As Sylvain Biard, the managing director for Business France in India says the agency is doing all it can to improve and increase inflow/outflow of technical talent and innovation between the two countries. As there is French Tech ticket, the visa program that Indian entrepreneurs are encouraged to apply for and be a part of, so are French tech companies encouraged to seek business partners and customers in a booming Indian subcontinent.
H.E. Alexandre Ziegler, the ambassador of France, in his address underscored the existing economic and business ties between India and France while encouraging more Indian businesses and its French counterparts to continue strengthening ties so as to benefit the two nations.
Business France is the trade investment commission for the French government.
Mr. Biard commented, “When India and France have such close ties at state-head level, growing economic trade activity at the moment, and so much opportunity in terms of consumer market and business opportunity, how can we ignore each other? We must do all we can to improve business between the two countries.”
The pitch is the first of its kind and Business France hopes to make it an annual event growing in scale, there will be such events taking place in Bangalore as well. The ten tech companies from France that were present were picked by a panel of high ranking officers from some Indian mega companies like Airtel and Tata, associations like Cellular Operators Association of India, and global research companies like Capgemini.
Some of the French companies present said would like to enter the market and are quite upbeat about the potential here in India. Veygo was founded in 2012 by its CEO and founder, Mr. Jean Christophe Perier. Veygo offers the kind of software that is embedded into video content played via the internet. This software will help monitor what device the user is consuming the content on, and whether there are attempts to pirate the content. “It would be great if we could partner with someone like Reliance or TATA Sky. In the next few years to come India and the surrounding region will produce and consume much larger amounts of content. We would be very happy to work with the content creators in the region”. The company is already serving clients like Fox, Disney, Vodafone, and Microsoft Azure.
BELL & WYSON is a French company founded in 2014, which provides LED bulb lighting solutions enabled by IoT. Its founder Mr. Fabrice Vossier stated he was in India meeting with potential business partners. Evaneos is a French online travel site that connects travellers directly with their local travel agencies. Its VP for international dealings, Mr. Thibault Monnoyeur says the Evaneos’ technology is innovative and has disrupted the travel industry. Since launching in 2009, they have served around 130,000 travellers and about 850 local travel agency partners worldwide. He too is here looking for business partners to see if Evaneos can be incorporated with the fast growing domestic travel industry in India.
However a few of the companies are already working with a few big standout Indian names. Central Test is a psychometric assessment publisher that allows companies to select the best employees and develop them to their full potential. It’s been in business for more than 15 years, has a dedicated office in Bangalore, present in about 80 countries and over 3500 clients worldwide. Here in India they already work with about 350 companies across multiple industries like manufacturing, IT and agriculture. Some specific names include TATA, Reliance Communications and SBI General Insurance.
Geoconcept founded in 1990, is a company using its own software to design and implement cartographic information technologies for corporate and public functions. It operates in over 35 countries and has more than 10,000 clients. In India, it already operates through a local subsidiary. Some of its Indian services are extended to TVS and Petronas, the petrochemical company.
However as highlighted by these French tech companies, one of the larger challenges in entering India for business, despite all its attractiveness and fast growth has always been the government regulations. It’s not easy for foreign businesses, especially smaller companies, to appease the requirement set by Indian lawmakers. Mr. Jean-Philippe Polizzi is the commercial director in Asia pacific for a five year old French company named Delair-Tech that develops long endurance mini-drones for civilian application. “We would like to find a business partner here in India. That might make entering the Indian market easier. As it is, the regulations by the government are limiting and challenging to satisfy alone.”
BW Reporters
Regina is a reporter for BW Businessworld. In her previous assignments, she has worked with Independent television Network as a news anchor and reporter in Sri Lanka
