Euro 60 – 65 for the gin and Euro 120 – 175 for the Single Malt. Target Consumers: Global Clientele of successful professionals and connoisseurs of spirits. They are deal-seeking men and women, brand promiscuous, focused on pre-store online content and demand relevant and engaging stories. The best growth markets for premium spirits in 2015/16 were reported as the US at 8.6%, the UK at 11.6%, Canada at 8.2%, France at 10.7% and Australia at 11%.


Current • IWSR reports establishes the Global spirit market valued at USD 250 B in sales or 2.8 B cases (12 bottles of

75cl per case) in volume, In total spirit sales have been relatively flat for most part of the past decade • Quality perception is a key element for major companies.

Prevalent Trends • Premium Segment has grown 10X compared to standard, with luxury and above premium being the key

growth driver. Europe and US are the largest premium markets. Demand for premium products is growing in emerging countries. Definitive trend towards “Quality over Quantity” among consumers. The advent of women consumers in the last decade has added another dimension. Forecast

• Innovation and premiumisation, through the advent of many craft / premium distillers who have brought with them product diversity. Product experience and focus on provenance.

• Bar diversity, cocktail culture and Mixology, bars are now social melting points and form the basis for the modern professional’s social calendar. Whisky, Rum and Gin are forecasted to be the fastest growing segments within spirits, while vodka is projected to decline as the favoured white spirit.


Formed a company in Grasse with substantial French regional partners for production and marketing luxury spirits Assembled diverse and capable team In advanced negotiations for acquisition of distillery building with co-operation from the city of Grasse Raised substantial seed round of private financing, supplemented by regional public funding.



Bhagath Reddy (India, Vice President), Alex Poblah (France, Interim CEO), Henric Molin (Sweden), Scott Allen (Scotland), Burton Gintell (USA, Interim Finance Director).


Round Date Stage Financing Valuation Comments 1 Dec-16 Formation € 1,000 Initial capitalisation while registering the company

2 Dec-16 Seed € 500,000

Seed round funding through personal, family and friends. The capital raised will be available in 3 tranches 1. €100,000 week 1 April 2017 2. €200,000 week 4 April 2017 3. €200,000 mid May 2017 The reason for the division of seed funds is due to the complexities in expatriating funds from India and Indian regulations. The 3 seed fund investors Bhagath Reddy, Pooja Reddy and Anurag Malhotra are all Indian nationals.

3 Dec-16 Public Funds € 35,000 BPI - Bourse French Tech Emergence grant


Current

1. Bhagath Reddy 94% 2. Alex Poblah 4% 3. Burton Gintell 2%

Key Financial Performance & Projections Financial Year Beg/End: Jan - dec REVENUE

All Values in € Euro / Case 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021

Gin € 420 63,000 1,155,000 2,520,000 4,200,000 6,020,000 Rum € 360 36,000 990,000 2,160,000 3,600,000 5,160,000 Blended Whiskey € 300 0 450,000 1,500,000 3,000,000 4,300,000

Single Malt € 900 0 0 0 0 0

Total Sales (excl TVA) 99,000 2,595,000 6,180,000 10,800,000 15,480,000

After All Members are incorporated – April 2017 1. Bhagath Reddy 62% 2. Alex Poblah 5% 3. Burton Gintell 2% 4. Anurag Malhotra, Indian – 8% 5. Pooja Reddy, Indian – 8% 6. Scott Allen, Scotland - 5% 7. Henric Molin, Sweden – 5% 8. Spill.Net, Paris – 5%


EBIT (1,225,821) (2,123,762) (1,167,218) 329,388 2,725,329

Employees Year 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 Employees 8 17 23 27 30

Ellwee

Venture / Company Name & website

ELLWEE Swedish Electric Vehicles AB www.ellwee.com


Trollhättan, SWEDEN


Mathias Lindmark (Founder & CMO) or Tomas S. Jonsson (CFO, supply chain manager)


ELLWEE by SWEDEN - an Electric Multi Purpose Vehicle ideal for sports and outdoors activities (golf and adventure organizers), personal transportation (especially 55+ citizens in e.g. Florida) and professional utility (logistics centres, warehouses, hotel resorts, airports, and hospitals). Made and manufactured in Sweden.


The capital will be used to ensure efficient manufacturing processes, distribution and logistics, marketing, and to cover type approval costs.

Investor Proposition In 2017 ELLWEE is looking to raise €800 000. We seek interested investors, especially with experience of the automotive or sports & outdoors industries. The founders and investors aim to achieve an exit through a trade sale to e.g. the large golf cart manufacturers (Club Car, EZ-GO, Yamaha) in 2021. Early customers show high purchasing willingness which validates our sales estimates and a possible 15X return for early-stage investors in 2021.



SPORTS & LEISURE (segment 1) - Golf courses are demanding new customer offerings and quicker golf rounds. ELLWEE lets players play individually and speed up their game. It increases revenues from green fees by up to 50% during peak usage times.

Stage of your venture Ready product, serial manufacturing & paying customers.


Orders from golf course operators in 12 different countries. Live demos booked in 20 countries.


ELLWEE's worldwide distribution agreement with Range Servant AB gives access to 30 countries (USA, Europe, Asia, South Africa, and more) and 5000 golf courses. Manufacturing partnerships with T-Engineering, a globally recognized automotive manufacturer; APP Models, whose clients include, amongst others, Volvo; Zeus Twelwe; Cabeco, Gibo Plast, and Cliff Models.

Target market & strategy ELLWEE will sell to golf course operators and offer different financing solutions (purchase, lease, rental) and aftermarket services - all organized by Range Servant and its retail network. For segments 2 and 3, ELLWEE will make deals with separate international distributors.


Annual global golf cart sales represent 200 000 units and $2bn revenue. Golf carts have looked the same for 40+ years, so golf courses are demanding new vehicles. First mover advantage - right now ELLWEE is the only company offering a four-wheel electric scooter, and our competitive advantages are: a ready product and scalable distribution channels. We will sustain the competitive edge with: IPR (patent pending), modern design, Swedish reputation for quality, brand building, new accessories, more distribution deals, ELLWEE Mark II by 2019, and marketing activities in the golf community.

Top Achievements to date A ready electric vehicle with top quality. Worldwide distribution agreement. Early sales in USA at 150 000 EUR order value.


Viggo Hansson (Founder & CEO); Mathias Lindmark (Co-founder & CMO); Conny Land (CTO, Senior Electrical Engineer); Tomas S. Jonsson (CFO, supply chain), and an experienced Advisory board includes Konrad Bergstrom (Zound Industries) and Anders Eriksson (Business Angel).

Prior Investment Rounds Round Date Stage Financing Valuation 1. 2015 Seed 150K EUR 2. 2016 Early 300K EUR 1,6M EUR



Viggo Hansson (Founder & CEO) 35%, Mathias Lindmark (Founder & CMO) 30%, Anders Eriksson (Business Angel) 10%, several other business angels.

Key Financial Performance & Projections. (EUR) Financial Year End: 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Revenue. 0,0 M 1,0M 6,7M 19,4M 40,7M EBIT. -0,1M -0,4M 0,4M 4,7M 13,0M #Employees 4 6 TBD TBD TBD

Heyday Venture / Company Name & website

Heyday Integrated Circuits


Sophia Antipolis, 06130 Grasse, France


DUIGAN Joseph CEO Heyday IC [email protected]


Concept, design and development of semiconductor products for the high-value sector of the power conversion market.


