The start-ups from the Basque Country Technology Park at CES 2019

Three innovative companies from the Basque Country Technology Park took part in the recent CES show in Las Vegas. Numerous contacts were made and development projects were launched. 

Among the 437 French companies (including 386 start-ups) exhibiting at the Las Vegas Consumer Electronic Show (CES) from 8 to 11 January 2019, were three innovative companies from the Basque Country technology ecosystem. 

Based in the Technocité Park in Bayonne, the start-up Coleen took its first trip to the CES to present its sleek, up-market and French-made electric bicycles. ‘We got a lot of media exposure, which was our goal. We were also able to test the American market and we are considering ways to break into it. We made some interesting contacts for the Japanese market as well,’ co-founder Audrey Lefort told us.

The aim now is to speed up the commercial and technical growth of the company. ‘We have launched our pre-order site and our e-commerce site will be online soon. An engineer has joined our team and we are planning to move to premises of 340 m² in Biarritz’, she added.

Previously selected for the 2018 edition of this world event, the start-up 1A3i, created at the Izarbel Technology Park in Bidart by Jacques Pere-Laperne, was yet again among the selection of young innovative French companies. ‘We had more contacts this year than last because we were better positioned with French Tech’, said Jacques Pere-Laperne, who presented a more complete version of his software capable of restoring the initial information in digitalised files to make it possible to work on them again.

‘We developed a case study with the Comau group which produces automated lines for the car manufacturing industry and we gave around 400 presentations and demonstrations. The aim is to perform several case studies in order to perfect our data restructuring solution’, he told us.

Founded in 2004 at the Izarbel Technology Park in Bidart by Pierre Forté and Rémi Succoja, the company Pragma Industries, currently located in Biarritz, has launched Alpha, the first electric bicycle powered by a mass-produced, approved fuel cell. At CES 2019, Pragma Industries presented a mountain bike model named ‘Mountain Rider’. It was awarded 1^st prize for innovation in the ‘Smartcities’ category which also awarded the companies Ergosup and H2tec, partners of Pragma Industries. ‘It’s rare to meet so many quality contacts at a trade show.  Now we have to foster the dozens and dozens of contacts we made during the show’ said Pierre Forté.

Website:

www.coleen-france.com/fr 1a3i.com www.pragma-industries.com