South by Southwest: French “start-ups” are investing in the Texas city of Austin

The South by Southwest Texas festival is a reference in terms of innovation, culture and technology.

© SXSW2022

Text by: Thomas Harms Follow

3 mins

The South by Southwest festival is a must-attend festival in the United States which has reopened after a two-year hiatus due to Covid-19.

Hundreds of "start-ups" ("young shoots") in the fields of climate change, renewable energies, Web 3.0 are already present in this city of Texas and take advantage of the meeting to seek new customers and partners.

Advertising

Read more

From our correspondent, 

Although Silicon Valley in California is still home to many web

start-ups

, it tends to gradually lose its attractiveness.

There is also Boston with MIT where the

deep tech

sector is located , that is to say tangible technologies such as robotics, artificial intelligence or blockchain.

Houston brings together energy start-ups.

In Texas, Austin is gradually becoming a breeding ground for innovation, with more and more web start-ups settling there.

And it's true that the arrival of Elon Musk in Austin, with Tesla, Space X and Satrbase installed further south in Texas in Boca Chica also helped.

French tech present in Austin

About fifteen French new technology companies have invested in Austin. 

- “

What we want to do is replace gas and coal-fired power stations.

Close them!

My name is Franck Lahaye and I am the co-founder of Airthium, we do very long-term energy storage.

It is a system which enables you to store renewable energies over several thousand hours, and which enables you to guarantee the availability of these energies.

»

#climatechange #globalwarming #wefunder #ycombinator @PeakCoalition https://t.co/e6sztewtZn

— Airthium (@Airthium) April 15, 2021

- “

 I am Aurélie Beaumel, co-founder of BluSphinx.

We are in the field of artificial intelligence and cybersecurity.

We have developed a new artificial intelligence technology that automates advanced cybersecurity upgrades for SMEs, particularly in the defense and aerospace sectors.

»

Two other companies have come from the Paris region and are looking for customers or partners.

- “

Our company is called Pascal, we manufacture quantum processors.

It is the new generation of processors.

New computing paradigms.

You should know that today, the digital industry produces as many greenhouse gases as all air traffic.

The quantum computer makes it possible to provide solutions to this, and to make it possible to solve complex problems such as the distribution of energy.

»

- “

I represent a company called Interstellar Lab.

We are part of the selection of finalists for the South by Southwest start-up competition for innovative technologies, to build the world of the future.

So we come to present our solution.

We propose domes with controlled environments, called biopods, which are inflatable structures that we deploy on earth and in the near future in space.

We work with NASA and the French space agency for space applications.

And inside these domes, we will recreate ideal climatic conditions to allow plants to grow, and to grow very quickly, in the best possible conditions.

»

At Interstellar Lab, we grow life anywhere 🌱


Visit our new website & preorder our BioPod EA, the future of sustainable plant cultivation https://t.co/WSTLtdWGtI pic.twitter.com/L0RyLdA3xl

— Interstellar Lab (@InterstellarLA) March 12, 2022

More visibility in the United States

All these companies present at South by Southwest seek to find and meet investors and partners.

And why not settle there.

To do so, they can rely on Business France, the French Tech network which exists in a dozen American cities and the French ambassador to the United States, Philippe Etienne, who even made the trip to this teeming festival for to support.

Newsletter

Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox

I subscribe

Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application

google-play-badge_EN

  • United States

  • Internet

  • Social networks

  • Economy

  • Technology

  • finance

  • France