R&D, Product Manufacturing, scale up, marketing.

Investor Proposition Amount of capital being sought : Total €1.4M. Type of investors sought: Seed/ Angel investment. Exit strategy: Trade Sale/ Earn Out. Equity proposition: Latest Valuation = €2.1M.



Higher performance offering versus all other big player semiconductor competitors at lower cost and reduced material count.

Stage of your venture R&D, Prototype, Beta product – sampling tier #1 international customers in USA, Europe, Japan and China.


Under NDA with the largest semiconductor companies in USA, Japan and Europe.


Under NDA with the largest semiconductor companies in USA, Japan and Europe.

Target market & strategy Licensing/ Acquisition into existing power conversion silicon markets.


Large TAM at $800M/year in 2016 and projected > $1.3Billion/year by 2022.

Top Achievements to date Completed concept, design, development and fabrication of two semiconductor products in Heyday without dilution of Equity. Fabrication implemented in Malaysia. Equity closely held up until now. Discussions opened and in-house demonstration of our products done in 4 tier #1 customer sites.


Joseph Duigan, CEO. Dr. Karl Rinne, CTO. Garry Tomlins, Board member, Marketing and Strategy. Christophe Bianchi, Sales Strategy. George Young, Board of advisors.


Round Date Stage Financing Valuation X X X X X


Joseph Duigan, 70% Karl Rinne, 21% Dermot Dobbyn, 5% Garry Tomlins, 3% Christophe Bianchi, 1%

Key Financial Performance & Projections Financial Year Beg/End:


2014 2015 2016 2017 2018

(€K) 2019 (€K)

2020 (€K)

Revenue 0 0 0 0 120 2000 8050

EBIT 0 0 0 0 (790) 360 4530 # Employees

0 0 2 2 5 8 10

Hyseas Venture / Company Name & website

Hyseas Energy. www.hyseas-energy.com


Cannes, France



Developer of Hydrogen Fuel Cell systems for marine applications.


R&D

Investor Proposition Amount of capital being sought: 1200 K Type of investors sought: Business Angel / Venture capitalist Exit strategy: Equity proposition: Minority shareholder


High powered zero emission technology. Self contained unit, fully packaged and certified for the intended use. Targeted unit MRL of 8 from the onset.

Stage of your venture R&D, Prototype,

Arnaud Vasquez Founding director [email protected]



Bateliers de la Côte D’Azur. Voies Navigables de France. Mothership Yacht transport.


CEA Liten. Green GT. Engie. Areva h2 Gen. CNR.

Target market & strategy Ship construction and refit market small to medium segment. Business case approach whereas technical and economic models will be proven sound via commercially operating demonstrators.


Marine equipment manufacturing sector. No direct competition identified yet although actors like ABB, Siemens, MTU have R&D programs in this field. DCNS in France are closest but with no real deployment strategy.

Top Achievements to date Main technical partner for the build of the first 100% Hydrogen powered passenger ferry in the city of Toulon, France. Supplier of the Marine Fuel Cell unit for a river project in the city of Lyon, France. Subsidies from the French public investment bank (BPI France) for the feasibility studies.


CEO: Arnaud Vasquez. Capt. CSO: T.V.F. PhD (confidential, currently employed in prominent position) CFO: Recruitment underway Consultants team: Scientific: Joel Danroc. PhD. Philippe Samat Legal: Younes Belmhaidi, Yuliya Bayguildina. PhD. Financial: Joanna Licari Communication: Julie Prouvé

Prior Investment Rounds Round Date Stage Financing Valuation X X X X X


Arnaud Vasquez 100%

Key Financial Performance & Projections Financial Year Beg/End: 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019Revenue 0 0

EBIT 0 0 # Employees 1 1


Opseeker Venture / Company Name & website

OpSeeker Tech SL www.opseeker.com/en


Rúa das Hedras 6, Milladoiro, A Coruña, 15702 Spain


Gonzalo Camiña Ceballos, CEO, [email protected]


OpSeeker is the first online independent financial planner.


R&D, Product Manufacturing, scale up, marketing, service development etc

Investor Proposition Amount of capital being sought – 150,000 euros Type of investors sought – Investors willing to be part of a journey to change the financial advice industry once and for all. Exit strategy – Sale to a major corporation in 5-7 years Equity proposition – 20%


The problem is that people cannot find a good financial advisor at an affordable rate, and this is exactly what we can do that no-one else is doing. At the same time most people cannot invest on their own because they lack the time and the knowledge, and they tend to fall prey of their cognitive errors and emotional biases. This is why we are going to focus, using our unique expertise in financial economics, behavioral finance, and technology in


improving, correcting, and adapting the cognitive errors and emotional biases from our users. We are the only ones that are doing this. Our competitive advantage is our first mover advantage and our unique expertise. We are a team of really different individuals from different generations and backgrounds. However, we are working in establishing legal barriers for the companies that will like to use our tools and methodology in their solutions.

Stage of your venture MVP with iterations. Beta product launch for end of April. List current & pipelined customers

We are a B2C company. We have over 500 pre-suscribers for our beta that will launch at the end of next month.


Currently we don´t have any partnerships. We want to stay independent as much as possible, but we do foresee partnerships within the financial advice industry

Target market & strategy Our potential customer has the following characteristics: • Man or woman between 16 and 65 with a stable financial situation, but not

wealthy, and interested to invest, or already invested, in the financial markets. Only in Spain there are currently 18 million people with these characteristics. This number is expected to grow by 3 million in the next 10 years. The average salary has increased since 2010 at an annual rate of 1.36% while the inflation only at 0.6% annually. In the rest of the European countries where our solution will be scaled the numbers are also really promising. If we couple these numbers with the trend in unemployment rates, we can see how our potential customer base is growing at a fast pace. However, our target market is made of the members of the millennial generation. Why? Because 1. Their buying power is growing at the fastest rate of any generation 2. They understand technology 3. They are not scared to purchasing online 4. They are the generation of influencers. They tend to tell the other generations what they should be doing. Millennials are the first generation to grow up constantly connected to the world and demanding digital solutions to their problems. Our proposed investment experience will resonate with them because it has all the characteristics that they want: . Digital . Fast . User-centric . Enriching . Cheap .Cutting edge Millennials are the generation that tends to influence the most friends and family. Since mouth to mouth marketing is the most effective (Nielsen study 2012 stated that 92% of consumers believe more those recommendations that come from family and friends than any other) we believe that targeting the segment of the population that is the best at it is a smart move.


We want to make sure that every person that uses our service becomes an evangelist of the product. If we are able to create the best experience and provide the best value we will be having the best sales & marketing & retention strategy. At this point we have been featured in many news outlets without even having the beta out. We write a blog that got 4th place in the top economics blogs in Spain. We write guest posts in financial blogs that get us quite a bit of traffic. In the moment that we have the appropriate financing we will deploy our full marketing plan which includes: Start paid Adds – Adwords

• Study keywords for Spain and our industry – Smart purchases Create educational videos and start posting them in:

• Full videos for youtube and facebook • Medium length for Linkedin • Short videos for Twitter and Instagram

Start live interviews using Periscope Target Influencers and Specialized Press, and Bloggers aggressively Find parterships with the following entities

• Other fintech companies that can be complementaries to our service • Universities (ESCP, IE, IESE, ESADE, CUNEF, ICADE) • Spanish personalities that do product placement •

Start with limited-time offers: Look for partnerships with big technological companies:

• Telefónica, • Google, Facebook, Twitter • …

We will target the last year undergrad and Masters students. They present a great opportunity since the topic of financial education and financial health is really hot and we will be able to leverage this topic to be able to speak to the students and get them to try OpSeeker. We will also target professional associations that are always looking for ways to give value to their members. For example, the dentist regional associations.



