June 13, 2022 - PARIS – The French tech ecosystem’s commitment to sustainability and equality will be a key focus at the upcoming 2022 VivaTech conference (June 15-18, Paris Expo Porte de Versailles), France’s premier tech and start-up event. Two major initiatives will take center stage at the show, where The French Tech Mission will be exhibiting at Stand H60 and demonstrate the global leadership France is taking on important issues in the tech ecosystem.
Mission French Tech at VivaTech
Wednesday: June 15 - 11:00 - Discovery Stage
Launch of the 2022 edition of the French Tech Green20
The French Tech Mission will unveil its 2022 edition of the French Tech Green20, which identifies and promotes the most promising champions of the ecological transition addressing all aspects of sustainability. Close to 300 applicants were reviewed by an expert panel, and the final 20 were selected as having unique innovation and potential to become global leaders. This continues a dedicated program to support and strengthen the sustainability ecosystem across France. With 1,800 start-ups, Greentech is one of the most represented sectors in French Tech and Greentech employs nearly 70,000 people in France.
FrenchTech Green20 underscores a broader commitment and focus on sustainability across the French startup ecosystem where innovation is happening in a wide range of sectors, from energy, transportation, manufacturing, agriculture, carbon reduction and more.
Wednesday: June 15 - 17:00-17:30 - Stage One
Conference: Scaling How to Build The Late-Stage Ecosystem of Europe
- John Chambers, CEO, J2C Ventures
- Clara Chappaz, Director General, French Tech
- Moderated by: Jennifer Schenker, The Innovator
Mission French Tech Recent News
Addressing gender equality with specific commitments
French Tech Mission launches Parity Pact
French Tech Mission is also reinforcing its commitment to Diversity, Equality and Inclusion (DEI) with a new initiative around equality. The Parity Pact is a unique, tangible directive to significantly and sustainably advance equality between women and men in the French start-up ecosystem. In collaboration with the Next40 and French Tech 120 group of start-ups (chosen as the most innovative and promising in France) the Parity Pact includes specific goals committed to by more than 100 companies that have signed the pact, including:
· Reach a minimum of 20% women representation on the company's board by 2025 and 40% by 2028
· Train 100% managers on diversity issues and the fight against discrimination and harassment by the end of 2022
· Guarantee that 100% of the job descriptions published by the company are open to both men and women
· Establish an equal team of representatives who will speak on behalf of the company, both internally and externally, by the end of 2022
· Implement specific support for each employee returning from parental leave by the end of 2022
Clara Chappaz, Director of the Mission French Tech, said: “The need for the Mission French Tech to act in favor of parity in the start-up ecosystem has become obvious to us. There are currently no female CEOs among the Next40 companies and only 7 in the French Tech 120. There are several levers to create the conditions for change: the proactive commitment of companies is one of them. We relied on the best practices that already exist in some of them to suggest that they generalize them and commit to concrete elements, starting today.”
Addressing socio-economic barriers to tech entrepreneurship
Applications open for the 3rd edition of the French Tech Tremplin program
Finally, the French Tech Mission recently open applications for the 3rd edition of the French Tech Tremplin (Springboard) program which addresses socio-economic barriers to tech entrepreneurship.
After the first two editions which helped 470 aspiring entrepreneurs develop their start-up projects, this year 500 places are open to companies located in France.
About Clara Chappaz
Clara was nominated as Director of the French Tech Mission in November 2021. The French Tech Mission is the French administration in charge of supporting the growth of the French startup ecosystem and is part of the Ministry of Economy & Finance.
During her term, she will aim to scale the French Tech Mission by focusing on supporting the next phase of growth of French Tech’s scale-ups; fostering diversity throughout the ecosystem; and expanding the ecosystem for deep-tech startups.
Prior to joining the French Tech Mission, Clara held various management positions in the startup ecosystem all around the world. From 2019 to 2021, she was the Chief Business Officer of Vestiaire Collective, the French unicorn peer-to-peer marketplace for premium and luxury pre-owned fashion. Before that, she led the international expansion of Lyst, the LVMH-backed fashion search engine based out of London, and worked as Director of Zalora, the first fashion e-commerce platform in South-East Asia, in Bangkok and in Singapore.
While pursuing her MBA at Harvard Business School from 2016 to 2018, Clara launched her own venture, Lullaby, a pre-owned marketplace for baby products, and experienced strategy consulting at BCG in New York City. She also holds an MCs in Business Administration & Management from ESSEC Business School, in Paris.
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