YEi Program

The YEI program calls for application for this 14^th edition and the 3^rd times with Taiwan. Dedicated to young entrepreneurs in deeptech, the program of the French Ministry of Foreign affairs gather every year 30 young entrepreneurs worldwide to participate in a free acceleration program in France and discover the French ecosystem.

Special thanks to all our partners, incubators, accelerators, startups, universities and institutions who helped us promote the program, select the laureates, and brought this program to a higher level.

A little bit of history

In 2017, this program welcome for the first time 3 Taiwanese startups among the 30 visiting France. Chasewind, Thinkcloud and SpaceApes spent a week of immersion in Paris and in region. Following this program, Chasewind partnered with Optivent to develop an AR smart glasses technology. Thanks to a meeting with le Swave, a French incubator based in Paris and specialized in Fintech, Thinckcloud followed their incubation program in 2018 to develop their activates in France!

2018 edition of YEI took a big step for France Taiwan cooperation in innovation. Indeed, thanks to the support of Ministry Of Science Technology, 3 more startups were selected. In total, 6 startups were selected last year to take part to the immersion week. Bened Biomedical, Faceheart, Flexwave, Realiteer, Thinktank and Ubiik followed in an intense program with meetings, B2B and presentation of the French ecosystems in Paris and in region (Lille, Lyon and Grenoble) and of course, a French event.

Since 2017, 9 startups have participated in this program and 15 startups have already been (or will soon be) in France thanks to MOST and French Office in Taipei partnership.

For 2019 edition, French office in Taipei and MOST collaborate once again to send more startup to France with the France Taiwan Startup Immersion program. Based on the YEI scheme, this program will allow 6 startups from medtech and biotech industry to follow one week of immersion in France in December. The startups will first follow a program with Schoolab, an innovation studio based in Paris and then 3 of them will go to Grenoble, also called the Silicon Valley of Europe, and 3 of them will go to Angers, a growing place for tech startups 1h30 away from Paris!

6 AI-tech startups were be selected to go to France from March 9th to March 13th 2020.

For the next edition of YEI, 6 startups have been selected thanks to jury composed of French guests from France during the 2019 innovation week. After a day of presentation of the French ecosystems, 3 startups will follow a program in France and 3 other will discover a local ecosystem in France. France recently created four institutes dedicated to AI in Grenoble, Nice, Paris and Toulouse. There is a lot to discover! After these two days of immersion, the 6 startups will have the opportunity to attend Hello Tomorrow Global Summit, a worldwide well-renowned summit dedicated to startup, deeptech and entrepreneurship. Workshop, seminars and training will be organized.

Find more information about the laureates here.

Testimonials

Jimmy Hsu from Flexwave (2018 Laureate) is here to give you his feedback on this tremendous experience.

Following their week in France, Jimmy Hsu, CEO and founder of Flexwave was rewarded with a The Seal of Excellence, a quality label awarded to project proposals submitted to Horizon 2020, which is a guarantee for investors to find high standard project proposals from European SMEs with growth potential. Thinkcloud was incubating in Le Swave, an incubator of Paris&Co dedicated to fintech, to develop in Eurpope. Thinktank and Ubiik are now active are now permanent and active member of French Tech Taiwan creating a bridge between France and Taiwan.