The biggest competitors in the front-end banking associated with advice in long-term investment are the universal big banks, brokers, online banks, roboadvisors... They all have the same problem. They cannot be independent because they all sell products. It is the same than the healthcare industry dozens of years ago when the seller (pharmacist) was the same as the advisor (doctor). We have to separate both jobs, and for this we have OpSeeker


We were selected by ICEX, red.es and the “Secretaría de Estado para la Socidedad de la Información y Agenda Digital” to represent Spain in the Spanish Pabillion at the 4YFN (Mobile World Congress). 4th Place in the bitacoras constest for the best Economics Blog in Spain. We have been selected for the YUZZ Santander program, an incubation program from the Spanish universities and Santander Bank. We have over 500 people subscribed for our beta that will launch in a little over a month. We are in the final stage of the selection process of the accelerator program from Abanca and Conector, Abanca Innova.


At the managing team we have our CEO, Gonzalo Camiña, our CTO, Lucie Hefnerová, our CPO, Carlos Rodriguez, and our Non-Executive Chairman, Carlos Casanueva. Together we add up to over 30 years of experience in the financial sector and over 20 in the technological. We have all worked for big international corporations in the finance and technological world such as Citi, Santander, UBS, Commerzbank, IBM, or Airbus. We want to apply our knowledge.

Prior Investment Rounds Round Date Stage Financing Valuation 0 0 0 0 0


Gonzalo Camiña Ceballos – 26%. Carlos Casanueva Nardiz – 26%. Lucie Hefnerová 24%. Carlos Rodriguez Raposos – 24%.


Key Financial Performance & Projections Financial Year Beg/End: 2017 2018 2019 Revenue 0 32,234 319,891.96

EBIT 22,580 152,173.80 257,800.24 # Employees

0 3 5

UltraProd Venture / Company Name & website

ULTRA PROD http://ultra-prod.com


85 RUE DE CANNES – 06110 LE CANNET NAF 7112B



Mike Castro Demaria CEO [email protected]


ULTRAPROD is a software engineering company in the fields of the information management and the e-business. Its mission is to provide tools and services for communication, management and e-needs. Clients are business compagny and government organizations using open source technologies an SaaS solutions.


Market development / Sales of solutions already developed and sold for e-business and e-health

Investor Proposition Amount of capital being sought: 250 K€ Type of investors sought: Open Exit strategy: To be defined Equity proposition: 25%


E-Business platform: suppliers’ dataflow management with market places

Reliable, simple, flexible, comprehensive, customizable. Already silver partner of Price Minister; Already interfaced with main market places.

E-Health – CPP MGT: Solution developed for the Centres de Protection de la Personne (CPP). CPP are under the control of the French Ministère de la Santé. The solution monitor research and tests done by pharmaceutical laboratories. Already used by Nice CPP will be adopted by the minister to cover the whole French territory (39 CPP).

Stage of your venture post launch & paying customers



E-Business Platform: - SP - Wuaki.tv (VOD groupe Rakuten) - DE - Challenge internet (home devices) - CH - Epokom (IT devices) - FR - Feedub ( media ) - FR - DP Compagny (Adult devices) - FR - Accorda (Music devices) - AN - Exceptio (IT part & tools) - US - NY - Spices and Tease (spices an tea)

E-Health: CPP Nice / Freanch Health Minister


Current : Priceminister Rakuten, Cdiscount, Fnac, Ebay, Pixmania Planned : Prestashop

Target market & strategy E-Business Platform: European market. Closer partnership with Rakuten group and proactive selling. E-Santé: Contract with the French ministry should be signed in April. This contract is the key toward the European market as the control over pharmaceutical developments and tests becomes compulsory for each state of the European Community.


E-Business Platform: Many actors on an expanding market. / E-Santé : SAP or engineering software company

Top Achievements to date Softwares are developed and sold generating recurrent revenues. Management team and any existing Board members

Mike Castro Demaria CEO Laurence Castro Demaria CFO Armand PORTELLI Business development / Finance Nicolas FOURRIER Sales

Prior Investment Rounds Round Date Stage Financing Valuation 1 07/15 55 178 € 995 178€


MIKE CASTRO DEMARIA 89.73% LAURENCE CASTRO DEMARIA

4.72%

ARMAND PORTELLI 2.01% PHILIPPE BELTRAMO 2.01% SMART OBJECTS 1.01% RAPHAEL SOLDINI 0.51%


Key Financial Performance & Projections Financial Year Beg/End:

2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020Revenue 106

592 81 222 96 656 150

000 300 000

500 000

700 000

EBIT 1 848 -30 632

0 20 000 105 000

175 000

245 000

# Employees

2 3 3 3 4 5 6


Wellback


Key note Speakers W.Grover Coors


Derek Tam Derek Tam is a partner at the private equity firm FGN Capital and leads their technology, media, and telecom strategy. FGN Capital often acts as an active investor in their portfolio companies covering Asia, Europe and CIS regions. FGN is staff by a strong team of industry sector experts backed up by a group of international authorities in their respective field of business. FGN helps ideas to evolve into reality; first by identifying viable business concepts and through financial and management support help companies to unlock their potential. FGN Capital holds a broad portfolio recently valued at over US$1B, example includes the Port of Liinahamari, Russia and Novaya Tura –Agro Market in the city of Kazan, Tatarstan, Russian Federation and a number of technology startups in the TMT sectors. Derek is currently driving the development at Confidentia S.A.M., a Cybersecurity specialist organization dedicated to protect the privacy of individuals and businesses around the world. Headquartered in Monaco, and with presence around the globe, Confidentia protects the privacy and reputations of the world’s most successful people with their personal and professional advisors. Derek has over twenty-five years’ experience managing operations worldwide in the technology industry. Before joining FGN Capital in 2008, Derek was the Chief Operations Officer at NeuStar Next Generations Messaging where he was responsible for overall wireless services strategy and global expansion for NeuStar Inc. (NYSE:NSR). Derek oversaw the global deployments of Mobile IM services in over 20 leading mobile network operators, including Vodafone Group, The 3 Group and Telecom Italia. His role in representing NeuStar in industry and standard bodies, such as GSMA, ITU and the IETF, ensured the industry adoption of the NeuStar’s technology solutions. Between 2003 and 2006, Derek was the Chief Technology Officer and Head of Global Operations of Mobile (Sybase) 365, where he led the technology and operations functions. Mobile 365’s Intercarrier network spanned across five continents and had point of presence in more than 30 countries. Mobile 365 was acquired by Sybase (now part of SAP) in an all cash transaction worth US$425m in 2006. Derek holds a Masters Degree in Electronics Engineering from the University of Southampton, England.


Judges & Coaches

Sofiane Ammar Sofiane Ammar spent more than 25 years experience in Telecom, IT and Digital business. He has substantial expertise in building scalable teams and platforms around IT Operations, Cloud and Data. From ISDnet as General Manager Deputy (one of First French ISP's in 2000) to European Vice President InternetProduct and Operation for Cable & Wireless, he also build companies like B3G Telecom and Virtualscale where he created disruptive product and take them to the French market (Voice over ip for SME’s and Big data as a service platforms). He is highly skilled in bringing technology to market maturation and business models related. He’s also an active investor as business angels in several startups since 2003. He’s now head of Valtech Group for Big Data and Cloud services. He holds and Engineering degree from Tunisia University and MBA for Distributed system from DAUPHINE University


Alastair Amstrong Alastair Armstrong is co-founder and Managing Principal of European Sales Partners. He has worked in the IT business for almost 30 years. Alastair is a serial-entrepreneur and has been a Sales leader at many successfully-exited startups including: Nexmo, startup in Cloud Communications, acquired by Vonage in 2016 for $230M (cash & stock) JumpTap, startup in Mobile Advertising and Search, acquired by Millennial Media in 2013 for $209M (stock only) elata, startup in Content Discovery and Download, acquired by Qualcomm in 2005 for $57M (cash only) Alastair loves to work both for and with startups, relishing that high-pressure, do-what-it-takes, pivot-on-a-dime environment. He has also personally built new businesses from scratch in new markets, starting as the “first person on the ground”; most recently in 2010, launching MessageSystems’ European business. From 1997 to 2002, he led innovative business teams at IBM, including leadership of the original Websphere Early Implementation program in Europe from 1997 to 1998 and he was a founder member and a senior manager for their Global Wireless Services division from 1999 onwards. Before working on the business side, Alastair was a Senior Software Development Manager at several startups in Silicon Valley including from 1992-1995 at the legendary Taligent: the IBM / Apple / HP joint venture to challenge Microsoft, where he led their Demonstration Development team and their Technology Partners program. From 1990 to 1992, he was head of Software Development at PLANIT, one of the world’s leading Kitchen Design Firms (acquired by Vero Software in 2011). Alastair is an IBM certified consultant, a bilingual English/French speaker and both a US and a UK national. He received his Diploma in Software Engineering in 1988.


Fabien Astic Fabien is currently Head of EIT Digital Accelerator France, an Institute attached to the European Commission; his mission is to support startups in their development internationally. He is also VP Sales at CVTrust, a startup offering a SaaS solution to grant authenticated digital diplomas. Fabien worked for large corporates Alcatel-Lucent and Technicolor, evolving from Software Developer in Advanced R&D to Program Manager of multi-million euro projects, EMEA Market Development Manager for innovative products, and member of a Sales Operations team at group level. Fabien holds a MBA from INSEAD, a M.Sc. in Engineering from the University of Glasgow, and an engineering degree from Grenoble INP. He likes trekking and discovering new cultures.

Jean-Louis Brelet Jean-Louis' main activities are today start-ups consulting, financial analysis, strategic planning and investments in innovative companies. He is an active business angel and board member of the SBA. He is a founding member of THE197 program (www.the197.com invested in start-ups, launched several Advisory Boards, is member of 3Roam SA (France) Board of Directors and Vice-President of Azure Trend SAS (www.azuretrend.com He has 28 years of experience in the electronic industry. For 10 years, Jean-Louis has been responsible in Europe and Japan, for product definition projects in Xilinx's World Wide marketing division (www.xilinx.com a well-known semi-conductor company leader of programmable devices (FPGA). Jean-Louis has been over 16 years with Xilinx in Sales, Technical Marketing and Strategic Marketing positions based either in France or at the headquarter in California (USA). JeanLouis has an executive MBA from HEC (Paris, France) and a Master Electronic Engineering degree (MSE from ESEO (Angers, France). He owns also as sole inventor, an US patent. Jean-Louis was the President of Sophia Business Angels in 2013-2014.


Oriane Burlat Education : ESEEEC, EMLyon Business School Oriane has been entrepreneur, private equity analyst for Turenne Capital and CM-CIC Investment SCR before joining ACG Management SA in Marseille, which belongs to the regional fund Paca Emergence & R2V). She is in charge of deal flow, due diligences, financial analysis, financial and legal, presentation to the investment committee and reportings.

Mohamed Charifi Mohamed manages the national incubator programm tSTART for july, 2014. He is financial consultant, business angel and active member of CASBAH BUSINESS ANGELS. He has invested into affiliated companies, start ups and commercial real estate, and spends most of his time in mentoring numerous start-ups. Mohamed has a great experience of management and is graduate of Californie-Northridge (finance, USA).


Jérôme Chifflet Jérôme is managing the Screening Committee of Sophia Business Angels. Jérôme Chifflet, is former entrepreneur, researcher, and was acting Head of Access to Finance Activity withinEIT Digital (European Institute of Innovation and Technologytill 2015. He has extensive research background,including over 20 years in various positions Ranging from Orange Labs Research Manager to Deputy Research Director. Jérôme also yelds significant entrepreneurship, expertise, having founded and managed Waidan as CEO from 2000 to 2004. Over the last five years within EIT ICT labs, he acted as Business Development director for France before being appointed to Head Access to finance across Europe.In addition, Jérôme is also member of the Telecom research counciland also member of the editorial board of ICT review.

Philippe Claud Philippe Claud is the head of operations at Pole PASS.Based in Grasse, PASS (Parfums, Arômes, Senteurs, Saveurs), cluster is a Business Competitiveness Cluster and a regional network for innovation and business development. PASS cluster is the number one region in France for the production of aromatic and medicinal plants and groups the densest concentration in France and Europe of companies specialising in aromatic ingredients - including the world leaders in the sector which account for 811% of worldwide turnover of this industry. PASS cluster aims to become a benchmark international cluster for the characterization, assessment and production of natural extracts and to foster more sustainable and responsible practices. To assist its members boost their innovation and growth, the PASS Cluster implements joint R&D missions, group projects, pooled services, and sets up key technology platforms At the head of the operational team, Philippe Claud PhD in pharmaceutical industry and a Master Degree in management, is responsible for deploying strategic decisions of the governance, helping to set up projects, and being a driving force out in the field.


Eric Cokini Eric is a highly qualified Executive Manager & Entrepreneur offering 30 years of international experience in Business Development, Sales & Marketing, Project Management in Africa, Europe and CIS countries. He has a specific ability to understand, improve and bring to the market companies, products & solutions in several fields. After almost a decade with Apple Computer on three continents, facing a wide range of opportunities in this post-soviet area, Eric decided in 1994 to create his own company to support French Industry exports and invest in various fields of activities in Central Asia, acting as importer/exporter, distributor, retailer, agent, trader and project manager in luxury, commodities, transport/logistics, consumer goods, construction, services, agriculture, water and energy sectors. Eric also volunteered in humanitarian aid and created the first French school in Central Asia. Since 2012, Eric has joined Sophia Antipolis innovative ecosystem, runs as co-President the Sophia Business Angels Club and is Vice-President of the Club de Nice Energy & Geopolitics (founded by Academy of Sciences of Russia, CIFE and Nice City). Eric created in December 2016 Ynnova, an economical international accelerator for start-ups and traditional SMEs to promote innovation. . Eric is a native speaker in French, fluent in English and Russian, holds a Master degree in Finance (HEC, Jouy en Josas) and was promoted “Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mérite of France” in February 2011.


Rani Dang

Rani Dang is Associate Professor in Management at University Côte d’Azur and researcher at CNRS, France (GREDEG),and coordinator of the Master’s degree in Management & Economics of territories (MET) a formation focused onTerritorial Innovation and Entrepreneurship. She is also a Broman research fellow at the Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Her research interests focus on three Major areas: Knowledgeintegration in collaborative innovation projects; Business Model Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the open innovation context. A selection of scientific peer- reviewed publications : McKelvey M. (2016) "Knowledge management processes and the formation of entrepreneurial opportunities " Journal of Innovation Economics & Management Dang R.J. (in coll. with Azzam J.E.; Ayerbe C.) (2013) “The role of patents in business ecosystem’s coordination: howdo leader firms maintain technological knowledge and create new trajectories for entrepreneurs? ” European Group for Organizational Studies colloquium (EGOS) 2013, Montreal. Dang R.J. (in coll. with Azzam J.E.; Ayerbe C.) (2016) "Using patents to orchestrate ecosystem stability and robustness: The case of a French aerospace company",International Journal of Technology Management, 2nd semester 2016 Aldebert B., Dang R.J., Longhi C. (2010) Innovation in the Tourism Industry: The case of Tourism@, Tourism Management, n°32 p.544–554, Oct. Dang R.J., Longhi C. (2009) Clusters et stratégies de clusters: Le cas du Pôle SCS,Revue Economie Industrielle, n°128, 4ème trimestre, Dec. Dang R. J., Thomas C., Longhi C. Roux K. (2014) "Territorial Innovation Dynamics a Knowledge Based Perspective"; in Shedding New Lights on Organizations, Learning, Knowledge and Capabilities, Cambridge Scholars Publishing Dang R.J ; Thomas C. (2016) - The mechanisms supporting successful collaborative innovation projects in clusters, the role of architectural knowledge AoM (Academy of Management Annual Conference, Anaheim, California, US.


Edgardo da Fonseca


Daniel Deganutti

Daniel is a retired information technology consultant. He is a 25-year veteran of Accenture where, most recently, he served as Senior Vice-President at Avanade, an Accenture and Microsoft joint-venture. Daniel worked regularly at the entrepreneurial / enterprise frontier. He was a member of the advance team that in 1993 created Accenture’s European technology headquarters in Sophia Antipolis, France. In 2000, Daniel joined the original leadership team of Avanade. There, he held responsibility for corporate development activities, including European geographic expansion, acquisition due diligence and post-merger integration. Today Daniel is most interested in the effective and appropriate leverage of corporate-scale business practice into the process of new enterprise creation. Daniel received his MBA from the University of Chicago and an undergraduate BS in Computer Science from Purdue University. He is a France and USA dual-national and a member of Mensa International.

Gerald Delplace

Gerald Delplace has 25 years’ experience in IT business with almost 18 years of general management, sales and marketing management held in security software and hardware European operations.

During his career ,he handled position as General Sales Manager EMEA in Nokia Enterprise and more recently as VP International for Advanced Technologies in Fortinet. He’s a business leader who inspired many managers in creating an exciting and rewarding environment .He strongly believes in people for success of companies.

He followed the YMP at the INSEAD , holds a master in Numerical Treatment of Image ,DEUG MASS and worked 7 years as sound engineer in music studios.


Marcel Dridje

Marcel Dridje, a principle investor in Vaelsys, brings his rich commercial acumen and business development experience to the team. A seasoned European Sales Executive, Marcel has substantial field experience helping IT and Telecom startups in the US and EMEA. Marcel has a broad range of experience in all aspects of sales, marketing, communication and management with direct experience with Fortune 500 enterprises (IBM, Nortel, Lucent, Cisco, EMC, ALU) and startups (Quantum, Andrew Networks, Pluris, Corvis, Ascend and Airespace). During the course of his career he has held Vice President roles most notably as VP EMEA Corvis (first all optical router) where he grew the team and business to an outstanding success. Of French and British origin, Marcel launched his career after completing a Bachelor of Science in Electronics and Computer Science Applications Engineer greatly relieved to embark on a career in sales…his forte and passion. He hasn’t looked back since. Bi-Lingual in French and English with a working knowledge of Spanish, Italian, German and Arabic. Two major highlights from his career include where he helped Airespace to be the #2 WLAN in EMEA market share and positioned Cisco to be #1 WLAN vendor worldwide. He also pioneered the French ISP Internet business while leading Ascend’s insertion into France Telecom Wanadoo’s first ISP business to include ISDNET, OLEANE and Internetway. Again not looking back, Marcel most recently left 35 years in IT and Telecom Sales to start his new venture as a Business Angel to help startups with seed money, VC connections and Business development. Vaelsys is one of his star ventures. A self proclaimed Serial Entrepreneur, Marcel loves new Challenges in sharing his 35 years IT& Telecom experience with new High-tech Start Ups Ready to expand their Sales & Mktg success.


Tim Ellis

Whichever way you ‘slice’ the management experience of Tim Ellis, the results can be interesting and of value; from 15+ years building up a number of start-ups himself in sectors such as direct & cross-media marketing and wholesale, to a similar period spent offering consulting in an even wider range of market sectors. Consistent in his offering has been his ability to deliver to the exacting requirements of numerous global client brands spanning the IT, luxury automotive and hospitality worlds and beyond. He thrives on engaging people in projects with a multi-cultural, multi-national dimension. A fairly recent MBA that included creative innovation and change management added a much deeper understanding of the importance of problem understanding before solving, as well as knowledge management concepts. It was also the trigger towards adapting his skills and deliverables towards the imperatives of managing both environmental and social impacts from an organisational perspective, some of which is offered via his consulting firm 7Gen. Recent years has seen him invited to lecture part-time in similar subjects at Skema Bachelors & Masters in Sophia. Of British origin, much of his life saw him resident in Hong Kong as well as working across Asia, with 12+ years based in PACA with his French wife and dual-nationality daughters

Laetitia Estrosi-Schramm

Laetitia works for M Capital Partners, an independent private equity company specialized in Healthcare, Digital and LBO small size. She in charge of organising and developping a network of local professionnal financial advisors to help Midi Capital raise a few million euros for its different fiscal investment funds. Before that, Laetitia worked for 4 years as a M&A Analyst for EDF. She was in charge to value assets in the Energy sector,to analyse and coordinate strategic aspects of aqcuisitions projects, including HR, tax, finance, Legal& Team aspects.


Leonard Fertig

Leonard Fertig is a visionary communications and entrepreneur, advisor, and mentor who has created, acquired, developed, and managed successful media and technology businesses in Europe and the USA for the past 35 years. He is known as a strategic leader and problem solver who has developed strategies for public and private companies and then motivated teams to achieve challenging goals. Leoonard is currently mentoring and advising several technology and media startups in the US and Europe. Since 2008 he is CEO of Motive Television PLC (MTV LSE-AIM)-- London-based software developer for the international TV industry. He also developed a patented VOD software used by international broadcasters such as Mediaset (Italy) DTH platform Digiturk (Turkey), and other clients in Europe, the United States, and developing markets. Leonard holds a BS, MS, and ABT from Columbia University in Industrial Engineering and Ops Research and also a Financial Planning Certificate from Adelphi University.


Burton Gintell

A past Board Member and Treasurer of Sophia Business Angels, Burton Gintell actively participates in its Entrepreneurship Programme as a mentor / coach to early-stage companies. Burton was also a Director / Founding Shareholder of Innovation Europe S.A., an investment vehicle created by SBA to invest in a portfolio of innovative young companies. American born, educated and trained, with now more than 35 years in Europe, Burton has had the practical experience of actually having run businesses, two of which received the Queen's Award for Export Achievement in the U.K. during his tenure as Chief Executive. The first was a globally-marketed Scotch whisky distiller; the second a television producer / marketer of arts programming.. Burton Gintell has formed/headed companies in seven European countries, including emerging markets in Eastern Europe, and operated within corporate environments and as an entrepreneur in consumer products and media. U.S. financially trained (Certified Public Accountant), Burton has been Chief Financial Officer for a New York Stock Exchange-listed company. He had previously been President of a sales / marketing division for the world’s then largest wine & spirits group, having risen from international corporate staff through increasingly responsible finance and marketing positions.


Mike Hessabi

Mike is Board Member of Sophia Business Angels, CEO of NEXTGUARD Technologies SAS France, CEO of KL INVESTMENT HOLDING SA, Geneva – CFO RISKATTITUDE SA and also the business Angel/founding investors of many other start’ups. Mike was the Founder and CEO of Punch Telematix France/ A.T.I.M.I.S. S.A.S. (Applies Technologies in Mobile Informatics Solutions) a start-up company that was found on 2004 and went public on Euronext Exchange Market On November 2006 at a Market cap of 57 000 000 €. Prior to this, Mike was the CEO of C.N.M.B. SA, french subsidiary of CheckPoint Inc, CEO & Co-founder of AZZARIUS SA (Electronic Document Management), investor and board member of COM2NET Technologies, ORPHEE Technologies, C.E.O. of Axos Technologies, and the Managing Director of EUROFAX/MUIRHEAD Telecom SA. Mike started his career at Konica Business Machines, where he was repeatedly 3 years in row, the best-selling salesman. Mike has also delivered Courses in “Sales & Negotiation” at Paris University XII- Business School. Mike holds a Master degree in Business Administration from Paris University and a Sales Management Diploma from Paris Institute of Technology


Candace Johnson

Candace Johnson is a global infrastructure, network and innovation expert and entrepreneur. She is co-initiator of SES/ASTRA for which she was named an Officer of the Luxembourg Oak Leaf Crown and architect of SES Global, one of the world’s largest satellite systems for which she was named Commander of the Luxembourg Order of Merit. She is also founding President of Europe Online Investments S.A., and founder of Loral Cyberstar-Teleport Europe, for which she was named an Officer of the German Federal Order of Merit. Ms. Johnson has recently co-founded Oceania Women’s Network Satellite (OWNSAT). Ms. Johnson is also founding President of the VATM, the Association of Private Telecom Operators in Germany and founding President of the Global Telecom Women’s Network (GTWN). Ms. Johnson is also President of Johnson Paradigm Ventures (JPV) which is a principal founding shareholder with AXA, Caisse des Depots, Bayerische Landesbank, and the SPEF of Sophia Euro Lab, Europe’s first trans-border early-stage investment company based in Sophia Antipolis. In her personal capacity, Ms. Johnson is a Member of the Strategic Committee of Iris Capital (Europe) and was a founding member of the board of Inovent (Turkey). Ms. Johnson is founding Member and was President of the Board of the Sophia Business Angels in Sophia Antipolis, France from 2006 – 2008 as well as founding president of three multi-million Euro investment vehicles, Succès Europe, Croissance Europe and Innovation Europe, together with Meeschaert Gestion Prive. Ms. Johnson is also Founding Member of the Cologne Business Angels, Galata Business Angels and Advisory Board of the Luxembourg Business Angels Network Ms. Johnson is a Non –Executive Director of SES-Imagotag, a publicly quoted corporation (SESL) on the French Stock Exchange. She has also recently been re-elected as President of EBAN, the European Business Angel and Early-Stage Investment Network for a two-year term until 2018. Ms. Johnson is also the Co-Founder of ABAN, African Business Angels Network and MBAN, MENA Business Angels Network as well as the Global Business Angels Network (GBAN). Ms. Johnson has been featured in articles in Time Magazine, the Financial Times, the Economist, Le Monde, WirtschaftsWoche, Manager Magazin, Les Echos, and the International Herald Tribune to name a few.


Martin Johnson

Martin has recently started a new business, PragmaticBD, providing Business Development, Sales Enablement and Consultative Selling services in The Digital Economy. He is currently UK based, near Oxford, but has also lived and worked in France and the USA. Prior to starting PragmaticBD, Martin spent 12 years at Cisco Technical Services in a variety of Business Development and Sales Enablement roles. He co-founded the Sales Support organisation for Technical Services, supporting sales teams on large greenfield and renewal deals in Service Provider, Enterprise and Public Sector segments. As a result, he developed a deep understanding of TS programs, their financials and their value to customers. He also set up and ran the Major Deal Review Process with top Executive Leadership who were intensely interested in how Cisco’s largest customers were consuming Technical Services. Finally, he introduced to the entire Cisco Sales force a new, graphical, Business Intelligence tool for the Installed Base, enabling Cisco Account Teams to sell more support services and refresh more customer equipment by having value-based conversations with customers. Prior to joining Cisco in 2004, Martin spent a decade establishing and growing the EMEA Marketing, Sales & Service functions of several American startups. All were internet-related, the most notable being Ascend Communications, the outright leaders in the Remote Access business during the late-90s and the precursor to the Broadband business we know today. He also spent time at startups in the Wi-Fi and Virtualised Computing spaces. Martin’s first small company was immediately prior to that and involved spending 20 months transforming an ailing Support Services team at a London-based distributor into a profitable Customer Service Group. Martin’s base experience came from his 9 yrs at HP, in Support and Product Management roles for workgroup productivity applications such as email and messaging gateways. • Building, Reshaping, Developing Teams. Running Projects. Establishing Process. • Change Management of Large Sales Organisations. Training, Comms with Exec Stakeholders. • Consultative Engagements. Supporting Sales Teams in closing Product & Service Deals. • Translating Business Requirements, Influencing Product Management and Development. • Field Testing. Assurance of new and updated products to meet needs of local markets. • Helping Startups establish presence in EMEA, extending reach into Region.


Patrick Kedziora

Patrick Kedziora, is a serial entrepreneur. His current venture KEDZOH is a mobile application that lets companies train their employees on their mobile phones. Patrick has won several major innovation awards including: Startup Chile, Startup Brazil and French Tech Ticket. Patrick's experience includes having been an investment banker and the CFO and COO of public and private companies in the financial services, healthcare and technology sectors. Patrick also mentors start-ups, has served on the Board of Advisors of several technology companies and has been a judge in numerous start-up and business plan competitions. Patrick speaks English and French with native fluency and speaks Spanish and Portuguese with professional fluency. Patrick has dual French and US nationality and obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Political Science from New York University and an MBA from New York University’s Stern School of Business.

Soren Kofoed

Entrepreneur, investment and living experience from, France, UK, Middle East, US, Africa and Scandinavia. Domains of activity: business & concept development, investments, sustainability projects, science park development. Business professional in, and official representative of, Sophia Antipolis, Science & Technology Park since 1991.


Competences and activities: èScience park conception & roll out in governmental & sub-governmental partnerships, incl. initiation of clusters, incubators & financing platforms. èSustainability project conception and development with a special focus on emergent markets and developing countries. èInvestor, primary early stage with special focus on clean tech and impact. èSerial entrepreneur and business & concept developper. èConsultancy to companies, institutional and sub-governments within domains such as environmental concerns including CSR strategies,communication, business development, strategy, financing. èHighly engaged in sustainable & environmental development incl. global NGO and institutional impact activities. Past activities and mandates: Founder & CEO SANBECO – industrial equipment & garments. CEO Riviera Trade Co. – real estate & business development - BCA – business & concept development, investments - Innovation Route – clean business & project development Founder of “Nordic Synergy Park” Science & Development Park, Denmark. President of “The Nordic Link Foundation”. Co-conceptualized & heading the Nobel family’s sustainability trust NGO. UN Global Compact SDG – Sustainable Development Goals Co-founder of Nobel Sustainability Accelerator Fund. Goodwill Ambassador to Denmark. Current activities mandates: Director Innovation and Business Development “Regions 20” NGO. Founder “Global Clean Technology Holding” Africa – clean tech project development & deployment. Private investor and member Sophia Business Angels and EBAN network. Co-founder of the Sustainable Film Fund & Blue Marble Academy

Marc Latouche

Marc Latouche is an entrepreneur who invests in High Tech startups focusing on disruptive innovations. Selected markets are Cloud, Health, Connected Objects and ITC. In certain cases, Marc also exercises an operational role in the invested start-up in order to coach them to develop their strategy and accelerate their development. Example of invested companies include Vaelsys, Faveeo, Key Infuser and CODESNA.


Prior to that, Marc worked for 15 years at Cisco Systems, a multinational Networking and IT Technology Company where he exercised successfully various roles of Business Development, Strategy Consulting, Business Advisory, Service Creation and Program Management with Telecom and Media operators in Europe. Some of the work involved development of IP-TV solutions, International Video distribution systems and Cloud-based Infrastructure Services. Marc has been working in Global and European position, engaging with customers and partners in Europe, Middle East, USA and Asia, giving him a very diverse and international exposure. exposure. He has a passion in translating market and technology disruptions into new business opportunities , new economic values, to transform a market, a segment, an industry. As a Belgian citizen, Marc has been studying Information Technology at the Brussels University in Belgium.

John Leonhardt

John provides strategic and operational leadership for Cameo Global Inc. in the European region. As a part of those responsibilities, he was responsible for the creation of company entities in the United Kingdom, Bulgaria, Netherlands, France and Belgium. He is a member of the Cameo Global Inc. board of directors, and a member of both the M&A team and the executive team. Prior to joining STS, John was founder and Managing director of Vantage Point consulting company where he provided executive leadership training and workshops for country managers and executive project managers in the extractive industries. He and the Vantage Point team provided local culture and business integration to leaders in 26 countries in Europe, Asia and Africa.He was responsible for bringing a number of US technology companies to Europe acting on behalf of investors from the US. With a major California based telecommunications company, he created partnering relationships with majorglobal deployment companies in cultural diverse environments arranged major vendor financing for global projects. Previously, as a Vice-President of a major US engineering firm, he was responsible for starting and developing new enterprises and partnerships throughout the world to serve as new business additions and platforms for new projects.


Additionally, he managed a number of diverse projects such as a telecommunications system in Cairo and Alexandria, Egypt; secure communications systems for embassies in the Baltics; waste-to-energy plants in the US and energy conservation projects in Ukraine. In addition to his work in technology, he was a founder and Chief of Mission of PlaNet Finance UK, a charity dedicated to capacity building in the microfinance sector internationally. Additionally, he has served on the board of a number of companies. A former military and commercial jet pilot, John is also an experienced aerobatic pilot, and in his free time enjoys cycling and exploring Europe on his motorcycle. John has a BA in Economics and Statistics and an MBA in international finance from USC.

Alice Mercier

Alice Mercier works for TELECOM PARITECH EURECOM INCUBATOR Her previous experiences drived her to coaching people in differents fields such as : projects students, careers, development of business. Today she supports 10 to 15 innovative & digital start-ups for telecom Paristech Eurecom Incubator in Sophia Antipolis; Her competencies are : supporting entrepreneurs, business strategy, strategic thinking, communication & marketing strategy.


André Niznik

Since 2011, André Niznik is a Managing Partner at Nomad Fund, the very first Venture Capital fund organized under the Swiss-Polish Cooperation Programme in Poland. He used to be the president and CEO of Robobat in Poland, a company which delivers high quality CAD/CAE software for design and analysis of civil structures. The company was sold in 2014 to the French company Graitec.

CEO and main shareholder of Robobat SARL in Grenoble, France – creator and provider of software for engineers by distributors in 42 countries all over the world. The company was sold to Autodesk in January 2008. Since 2010, André is Owner and Director at Zanzibar White Sand Luxury Villas & Spa in Tanzanie. André has a PhD in structural analysis with Commendation in the Finite Elements Method from INSA de Toulouse/France.

He was nominated for a Foreign Social Adviser by Deputy Prime Minister of Poland in 2009. He is a m APM (Association Progrès Management) and Sophia Business Angels in France and a member of British Polish Chamber of Commerce, Swiss Polish Chamber of Commerce, French Polish Chamber of Commerce and Business Centre Club


Laurent Paty

Laurent F. Paty is a uniquely qualified Business and Corporate Development Executive with 20 years of experience in information technology, electricity distribution, renewable energy, industrial manufacturing, chemicals and travel technology. A result-driven leader, he combines skills in engineering and business, experience in consulting and corporate cultures, and professional networks in the US and Europe. His business expertise includes strategy, sales, acquisitions, divestitures, operations, process improvement and program management. After 10 years in management consulting, primarily in the electric distribution and energy industries, Mr. Paty lead business and corporate development for global manufacturing companies in industrial gas, specialty chemicals, renewable energy, high-tech electronics and travel technology. He currently heads customer strategy and operations for Amadeus Business Travel, leading planning, strategy and commercial operations covering global travel agencies. Mr. Paty started his career in consulting, outsourcing and systems integration in telecommunications strategy at American Management Systems (now part of Wipro Technologies and CGI). Shortly after, he started the company's global energy consulting practice in the US and expanded it to Europe, focusing on complex change management, business process improvement and IT projects to prepare organizations for deregulation. He lead engagements with over $100-million budgets, multi-functional teams of 100 professionals, at clients such as AT&T, BP, EDF, Essent, GDF, KPN, Fido, PEPCO, PSE&G, SNET, and TOTAL. Mr. Paty then joined global technology manufacturing companies, leading business development, strategy and mergers and acquisitions at Linde / BOC Gas, in industrial gases and engineering services; Cytec, now part of Solvay, a specialty chemicals manufacturer for aerospace, automotive and other industries; Petra Solar, deploying solar energy and smart grid solutions; and Ametek, a global high-tech electronics manufacturer serving aerospace, medical, energy and other industries.


Mr. Paty managed business development pipelines of up to $500-million, a $20-million P&L, acquisition and divestiture projects of business units over $100-million in revenue, delivery and customer operations of a $200-million contract, and completed a Six Sigma Black Belt training. Mr. Paty holds a Master of Electrical Engineering in Management of Information Science from Institut Supérieur d'Electronique de Paris, and graduated with distinction with a Master of Business Administration, in Strategy and General Management from Cornell University's Johnson Graduate School of Management. A dual citizen of the US and France, Mr. Paty is fluent in English and French, and conversant in Spanish and German. After over 20 years in the US, he has returned to France with his wife and two sons. He enjoys tennis competition, international travel and cuisine.

Christophe Perez

Head of International Networks at TEAM COTE D’AZUR, which is the investment promotion agency for the Côte d’Azur. After a master degree in business intelligence and international business at the University of Cote d’Azur (UCA) Christophe started his career in the outdoor industry and helped american companies enter the Europe, middle East and Asia markets. After building his experience in these international markets, he led the sales office of a luxury real estate program associated with a private golf course, the EMEA office of a Saudi investment company and the international networks of the n°1 science park in Europe : Sophia Antipolis. For the past 10 years, he has led and continues to lead the foreign investment attraction program for TEAM COTE D’AZUR in North America.Additionaly, he is in charge of the targeting strategy and international affairs for the agency.


Annie Prod’homme

Annie Prodhomme is a French citizen, who wears a triple hat when it comes to innovation, entrepreneurship, and finance. She is herself at once consultant, entrepreneur and business angel. As such, she is particularly able to accompany companies which are active in the field of innovation, either in the start-up or in the development phase to success. She is an European expert and maximizing leverage of public and private funding is her core business, as well as:

-Lobbying for equity investments for startups -Co-organization of international elevator-pitch events for startups/SMEs -Business planning, project financing and internationalization -Due diligences -M&A

At the beginning of her career starting in 1986, Annie Prodhomme worked as DAF Director for several companies. In addition, she co-organized main events for the Cannes Film Festival, MIDEM, MIP TV, MIPCOM working with FIF, Midem, M6, Antenne2, New World International, Twentieth Century Fox, LSO International, as well as organizing events with the City of Cannes. Since 1999 she provides management for innovative companies as consultant, strategic advisor and board member. She invested into diversified activities prior into biotech, toys, media, and moovies. She is for 2005 Member of the Board of Sophia Business Angels (voted best Business Angel Network in Europe in 2009 by EBAN), founding shareholder and Board Member of the TEPA Innovation Europe Investment fund as well as a co-founder of the TEPA Succes Europe Investment fund (voted best early stage fund in Europe in 2009). She is General Director of SBA ISF holding and President of Soft Media Group. She also co-created Côte d’Azur Pionnières (the first incubator exclusively dedicated to female innovative services) and she participates in numerous focus groups and regularly acts as an expert, mentor or member of various juries.


François Rouxel

François Rouxel is Partner at Sunflower Investissement, a private equity firm created in December 2016. Sunflower Investissement aims at investing in companies driven by ethics and innovation, with no specific sector criteria. Prior to joining Sunflower, François acted as a manager at Deloitte Paris, where he was in charge of the financial audit of clients from various sectors such as retail, mining, hotels and resorts, construction, services. He also advises leading companies around the world on accounting and consolidation issues, internal control and transactions. François holds a MSc in Management from Kedge Business School (2010).

Laurent Samama

Laurent Samama is the founder and president of BLUEWATT, a Sophia Antipolis based developer of solar power projects. Before moving to renewable energy two years ago, he spent 20 years in telecoms. He held various global and local management positions for Orange (serving as VP, Business Development) and Nokia (serving as managing director for France as well as VP, Business Solutions based in the Silicon Valley). He also supported several start-up companies in executive or non-executive roles (serving as CEO of Coronis as well as Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Mobiluck). Laurent Samama graduated from Telecom ParisTech. He started his career as Commercial Attaché at the French Embassy in Washington, DC. He was awarded the Prix des Technologies Numériques in 1998


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Franz Steenbrugge

Frans is an international business development coach and a member of Sophia Business Angels. Frans was the CEO of the company Quotatis for 10 years and until 2014. Qutotatis is the number one lead generator for hoe improvements projects in Europe. Prior to that, he was also the CEO & COO of the company ImmoStreet.ch, a real estate website with an international presence in France, Switzerland and Spain.

Catherine Taupiac

Advocate for innovative companies and promoting innovation within the region, Catherine currently manages InnovaGrasse , an incubator for innovative start-ups. She is recruiting and accompanying the 25 companies who are currently hosted in Grasse. With over 18 years of professional experience in Consulting and assessing companies, she moved to this region to set up her own consulting firm specialized in international sourcing, supply chain management as well as enterprise devlopment issues. In the course of those consulting activities, she has been assigned Scientific Director of a Master of science specialized in Supply Chain Management and Purchasing (SCMP) at SKEMA Business School. She has also undertaken many assignments involving company audits and development in a variety of sectors and countries. Prior to that, she had founded and managed complex international programmes in the United Nations in Geneva (e.g. International Trade Centre (ITC) UNCTAD/WTO ) involving developing country firms and humanitarian buyers. Before serving the United Nations, she had held various roles in SCM in the United Kingdom. (eg. Schlumberger Industries and Lucas Automotive). She therefore has extensive experience in working with projects involving international organizations, academic institutions and businesses.


Denis Vincent

Denis is Project manager at Incubateur PACA EST (www.incubateurpacaest.org) He graduated from SKEMA Business School in 2008 specializing in entrepreneurship and starting working in a demanding and stimulating environment, conducting internal audit and advisory assignments in the bank industry for the top management at LCL. Willing to join an international industrial player and face new challenges, he worked for the Volvo Group between 2011 and 2014, first as an internal controller for Southern Europe and then as a global manager leading a change management project in the financial control area. Having a genuine interest for entrepreneurship, he decided to leave the company and support a startup project in the veterinarian field. In parallel, he graduated from the IAE Lyon School of Management, specializing in the management and development of small business ventures. Passionate about startups and innovation, the move to the Incubateur PACA Est in mid 2015 was a natural fit. In his current position as a project manager, Vincent helps entrepreneurs launch their startup, by providing support on a variety of issues including global strategy, business plans, go-to-market strategy, recruitment/team creation and fundraising.

Giacomo Vivante

Giacomo was born in Switzerland in 1959 but has always lived in Milan up to 1976. Then he studied abroad at the International school of Geneva, Richmond College London and New York University up to 1982 when he got his degree B.sc. in Finance and International Business.


He has also an accounting italian State high school diploma and a Master in Real Estate management at the Polytechnic Milan University. His multifaceted professional experience has been especially in marketing then in management and administration in his family industrial filtration commercial company in Milan, Fluxa Filtri Spa, Rho (Milan) which his father sold to Envirogen Group Italy Spa in 2011. He worked with his father from 1982 to 1990 then moved to Switzerland in Lugano where he worked in private banking in UBS after a year and a half training program in all departments of the bank, then in Montedison Finanz Group, the holding of Italy’s chemical giant Montedison /Ferruzzi soya and seeds multinational in the controlling and reporting department then again in private banking at the Edmond de Rothschild Group in Lugano for 6 years then a short period in Finter Bank at the times part of Italcementi Group I- Bergamo now belonging to Vontobel Bank, Zürich, then for a couple of years as independent adviser in real estate and portfolio management and then again in BSI Bank (Generali Insurance Group) always in Lugano for 9 years up to 2013. Since then he looks after his family and relative business in portfolio management, real estate, administration, management and tax & legal matters and attends some brief courses in management and in International relations at the Graduate Institute of International Affairs in Geneva and at ISPI

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